Batman crouched on a rain-soaked rooftop across the street from the now-closed Iceberg Lounge. His deep black cloak was wrapped around his body, enveloping him in darkness. The rain stopped, making him realize how long he'd been up there waiting. He thought about gliding farther down the street to find a better view until he heard footsteps behind him.
Batman instinctively dropped his hand to the smoke bombs in his utility belt and spun around, still wrapped in his cloak.
"It's just me, Bruce." The tall Amazonian superhero had her hands up, her black hair falling down her exposed shoulders.
"What are you doing here, Diana? I'm working." Batman lowered his guard.
"Well it's nice to see you too." Wonder Woman grabbed his arm and gave it a friendly squeeze. She knew Bruce wasn't into hugs or really anything aside from brooding.
"I'm here because we haven't heard from you in the last seventy-two hours. Clark asked me to look for you." She explained.
"Diana, I've been gone longer than that before and none of you worried about me because you knew I was working. You or Clark would have contacted J'onn," Batman said. "Why are you really here?"
Diana sighed and sat in the same spot overlooking the Iceberg Lounge.
"Can't get anything past you." She muttered under her breath.
"You're right. You can't." Batman crouched next to her.
"I'm here because I was worried about you, Bruce." She turned to look into his eyes; even through the cowl and black-eye makeup, she could tell he was dead tired.
"How long have you been awake?" She asked.
"Seventy-two hours."
"Why?"
"I promised Jim I'd stop The Penguin's weapons caches from coming into the city tonight. I tracked down a white van full of his guns and explosives that will be coming here tonight. I'll take down the entire operation at once." Batman explained.
"Bruce, you need to sleep. You're just a human being. How are you supposed to take down an entire room of armed guards and make sure Penguin doesn't hobble out of there?"
"I've taken on worse."
"Of course you have..." Diana squeezed her eyes with her fingers in frustration. "Look what if I help?"
Batman mumbled. He didn't know if his ego was getting in the way or his fear of Diana getting hurt. She wasn't going to get hurt. She'd taken explosions to the face without a scratch and even tanked punches from Darkseid. A room full of goons with guns wouldn't hurt her. He wouldn't let them.
"Fine." He answered.
"Great!" Diana flashed her perfect smile.
"Now we wait." Batman returned to his crouched position.
After about ten minutes, Diana wondered how her gothic team member could hold that pose every night for so long. Sometimes she wondered if Batman was even human. He could've been lying the entire time and actually ended up being a vampire who stole the identity of one of the wealthiest men in the world as a cover-up.
She thought about starting their conversation back up and maybe even asking if he was a vampire until a white van made a sharp left turn, its tires skidding against the rain-soaked streets. Diana grabbed the hilt of her sword as Batman stood up.
"So are we going in or-" She stopped talking after Batman raised his hand.
"I need to see more."
The van stopped in front of two large rusted doors. The goon in the passenger seat got out, knocked twice on the door, and returned to the car. Two large men opened the doors, letting the van in.
"Diana, I'll go in from the roof. I've scouted out the location already, I'll enter the vents and surprise them." Batman explained.
"What will I do?" She asked.
"You wait up here and if anyone tries to run, stop them."
"Really? It doesn't seem like I'll be helping if I hear gunshots and just wait for someone to exit the building." Diana crossed her arms over her chest.
"It'll be fine." Batman then shot his grapple gun onto the roof, zipping away.
"Wow." Diana sat down once again in boredom.
Batman shimmed his way through the building, quietly and carefully as usual. He heard the usual goon babbling as he slid carefully down and across the vents.
"I heard The Bat's out of town tonight." One of them said,
"It's a shame," The other guy sounded like his jaw was wired shut. "One of his little helpers mashed me up bad. I think it was a girl. I'd like to return the favor by fillin' him and the rest of them up with bullets."
The first goon laughed at that statement.
"There's no freaking way. Y'know The Bat is unstoppable right? I've heard from some of the guys stationed in Bludhaven that he's a vampire, but I don't know. The only reason we even made it here is because he's gone tonight."
Batman was right above the mouthy criminals as they continued to rattle off the many myths about him. They both had M-16s in their hands and combat knives in their boots.
"Oi! You two! Stop prattling about Batman," Penguin hobbled down the hallway. "Get ready to kill em'! Watch the vents too; he likes to hide in em'."
If Batman had a dollar for every time he'd been told he would die, he'd be more prosperous than he already was. He took two deep breaths before kicking the vent door open with full force, knocking it into both men's shoulders. He came down quick enough so they couldn't react in time and grabbed their heads, slamming them together with enough force to knock them both out cold.
Batman knew how to pull his punches regarding head strikes, especially involving headbutts. He looked at the assault rifles and knew they couldn't pierce his suit. At least anything aside from his chin. He walked down the hallway towards the main door, where he saw The Penguin giving a grand speech with his broad back facing the door.
