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Written by Joygirl and Ravager4.
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Fix The vent cover rocketed downward from the duct above, as Ravager kicked her boot through it, snapping the metal fastenings clean off. Soon afterwards, the teen poked her head through and looked around. "Coast is clear... looks like we're in some sort of maintenance hallway."
Pulling her head back, she then dropped through the vent and landed quietly on her feet below. "I'm guessing the open area of the gardens is through the exit."
"I wonder how the others are doing," Ragdoll mused. He was quite at home in the snug environment of the air-ducts, and even stayed inside for a moment while Ravager and Harley Quinn dropped down into the open. "No matter, I suppose. What are we doing again?"
Ravager uttered a quiet, frustrated groan at Ragdoll's question. "Didn't you pay attention during the briefing? We're here to take down the criminals hiding out here and grill them for where they're keeping Lian Harper, Arsenal's daughter. Because, you know, they're the ones that kidnapped her."
Giving the contortionist no more mind, she hurried down the corridor and pressed herself to the exit doors. Slowly, she eased them open and peered outside. The open botanical gardens lay beyond, an expanse of grass, trees, flowers, and all manner of exotic plants. Though the night was dark, her sharp eyes picked up far more light than a normal human's. Like a cat, she scanned the area. "Don't see anyone... come on, let's keep moving," she said, waving the others along.
"I'd be careful if I were you, Ravsies..." Harley chirped. "Somethin' don't feel right. Got that feelin' in my gut, kind I always get right before a bomb goes off. Maybe we should... um, y'know, try being stealthier. We are the stealth team, after all, kinda makes sense."
"I'm personally quite enamored with the air duct. So snugly lovely." Peter dangled his overly-long arms out past the steel rim, tilting his head. "And I don't believe we're expecting resistance. That's what the front team is for."
"Yeah, we're the stealth team," Ravager replied, as she slipped out of the corridor into the gardens. Still no sign of anything, just empty, barren silence. "And we stealthed our way in. Now that we're in, we find the bad guys, kick their asses, and get home in time for milk and cookies. And maybe take some Pepto later for your stomach." She paused a moment, then looking back over her shoulder. "Oh, and for the love of god, don't call me 'Ravsies'."
"Naw? Well ya don't like 'kiddo' so what am I s'posed to call ya?" Harley squawked, pouting a little bit. She was looking cautious, however, and even her normally boisterous voice was somewhat hushed, mallet slung across one deceptively strong shoulder. "Ya comin' Rags -- ack! Ravvy, did you see that?"
"Here's a wild thought," Ravager muttered, giving the clown a narrow glare. "You could call me 'Ravager'. If you could just get over your fetish for nicknames..." Groaning under her breath, she turned her attention back ahead of her, squinting farther into the darkness. "I didn't see any--wait, I got it."
She just caught sight of a dark shape moving between two trees, only to disappear behind a row of hedges. Reaching back over her shoulder, she drew one of her blades and sprinted across the gardens, leaving the other two behind her. "Follow me!" Without so much as waiting for her teammates to follow her, she raced around the hedges, fully prepared to kick the crap out of whoever was on the other side. When she got there, however, all she saw was what looked like a stupidly large beanstalk, coiling high up towards the glass roof above them. "Well that... was not what I expected," she muttered, taking a closer look at the plant. After a few moments, she started poking at it with the tip of her sword. "Just a stupid plant."
"Wouldn't say that if I were you... we have no idea what we could be goin' up against. I remember somethin' about Freeze so anyone could be here... even..." the jester girl trailed off slightly, chewing her bottom lip and shaking her head very slightly. "And what were you doin' runnin' off anyway? We're s'posed to stick togethah, y'big goof! What if there had been somethin' really dangerous over there, Rags hasn't even caught up yet."
Another pause, this one longer. "Where is Rags, anyway?" Harley chirped, doing a quick 360.
"Hardly dangerous," Rose said, uttering an annoyed sigh. She idly gave the massive beanstalk a clean cut with her sword, then sheathed her weapon again. "Come on, let's keep looking. We're wasting time. If that freak wants to get stuck behind, then let him. We can probably do this without him anyway."
