DC Genesis

"A friend, huh?" Batgirl looked past him towards the pier, then back at him. "Look, you don't need to worry. I'm not here alone, and we're going to break up this operation. We've been planning for it for days now. But I can't allow two unarmed civilians to just go waltzing into this, I don't care what kind of hocus pocus disappearing act you have. Neither of you are dressed for the occasion, and, even if you were, I know Batman wouldn't let you anyway. Just stand clear and let us handle it, alright?"

Rose shook her head. "Uh uh, no way. I'm not letting you bat assholes push us to the curb and say you'll handle it. I'm just supposed to trust you? I don't even know you. As far as I'm concerned, you'll fuck it all up on your own. The only one I trust to do this job is me." She paused a moment, then glanced back at Neal. "And him."

"Look, I get it," Batgirl said. "You're worried about your friend. I don't blame you. But I'll say it again: you're civilians. You don't know what you're getting yourself into here, and we're no going to be liable for anything that happens to you. We can't be trying to keep you both safe while doing this job."

"We're civilians, huh?" Rose said, lifting an eyebrow. "Then what does that make you?"

"The one wearing bulletproof equipment and armed with tools meant to handle these kinds of situations."

Rose scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Whatever." She then turned and started to walk back towards the pier, but as she did Batgirl pulled out a grapnel gun and fired. The metal claw wrapped around Rose's arm and pulled her back a bit.

"I can't let you do that," Batgirl said.

"Oh, you did not just..." Rose muttered. Then, with a forceful tug, she pulled Batgirl forward off her feet. "Guess we'll just have to deal with you first."

Neal glanced over at Rose as she mentioned that she actually trusted him to take care of this situation. Well, at least she trusted that he could handle himself now. He supposed that was natural considering the fight that he had been a part of. Also, it was amazing how your confidence in someone seemed to rise up when you learned that your friend had strange magical powers. Coincidence? Doubtful.

As the conversation between Batgirl and Rose escalated, Neal just wanted them to work together. They weren't each other's enemies here after all. They all wanted the same thing, yet it seemed like no one was willing to work together. He understood Batgirl's concern, but they had just as much right as Batman and crew did to get involved. They were allowed to try to save their own friend.

However, it was when Batgirl and Rose actually moved to blows that Neal's concern really began to grow. "Woah woah woah!" Neal said as he saw Rose pulling Batgirl off of her feet. "Come on people we're on the same team here. There's no need for this," Neal said as he looked at the two girls. He wanted them to work together...

But Rose knew that if Batgirl continued, he would have Rose's back in an instant.

Of course, neither person was listening to Neal's pleas at the moment. No, the moment that Rose pulled Batgirl off her feet, everything else was forgotten except for the immediate confrontation. Batgirl didn't know exactly who she was dealing with here, but with the astounding strength with which she had been pulled clean through the air, she knew it was no one normal. It was because of that reason she went into defensive mode, shutting down most of her emotions and drawing back into a more combative state. She spun her body around in mid air on her way towards rose, swinging her leg around in a high arcing kick.

Rose saw the attack coming fairly easy, spinning around out of the way while never letting go of the grapnel line attached to her arm. Instead, she forced Batgirl to let go of it, then swung it around like a ball and chain. Batgirl ducked below the attack and whipped out a batarang from her utility belt, which Rose just as easily dodged. When the batarang hi the ground, however, it exploded and released a heavy smoke that covered the area.

"Come on out, Bat-btich!" Rose called, taking a few steps backwards.

Well, this wasn't going anything like what Neal had planned. The two women just went to attacking and trying to kill each other. How lovely. Neal could only watch as each girl continued to put their best effort, with Neal watching from the side lines. At first it just seemed to be a confrontation, but Neal decided to step in when Batgirl threw a batarang that had exploded in to a bit of smoke screen. Rose wasn't going to stand much chance if Batgirl had anything stronger, they needed to gain an upper hand.

As much as Neal really didn't want to fight one of the Bat family, he didn't have much other choice right now. As Batgirl moved forward towards Rose, who was starting to move back, Neal quickly stretched his mind in order to make contact with Rose's. He felt it and how it was familiar, considering he had been using his illusions around and on her before. Batgirl may have goggles that allowed her to see them, but as far as Neal knew she had nothing that would protect her ears.

"Rose, you can only hear me in your mind so don't say anything. I'm going to make a distraction, but get ready to just run in when you hear the next sounds," Neal said to Rose's mind before stretching his brain to get both Bargirl and Rose at the same time. It was at this point that the gunshot and the sound of Neal yelling would be heard. Hopefully Rose would get the signal, while Batgirl turned her attention to deal with the perceived new threat.

