Batman makes a house call to the Riddler's hideout.

Cypher Court; A long strip of nearly abandoned road that led out of Gotham city, far enough that it had no connection to the city grid unless you were linked to the radio tower 5 miles further on or the storage facility, the only structure out this far. Ten years ago, it belonged to the Maroni crime family when they doubled as a transport company storing goods here. Then their boss splashed acid into the face of a DA that was gunning for them. Harvey Dent was two minds about most things except for the Maronis, when he shattered their family companies and held most of them at gun point, he almost didn’t wait to see what the coin toss result was before he killed them all, almost. The building has been abandoned ever since… Except for a stylish black Rolls Royce parked outside of what should be an abandoned building. Stepping off the bat cycle and patiently giving the building a look over, Batman pressed a finger to the ear of his cowl, hearing the beep of his communicator respond. “Are you in position?” He asked, quietly enough that only the person on his link could hear.

“I am… What do you have in mind? Gonna knock on the front door?”

Reaching into his utility belt, Batman fished out a handful of small explosives, not powerful enough to do extensive damage on their own, proverbial cherry bombs really. But well placed, can create quite the ‘knock’ as it were. Moving towards the Roll Royce, Batman popped open the fuel tank and place one inside, setting it for 10 seconds before throwing the others towards the door of the storage building, setting them for a minute and running to a safe distance. The explosion sent the expensive car up several feet into the air before crashing back straight down as a ball of fire, gaining the attention of Zatanna who appeared at the door seconds later.

With her hand at her hip and a death glare in her eyes, the vampire woman spotted batman out in the open, his cycle right behind him.

“I’m here to talk to your new boyfriend Zatanna.”

With a predatory smile, Zatanna combed her fingers through her black hair, taking her top hat off briefly to do so before placing it back on her head. “He’s not here, don’t you want to talk to me Bruce? For old time’s sake?... Before I tear off your head and stick it on the wall as a hunting trophy?” The playful smile never left her features after her threat, except for a gleam in her teeth when her smile sharpened.

“Let’s talk then… Somewhere else.”

The rest of the explosives went off behind Zatanna, the shockwave sending her forward and destroying the door and wall behind her into splinters of wood and metal. Collapsing to the gravel parking area and quickly getting back up with an inhuman snarl, Zatanna already found the Batman on his cycle fleeing the scene. Clenching her fist, she slammed it against the ground, and her flesh turned pitch black. When she regained her footing and stood to her full height, she exploded into a flock of bats that flew off into a frenzy, following the dark knight out into the night lit road towards the quarry.

*

From his seat at the computer screens in his lair, the Riddler sneered when the blast took out the camera keeping an eye out for the door. Typing furiously, Edward sent commands t the other cameras to turn and compensate for the blind spot, only to become angrier when they were still either out of range or blocked by other objects. “Dammit, he cheated, he never used explosives to break in before, he always tried sneaking in.” Typing more commands, he tried to keep an eye out for Batman making his escape, the satellite he hijacked zoomed into the bird’s eye view of the road he drove off in, hoping to get a front row seat of what was to transpire next. “He may be making an escape, but he won’t get FAR trying to escape my master’s bride!”

A cold metal barrel pressed against the back of the Riddler’s head, along with the click of the safety. “Oh, I don’t know, he’s made a pretty good hobby of escaping angry women.” Slowly turning his head and raising his hands slowly up in the air, Edward turned just enough to see the smirking face of the Huntress from the corner of his eye. “Believe me, I know.”

“Y-you’re not supposed to be here, how did YOU know to find me here?”

Tilting her bolt repeater to the side to fire a metal arrow through one of the monitors, the sparks made the green clad man jump before the repeater was pressed to his forehead. “You left bread crumbs across town that said, ‘find me and plant an arrow in my skull’ who do you think was going to show up?!”

Gritting his teeth and eyeing the repeater crossbow at his forehead, cold sweat formed almost instantly.

“Unlock the cages and let everyone out.”

“B-b-but he’ll be furious if…” Pulling out her second crossbow from her holster, she aimed it towards the man’s crotch, the razor tip of the bolt piercing the fabric of his pants.

“Now!”

Whimpering, the Riddler lowered one of his hands to the keyboard and pressed a single button. The loud buzz of an alarm went off before all the doors clanked open, unlocked. Staggering out and looking around in confusion, several people fumbled weakly out of their cages and shambled down the hall, where they found the Huntress pinning their ‘warden’ to his chair with a pair of small crossbows.

“Everyone out the door behind me, you’ve got 15 minutes before they come back.”

Not needing an explanation, the dozen or so people fled the area, scrambling out the still burning doorway to the building to run for their lives.

“H-he’ll be furious! You don’t know what you’ve done.”

“Oh, I’m not ‘done’ yet.” Stepping back and smirking back at the cowering man, Helena Bertinelli the Huntress holstered one of her crossbows at her hip before pulling free a bundle of hand grenades from her belt and pulling the pins. Scrambling out the door and running for his life, the Riddler jumped to the ground and covered his head with his bowler hat. Helena jumped out of the building seconds before it exploded into a fireball, engulphed in flames and making the building collapse under its own weight when the burning foundation could no longer support it.