"Now that isn't very nice."
The voice came from a newcomer, but another woman. Her voice was husky, almost maternal, yet seductive. A voice that spoke of thousands of comforts, promised anything a man could ask for. It was a voice that Harley Quinn knew very well, but had not heard in quite some time. Pamela Isley's assault was instantaneous as she stepped forward from the lush, dim shadows of the indoor home she had built. Her curvy figured swayed like a leaf in the breeze as seemingly infinite vines and flowers flowed out from around her. "Harley should have taught you to play nice with other people's toys."
Ravager turned around instantly at the woman's arrival, hand flying to the hilt of one of her swords, already drawing the weapon halfway out of its scabbard. She took a step back, staying on guard, and watched as the rather striking woman stepped into view. For a moment, she just waited, trying to formulate a plan in her head, get a feel for this enemy... but that was quickly put on hold when she noticed something rather out of the ordinary.
"What the-- hey, you know your skin is green right?" Ravager said, lifting her eyebrows behind her mask. "I mean, are you sick or something? Shit, you're not contagious, are you?"
"No, sweetie. I'm not sick -- I'm a doctor." Poison Ivy tilted her head and offered a soft smile. Ravager had made herself Ivy's enemy, and it hadn't been hard -- striking that stalk had been like striking down a cousin, a friend. It was unacceptable, and the teen girl didn't have a chance to fully react before powerful vines had begun to wind and curl around her, squeezing her, embracing her in a vice-like deathgrip.
"Whoa, hey, what the--!" Ravager recoiled, backpedaling and drawing both her swords. She took a few hacks at the first several vines to lash out at her, cutting them down. She spun, twirled, whirled her blades around, desperately trying to keep them back. But they just kept coming... Within seconds, several vines lashed out and grabbed hold of her wrists, then her ankles. The next thing she knew, she was hanging upside down from a tree branch, her body wrapped up completely with surprising force, even nullifying her enhances strength.
"Son of a bitch..." she muttered, glancing down at the vines coiled around her. "I've clicked on enough suspicious internet links to know where this going... so do me a favor and keep your hentai vines the f*ck away from me."
"Nobody's ever complained before," Ivy said with a husky purr, stepping forward casually to gently caress one hand across Ravager's cheek. "Cute. A little young for my taste, though." At her last words, the vines constricted further, almost unbearably tight around the girl, squeezing the air out of her.
"Let her go, Red. Try pickin' on someone your own size." Harley's brow was furrowed, her arms flexing as she lifted up the massive wooden mallet that had been on her shoulder, holding it in a striking position. "I don't wanna hurtcha. We got history, Red."
"Uck," Rose muttered, turning her head at the woman's touch. Her distaste soon turned to pained grunts, however, when the vines coiled tighter, threatening to crush her. Any normal person probably already would have had their bones broken; it was only through pushing back with her own strength that she was keeping herself from compressing to a mangled pile of snapped limbs. "Urgph... freaking..." she groaned, starting to feel of rush of blood come to her head. "Harley... you know... this psycho?"
"Know her?" Harley breathed in deeply through her nose, stepping forward again and standing up to her full height beside the slightly-taller Ivy. "I used t' love her. Or did I? Knowin' the way you treated me, I'm not sure I even know what real love is. You were barely better than... than him."
"Don't you say that!" Ivy roared, lifting one finger and lunging forward aggressively, only a few inches away from the clown now. "Don't you EVER say that. I treated you far better than he ever did, you were just too damn blind and stupid to ever see it!" The shift of Ivy's mood was sudden and violent, a intense burst of emotion blossoming within her at Harley's words.
Ravager surged out a breath of air from her longs, as the hold on her loosened slightly. Not much, just enough to keep from squeezing like a python. Apparently Harley was distracting the crazy salad lady too much for her to concentrate on strangling the dangling teen. It allowed Ravager to relax a little and simply watch the scene unfold... not without her own commentary, though, of course.
"Wait a minute... you two were... so, the jolly green giant here is...?"