Well, at least Neal knew how to think fast under pressure. Though she couldn't respond to him, she got the message and was already set to attack when the distraction went off. Slinking back into the smoke, she watched and waited.

Once the fake gunshot split the air, Batgirl immediately turned her attention to the sounds of Neal screaming. "Shit!" she said, running towards him. "Nightwing, can you hear me? We have a shot fired. One of those kids was just hit!"

"What are you talking about, B?" came Nightwing's voice over her radio. "We didn't hear anything."

"What you mean you didn't hear anything? There was a- whaa!" Suddenly, Rose sprang through the smoke and tackled her to the ground, pinning her down with a vice grip. "Damn it, let go!"

"Right, let go the bitch trying to attack us," Rose muttered." Because that's gonna to happen."

Batgirl struggled momentarily, swinging her legs up from the ground and wrapping them around Rose's neck to yank her off. "I'm trying to keep you two from getting yourselves killed!"

Rose sprang back up a second later and once again lunged at the woman. "I told you, we don't need your help! Or your permission!" Batgirl got a solid punch into Rose's ribs, but that's because she wasn't trying to dodge. Rather, Rose made a grab for the goggles on the woman's face, ripping them off and throwing them away. Instantly, she and Neal would vanish to her. "Neal, let's go!"

Neal just smiled to himself as his plan seemed to work perfectly. Since Rose and Neal had moved away from him, it was Batgirl that was closest to him. This allowed for Neal to listen as she made a call in to someone while mentioning that she had heard Neal get shot. He almost felt bad since her first concern was about him, but he really needed this fight to end. They weren't getting anywhere by fighting amongst themselves after all.

Neal watched as Rose did her work, tackling and attacking Batgirl before eventually maneuvering in able to knock the glasses from her head. Good, now she wouldn't have that thermal visioning that would let her see them. "Relax I'm already on it," Neal said as he cast the invisibility around Neal and Rose so that they were no longer visible to the human eye.

However, before Neal left he ran over and snatched up Batgirl's goggles. If she got them back on she could easily catch up and chase them down. Might as well avoid that from happening. Neal kept his voice down and ran after Rose, trying to catch up to her.

"Well, that was annoying," Rose muttered, as she and Neal fled from the scene with Batgirl. Finally, they were on their own and would be able to continue their little rescue mission in peace. Well, hopefully, anyway. "Let's get to the top of that warehouse over there." She pointed to the side of the building, where a set of metal stairs led all the way to the roof. "We should be able to scope out the area and start taking out the men we can without alerting anybody."

---

"Damn it," Batgirl muttered, as she pushed herself back to her feet.

"Batgirl, what happened?" Batman asked, his voice echoing in her ear.

"They got away," she said.

Batman's voice paused briefly before answering. "...you were supposed to take care of them."

"Well I wasn't trying to actually hurt them!" she replied. "And there's something weird about them. I think the girl is some kind of meta. She was freakishly strong. And the guy made me hear things that didn't happen. Some kind hypnotic suggestion, maybe?"

"Possible," he said. "Alright, forget them for now. Get into position as planned. Nightwing will join you shortly. As for those two... leave them alone. Let them do whatever they're going to do. Maybe they'll draw out who we're looking for."

Batgirl lifted an eyebrow. "You're going to use them as bait?"

"Relax, I'll be watching them closely."

"Yeah, I figured she would back down after a little bit. We have just as much right to be here as she does," Neal remarked as they continued to move away from the scene. He glanced behind him and didn't see anyone in sight, so at least that was some good news, she hadn't found another way to find them, yet. At Rose's suggestion Neal gave a quick nod. "Alright, but just stay quiet. We may be invisible but I can't muffle all the sound we're making at the same time," Neal remarked as he began to climb up the stairs that Rose had pointed out.

Soon after they got up top, Neal scanned around the area. "You see anyone that looks vulnerable?"

"Sure, I see a few," Rose said, examining the setup of the guys below. She saw quite a few men with automatic weapons patrolling the pier, while some others were loading shipping containers on a cargo ship... she'd bet her life that the girls were inside them. They just had to stop these guys and free the girls before they finished loading. Once the ship left, it was game over. "Just keep me invisible."

Then, Rose jumped off the roof and landed below in a low crouch just behind one of the patrolling goons. The man turned a bit when he heard the sound of her landing, but he saw nothing. Still, he gave a long look, as if expecting something to suddenly materialize out of thin air. Unfortunately, the only thing he got for his suspicion was a hard shot to the neck that knocked him unconscious instantly.

