DC Genesis

Bette let out a bit of a laugh. "Well now that's quite the story. For security reasons I'm not exactly allowed to tell you all of it," she explained. "Basically, the government has a means of finding out when certain people are in trouble. They always get important names, and they pass those names on to us. Then it's our job to protect that person and figure out why they're begin gunned for," the female agent explained. "That's how we found Ron, and he told us everything that happened at the store. It's a good thing we found him too, Cobblepot showed up five minutes later after all."

"My name is Bette, legitimately. We're each given a code name but to be honest Scandal is the only one that really uses hers. Thomas and I prefer to go by our real names, at least once we've gained our target's trust," she said before giving a bit of a sigh.

"This is crazy though. I knew Cobblepot had means, but I didn't think that it would go this far. I guess it makes sense though, if Ron talks in front of a jury there's no way that Cobblepot will get away with it."

Bette couldn't hide her smile as Nico ventured her guess forward. "Well, I don't have an exploding pen but that's basically it yes...but don't tell anyone now," she said and jokingly held a finger up to her lips to indicate what she was saying. She liked these kids.

Bette leaned back in her chair before glancing at the door that Thomas and Ron had disappeared in to. "Hopefully they'll be out within a few," she said before looking back at Nico and Neal. "So tell me, what exactly are you two?" Bette asked as she was looking at Nico in particular. "Your little joke on Scandal was amusing, but I'm guessing that you can do much more then that....and yet I've never heard anyone of your description. You're no Zatanna after all, no offense intended though."

Neal seemed to respond quickly to this. "We have powers, but we don't really like using them...not when we don't have to," he lied. "I was never one for the whole risking your life thing, unless I'm directly confronted with it. Besides, I know Cobblepot and what he does, so helping get Ron to safety is something I want to help with."

Bette nodded. "That so?" she asked although her tone indicated that she believed them. "Well, maybe when this is all over you two could be like us. We're the good guys after all," Bette stated as she glanced over to where Scandal was sitting. "I was a mess before Scandal recruited me in to the program. I was a little older then you guys when I joined though....who knows, maybe you'll be even bigger assets then we are."

"Believe it or not I can respect that," Bette admitted as she gained a far away look in her eyes. "I can't say that there was a time where I wasn't just like you. I guess that I just realized that I needed to be something even more," she said as she tried to figure out how to say what she meant. "Regardless, don't worry. After tonight you might not even meet with us again. And don't worry, we won't spread your names and faces around. You two are good kids, if you want to mind your own business we will stay out of it."

A short while later, Thomas came out of the room and gave a small sigh. Ron was apparently staying behind to speak with the cop in question. "Alright, we have a rendezvous for the pickup it seems. Once we hand Ron over, it'll be up to the police to decide where to take him. We can only do so much tonight," Thomas said before looking over at Neal and Nico.

"Are you two ready to head out? Or do you need a little bit of time to rest? It's okay if you do, Ron wants to take a minute as well."

"Fair enough, I'm anxious to go to. There's no telling how soon Cobblepot might have a source that leaks our location after all," Thomas admitted before nodding to Bette. "Go get Ron, tell him that we'll find a moment to rest once we've made some distance from this place. Also, make sure to tell Officer Reese to head out the back. We don't want anyone knowing that he's here after all."

Neal's eyes widened for a moment as the name came up. He tried to hide his surprise, and for the most part he did it well, but Nico would be able to tell that something was up. Neal glanced towards her and gave her a look that made his message clear. He'd tell her about it later. It was just a good thing he was going out the back, had he seen Neal there was no telling what kind of damage would have been done.

As they all gathered together they began to make their way over to Scandal, ready to tell her that they were going to get on the move. Just then, the front doors opened up rather forcefully and several men started to come through. They looked around quickly, as if they were looking for something in particular. "There he is!" they shouted before pointing in the direction of the group.

"Damn it" Thomas shouted as he saw the men beginning to pull out several weapons. He quickly withdrew his pistol, and began to fire out some cover fire that forced the men to scatter. At this point, the entire club was in a panic, with people screaming and ducking for cover or running for the nearest exit.

Bette quickly looked over at Nico. "Hey, wanna provide us some cover while we make our way to the exit? If your magic could do that I'd be so grateful right now," Bette said before looking around the wall that she was currently using for cover. Where the hell had Scandal suddenly disappeared to?

"I'll take care of the cover?" Neal said before looking over. For a moment the enemy men stopped firing, and they looked around as if they were in complete confusion. "Nico, take Ron and head for the exit. I'll join you once I'm sure you're clear of their fire," Neal said as he kept his concentration up.

"What the hell are these guys?" one of the enemies shouted as he saw that their bullets were now bouncing off of some sort of a blue wall. They were told that they were just trying to kill an old man, who the hell were all of these freaks that were fighting them now?

