Chapter 2: Heads or tails, kitty-cat?          By GaryGibbon

GaryGibbon logging in. Sorry for the long wait, I kept getting distracted by the fact that my story is shite compared to some. I’m only writing because I really enjoy it. As always, feedback is greatly appreciated.

My Little Pony and all related locations, characters etc. belongs to Hasbro. Batman and any related locations, characters etc. belongs to DC Comics. Batman: Arkham City belongs to Rocksteady Studios.

Darkness.

Rarity was surrounded by darkness. No light penetrated the thick cloth that separated her from whatever was outside it. She felt woozy. From what she could tell, she had been suspended upside down over...something. Judging by the hissing and popping noises coming from below her head, that something was dangerous. She could hear the murmur of a large crowd of ponies, bubbling away in anticipation of some main event. Presumably involving little old me. She needed to find a way to escape. Dropping straight down into whatever was spitting at her probably wasn’t the best idea one could dream up. But she couldn’t do anything until she had removed the rope tying her hooves together. So they had to go. She unsheathed her gem claws, and began shifting, attempting to escape. However, as she began to work the coarse rope loose, a female voice began a monologue right next to her. She immediately froze up, tensing her muscles, becoming as silent as possible  As the monologue continued, she recognized the voice, or rather voices, as the ones belonging to Two-Mane:

“The only way to get by in this hellhole is to get ourselves some respect.” Justice Sword uttered to herself. Abruptly, her voice suddenly changed, and the Two-Mane side of her personality took over.

“fear. that’s how we get respect. show them all how we do things.”

“We should be fair though. This is a place of justice, after all.”

“screw justice! kill her, and they’ll all fear us.”  Catmare heard shuffling and hoofsteps, and the murmur of the crowd increased in volume.

“bring out the defendant!”  The curtain surrounding her fell away, and Catmare was bathed in light. The curtain was dissolving in a huge vat of acid, explaining the hissing noises she had heard earlier. The court was cheering. Two-Mane turned to Rarity, triumph on her horrifically disfigured face. Rarity replied to the smug smile with a simple pun.

“You certainly know how to keep a lady such as myself hanging, Justice.” She then took stock of her surroundings: she was in the old courthouse that Justice used as her headquarters. As befitting Two-Mane, one side of the courthouse was spick and span, squeaky clean. That side had never looked better. The other side was a mess. It had been gutted, utterly destroyed, and Catmare was surprised that it was still standing at all. She continued to goad Two-Mane.

“Hey. Have you had some work done? Because if you have, I would have the workers fired for using such tacky floor tiles. And those curtains. Tsk tsk, Justice. You should know better than to contrast mauve with white.”

SLAP

Justice delivered a hefty slap to the side of her face, sending Catmare spinning. As her cheek stung like wildfire, Two-Mane threatened her.

“that’s for stealing from us. nopony steals from us!” Catmare was enjoying this. Not the pain or the fact that she was dangling over a vat of industrial strength acid, but the irritance in Justice’s tone of voice goaded Catmare to continue.

“Oh, I’m sorry I’ve been such a bad kitty.” Her voice took on a sultry tone. “Untie me, and I’ll make it all up to you.”

“will you really? let’s see if the coin thinks you’re telling the truth.” Justice had been playing with her signature two-headed coin. That coin, after the accident, had become Two-Mane’s life. She relied on it to make every single decision of hers, from brushing her teeth, to killing hostages. She flipped it up into the air. As it spun a silver trail through the air, time seemed to slow for everypony present. Finally, after an agonizingly long wait, it land in her palm. Two-Mane looked at it.

She is telling the truth, it whispered in its honeyed tones to the room. Two-Mane’s face seemed to fall, but she quickly regained her composure.

“This court is now in session!” Justice Sword announced, to the cheers of the room. Catmare breathed a sigh of relief. She was going to have to rely on dumb luck if she was going to come out unscathed on this one.