"Men, we'll be rich by the end of the night!" The crowd of goons erupted into cheers.
There were at least thirty guys, twelve armed with knives, machetes, baseball bats, and guns. The ones who weren't armed were sitting atop or standing by crates full of explosives. Explosives would go off instantly if one of the goons couldn't handle the assault rifle they were given or if they were just suicidal. Batman had to think.
The room was spacious enough to move the men away from the crates, but Penguin had to be taken in. Cobblepot couldn't get away like he'd done when he assigned Batgirl to stop him a few weeks before while he was out of town with the Justice League. She'd gotten hurt because, apparently, Two-Face was quicker with a switchblade than he was with a submachine gun. He still had no idea how Barbara convinced Jim that the cuts on her arms were from a car accident.
Batman finally thought of a plan despite his worrying about Barbara. He would kick the door open and use Penguin as a human shield. The chances of Penguin's men shooting their own boss were low but not impossible, so he had to keep his eyes on the men with rifles. Then he'd use his three remaining freeze grenades to take care of the explosives with his one free arm. Like he told Wonder Woman, he'd taken on worse.
Even if the shooting started, he'd handle it. Batman kicked the door down, interrupting Penguin and his goons. In a blur, he spun the stocky criminal around by his shoulders and lifted him off the ground by the collar of his stained dress shirt. Batman had an iron grip using only his left hand, and his right hand was preparing his freeze grenade. His eyes trained on the three men holding the rifles. The other stood behind in shock.
"What the hell are you waitin' for! Shoot im'!" Penguin shouted. Batman chucked the first freeze grenade at the crate nearest to the door.
"Well we don't want to hit you boss!" The first thug shouted.
"Y-Yeah we didn't even know he was goin' to be here!" The second one explained.
Batman strategically threw the next freeze grenade over the group hitting the second crate. He then heard the click of one of the goons' jammed rifles. He threw Cobblepot at the three men and quickly dropped a smoke bomb. Batman slid across the room away from the smoke and kicked one of the thugs in the ankle, incapacitating them.
The bullets began to fly off randomly into the air. Batman prepared the last freeze grenade until he was charged by two men. One with a bat and one with a knife. Batman parried their uncoordinated attacks with his forearms pushing their weapons up before dropping his hands and punching them square in the gut, sending them to the floor.
Batman finally threw the last freeze grenade into the crate, stopping all explosives in the room. He chucked two Batarangs at the goons with assault rifles knocking the guns out of their hands. He saw the Penguin scrambling towards the exit to the left side of the room. One well-placed shot from his grapple gun to Penguin's shoulder stopped him and knocked him to the floor. Three men came at him with knives, and although he usually could handle that, the third man was quicker than he thought.
The goon plunged the knife deep into his left shoulder before Batman headbutted him hard. He then kicked the knife out of the second man's hand, nearly breaking his wrist, and back-elbowed the third man in the nose. Batman pulled the blade out of his shoulder with a grunt. The lack of sleep finally got to him because he nearly fell.
Batman was then blindsided by the full force of one of the remaining men's baseball bats slamming into his right shoulder. The man swung again, hitting harder and lower towards his tricep. Batman fell to his knees, and as his vision blurred, he noticed that Penguin and the rest of his cronies were gone; it was just him and the heavy hitter.
"Say goodnight freak!"
The next hit was right on the temple. Nearly knocking Batman unconscious until a loud crash woke him up. It was the entire wall coming down from Wonder Woman's kick. The now cold Penguin was thrown to the floor like trash with a large welt over his left eyebrow. Diana kicked the goon across the room towards the destroyed wall until she snatched him up with her Lasso of Truth and yanked him back down.
"I'll ask you this one time," Wonder Woman snarled. "Where are the weapons?"
"Th-There underneath the floorboards...." The goon creaked.
"Good." Diana unraveled the lasso and let him fall to the floor. She turned to see Batman barely standing, holding onto his shoulder.
"Bruce." She tried to wrap her arms around him to let him up, but Batman pushed her away.
"There has to be a secret door knob on one of these-"
Diana walked to the center of the room, pushing one of the thugs out of the way, and stomped down hard, breaking the floor to bits and revealing boxes of weapons. Batman took a shot of adrenaline to stay on his feet for the rest of the night. He pulled his earpiece out from one of the many pockets of his suit and called his butler.
"Alfred send in the Batmobile." Batman said through shaky breaths.
"Will do, but I must ask, are you alright, Master Bruce?"
"I'm fine Alfred. I'm taking Penguin to GCPD."
"Well done sir, the Batmobile is on its way." Alfred said. Batman hung up.
"You're not fine. Listen Bruce I'll take the little goober to the police you stay here and rest." Diana explained.
"No. They don't know who you are." Batman was preparing his destabilizer.
