Gypsy Charm

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Luder.

^V^

"He didn't tell me how to live �" he lived and let me watch him do it."

Clarence Buddington Kelland

^V^

With time slipping away, I opted to ride in the Javelin alongside J'onn and
Diana on the trans-Atlantic trek to Ra's' base. Robin was not far behind in the
Bat-plane alongside Batgirl. In the lead was Superman, his ever-wary senses
keeping us in the clear.

Despite what we knew about Bruce's abduction, there were far too many questions
still looming over my head. We knew Ra's had forcefully taken him but was then
willing to treat and care for his injuries once they had arrived at his base.
IbnCorp had been the pseudonym used to cover his tracks, but we had yet to
discover the importance of the term "son". Even further troubling was the fact
that Ra's had made contact and then allowed Bruce to do the same.

But then again, someone had cut the transmission…

I had spent enough years at Bruce's side to know that Ra's Al Guhl was still
dangerous even after discovering his plans; his ability to adlib an evil scheme
was uncanny. Fairly early in my training as Robin, Bruce had once explained that
a vast majority of the criminals we faced were predictable and not just in how
they operated. He showed me the different ways they even responded to being in
the presence of a vigilante.

Like how Two-Face would flip his coin.

How the Riddler and Penguin would flee after ordering their henchmen to take us
on.

And how Poison Ivy would distract you with her pheromones and playful banter
long enough to have her fast growing vines entangle your legs…

He also explained that a select few responded unpredictably. It was a very short
list of criminals and Ra's al Guhl was number two. The Joker, naturally, was
number one. With Ra's, he would either defend himself, sacrifice his men, use
his daughter, betray his daughter, betray his men, abandon ship, self-destruct
his base of operations or simply whip out a sword and start a fight to the
death.

I was banking on him abandoning ship.

Armed as we were with brute force and intellect alike, we were still going in
practically blind. The floor plans for the base were 71 likely to be accurate
according to the file Bruce had attached to it. For the first half of the ride
over the Atlantic, I had studied them religiously, taking note of camera
locations, alcoves and high traffic areas. As for a plan of action… that
required the duration of the second half of the trip.

"Oracle?" J'onn's smooth voice broke my tormented line of thought.

"ETA is less than thirty minutes now. The coordinates for the landing site are
on their way to you now… It's a good five miles from the base so you'll have to
fly in on your own. But at least the ship will be out of radar."

Even though Robin and Batgirl were both brilliant combatants, I was weary of
putting them directly in danger. Hence making them come in the Bat-plane in
order to hopefully keep enough lag time to prevent them from even entering the
battle royale that kept playing over in my head. If something had or was going
to happen to Bruce and possibly myself, someone had to be left standing for
Gotham.

After Bruce had made contact from the base, Oracle had been able to test her
hacking fortitude successfully, showing that he was being held in the Matruh
base. With Batman generally acting as the lead tactician, I had three pairs of
the most powerful eyes on Earth staring at me to fill the void. After playing it
over in my mind for a few hours, I finally formed and answer that I was sure
would even impress my mentor, both for its simplicity and probability for
success.

J'onn would be the first to go in, disguised as one of the security guards,
passing through steel and lead walls as if it were an open window. After
knocking out any of Ra's' men in the entrance bay, he would be able to let us in
after Oracle electronically opened the door. This way, no alarms would attract
any unnecessary attention until we were safely inside.

After splitting up, Superman and Wonder Woman would pose as a suitable
distraction, soaring through the corridors, knocking over any one wearing black
fatigues. Alongside J'onn, I would be able to make my way to the control room
were Ra's would no doubt be ordering his flunkies to take no prisoners.

And that was about as far as I would dare go before the infamous alternate
endings surfaced.

Obviously, the most desired one resulted in Bruce being in two pieces or less
and all of us being able to make a clean getaway. But in the process, we would
have disarmed and disbanded all of the Demon's resources with the least amount
of bloodshed.
Second best, we made it out alive and well enough to face off with Ra's another
day.

And from there…

I took a deep breath before speaking, "Let's see it, J'onn."

The Martian sitting beside me in the captain's chair of the Javelin transformed
in less than a second from the muscular green humanoid form to the dark garbed
sinister no-gooder that we would all be facing off with in mere minutes.

I forced a smirk, "Black... It looks good on you."

Reverting to his normal appearance, J'onn nodded before taking the Javelin off
of autopilot, "I feel it suits your form better."

That time, my smirk was genuine, "Nah, it's always been Bruce's color."

