Divide and Conquer. That was your (current) battle plan. Together they’re unstoppable, a well-oiled killing machine, but separate, you can endure their strengths, and exploit their weaknesses. It didn’t take Mr. Terrific to know that. And seeing how you were surrounded by three of the main powerhouses of the Secret Society, it wasn’t that far of a stretch.
But first, you had to take out the crow’s nest.
“What’s wrong, Bat-freak? Not so cocky without Big Blue and your other Super-Friends, huh?” came Volcana’s taunting sneer, jolting you back to a tension-layered reality.
Slightly moving your arms to the side, a strategic push into a pressure point in your glove injected a spare gas pellet into your waiting palm.
“Yes, it appears that Volcana’s arrogance isn’t as antiquated as it usually is,” Sapphire smirked, crossing her arms as Volcana initially beamed in appreciation, before a realized scowl adorned her face.
“Enough of this banter. You’re clearly outnumbered, little man, and by the looks of it, hilariously outgunned. Why not be a good little boy and just give up; at least that way we won’t have to sweep your insides off the floor?” Cheetah sneered viciously, wiggling her clawed fingertails eagerly.
Your eyes narrowed as you broke into a defensive stance. “Funny, these seem like pretty good odds for me.”
With that, you hurled the smoke pellet down below, instantly encasing yourself in an impromptu thick white cloud, one that discombobulated your smug adversaries.
Cheetah’s feral snarl bounced off of every corner of the warehouse, seconded only by an irritable growl from the Sapphire Queen herself. But none was more vocal, or perhaps juvenile than Volcana’s reaction.
“How does he keep doing this?” she groaned, inadvertently giving away her entire position to you.
Spinning back on your heel, you brandished your grapple hook right in front of Volcana’s silhouette, a forearm covering her eyes. Oblivious to this, she was actually blindly swaying towards you when you pulled the trigger.
“Oomph!” That was the only sound she could muster as the metallic hook drove into her stomach like a torpedo, knocking her off her feet and into the air within seconds of impact. Her slender body instantly folded underneath the hook as it propelled her through a web of rusted pipes hanging in between two generators.Her boots were the last thing to disappear into the pitch darkness as the hook slid back towards you. As the hook retracted back into your muzzle, you quickly pocketed the grapple gun, only for a familiar sound to enter your soundwaves.
“RAAWWRR!”
You raised your closest steel gauntlet just in time to block the downward slash, one that would’ve sliced through your cowl and into your flesh had it just been an inch closer. Now twisting your body towards her, you only had enough time to shield your face before she suddenly pounced on you.
Her toned thighs suddenly wrapped around your neck in an improvised headscissors, her ankles crossing behind you to tighten the hold. Your eyes widened as she continued to press the hold. Her teeth glistened in a feral smile as she raised a single clawed hand, preparing to slash your throat.
Thankfully, your instincts pumped a welcome dose of adrenaline into your bulging forearms, giving you just enough time to respond to her attack.
Your hand expertly grabbed her wrist just in time, preventing her from dealing a potentially fatal blow. Her hubris now turned to horror, she tried wrenching away, but you held firm, before rearing back a fist of her own.
Before she could react, you struck her clean across the face in a right cross, snapping her head back in a dazed stupor. Her thighs relaxed around your shoulders as she began her descent, but she wasn’t going down alone.
You grunted as her prehensile throat suddenly wrapped around your throatplate, keeping you anchored to her. To complete the transition move, she barely managed to wrap her ankles around your neck as well.
Lurching forward, you suddenly flipped a complete 180 just as Cheetah did, the feline fury somehow garnering enough strength to lift you off your feet and to the feet. Curving off to the right, the former explorer landed on her elbows and knees while her forward momentum as well as her tail sent you spiraling to the floor, your lower back taking the brunt of the fall.
Rolling to your feet, you just had time to fling a Batarang towards the equally standing Cheetah, who flicked it aside like a tennis ball. The projectile instead lodged itself into the wall as Cheetah came into point-break range.
You shifted back as she clawed the air you had knelt on, jumping back an entire flight of stairs as you entered the main generator room. Dozens of machinery and conduits lined your left and right, as Cheetah descended the stairs as well, swaying her hips seductively as her tail wagged behind her.
“Nowhere to run, darling,” she purred, wearing a predatory grin on her face while subsequently scraping her razor sharp claws against the metal railing, eliciting an ear-scratching screech in an attempt to intimidate you.Narrowing your eyes, you quickly unclipped a Batarang, snapping it out much to her utter chagrin.