"Alright, I'm gonna work from the top down," she said, looking back up at him. He should have been able to just barely hear her, as she was keeping her voice down. "I'll take out the ones on the upper level, then get the ones down by the ship."

---

"Well... this is interesting." A man in a dark suit leaned back in the chair, in the middle of the pier office near the upper levels. He was currently watching a screen in front of him that displayed the security footage of all the cameras around the pier. On one particular screen, he got a clear look at some strange girl dragging the unconscious bodies of one of his underlings out of view. "Tell me what you there."

Another armed goon behind him leaned forward to take a look at the screen. "Uh... an intruder?"

"That's right," the man replied. "Now look out the window and tell me what you see."

Looking out the window of the office, which happened to be the area that Rose had jumped down to earlier, he saw nothing. "She's... not there."

"Yes... someone is messing with us," the man explained. "Check it out."

"Right," the guy said, arming his gun and heading out the door. "I'm on it, Mr. Sionis."

Neal watched with quick accuracy as Rose moved down and defeated the guard just beneath them immediately. This was a good start at the very least. One down, and there was no telling how many were left. Still, if they could take this guy out easily than they would likely be able to do it with everyone else as well.

Neal soon moved down as well, landing quietly by Rose. "I can't let you do this alone, I can help Rose. I can do more than just keep you invisible and hide," he insisted as he looked at her. "Come on we came here together and I'm going to help if I'm here," Neal insisted. "I already helped take out Batgirl after all," he pointed out.

"You just lead the way and I'll follow, I'll help and do whatever I can."

"If you say so," Rose said, with a small shrug. It might actually be nice to have a little back up, actually, now that she thought of it. "Just stick close and try to be quiet for now." Once they were clear, she started leading them farther down the pier, only to stop when she noticed someone coming out of a nearby office, it looked like. She gave Neal a silent gesture, indicating that they would take him out first. As they walked over to him, however, he lifted his uzi and pointed it at them.

"That's it," a voice announced over a speaker. "They're right in front of you."

It was at that moment that a flicker of precog went through Rose's head, showing her both her own and Neal's horrible deaths, being torn apart by a hail of bullets. Only problem was, there was no where for them to go. They wouldn't be able to get away.

"Oh... fuck," she uttered, feeling her heart sink into her chest. A moment later, the guy open fired.

"I insist," Neal said again in order to make sure that Rose understood that he really did want to help. He didn't want to just sit in the back while Rose did all of the work. He wasn't as good of a fighter as she was, but at least he would be another body to help her. Besides, his illusions could only last so far away, it was harder to concentrate on a target that was far away. "Righto, I'll be right behind you," Neal said as he began to go with Rose.

As they moved though it was only in time to see to see a man walking out of an office. Before they moved over to take him down though, he lifted up his gun and a voice over the intercom told him to fire. Neal's eyes shot up for a moment as a camera came in to view. "Shit," he muttered before looking forward. His heart also sank as the man began to fire.

Neal could only create illusions, he had nothing to protect himself from bullets.

A dark shadow suddenly descended from above, landing between them and wrapping a heavy cape around them. Bullets ricocheted off the surprisingly bulletproof material, rendering both Rose and Neal unharmed. The henchman continued to fire until he emptied his clip, then stared forward with a dumb look and eyes wide.

"Uh..." he said, taking a step forward.

"You two... shouldn't be here," Batman said, suddenly pulling the cap back from around them and stepping front of them. "Leave, now."

The voice on the intercom came again. "Damn it! The Bat freaks are here! Everyone respond!"

A short moment later, a giant smoke bomb went off on the other end of the pier, as two figures descended into it: Batgirl and Nightwing. They would be occupying the other henchmen.

Meanwhile, the one in front of them was scrambling to reload his gun, but Batman didn't let him get very far. The Dark Knight ran forward and leaped in with a hard kick to the guy's jaw, putting him down.

"Bat bastards..." Rose muttered, folding her arms over her chest in frustration.

Before the bullets ripped the flesh from Neal and Rose's bones, someone decided to leap down and intervene. A cape was wrapped around both Neal and Rose, allowing the bullets to not even come close to hurting them. Neal just stood there with a stunned expression on his face, still not believing that they had been saved. IT was only when the figure revealed himself that Neal recognized the face.

"Batman," he said before Nightwing and Batgirl showed up and went on the offensive. Apparently they were here for the same reason that Neal and Rose were. But how had they known? Neal didn't have time for that, as he realized that the stealth part of this mission had been blown.

Neal quickly turned to Rose. "Come on, we should get out of here. They can handle this Rose."