Upon landing, J'onn had us each check our telecommunication links, given that if
something happened to him, the telepathic link would be compromised. Once
satisfied our fallback method was in place, J'onn literally vanished before our
eyes. In less than fifteen minutes he was due to give us the all clear to follow
suit. In the event he didn't contact us, we would have gone ahead with our plan
but with a certain degree of defeat hanging over us.

After the longest thirteen minutes of my life, I heard his voice in my own mind,
"Everything is clear."

Wonder Woman, Superman and I quickly made our way to the secretive base
entrance. It was no wonder that it hadn't stood out earlier; a massive sand dune
engulfed a majority of the base with an entrance hidden in the faux dried
remains of an oasis. Just as we landed on the ground, a small inlaid doorway
opened to reveal J'onn's disguised form. We quickly entered; taking mere seconds
to observe what appeared to be the base's aircraft hangar.

According the blueprints we were basing our attack on, the control room was
centrally located, surrounded by a number of winding corridors meant to confuse
those not intended to be present. Namely superheroes. Without hesitation, Wonder
Woman and Superman quickly flew off in separate directions to begin the physical
attacks while J'onn and I quickly made our way towards the control room.

I was just about to contact him on the telepathic link that things were going
well when the crash of alarms fell over my ears. Not entirely unexpected but I
had hoped to be a little further along before our presence warranted gunfire.

As I heard the faintest pops of bullets, J'onn's voice filled my ears; Superman
and Wonder Woman have established a suitable diversion for at least three dozen
guards. They weren't shooting at me, I couldn't complain.

We continued to navigate the corridors, hopefully making our way to the control
room. There, after disarming and knocking a few guards unconscious, we would be
able to use the security system to locate Bruce as well as Ra's Al Guhl and his
temptress of a daughter. After a fight to the near death with a fairly dramatic
conclusion, I planned on knowing at least why Bruce had been kidnapped in the
first place and hopefully why Bruce had stayed voluntarily.

Recalling the generic blueprints I had reviewed on the way over, I lead the way
towards the center of the base, taking the shortest route possible while at the
same time avoiding major intersections. As we turned left, I spotted the heavily
protected entrance of the control room, distinguished by four armed guards as
well as the bold printed metal sign above the doorway. A squawk on one of the
guards' radios shouted a string of orders, far too fast for me to translate.
They both armed their weapons simultaneously before heading off at a brisk jog,
no doubt additional artillery called in to overpower Superman and Wonder Woman.

Good luck, fellas, I thought to myself.

We waited for thirty seconds before moving towards the doorway. Out of habit, I
checked for the security cameras aimed at the door and was surprised to not find
any in the entire corridor.

Expect the unexpected…

Equally unexpected, the lead lined steel door was unlocked.

Passing into the spacious and dimly lit room, it took only a moment to find the
bank of nearly ten security monitors. As J'onn kept guard I toggled through the
various screens, praying for a glimpse of Bruce.

As I spotted Ubu's unconscious form on what appeared to be a bedroom floor, I
felt J'onn tense behind me.

As I turned around, I heard Ra's Al Guhl's voice, "I must say, Gypsy, I had
expected you much later… Perhaps I have truly underestimated your charm."

I did nothing to hide the growl in my voice as I turned to face him, "Where is
he, Ra's?"

As if we were humble guests and not intruders, Ra's strode passed J'onn and I,
"I am afraid the state of alarm you have found my compound in is not only as a
result of your presence… The Detective has managed to escape… a result of my
daughter's grievous error in trusting him I fear."

I watched in surprise as he sat himself at the main console before proceeding to
toggle through the screens as well. Images of men running, men shooting, Clark
soaring by and then eventually nothing but screens full of black and white fuzz,
"He has managed to corrupt my security system in several key locations… Not to
mention render my bodyguard unconscious… and take captive something for which I
hold very dear."

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed J'onn's face twitch slightly.

"Where is he?" I asked, my tone much calmer than when I had asked Ra's.

"I… it is still difficult to connect with him telepathically… he is…
distressed."

"Is he injured?"

Ra's stood and approached us, "I assure you he is not. Now, I will forgive this
intrusion of yours given that the Detective is found and what is in his
possession is returned to me, unharmed."

"And what exactly is this possession?"

The corner of Ra's' mouth rose slightly, "Certainly you will be able to use your
keen detective mind to solve that mystery, Gypsy."

I glanced at J'onn who appeared to be in deep concentration, hopefully sorting
through the countless frightened guards in order to find Bruce. His face grew
confused for a moment before replying, "I've found him…"

"As have I."