"Get out of here Thomas, Scandal and I will hold them off while you get to safety," Bette said as she loaded her automatic pistol. "Go, make sure the kids are safe too."

Thomas gave a nod before running out with Neal, Nico, and Ron to a nearby exit. They were going to have to be very careful from this point forward, there was no telling how many men Penguin might have sent out to get them. Right now he had to just worry about their safety. He would try to protect them all, but mainly he had to worry about protecting Ron.

Bette quickly moved out of her cover before firing several bullets, taking down some of the men while they were busy reloading. She eventually moved back in to cover to reload.

"Hold on a second....no way that's Bette is it?" a man called out as he saw the face of the girl he was fighting. "Well now...haven't seen you since that incident up in Canada. God damn, had no idea that you moved stateside. So tell me, what's your famous ass doing here?" he yelled out with a smile.

Bette's eyes narrowed in anger. "Cranston," she said simply as she recognized the voice. "Didn't think that you were out of jail yet, Penguin must really have a ton of connections huh? You always did go for a high price."

"Yeah and so did you and your Canadian ass," Cranston said with another laugh. "Perhaps I should extend you some professional courtesy, one agent of chaos to another?"

"I'm not in that life anymore....I've found a higher purpose for what I can do," Bette said as she grabbed a numbered ball from a nearby pool table. She clutched in her hands and it began to glow.

"Oh come on now, don't tell me that you're no longer Plastique?"

Bette suddenly moved out from the wall before throwing the ball as hard as she could, the explosion could be heard from where Nico and the others had moved to. So far it seemed like no one was following them, but the explosion made all of them stop and turn around. "Damn it Bette," Thomas said as he looked back in the direction of the strip club. "I haven't seen her use her powers in some time....she must have been in trouble or gotten really pissed."

Neal could hardly believe what he had heard. Was that some type of a bomb or something? And Thomas seemed to believe that she had been the cause of it. "Well, I hope she and Scandal are alright...where are we going anyway?" Neal asked as he looked towards Thomas.

"The river. We're gonna travel by ferry to the other side. We'll be picked up on the other side by the police who will taken Ron in to custody."

"Not exactly," Thomas said as he scratched his head. "She rigs other things to explode, I don't know any more details then that," he admitted as he checked his pistol to make sure that it was fully loaded. Once secured, he kept moving closer to the river, as they seemed to be able to escape from Cobblepot's men.

"Maybe we should call someone, just in case Cobblepot has men on the inside," Neal said suddenly. When Thomas looked at him Neal just shrugged. "I mean, so far he seems to have always known where we've gone. We have friends that we might be able to call and request some help," Neal said before reaching for his pocket. He suddenly realized that he and Nico had left their phones back at the car.

Thomas seemed to ignore this fact for a moment. "Might not be a bad idea, the more help we can get the better after all," he admitted as he looked towards Neal. "After all....I learned some very disturbing news in there. Cobblepot supposedly isn't the only one after our friend Ron here."

"We can talk about that later, you guys should make your phone call before we do anything else," Thomas said before looking over at Neal who had picked up his phone and began to look through his contacts. "Have them meet us at the east side of the pier, where the ferry will drop us off. That way they can make sure the area is clear and that we're not walking in to an ambush."

Neal gave a quick nod before pressing a button and holding it up to his ear. "Come on Rose...please pick up, don't be asleep or something," Neal muttered to himself as he waited for the phone to answer. If she didn't answer they'd still be okay, but Neal would feel a lot better knowing that someone else was out there to have his back.

((you want Rose to answer?))

((Yes. Have it just be rose. No one else with her))

"Good to see you Rose," Mr. Anderson said as he was sitting on the couch and reading a book in his hands. It was thick and wordy and he was about halfway through it. He barely even glanced up when Rose announced her presence. Clearly he was in to it. It was only when Rose mentioned that she was talking to Neal that Clint glanced up. It wasn't said directly, but he couldn't figure out who else she would be referring to. Neal had mentioned that he had a date tonight and was going to be out late, so why would he be calling Rose?

"Oh Rose thank god," Neal said as she finally picked up. For a moment he was worried that she wasn't going to get it. "Listen we got ourselves a major situation out here. Guns, mobsters, the works. It's all too long and complicated to tell you right now but believe me when I say that we really need your help right now," Neal said in one quick and long breath. "We need you to meet us as the eastside pier, where the ferry let's people off," Neal said. He gave a more accurate description of it. Rose wasn't a local, so he kept explaining until she figured it out.

"We need you to go there and just make sure that the area is safe. We hopefully won't be there too long after you," Neal said as his voice was almost getting frantic. "Take your gear though, we are dealing with men that are willing to kill at a moment's notice."