"Blind and stupid. That's how you always treated me, Red. No matter how devoted I tried to be, you were always the hard place to Joker's rock." Big blue eyes misted over slightly and stared directly towards Poison Ivy. This meeting was long in coming, and at this point of time, Rose Wilson was the furthest thing from Harley's mind. "Blind and stupid. Ya treated me like a sidekick, just like everyone else did. Ya never loved me, did ya Red?"
Ivy's own jungle-green eyes darted to Ravager only for an instant, those vines giving her a harsh, rib-snapping squeeze, just fast enough to show the girl she was still paying attention. "What do you want me to say, Harl? What are you expecting me to prove? I was good to you, I... I cared for you. You were a partner, not a sidekick. We were the Gotham Girls, remember? Harley and Ivy. You even got first billing."
"Oh son of a-- ow!" Ravager cried. She felt at least two of her ribs crack before she started pushing outward again to counteract the constriction. "Your dirt-- gah-- I swear I'm gonna turn you into a vegetable platter when I get out of here."
Ravager's comment was, again, ignored. Ivy's sneer deepened only slightly before softening, her jaw setting.
"I don't give a rat's patootie about first billing, Red! You were the one they were afraid of, you were the one who leveled buildings and left me to watch the car! It was always ALL about you! When we fought together, when we... when we played together. It was always all about you." Harley Quinn's voice dropped to a pleading whisper, and she took a gentle step forward, laying one hand on the green goddess's upper arm. "What about me, Red? When Catwoman showed up, when Livewire showed up, you dropped me like a bad habit. You always treated me like I was useless. At least Joker actually did use me for somethin'."
Ravager huffed out a strained groan and rolled her eyes. This was starting to become a bad soap opera. "For the love of-- would two just kiss already and get it over with? You're making me sick."
"Is that where you've been, Harl? Back with him? AGAIN? Last I heard he locked you in a vault filled with dynamite. Is he really what makes you happy?" Ivy leaned in to Harley's grip, holding both of the clown's shoulders and gazing into her eyes. "Did you really go back to Joker?"
"Naw, Red..." Harley whispered, closing her eyes for just a moment. A slow tear was pressed from her lashes, slowly rolling down her face. She leaned in then, tilting her head very slightly and kissing Ivy's lips tenderly, inhaling through her nose as she tasted the emerald woman's toxic lips, savoring their sting for what she decided would be the last time. As the two villainess's lips slowly parted, a tiny trail of saliva still connecting them, Harley finished her sentence. "...I killed him."
A sharp, unavoidably fast elbow to the side of the skull put Ivy on the ground, knocked out cold by the decisive blow and causing the vines entangling Ravager to loosen and collapse. "I'm sorry, Red."
Ravager landed on her back with blunt "ooph" bursting from her lips. She quickly rolled over to her hands and knees and went to stand, only to recoil momentarily from a sharp explosion of pain in her chest. "Okay, that's--geh--that's a broken rib. Or three. F*ck."
Finally she forced herself back to her feet stood as straight as she could, though she clearly favored her ribs. Then, she slowly turned a glare over to Harley. "Why didn't you tell me crazy plant lady could do that? That seems like it should have been crucial information."
"Sorry Rav," the clown said sadly, kneeling beside the green woman and kissing her forehead before covering her with the large leaf Ivy had previously been riding on. "I was... I think I just tried to force myself to forget she was here. She's strong, stronger'n you or I can imagine." Harley inhaled deeply, closing her moist, dark eyes for just a moment. Her voice had lost a bit of its playful, manic tone, grown more serious... almost professional. "It's a good thing you brought me with you. She would have defeated the Secret Six pretty easily."
"Would have been nice if the great and powerful Mockingbird properly briefed us, too," she muttered. She paused a moment, glancing slowly at the unconscious Poison Ivy, then to the rather sullen Harley Quinn. Though it probably wasn't her place to pry, she was more than a little curious after that little incident. "So, you know, I'm not really good at the whole 'comforting' thing... but it sounded like you two were close."
