Batman!

"Batman." The Manhunter exhaled, calling his name in a low murmur. Yet the echo carried over to even Aaron. "You have arrived."

The blue in Manhunter's armour dimmed. The dark shape of Batman stood behind him. His pointy bat ears, his wide frame, his muscular physique–Batman oozed power. Change. Fear. The air shifted.

"You can rest, Orphan." Batman's voice rumbled like thunder. Cassandra, nose bleeding yet smiling, fell to the floor.

Thud!

The Manhunter twisted and swung his metal arm at him. Batman met it with his own arm. A clash. A swipe. A feint. A series of close combat strikes followed. The two were evenly matched. The Manhunter switched strategies and tried razing him down with his blasters. His beams of blue were fast. Batman was faster.

As for Angel Breaker, she was surrounded by the arrival of four vigilantes: a blonde Batgirl, Batwoman, a bronze-skinned woman in purple, and a short, lean swordswoman in a white mask.

"Batgirl, Batwoman, and Huntress." Angel Breaker climbed to her feet, her sword gripped tightly. "And of course…Katana. I see the Birds of Prey have reunited."

"And we're aching for ****," Batwoman retaliated. A beat passed. Neither side moved.

The Angel Breaker sword crackled. Katana's sword responded with a glow of its own. Magic, Aaron sensed. There was a magic in the air and a foreboding premonition if either blades clashed.

Katana shifted. Her skintight black costume and phenomenal rear open for him to ogle. Aaron averted his gaze to her illuminating katana. Aaron stiffened. He could hear…whispers? Voices? Was he imagining it?

Batman and the Manhunter tussled in the air, exchanging fists and slamming against the top of the machine. As the Dark Knight was pushed off, he used his grappling hook to stay airborne and tackled the red man again.

CLANG!

Aaron switched back down to the women. Katana and Angel Breaker clashed and the world around them rumbled. Another clash, another loud struggle of metals, and the colour of the world shifted. The intense magic each of them harboured in their hands was reality-bending.

An arrow nicked Angel Breaker's ear. The white haired woman backed away but several additional arrows came flying at her. She dodged and an insignificant strain of her snowy hair fell.

Huntress, the purple vigilante, shot at her with her crossbow. Merciless, she shot at her again and again. The red ruby in Angel Breaker's forehead glowed as she dodged whilst being assaulted by Katana. It was a rapid two-pronged ****.

The villainous woman yelped as her legs were swept up and she fell. Batwoman had managed to sneak behind her. Before her magical blade could explode, the rope of a grappling hook wrapped around the middle and ripped away from her grasp.

"No!" Angel Breaker's scream was followed by a brutal kick to the head. Batwoman was not playing games. Katana was the same as she pointed her magic sword to her head. On the floor, hands balled into a fist, Angel Breaker grit her teeth. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! No!"

The shadowy sword had fallen into the blonde Batgirl's hands. Stephanie Brown, Cassandra's best friend, smirked. She was ten feet away and just far enough for Angel Breaker to see.

For Aaron, she was twenty feet away but also…erm…fetching. Her cape was set to one side so her booty was noticeable. Aaron hated to be a chauvinistic idiot but…he couldn't help but steal a glance. Images of the internet flooded his brain but none of it compared to reality: the famous bubble butt of Batgirl lived up to the hype.

Nevertheless, the Birds of Prey had prevailed. Katana's blade remained on her temple, preventing the villain's movements as her limbs were locked by high-tech cuffs. Batwoman was quick and efficient and the female villain was rendered immobile and furious.

"Sisters…to think you would join the side of the enemy. How foolish! Foolish!" Angel Breaker's speech pattern suddenly shifted. Her arms and legs squirmed with near superhuman strength but it was a meaningless effort. The cuffs were intended for something much stronger than a mere swordswoman.

"Enough." Batwoman cruelly slammed her steely heel into her. "You're done."

However, her claim was interjected by the tussle between Batman and Manhunter. The Dark Knight's cape expanded and like a bat he flew down beside them. Crouching, the black mass that was his cape engulfed his being. He wiped the blood trailing from his nose.

"Having trouble?" Batwoman asked the legendary member of the Justice League. "That's not like you."

Batman's gaze remained locked on Manhunter. "Hrn."

Slicing through the thick tension was the young Batgirl. "Me and Batwoman will support you." From her utility belt, Batgirl summoned several batarangs. Her fast, chippery words were a breath of fresh air. Shoulders were squared, a plan of attack was calmly formulated. "You and Katana go for a close-range ****. I doubt he'll be able to keep up."