((have her call him but have him be busy. At best he can send either Nightwing or Batgirl. This is something I don't want him to be present for yet))

"Yes please, we could use all the help that we can get right now. Thank you so much Rose, I'll pay you back for this somehow," Neal said before finally hanging up the phone. "She's going to come, and maybe bring a few allies along with her," Neal said as he looked at Nico and smiled. It seemed like things were going to come back in to their favor. They would still be outnumbered, but they'd outclass almost anyone that Penguin could send to fight them.

"Fine by me," Thomas said as they kept moving down the streets. "We'll just have to make sure to-" but he cut himself off as he heard a noise from a nearby alleyway. A trashcan fell over and two cats seemed to run out of where they had been resting. Thomas immediately drew his gun, prepared to shoot whoever came out. However, he lowered it as soon as the female figure came out.

It was Scandal, though several of her clothes now seemed to be torn up. She had still been in the building when Plastique got angry enough to use her power. The only other difference would be that she now had some sort of a wrist blade attached to her arm, and it was covered thickly in blood.

"Hey guys," she said before cracking her neck and smiling at the group. "Sorry I'm late, I helped a few of the customers get out. Bette is still back there acting as a distraction. She'll meet up with us later though."

"More than okay, it's going to take a lot more than some gun-wielding punks to take out someone like me," Scandal said as she looked at all of them. "You guys look uninjured, I guess it's a good thing that you left when you did. Bette did let loose a little bit, one of t hose guys was talking to her....I think they knew each other," she admitted.

"At any rate, I want to find a place to lay low. We're too exposed on the streets out here," Thomas said as he looked around the area. "We may have lost them for now, but they will be back. Cobblepot will send all of his men to get the job done if he has to," Thomas said as he was looking around the area. "What about the complex over there? The large apartments over there?" he suggested as he spotted a rundown looking building not too far from their position. He hardly saw anyone there, perhaps it was abandoned.

"There?" Ron asked as the older man looked over. "No you don't want to go there, that's a drug hot spot. Koreans moved in, they basically own the territory. Not even Cobblepot's men try to shake them down," he said earnestly.

Thomas was about to open his mouth to interject when he saw a vehicle. "Alleyway now," Thomas said as he pushed Ron in and expected the others to follow. "I think Cobblepot has his men scanning for us, searching the whole area," Thomas said as a large black van drove by. "I don't care how dangerous it is....we can probably find an abandoned room in that building. Nico, can you take us there?" Thomas quickly asked.

Right when Nico answered, she'd hear a shout coming from the other end of the alleyway as a man with a pistol started to run towards them. He pulled out a radio, apparently telling somebody that he had found them.

"Now Nico!" Thomas quickly shouted.

Right before the team disappeared, the man with pistol got off one shot before the team vanished. They appeared in the apartments, a dark and gloomy building. It was eerie, even just looking at the decaying walls was enough to make one sick. They were in the hallway, and luckily no one immediate seemed to be around....but they could hear voices.

"We should find an empty room, I doubt that this gang is using every single one of them," Scandal said as she lifted up her arm as if she wanted to be ready to use her blade. "If we can find a room to hide in we should be able to wait for the ferry."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Thomas said before he began walking down the hallway. He lightly placed his ear to doors before realizing that someone was in there. Right when he got towards the end of the hallway he stopped and listened before giving a light knock. He pulled out his gun and slowly made his way inside. After a few seconds he motioned for the other to follow. Scandal quickly took a hold of Ron and lead him in to the room.

"I'm sorry I got you messed up in all of this," Neal said quietly as he glanced over at Nico. "I just....felt like this was something I had to do. I'm sorry, I never should have made you do this. I should have just walked away with you when we had the chance."

Neal grabbed the back of his head but managed a light laugh of amusement at her question. "Don't worry, I'll owe you a lot for this," he said before smiling over at her. He wanted to lean over and kiss her or do something romantic. Course, that was when he realized that they were surrounded by killers and drug dealers...so now wasn't the best time. "We should follow them inside," Neal said before heading in to the room.

The room was fairly bare inside, but it would due. Ron and Scandal were sitting on the couch speaking while Thomas stayed near the window. He still had his gun out, as if he was still expecting trouble at any minute. He didn't even glance up as Neal shut the door so that they were all in the apartment together.

They all stayed inside for quite some time, everyone seeming to be fine with the silence. It was interesting how after shouting and being shot at so many times, you could just appreciate the silence. After a while Scandal excused herself to see if there was a bathroom in the room, leaving Ron by himself on the couch.

"So, tell me about you two," Ron said as he looked over towards Nico and Neal and smiled at them. "I just want to learn a bit more about the people who I owe my life too," he said before looking at Nico in particular. "Thank you again for healing me, I cannot thank you enough."