"Pretty close, yeah," Quinn sighed. "I used to run to her during my off-times with Mistah J, she was always there for me, but... it's just a long story. You're strong. Prob'ly wouldn't get it."
The clown finally stood back up, wiping her eyes and smearing dark makeup across her face. "I'll be alright. We should prob'ly get outta here before she wakes up."
"Uh huh... I'll pretend I know what you're talking about and let it go," Ravager muttered, as she limped over to retrieve her fallen swords. She sheathed one of the blades, but as she held the second she looked back at Poison Ivy, then again to the sword. "You know, we should probably just k--"
But she stopped herself. Cassandra's voice screaming "Stop!" echoed somewhere in the back of her mind, forced the thought away. After a moment's hesitation, she finally sheathed the second blade. "Never mind... let's just catch up with the others."
Harley turned back for just a moment at Ravager's bitten-back words, a dark glance out of the corner of her eye going barely noticed before she started moving forward. "Yeah. Let's hope they're still in one piece."
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"Which one of you said that this was a team of psychotic scientists?" Scandal clucked absently, her fingertips clacking madly across the keyboard of her notebook computer. The team had come to the Star City Botanical Gardens where Lian was supposedly kept, and as Arsenal inspected the front door for any physical traps, Scandal was hard at work hacking into the building's LAN.
"Mockingbird did." Bane said resolutely. "Three brilliant scientists."
"Well, they've got all the software skills of the thirteen-year-old I used to play cyberchess with. This has to be the most simple, primitive firewall I've ever seen. A few simple defenses under a folder called 'Garfield's Defenses'... huh." Scandal twisted her lips and turned to the big man, giving him a pleading look. "This is just insultingly easy. He has a few flamethrower turrets which are now..." without looking back at the screen, she tapped a single key with her index finger. "...Deactivated. Besides that I don't see any other automated defenses or traps that are logged into their network."
"No traps at the door, either," Arsenal said, as he ran his fingers lightly along the frame. "I guess they weren't expecting company so soon. Not that it matters." He then paused, taking a few steps backwards and seizing the collapsible bow attached to his back. In an instant, he had an arrow nocked. "I always did prefer the direct approach.
He let the arrow fly, and the moment that the tip met the door, a massive explosion erupted, tearing through most of the entire front wall. The explosive arrow left behind a gaping, flaming hole in its wake, allowing clear passage inside.
Feeling the awkward stares from his teammates, he looked back at them and shrugged. "What? I'll reimburse the place for damages."
"I do not recall the last time we have reimbursed an establishment, but if you wish to do so, I'm sure it will not go unappreciated," Bane said.
"Yeah, well, kind of is my city..." Arsenal said, briefly clearing his throat. "I take Lian here sometimes on the weekends... she loves the flowers." He went silent for a moment, jaw tightening. Every second that passed, he could feel his anger getting hotter, stronger. These people took Lian from him... trying to use her to get to him. If they hurt so much as a single hair on her head, he would tear them apart.
Bane cracked his neck idly and began to crack and flex the knuckles in his hands, the dense, hard leather of his gloves creaking with each movement. "Are you prepared, Scandal Savage? There is no telling who may be behind this door."
"Being borderline-immortal tends to be preparation enough for me," Scandal said dryly. "Besides, it's not like I have important knuckle-cracking to do. I have have gauntlets with spikes on them. Pretty straightforward." Scandal smirked, setting down her laptop and leaving it outside the building. She then strapped on the Lamentation Blades, fitting them tightly within her fist and pulling the leather straps snugly. "Ready."
Arsenal nodded, strolling through the burning hole in the wall with another arrow already nocked. "Ready. Let's do this.”
Bane nodded sternly and walked forward, his jaw set and his muscles rippling with anticipation, seeming to flood with blood at his mere will. The inside of the place was brightly-lit but still and damp, closed off from the rest of the world, most of the power being used up in the back rooms. Arsenal's explosion had not gone unnoticed, as immediately evidenced by a man in black insectoid armor who was speeding frantically towards the group.