"Like hell," Rose said, suddenly taking off in a sprint towards the cargo ship. No way she was going to let these stupid BDSM wearing freaks upstage her. Not going to happen. They had come here for a reason and she wasn't going to leave until she had succeeded.

"Hey!" Batman called, turning to the fleeing Rose. "Stop before you get yourself killed!"

But she didn't listen, instead leaping forward and two approaching henchmen and taking them out with vicious kicks. She excelled when she wasn't trying to be stealthy, when she could just charge in and give no quarter. So that's exactly what she did, fighting her way the ramp onto the ship, and she wasn't going to let a damn person stop her.

Batman wanted to stop her, but he didn't get a chance, as he was suddenly swarmed by a group of thugs. He used a combination of smoke, batarangs, and good old fashioned martial arts to take them out. Poor bastards never had a chance.

"And of course you disagree," Neal said more to himself than anyone else as Rose took off at a sprint. Apparently their cover had been blown, but she wasn't going to let that stop her. She was running right for the cargo ship where Selina and the other girls were. Neal debated for only a second before starting to sprint after her, despite Batman's orders to stop.

He continued on, helping to make Rose invisible as she charged at the two men in front of her. "Don't worry Rose I'm coming, I got your back," Neal said as he kept running to try and catch up. If any other men showed up, Neal did what he could to make their vision pure black, which would stop them from getting anything close to an accurate shot.

Well... it seemed to work well enough. Rose wasn't fucking around anymore, as she completely tore through any an all opposition. Within a matter of minutes, she had cleared out everone on the ship. Once all the henchmen were unconscious, she started running towards the chipping containers, and, with super strength kicks, broke the locks on all five of them, allowing them to open up. Sure enough, inside were dozens of young girls, all tied up in chains.

"Fucking bastards..." she muttered, moving forward to break the chains off the girls. "It's alright, we're getting you all out of here.

Meanwhile, in one of the containers that Neal would be going through at this time, he would find Selina as one of the prisoners within. "Neal? What the hell are you doing here?" she asked, lifting her eyebrows in surprise.

Neal continued to help Rose in whatever way he could. For every ten thugs she took down though, Neal probably only got one himself. She really was a lot better at this kind of thing than he was. Still, he wasn't going to complain since he was the one stopping the enemy from just unleashing bullet after bullet at them. It wasn't long before Rose took out the last of them.

Rose soon broke the locks off of all of the containers, allowing them to get entrance to see the girls. Neal moved in to one of them, looking around at the scared girls. "Stay calm everyone, we're here to get you out of here," he said before opening the doors more to show that they had taken out the armed men.

At the sound of a familiar voice, Neal quickly turned his attention to Selina. "Ah Selina! Good we were looking for you," he said before turning outside. "Rose! Selina's in here!" he shouted. He knew that she would want to know, and he'd have to wait for her to break the chains. Neal could try....but it would just look embarrassing. After that he turned his attention back to Selina. "We found Holly and she told us what happened, so we came right over to get you out...sorry if we're ruining another undercover plan," he said in a light teasing tone.

"No, no... your assistance is much appreciated this time around," Selina muttered, with a slight chuckle.

Rose appeared a moment later, running into the last shipping container and breaking the chains off the girls. "Glad we found you," she said to Selina."Would have been a shame to lose a piece of ass that fine."

Selina laughed, rubbing her sore wrists. "And nice to see you, too..."

"Alright, now let's get out of-"

BOOOM.

Suddenly, the front end of the ship exploded, along with a series of successive blasts that took out half the pier. Within seconds, the entire west end of the docks was up in flames.

"Um... I doubt that's good," Rose muttered. "Alright, come on, everybody go!" Another explosion rocked the pier. "Before this whole place goes up in smoke!"

"Good, cause if you told me I shouldn't have come I was gonna turn around and leave," Neal said before turning and watching Rose come in. He allowed her to do the talking at this point, not wanting to interrupt the conversation that they were having. He knew that Selina was Rose's favorite stripper after all, so he was certain that Rose wanted this time to talk.

Neal was about to turn and leave when the explosions began to go off. "The hell?" Neal asked before more began going off and he could begin to see the damage that was going down. "Come on now everybody up and out!" Neal shouted as he helped some of the girls get up and leave. They needed to get out of here before there was nothing left but ash.

"Did you free all of the others?" Neal asked as he tried to move and keep his balance on the ship that was now half gone.

"Yeah, we're all good to go," Rose said, as all the girls were now free and ready to leave. "Let's go, people!" She then started sprinting back down the ramp leading off the ship down to the burning dock. There was just barely enough clear space to get back to the area that hadn't been hit yet by an explosion, and navigating the flames was a bitch and a half. And hot... really, very hot.

