Harley Quinn Romance 2

Chapter 05: True Intent

As if Batman knew the attack was coming, he turned at the perfect moment, deflecting Deathstroke's sword with the two spikes jutting backward from the outside of Batman's forearm. Spinning around, Batman twisted the sword out of Deathstroke's grip and flung it aside.

Deathstroke ignored the weapon and launched into a flurry of hand to hand attacks. A right handed punch to Batman's face was easily sidestepped, but Deathstroke followed it with a kick from his left leg. Batman used his forearm to deflect the strike before counterattacking. Because Deathstroke was balanced on one leg to perform his kick, he was instantly unbalanced when Batman smashed his boot into Deathstroke's ankle, dropping the assassin to his back.

Rolling to his feet, Deathstroke drew one of the pistols holstered at his hip. Batman was still in arm's reach and grabbed the weapon with both hands, fingers curling around the back of the gun to prevent the hammer from moving. A firm twist by Batman, forced Deathstroke to release the weapon or suffer a broken wrist, and the moment the gun was only in Batman's hands, the masked hero pulled the slide back and off, tossing the two pieces of the neutralized weapon in opposite directions.

Deathstroke was hardly ready to give up and continued the fight by lunging forward with a right hand punch to Batman's midsection. Batman brought both his hands down, crossing them at the wrists, to catch Deathstroke's forearm between them and redirect the attack down and away. Deathstroke spun, taking a knife from his belt as he turned. When his right hand came back toward Batman's face, the gleaming edge of a knife proceeded it.

As he had done with Deathstroke's sword earlier, Batman used his forearm spikes to snare the blade and hold it long enough for him to take hold of the knife with other set of forearm spikes as well. Pulling in opposite directions, Batman snapped the blade in two, leaving Deathstroke holding just the handle grip.

Deathstroke backflipped to put some distance between himself and Batman, drawing out a pair of pistols in mid-air. When he landed, Deathstroke fired where Batman had been, but Batman was no longer there. The assassin looked for his prey, but the smoke cloud, previously centered only on the entrance of the warehouse, was spreading out and making it more difficult to see.

Deadshot groaned as he got back to his feet, causing Deathstroke to aim his weapons in the direction of the noise before he noticed the intended target wasn't Batman.

"Where is he?" Deathstroke whispered.

"Here," Batman said as he stepped out of the smoke cloud behind Deathstroke.

Deathstroke tried to bring his guns to bear, but Batman grabbed Deathstroke's left wrist and smashed a fist down on the joint to loosen the grip and force Deathstroke to drop the weapon he held. Maintaining a hold on the assassin's wrist, Batman spun around his opponent in a swirl of his long cape to get behind him once more. While pulling back on the wrist, Batman delivered a forearm blow to Deathstroke's shoulder. The combination of forces flipped Deathstroke over to land on his back once more.

Batman took a batarang in each hand and turned away from Deathstroke long enough to hurl the metal projectiles at Deadshot. The razor edged pieces of metal sliced past Deadshot's raised arms, cutting through the leather straps holding his arm mounted guns to his person. When the assassin fired in an attempt to kill Batman, the recoil tore the weapons from his arms and flung them away into the darkness.

Batman had already rolled to the side to avoid the incoming bullets, so the wild shots were nowhere close to life threatening. Coming back to his feet, Batman threw another batarang, but this one was aimed at Deathstroke, hitting hard enough to deflect the aim of the handgun he still held. In the temporary moment Batman had before Deathstroke could adjust his aim, he attacked.