A man in black insectoid armor, who was holding a flamethrower.
"Looks like they're rolling out the welcome mat," Arsenal said, running forward with his bowstring pulled back. The explosive arrow zipped through the air, aimed to impact that ground directly in front of Firefly. It went off as planned, creating a contained, yet intense, explosion that enveloped the flying man in a column of intense heat.
However, as it faded, Firefly's smile could almost be seen through his full helmet. "Using fire, Arsenal?" His metallic voice rang out. "Against me? I never took you for a fool -- then again, I am used to the Bat."
He leveled his arm at the red-haired man and let loose with his flame-cannon, shooting a geyser of super-intense flame towards Roy. A last-second tackle by Scandal pulled him out of harm's way as the billowing stream of flame tickled at their heels.
"Get off me, I got him!" Arsenal growled, pushing the woman away. He was far too set on his goal right now to properly thank her for preventing him from roasting alive; he just wanted to put an arrow in this guy, preferably somewhere that hurt. A lot. Scrambling back to his feet, Arsenal raced behind a row of tables at a nearby concession stand and fired off another arrow, one that was, sadly, frozen in mid-flight.
"Freeze," Bane said softly.
"That is Mr. Freeze to you." Heavy metal footsteps sounded in the hallway to the back of the building, and Firefly turned his head quickly to nod appreciatively at Victor's helping hand. Freeze continued to step forward with long, slow steps, holding a densely-built heavy pistol, the fuel tank of which glowed a phosphorescent, icy blue. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Damn it, should have known the other freak would show up eventually," Arsenal muttered. Nocking another arrow, he slowly circled around, giving the frosty man a wide berth. He knew just how dangerous Mr. Freeze was. "Where are you keeping her? Huh? Where's my daughter?!"
"I am sure I have no idea what you are speaking of." Victor Fries held himself still, his pistol pointed forward, unwavering. His voice, his mere voice, spoke volumes about the man who had terrorized Gotham. Spoke of his tragedy. The icy, robotic monotone he spoke in went deeper than his frozen nature -- his emotional death, as well, could be heard clearly in his apathetically hateful tone. "I suggest you leave before you die."
"Don't play stupid!" Arsenal shot back. He loosed his arrow, aimed straight at Mr. Freeze's wrist. Halfway through the air, the magnesium tip ignited, creating a brilliant white light that lit the air like a flare in attempts to blind the man.
"Don't pay them any mind, Vic. These guys are f*cking nuts," Firefly shouted, zipping towards Arsenal before having his ankle sharply caught by the alert Bane. Freeze recoiled from the sudden flash of light, unleashing a burst of icy energy to cover himself as he attempted to recover.
"Fool!" Dr. Fries squeezed his eyes shut beneath their vivid red goggles, which had fortunately absorbed most of the flare's impact. "You assault me without reason, and shall surely suffer for your poor decision."
"Hey Bane, this guy kinda reminds me of you," Scandal quipped, settling into a combat stance despite being unsure how to best operate against these kinds of opponents. "Did you guys go to the same English school?"
"I did not go to English school," Bane growled, squeezing down hard on Firefly's armored ankle and causing the man to scream out, turning to the convict and releasing an enormous stream of flame.
Arsenal rolled to the side, ducking away from the subzero wave that froze most of the ground next to him. He turned briefly, catching sight of Firefly aiming his flamethrower at the conspicuously not-fireproof Bane. "No you don't!" he called, quick-drawing one of his sidearms and taking a single shot; his sights were lined up directly with the pyro's fuel tanks.
For just a moment, there was chaos. Bane tried to throw Firefly backwards (though the villain's jetpack didn't make that easy), while simultaneously rolling backwards from the flames threatening to swallow him. As Arsenal changed his sights and aimed at Garfield Lynns, Mr. Freeze took the opening. A few suspiciously-quick steps forward and Freeze unloaded again, cryo-energy blasting forth towards Roy in a nearly unavoidable sheet.