Manhunter. He remained in the air, repulsors flickering with unstable energy. He stared at the Dark Knight–at the Bat Family. One down and four writhing opponents remained. His eyes tilted slightly as he scanned the region and for an instant Aaron thought he was detected.

"ImPrEsSiVe, DaRk kNiGhT," Manhunter praised. "YOuR AbIlItIeS LiE NoT JuSt iN YoUr mArTiAl aRtS BuT AlSo yOuR ScIeNtIfIc mInD. I cAn sEe wHy ProMetHeUs spOkE so hIgHlY Of yOu."

His voice was…glitching? What the actual fuck was happening? The international criminal sounded less human and more…robotic, his words eerie, mixing, and changing.

"Who are you?" Batman asked, to the point. "Mark Shaw died, betrayed by his own people. Leviathan was supposed to return to Talia's control again. Where did you come from?"

"I MuSt tRuLy bE A ThOrN In yOuR SiDe iF YoU ArE AsKiNg qUeStIoNs rAtHeR ThAn sOlViNg tHeM." The constant whir of his blasters lingered in their eardrums. "MY idenTity iS of nO CoNsEqUeNcE. RaTheR, iT Is yOu wHo iS ImPoRtAnT. yOu, ThE WoRlD'S GrEaTeSt DETECTIVE, ThE KnIgHt wHo sLaYeD ThE CoUrT Of oWlS. ThE HUMAN pOrTaL To tHe DARK MULTIVERSE. ThE OnE WhO ToUcHeD ThE MeTaLs. EveN nOw, As yOu sTaNd aNd tAlK, tHe RADIATION oF ThE MeTaL LiNgErS. NO, iT HaS foReVeR ENTRENCHED iTselF In yOuR BeInG."

The machine behind him whirred with life. Aaron's heart drummed against his chest. A nasty chill went down his arms. The cylinder machine started to brighten in colour.

"YoUr hAir," the Manhunter began, "yOuR BLOOD, yOuR ESSENCE WhIcH HaS ToUcHeD ThE ReMaInInG MeTaLs. It hAs sTaRtEd tHe BEGINNING."

Within the screws of the machine came colourful lights, the dull steely colour painted from the illumination. Aaron could feel it on his face too. The colour, the heat, the power.

"A bluff," Batwoman called out, "his soul might be eroded with the metals but a little piece is not enough to power the machine." She slammed her fist into her palm. "The only real threat is you, Manhunter."

"Wrong, Batwoman." Surprisingly, the Dark Knight sounded on edge as he formulated his rebuttal. "We made a brutal mistake. The scale of this machine, we assumed with the five metals he would recreate enough Element X to shape the Earth. But looking at the lining of the machine, it's similar to the Atom's bio-belt, a one-of-a-king tool powered by a white dwarf star fragment. The nanotech projections on the monitors as well–the software is straight from LexCorp. The blaring lights are Toymaster's doing. Even Prometheus invested his time in this machine. Years of it, in fact. Put simply, this machine wasn't intended just for Earth. No, it was intended for the entire universe."

"A mEre PIECE Of yOuR EsSeNcE," the Manhunter continued, elated by the despair under their cowls, "tHeReFoRe, WiLl aT LeAsT GrAnT Me EnouGH ELEMENT X tO CONTROL A CITY sUcH As GOTHAM. IT'S SiMpLe mAtHeMaTiCs, SiMpLe FRACTIONS. AnD It wOn't bE LoNg uNtIl wE SuMmoN thE CHOSEN ONE. ThE CHOSEN ONE wilL ARRIVE aNd SAVE US ALL."

A millisecond wasn't wasted. Batgirl tossed her batarangs and Huntress launched her arrows, all of which were deftly incinerated. An intentional distraction while Batman used his grappling hook through the smoke to heave the godly man down. Katana and Batwoman jumped him. A single blast of his repulsor sent Batwoman away but Katana deflected it with her magic blade.

His arm plate turned black under the magical burn of the sword. The Manhunter attempted to blast her away but as Katana weaved to the left an arrow plunged inside the repulsor hole. Katana's sword bashed his head. Manhunter swung his arm to send her back but she back-flipped in time to avoid his strike and–

CRACK!

–to substitute with Batman, who slammed the meanest uppercut in human history. Red metal chipped. The Manhunter was jerked left and right as Batman punched him once, twice, three times, and then comboed him with kicks. Relentless. Unyielding. Furious. So many words yet none could properly describe Batman's incredible beating.