"All the girls first!" Rose shouted, waving them along in front. She didn't try to flee to safety until all the others were out of harms way. Only then did she push Neal along and start sprinting forward. "Almost there!"

A second later, though, another explosion went off right in front of them, blasting them backwards. Rose didn't know what hit her, and even her precog hadn't gone off in time... it was a shame it didn't always work. Now she felt like she'd just been hit by a train, with her head spinning around and ears ringing. She almost didn't see the figure walking up to them, holding a Tommy gun.

"You ruined a fine operation, you did," he said, raising his gun at them. "Gonna cost me millions, you know. But I guess killing you will be a small consolation... say good night kids, and know that the Black Mask put you in your graves."

"Come on girls, you can make it it's just a little way's off," Neal said as he helped the girls navigate. Like Rose he was staying behind. There was no way that after what all these girls went through that he was going to run to safety first. He was going to make sure that they got out as well. It took some time, but it seemed like they were able to move forward themselves. "That should be everyone!," Neal shouted before running forward with Rose.

It looked like they were about to escape, right until the explosion detonated and sent them flying backwards. Neal was laying flat on his back in pain, moaning out as he reached to grab his head. God was he bleeding? He couldn't tell. He just slowly began to push himself up, until he saw a figure walking towards them. At first Neal just acted normal, thinking it was some other thug with a gun, at least until Neal got a look at the guy's face.

"Oh my god," Neal said as his eyes widened. The man had a skull for a head! Who the hell was he? Neal didn't know the name Black Mask, but it sounded like this guy was upset about what they had done, which made sense considering how much money they probably just cost him. Neal tried to get to his feet, hoping to at least do something to defend himself.

"Not on your life!" Rose shouted, fighting through the remarkable pain rippling through her body. She kicked up with her leg, just barely managing to kick the man's gun upward as it fired, blasting a line of bullets up towards the burning cargo ship. Her actions were still sluggish from the blast, though, and as she slipped up to take the guy down, he easily managed to swing the butt of his weapon back around and club her in the side of the head.

"Nice dry, bitch," he said, taking aim again, "but you don't get one over on the Black MAsk that easily."

Almost immediately after he said that, a dark figure descended towards him, swinging down and kicking him back through the air. With a startled yell, he plummeted off the burning pier into the water.

"Don't worry now, I got you," Nightwing said, scooping up both teens in his arms and taking a plunge over the edge into the water as the rest of the pier went up in flames. "Just hold your breath!"

They hit the icy water with splash, crashing down several feet below the depths before finally bobbing back up to the surface. It was then that Nightwing started to pull them both back to shore.

Neal wanted to do something to help, but his power focused on his brain. When it was in any sort of serious pain there was nothing that he could do. His illusions wouldn't stay stable and solid, they would just look like a blur if Neal even got that far. He was more than useless right now, he couldn't even rely on his own fists like Rose could.

Neal flinched as he watched her get hit with the weapon in the face. Neal was thinking about moving forward to take on Black Mask, but he knew that he would never get there in time before the bullets would tear through him. So Neal just sort of froze, thinking that this time he was certainly going to die.

Thankfully, someone else had their backs tonight. Nightwing had swooped in and knocked Black Mask in to the water before helping Neal and Rose to jump off before the pier completely exploded. "Wow, looks like we owe you one," Neal said as Nightwing was starting to take them back to the shore.

"Did the girls get away safely?" Neal asked as he looked towards Nightwing. He felt bad for just barely moving to help Nightwing swim, but that explosion had taken a lot of energy out of Neal. He felt like he could just pass out right now.

"They're fine," Nightwing said, as he finally reached the shore. "Everyone's fine."

Almost immediately once they reached shallow waters, Rose pushed away from him and walked under her own power to land, where she promptly fell to her knees and started coughing up water. "Didn't need your help," she muttered, wiping her face dry. She was now cold, wet, and miserable, a very bad combination for someone with a personality that could be highly volatile at times.

"Of course not," another voice said. Batman approached a short distance away. Behind him, he dragged a tied up, unconscious Black Mask. "You two had everything under control..." The passive aggressive sarcasm in his voice was surprisingly... insulting. Not to mention irritating.

"Hey, who got the girls to safety, huh?" Rose snapped. "If not for us, they would have gone up in flames!"

"If not for you, we could have handled our plan normally, without interference, and wouldn't have alerted Black Mask so that he could blow up the pier."

Rose narrowed her eyes, slowly standing up. A cold shiver ran down her spine, causing her to remove her shirt without a care, leaving her in just her bra. Better exposed and cold than wet and cold. "Whatever."