“He’ll kill you. He’ll kill me!” Sputtered Edward crouched into a fetal position and biting his fingers in terror, just as the Huntress walked towards him and pulled out something else from her belt. “Oh, I’m counting on it, Batman’s been WAY too soft on you, but he has something in mind that I like.” Taking the folded letter from her belt, she shoved it into his jacket and continued walking out of the parking lot of the area, making her way to her own motor cycle which she revved loudly and sped her way back towards the city, leaving the cowering man to lay there waiting for Dracula to return.

*

She had chased him for over a mile, flying overhead to keep him in sight. Even in the pitch of night, following a black electric cycle and man decked in black, she could see him clearer in the darkness than she ever could in the day. Seeing the cycle stop at the center of the quarry and Batman run off to hide under the excavation equipment, the swarm of bats Zatanna had turned into swarmed around the machines, coalescing into a single form that stood in front of an excavator left deactivated by the mid day crew. “Now Bruce, there’s no reason to keep this game going on, I’m NOT like Dracula.”

“You mean you’d let me live?” Batman called out unseen, his voice echoing over the cliffs of the quarry.

“No, I just have no qualms about killing you as a man any more than if you’re a rampaging wolf, its for the best really.” Zatanna chuckled playfully, her red eyes scanning the area despite the lack of light.

“I checked security footage across the city on the nights I… Changed. For a butcher, my kill count is significantly smaller than the tally your new boyfriend has.”

Giggling to herself with a gloved hand to her lips in mock embarrassment, Zatanna rolled her eyes and took her top hat off. “Okay… Fuck it, the thing is Bruce, two predators can’t exist in the same hunting ground, that’s just nature, and WE are NATURALLY more suited for the night than you, and tonight is your last night.”

“And what makes you say that?”

“Well, you can’t hide from me Bruce…” Wriggling her fingers at the opening of her top hat, Zatanna reached inside. “Because I can smell your blood!” Pulling her hand out of the hat, she pulled Batman right along with her hand, holding him by his arm and flopping him onto his back right in front of her. Smiling childishly yet holding Batman’s wrist with an inhuman grip. “I may have lied about you being a butcher, but make no mistake, you and the others are a plague, and if the lion doesn’t kill off the hungry hyenas every now and then, there won’t be any antelope to eat.” Her smile widening, Bruce noticed all her teeth were as sharp as razors, the blood red stare of her eyes forcing him to squint to avoid being hypnotised.

“I’m going to cure you Zatanna, whatever Dracula did to twist you into this, I’m going to cure you.”

With her eyebrow raised but her chessar smile never leaving her lips, Zatanna leaned down to look Bruce face to face, her finger nails growing into sickle like talons. “Oh? And what makes you think I need to be cured?”

“Because your boyfriend gave you allergies.” Raising a small device in his free hand, Zatanna found it to be the box control to the flood lights to the quarry, its electrical cable still tracing back through her top hat where she pulled Batman from his hiding spot. The sharp whine of flashbulbs going off when the flood lights turned on. At first Zatanna was amused, but then she felt… Irritated, uncomfortable. Rolling her shoulder and rubbing the back of her neck with her free hand, she became confused when her hand pulled back with flakes of dry skin in the palm of her hand. Then the burning sensation began to build up, her smooth chalk white skin showing dry flaking and cracks.

Letting go of Batman, Zatanna found her skin beginning to smoke, her skin felt like it was boiling in the summer heat and yet the soft blue light overhead felt just as cool as the night air. She was getting weak, so much so it hurt just to stand, but why?

“UV lights, the quarrymen set them up to scare off the local bats, to keep them from nesting in the mines.” Seeing her collapse to her knees, Batman stood, rubbing the soreness out of his wrist which to his annoyance felt more and more better as the seconds pass. Wide eyed and wheezing, Zatanna looked around for anywhere to escape the light, going flat to all fours and crawling in desperation, she tried to hide under one of the excavators only to find the light so pervasive it even lit under the massive machine. Screaming in pain, she looked over to her dropped top hat and practically slithered towards it like a snake, pouring herself into the small hole until she completely disappeared into it, leaving only her red eyes to glare back at the man that had her trapped.

“I didn’t want this Zatanna, like I said, I’ll find a way to cure you… And me. Until then, tell Dracula he’ll need to find a new place to sleep in.” Hearing the explosion in the distance, Batman turned his attention to where he and Zatanna came from. Dark smoke billowing up from the burning building the Riddler called his headquarters. Turning to his bat cycle, Batman revved the silent engine and drove off, disappearing into the night. Glaring with searing hatred, Zatanna’s eyes turned their attention to the light switch, its power cable still running through her top hat where she hid in. With brittle fingers sticking out of the hat’s rim, she slowly pulled the control closer to her, one pain filled inch at a time.