I spun back towards Ra's who had found a camera still active. Very active. The
air hangar we had entered the base from was flooded with armed men, all shooting
towards a single target. Ra's toggled over one screen to offer a different point
of view. A fraction of a head appeared from behind a steel door before
disappearing once more. A second later, I spotted Bruce again as he exposed half
of his body just long enough to throw a compressed air tank of oxygen towards
his assailants. Before an order could be called to hold fire, a stray bullet
caught the tank, releasing a ball of flames.
Ra's tensed and growled into a microphone on the console, "Hold your fire
imbeciles!" He repeated himself three times before relenting, "The communication
system is out…"

"Ours isn't…" I said, "Superman, Wonder Woman, get to the hangar, Bruce under
heavy fire."

"Copy," Superman said over a reign of gunfire.

When I looked back to Ra's, he appeared frozen stiff. I looked down to see his
hand grasping the end of his sword. I glanced back to J'onn who nodded, "If I
let him kill you, Bruce would show no mercy on me."

Still restraining him telepathically, J'onn forced Ra's into the chair by the
monitors, "I will stay with him, help the others."

"You're sure?"

With his incredible Martian strength, J'onn pulled a steel railing from the far
wall and wrapped it around Ra's' torso. When he caught me looking in wonderment,
he replied, "I am terrible at tying knots."

I began back tracking to the hangar, doing my best to avoid the corridors
echoing with gunshots. Just as I passed the infirmary, I heard a very quiet
click to my left. After stopping dead in my tracks, I looked to see Talia aiming
a semi-automatic gun at my head.

"You will not take him from me."

"Talia, he's not yours to keep."

"He is mine. He is ours."

Angling my body at her, I used my right arm to release a tranquilizer dipped
Batarang. I would have once chance to hit her, preferably above the belt before
she let a few hundred rounds into me. Luckily for me, she was a terrible mark
when she was upset.

"Talia, Bruce is trapped in the hangar, your father's men are going to kill him
if we don't try to stop them."

Something washed over her eyes before she replied, "They wouldn't--."

"They would. They are. I just saw it on the security monitor… Bruce cut the
communications so your father can't order them to back down… You have to come
with me."

As another explosion sounded, she whispered, "Ibn," before taking off towards
the hangar.

So she was in on this Ibn business as well. At least I knew who was going to be
first on my interrogation list. After Bruce of course.

We made it to the hangar entrance just as Superman and Wonder Woman did. Diana
glared when she recognized my company and began to lurch forward. Superman
grabbed her by the gold plated wrist, "We don't have time for this…"

I put my hand on Talia's arm, "He's right. Can you see on the other side?"

Superman shook his head, the look on his face declaring him the biggest
disappointment in the world. "I can't signal out the sounds on the other side,
the echoes of the gunfire are overwhelming my senses. If I blast through and
he's right there…"

"Wait," I stepped forward and pounded six times in a one-two fashion. Thirty
seconds later, six bangs answered in the same order.

"He's there," I replied in Morse code for him to get away from the door. He
responded for us to wait for him to say he was ready.

"What the hell for?" I muttered to myself.

For five minutes we waited in silence, listening to the gunfire and ricochets.
Finally Superman stepped forward, "We can't wait… I'll go in, further down."

I wanted to trust that Bruce would knock on the door that he was ready but as we
waited another minute, the gunfire ceased and something cold happened to my
stomach. After a curt nod, Superman flew down ten yards and plowed through the
wall.

With the return of gunfire came the horrific scream from within the hangar,
"Nooo!"

My heart gave out momentarily before it began pumping in a frenzy. It wasn't
Bruce, no matter how much it sounded like him. It had to be one of Ra's' men
biting the bullet, certainly it wasn't Bruce no matter how much it had sounded
like him.

As I raced to where Superman had passed into the hangar, I prepared myself for
the worst. What I hadn't prepared for was Superman to collide into me, acting as
my shield while restraining me. I vaguely heard him screaming at me to back down
and my reply had been something filled with colorful language. I managed to push
into the hangar briefly. When we had arrived it had been filled with a wide
array of top of the line aircrafts. I t was nothing but smoke, rubble and flame
with bullets whizzing madly. I looked towards the doorway, spotting an
overturned steel workbench. And behind it, the form of the man I had come to
rescue, sprawled face down on the ground.

I had to see him.

I had to know.

I needed to see he had taken a bullet or two but was okay for the most part. I
needed to hear him critique my plan to save him all the way back to Gotham. I
needed to hear Alfred lecture while he patched Bruce back together, always
claiming it was going to be the last time.

I had to know he wasn't bleeding to death on the old floor of Ra's al Guhl's
lair. I had to know why he chose to stay after being kidnapped and just what the
hell this Ibn meant to him. I had to know I hadn't failed him.

As Superman held me tightly, pushing me out of the hangar, I thought to myself
what I wouldn't have given for access to the K ring right then.

^V^

Next chapter: Tragic Ending