The Dark Knight side-stepped and allowed his redhead counterpart to renew the combo. While Batman was strong and heavy, Batwoman's gauntlets were electrified and the bangs of contact seemed to short-circuit and stun Manhunter, if only for a while.

Despite the fists and arrows and batarangs driving into him, the Manhunter resisted. He couldn't move, he couldn't respond, yet he tried. He didn't give up. In every direction, there was hell and he refused to see it. He would end up standing on the ends of his heels, seemingly knocked-out, only to bounce back at them. He got a few lucky shots on Batwoman. The damage hindered her movements. In response, Batman activated his shock glove and struck the Manhunter with them.

Zap!

Crackle!

Buzz!

Snap!

Blue electricity flung through the air with each slam of contact. Bam! Bam! Bam! Batman was relentless. With a vicious strike to the heart, Aaron nearly saw the Manhunter's skeleton.

Aaron almost felt bad, except for the fact that the motherfucker wasn't going down. Shouldn't his brain be rattled? Shouldn't he be feeling too dizzy to accurately fight back?

An uppercut, a kick to the side, a hook to the cheek. Like fighters in a video game, Batman and Batwoman seamlessly switched in and out and pounced at him. His armour chipped away.

"I…canNOT LoSe HERE! I gave UP EvERYTHING!!!"

Then Aaron realized it. The advantage, despite what it appeared to be, was not on the side of the heroes. It took everything Batman, Batwoman, Batgirl, Huntress, and Katana had to keep him at bay. So what about the machine?

Whiiiiir!

The noise was like a playstation near the end of its life cycle. A fan or something of that nature whirred dangerously fast in the machine. Aaron couldn't see it due to the cylindrical shape of the machine but he could hear it. Inside, the gears were turning.

The blonde Batgirl attempted to dash to the control panel but as if reading her mind a stray repulsor blast nicked her shoulder. She recovered and another blast immediately followed. A short, painful scream later and a dark burn mark formed.

For the third time, a blue light flashed. Batwoman's thigh was singed, smoke hissing. The redhead cursed and recoiled back in pain and the following blast would have finished her off if not for the swift deflection from Katana.

Once again, the Manhunter was growing stronger. He was adapting. His impervious voice and willpower overrode the efforts of the hero.

Batman swung his fist and the Manhunter blitzed backwards. The Dark Knight seemed to be the sole anchor against the great villain. The hero who could stand up to him one-on-one. His armour was thick and flexible, granting him defence on every level.

"Batwoman, Batgirl, stand back!" Batman ordered. "Analyze!"

Katana and Batman took over the fight. Having lost their numbers, the Manhunter was beginning to push them back. Not enough to reach the weakened women but to keep the heroes away from the terminal.

"His helmet is the same as Prometheus'!" Batwoman proclaimed whilst kneeling. "He can download and analyze our fight patterns! Except since he isn't solely relying on the ability on the helmet, he's also implementing his own brain power!"

"Figured as much," Batman remarked, avoiding a dangerous kick to the knee. The two exchanged three more blows in the blink of an eye.

"H-his armour is different too," Batgirl added. Her lenses were a pure white tint now. "Prometheus' armour was covered with microscopic nanobots that affected the opponent's brain. Manhunter's armour…it's like…it's absorbing metahuman powers. Katana's sword is losing energy and…and–oh, gosh, Duke!"

The blonde girl who shouldn't have been capable of pushing past the burn in her shoulders crawled over to the fallen young hero. He remained **** as panic eroded her voice. "His vitals are slowing down!" Batgirl announced.

Angered, Katana brought her blade down and it was easily caught. Behind her mask, her expression widened in surprise. He drove a knee in her stomach and then grabbed the woman by the hair. He whispered in her ear, a word or sentence beyond Aaron's hearing, and dropped her. Blood trickled from her lips as he stole Katana's sword. The Manhunter heaved her samurai sword back and–

"Enough!"

Batman tackled him into the ground. Away from the rest, the two rolled and fought. Punches were thrown. Metal was cracked. In the end, it was the Manhunter who came on top, the totem weapon high in the air and ready to pierce the symbol on his chest.

But the blade never plunged in.

Two kicks struck the Manhunter's gauntlet and his side in thunderous succession. The weapon and the man tumbled over and the Batman was swiftly helped to his feet.

"Talia," Batman acknowledged.

"Beloved." The gorgeous Middle Eastern woman curved her chin towards him and smiled. "It seems you owe me one."

"It seems so."