The bullet struck true, dead center of Firefly's fuel tanks and eliciting a violent explosion that sent him spinning off in random directions. Within seconds, another thunderous burst sent the armored villain soaring out of the building and out of sight, leaving behind a thick trail of fire and smoke. Not a moment later, Arsenal found himself tackled once again by Scandal Savage. As he scattered out of the way of Victor's blast, the wave of ice caught Scandal directly in the middle, completely encasing her in an instant.
"No!" Bane roared, already struggling to his feet. He began a full-out stampede towards Mr. Freeze, muscles tensed and fueled with a searing anger the likes of which not even the Bat had ever caused him. "You are a monster!"
Roy pushed himself back to his feet, looking back over his shoulder. "Son of a--" he muttered, staring momentarily at the immortal woman frozen solid. That was twice now that she had saved his behind, and this time she paid the price for it. He had no idea how immortal Scandal was supposed to be, but he was willing to bet that being shattered into countless pieces wouldn't be good for her. "Just hold on."
Running towards her, he grabbed another one of his arrows and jabbed the tip into the ice block. A second later the tip ignited, burning intensely hot. It would take a few minutes, but the ice would melt eventually.
“Do not make the same foolish mistake your companion made,” Victor said coldly, his lensed eyes showing no emotion, no inflection. Nothing. Just cold, efficient ruthlessness. A willingness to destroy anything out of mere convenience. Bane's back rippled however, veins surging with fury as he full-out attempted to tackle the scientist.
“Be silent!” Bane roared, still moving forward – despite the cold-pistol aimed directly at him. He wasn't immortal, not like Scandal. The likelihood of him surviving was... significantly less. Fortunately, however, he was never given the opportunity to test this.
“Hi.” Came a sudden, familiar voice as winding, tentacle-like limbs curled and crushed around Mr. Freeze's armored figure, rag-wrapped toes nimbly snatching the ice-pistol from that heavy gauntlet. “I missed you, can I have this?”
"Come on, nice and easy," Arsenal muttered, as he stabbed a fifth heat arrow into the ice block. It was slow going, but Scandal was finally starting to reemerge into the open air. He had made sure to concentrate a couple near her head, to get at least her nose out as soon as possible so she didn't suffocate. By now, half her head, her arms, and one leg were partially free. "Give it about... oh, twenty more minutes."
“Vexing rodent!” Freeze boomed, swatting at the squirming, squeezing form of Peter Merkel, Jr. Each time one of his powerful fists would slam into a gummi-worm-like limb, the bone would merely bend beneath it before springing into place, eliciting a small giggle from Ragdoll as he inspected the ice-pistol in his hands.
“This is interesting, did you make this yourself? I'll give it back as soon as my large friend is finished beating you into oblivion, I don't think it will take all that long.”
Bane puctuated the Ragdoll's last sentence with a savage backhand before scooping to lift Freeze by the ankles, slamming his tall, clumsy form into the ground beneath them and leaving a deep web of cracks beneath Freeze's armored body. “You will suffer for what you have done,” the huge man said with deep, cool certainly, smashing one gigantic fist into the plate of thick glass guarding Victor Fries's face from the warmth of the outside world.
“No! You cannot! I wil--”
“You will what?” Bane growled, leaning forward and pinning the supervillain's wrists against the porcelain floor. “You will swelter among the real world? Perhaps you should have considered the consequences of your actions before you angered the man who broke the bat!”
“Ooh, Bane, I didn't know you had it in you,” Ragdoll purred, unravelling from Freeze's prone body as Bane slammed the man down again, raining another hammerfist down onto his leaking glass protector.
“Tell me where the girl is, and you may yet survive.”
"You heard him," Arsenal said, joining Bane standing over the man. He aimed an arrow directly at Freeze's helmet. "Where is she? Where are you keeping my daughter?"
“I have already told you that you are misled. Our...” Freeze let out a long, strained breath, starting to swelter within his leaking helmet. “Our organization has no plans that involved little girls. We... we will do something far greater.”
Nearby, a cracking sound heralded the rest of Scandal's icy prison shattering, causing the woman to collapse very suddenly. It was seconds, however, before she was pulling herself up onto her hands “F*ck....”
