Harley Quinn Romance 2

Chapter 05: True Intent

Lunging in, Batman drove his knee into Deathstroke's midsection, doubling him over. While Deathstroke tried to catch his breath, Batman kicked the gun from his foe's hand. The firearm clattered against the pavement as it tumbled away.

A click of a handgun slide being pulled back was Batman's only warning as Deadshot pulled out yet another gun and chambered a round. Leaving Deathstroke behind, Batman dived into the cloud of smoke for cover.

"Go on, keep hiding," Deadshot taunted. "Your smoke can't last forever. When it's gone, so are you!"

"Why waste time?" Deathstroke asked while standing up. He removed a grenade from one of his pockets, pulled the pin, and hurled the explosive into the smoke cloud.

The front of the warehouse was consumed in flames as the grenade went off. The windows outside of the blast radius were still shattered by the expanding air pressure caused by the explosion. The air pressure also pushed aside the smoke cloud, clearing the immediate area. Deadshot entered the warehouse first while Deathstroke took a rifle from behind a crate where he'd stashed it earlier in preparation for the battle with Batman. Looking through the scope with low light amplification, Deathstroke searched for his prey while Deadshot acted as bait.

"Come on out, Batman!" Deadshot yelled. "Aren't you man enough to face us? I thought you were supposed to be tough. You ain't nothing!"

Deadshot moved further into the warehouse, stepping around old boxes, rusty metal shelves, and dusty pallets. In order to keep Deadshot in sight and fire on Batman when he showed up, Deathstroke was forced to abandon his position by the door and follow Deadshot inside.

Harley couldn't see what was going on from the edge of the roof, so she moved over to one of the warehouse skylights, looking down on the happenings below. Too many shadows lingered in the darkened interior for her to see much of anything. The beam of Deadshot's eyepiece gave away his position, and the bright orange on half of Deathstroke's mask was clearly visible, but she couldn't find the Bat. When she finally did, it was too late to do anything about it.

Batman was crouched on one of the roof girders, his cape draped around him in a sheltering cocoon. When he spread his cape, Batman stepped off the metal roof support and swooped downward to kick Deathstroke sideways into the wall of the warehouse. No sooner had the attack been made, Batman wrapped his cape around himself and stepped backwards into the shadows, vanishing from sight.

Deadshot ran over to where he'd heard the commotion, but didn't find any sign of Batman except Deathstroke being on the ground. The assassin looked around, his glowing red eyepiece scanning the area. On the next aisle, Deadshot spotted a cargo gantry. The crane style device was loaded with wooden crates near the ceiling. Mounted on mechanized rollers, the gantry could move cargo from one end of the warehouse to the other with ease. Although it made a prime sniper position, Deadshot put it to another use.

Firing a single bullet toward the wall of the warehouse, Deadshot ricocheted it around the corner of the shelving to hit the chain holding the gantry's cargo. The chain broke, spilling the crates to the floor of the warehouse in a tremendous crash and plume of dust. Batman, who'd been hiding nearby dived out of the aisle to avoid being crushed by the falling debris. It was the perfect opportunity Deadshot needed.

Bullets chased after Batman, tearing into the warehouse and all its contents. The high velocity rounds smashed wooden crates and pallets to pieces in explosions of splinters. Batman jumped over crates and slid under metal shelves with the skills of ninja, bullets impacting all around him. Despite Batman's skill in evasion, Deadshot's aim was flawless, and every round fired came closer to being lethal. Batman managed to fling a pair of batarangs at the assassin. Not hidden by a cloud of smoke, Deadshot easily saw the projectiles coming and shot them out of the air, but it did give Batman the few seconds he needed to evade the deadly stream of bullets.