“You never learn, do you?” she groaned inwardly, before unleashing her claws and lunging towards you.
The Batarang hurled towards her just as she reached you, and indicative of her usual athletic athletics, the villainess swiveled a complete 360 on her front heel just as the Batarang came within her vicinity. Barely dodging the projectile, she reared towards you with a brutal back spinning heel kick one that would’ve reduced your brain matter to mush had it connected.
Thankfully, you ducked and jumped back, causing her kick to go awry and instead penetrate the surface of an old generator, her heel managing to dent the metal by a whole inch!
Gritting her teeth irritably, she withdrew her leg before lunging at you yet again. Her saliva drooled from her chin as she reared an open hand back before swiping towards you, barely avoiding your chest Kevlar.
Rearing another forearm back, she launched another nonstop barrage at you, composed of mainly slashes and quick roundhouses, none of those actually connected. But Cheetah was succeeding in driving you back, and thus keeping you on the defensive, unable to parry or counter her blows.
Finally, as you backed up against a brick wall, briefly fingering the surface behind you, Cheetah interpreted this as an opening, and blindly lunged in for the kill.
Three of her sharpest claws dug deep inside the wall, coincidently circling around a peculiar-looking device planted by yours truly.
She only had time to cock her head, puzzled, before the device exploded in a blinding searing light, one that staggered the mystical powerhouse back immediately.
“Ugghhh,” she groaned as the impromptu flashbang grenade took its toll on her vision, blinding her to your rebuttal.
With a cry, you punched her across the mouth in a staggering right hook, sending her back a step or two. Just as she started to crane her head forward, you dented her lower jaw with a crucial uppercut, before finishing with a momentous backhand to the cheekbone, knocking her to the ground.
The groggy Cheetah tumbled to the ground in a dazed heap, landing on her neck before rolling on her stomach.
Cracking your knuckles, you started to approach the feline fury while reaching for your handcuffs before a metallic step to the left caught your attention and snapped you back to action.
You barely had time to throw yourself to the floor before a fireball suddenly incinerated the wall, completely plowing through it and leaving only rusted rebar and debris in its wake. Rolling up on bended knee, you snapped out a Batarang only to come face-to-face with Volcana.
Leaning against the railing seductively with a hip cocked, she flexed her fingers out eagerly, before another fireball materialized in her open palm, lighting up her insane expression.
“You’re not getting rid of me that easily, Batman,” she purred, before hurling another fireball your way.
Your eyes widened as the fiery projectile headed your way, but thanks to sheer instinct, you were able to roll to the right and barely avoid burning to a crisp. Rolling to your feet, you hurled a Batarang her way, only for her to merely gesture towards it with her palm and for a small flame in incinerate it in mid-air.
“You know, for some nut dressed in a bat costume, you sure are repetitive,” she teased, before unleashing a giant fiery beam your way with her forearm. Dropping down to all fours was the only way to safely avoid another burning execution, simply letting the beam pass overhead.
"But then again, Super-Wimp could never really shake off his whole 'Boy Scout' routine," she mused aloud.
Reaching into your utility belt, you hurled a trio of miniature gas pellets her way. They soon exploded, forming a dense smoke scream that brought you enough time to fit an extra brass knuckle around your left hand.
Focusing in, you could see her silhouette still coughing and leaning against the stair railing for support.
"Of course, if she couldn't see the smoke, then she definitely won't see this coming," you thought to yourself confidently, before disappearing into the smoke cloud as well.
Lunging in at her vulnerable state, you aimed a pretty hard left hook her direction, only to be caught in your own trap.
Just as the fist was about to connect, Volcana suddenly righted herself and caught your punch in mid-air with an open palm blocking your closed fist. Your eyes widened as she easily burned through the metal with her palm, the now molten material dripping over your glove as she smiled back at you.
"My turn," came her sultry purr, before she reared back her other hand. Instantly, a mane of fire accumulated around her wrist and hand, completely engulfing her gloved hand.
With that, she unleashed a punch of her own, absolutely winding you while launching you through a web of rusted pipes, and to the floor below.
An audible grunt escaped your lips as you rolled over on your sides. Wincing painfully, you began rising up on one knee, only to glimpse a sudden torrent of electricity circling around a pipeline, before suddenly slamming into you.