"You have five seconds to stop playing stupid," Arsenal stated. He pulled back on the bowstring harder, muscles straining to keep it drawn. "Where's Lian?"
"I don't think you're gonna get any answers out of him the conventional way," a strained voice said. A brief moment later, Ravager shuffled into view, arm held across her ribs. "The one we found kept saying the same thing. My advice? Tie 'em up and let me have some time alone with them. I know how to make people talk."
“Ooh, I've personally always found bondage to be the perfect blend of business and pleasure myself. Sometime we can exchange trade secrets.” Ragdoll clucked, loping over to the quickly-reviving Scandal to coil affectionately around her.
Ravager slowly turned to look at Ragdoll, a disturbed grimace on her face. She glared at him for several moments before uttering a disgusted, "gross" and taking several large steps backwards. "Freak."
Freeze kept his gaze narrow. “Feel free to search the establishment. You won't find your daughter. You've been fooled. Perhaps, instead of pointing your bow at me, you should be considering who it was you trusted enough to come here on their advice.”
"No, no... she has to be here," Arsenal muttered. Ever so slightly, his grip on the bowstring eased, slackening the string. "He- he told us she was.. that you had... you're lying."
"Of course he's lying," Rose said, rolling her eyes. "You expect these guys to come clean without a little push?"
"Right... right, we just have to-"
A shrill, electric hiss interrupted him, followed by the click of a PA system. Eyes turned towards the nearest speaker, built into one of the nearby walls, just as a frightened, terrified, young girl's voice echoed throughout the gardens. "D-daddy? Daddy, are you there? They- they said that you can--hic--hear th-this. Daddy, please help me."
"Lian!" Arsenal exclaimed. He stared at the speaker for several moments in a panic, then turned back to Mr. Freeze and grabbed him by the collar. "Where is that coming from?! Where is she?!"
“She-- isn't-- here!” Freeze gasped out, his steel-encased body seeming to convulse, skin flushing a deep bluish-violet as he baked inside his suit.
Harley Quinn staggered in from the hallway Ravager had recently come from, dragging her hammer idly behind her and not seeming to pay attention to the rest of the team. Not even the scorched hole in the ceiling seemed to grab her attention. “What I miss?”
"The blue guy is baking, Arsenal is having an episode, and Ragdoll is into bondage," Ravager replied with disinterested shrug, expression remaining stolid. "That should about catch you up."
"I can hear her!" Arsenal retorted, slamming Freeze's head against the ground. Any and all restraint he normally had was gone. His daughter was in danger, helpless--he didn't have time for restraint.
A sudden, sharp squeal of tires outside the botanical gardens could suddenly be heard, causing first Bane to glance in that direction. "We have company," the big man growled.
"If you can hear her... kkh... then go, find her..." Victor Fries wheezed out, one clumsy fingertip snapping a switch on his belt and causing the ominous blue glow of his suit start slowly fading as it flooded him with fresh sub-zero energy. "Go... leave me...."
"Lian!" Arsenal called, dropping Freeze and sprinting towards the exit. The screeching tires grew louder, as he burst through the doors outside. He didn't see it, he didn't see it, he didn't- where was it?! "Lian!"
Finally, after spinning several times to scan the parking lot, he saw it. A windowless van taking off down the street next to the gardens. "LIAN!" He took off in a dead sprint, pushing himself as fast as he could go. If he could just close the distance enough, he could get a shot off, put out one of the tires, slow it down... anything!
But it was hopeless. He couldn't outrun a car, and it already had a sizable lead on him. He didn't even make it halfway across the parking lot before it disappeared around the corner, out of sight. "NO! DAMN IT!" He dropped to his knees, driving his fist against the tar. So close... they were so close... "Lian..."
Scandal staggered out into the open light of the street, standing beside Arsenal for a moment and remaining silent. Eventually, she inhaled deeply, chewing the inside of her cheek uncomfortably. “Well ain't that about a bitch.”
"Dude..." Ravager said, lifting an eyebrow at Scandal. "Even I know that wasn't okay."
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