Unnoticed by anypony in the throng, Bat-Stallion watched them from above. He was balancing on a thin wire, directly above the crowd. Behind him, a Pegasus equipped with a gun lay face down on the wood panelling, having been choked into unconsciousness by the Caped Crusader. He readjusted himself on the wire. Below him, there were easily 50 or more thugs from many, many different species. And to top it all off, Two-Mane herself stood in the judge’s office, bulletproof glass surrounding her. Judging by the way the crowd were baying, it seemed that Catmare, who was dangling precariously over a vat of the very same acid used to transform Justice Sword into the crime boss she was known as today, was about to dive headfirst into the green corrosive goo.  He had to act fast. He selected a random thug from the crowd, and then stepped off the wire, using him to break his fall. The effect of having The Bat in the same room as the thugs was instantaneous. Almost everypony ran out the room, screaming in terror, leaving a select few thugs loyal to Two-Mane. They quickly adopted combat stances, ready to dish out some hurt to this arrogant intruder. A Diamond Dog attacked first, swinging an elbow. Bat-Stallion ducked underneath before delivering a hefty uppercut to the dog’s jaw. He then twirled around and stuck out his leg, ramming it into a sheep’s side. He vaulted over a pegasus and slammed both his elbows into a griffon’s skull. He turned his attention back to the pegasus, headbutting his groin and chest before grabbing one of the now prone pegasi’s wings and twisted, breaking it. He springboarded forwards, and shoved two outstretched hooves into the throat of a unicorn mare. He fired his Batclaw into the chest of a cow, dragging him forward. Bat-Stallion then kicked out his legs from underneath her and elbowed her face. Not many were left now. He kneed the Diamond Dog in the snout, breaking it. He then delivered an extremely painful-looking kick to the sheep’s nether regions, sending it sprawling in agony. That was the henchponies dealt with, and now all he had to was-

“Objection!”

BANG

As Bat-Stallion flew to the ground, a bullet embedded in his chest, Two-Mane smirked, and blew out the smoke emitting from her wristpistol barrel.

“overruled.” She bucked the door to the court open marching her way over to Catmare. She pointed and cocked a gun at her.

“heads or tails, kitty-cat?” She asked, flipping her coin as she did so.

“Which one gets me out of here alive?” The coin landed. Heads up.

“dammit! it's gonna have to be a best of three.” She twireld the coin into the air. Again, it landed heads up.

"how are you doing this?! how is this possible?!" She flipped it again. it landed heads up, once again. Inside her head, Two-mane screamed in fury as Justice overpowered the malignant entity spawned by the horrific accident that had scarred her face. In reality., the pony sank to her knees, bewilderment written all over her face.

"The coin. It's never told me to do this!"

"Aw, boo hoo. Now be a dear, and help me out of this little predicament you tied me up in earlier." Catmare worked the tight rope loose from her forehooves. It fell into the acid, the green goo disintegrating the strong rope as if it were little more than paper. Behind her, the Ex-District Attorney was winching Catmare across to the wooden jetty. Catmare ripped through the tough ropes easily. She turned to face the distraught crime boss.

"Now hand over the phone, please."

"Bite me."

"I really, really don't have time for this, Justice. Hand the phone over."

"Like I said before, Bite. Me."

Catmare grunted in irritation.

"Alright. How about a deal. You give me the damn phone, and I'll be out of your mane for good."

"Let's see what the coin thinks." She flipped the coin. It landed tails up.

"Sorry, kitten, no can do."

"Well, then instead tell me how to get into the vault."

The coin traced a silver glimmer through the air.

"In order to get into the vault, you'll have to-"

"This can wait." Bat-Stallion's voice rang out. He clutched where the bullet had hit. He continued. "I had some questions to ask you two."

“And I thought it was only cats that had nine lives. So. What do you need, Mr. Detective?”

“Protocol Ten. What do you two know about it?”

“Sorry, Bats, but I’ve never heard of it.” Catmare flippantly replied.

"Neither have we, Bat-Stallion." Justice agreed.

“That’s not I wanted to hear.” Bat-Stallion’s tone became angry. He stopped for a moment and calmed down. “What do you know about Strange?”

“I, for one, don’t trust him. He’s been missing for years, ever since that incident when he took the ex-mayor’s daughter hostage, and then all of a sudden he shows up again, and is put in charge of this hell on Equestria by that idiot Mayor Mare he has wrapped around one hoof, and that private army around the other"

"Though we don't know much, it seems that he's experimenting on unlucky inmates he comes across, turning them into lobotomised freaks."

"To be honest, I believe that Strange’s using some psychiatric mumbo-jumbo on both mayor and military organization. Rumours abound that he’s conspiring with The Joker, planning something very special, something just for you. Maybe that’s Protocol Ten.”

"Well, that would explain the ludicrous amounts of firepower his boys are sporting, firepower that should belong to us." Justice reinforced Rarity's argument. Bat-Stallion nodded in agreement. Well, except for the firepower part.

Unknown to the party of ponies, they were being watched. As Joker fiddled with the controls on the remote-controlled AWP Anti-materiel rifle, he began to sing a rhyme through his cracked red lips.

“Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat.”  He had managed to aim the reticule on Bat-Stallion, but as if suddenly changing his mind he switched it over to Catmare, pointing the crosshairs at her head.

“Watch me kill your favourite cat!” And as he sent the command that fired the rifle, he began to chuckle, forcing the sound through a blood-red rictus grin painted on his snow-white face.

450 meters away,  a gunshot rang out.

Alright, alternate ending of Chapter 2 up. I lost all progress on the ending ,so I had to do it AGAIN. That's how much i care for this story.