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THEN

“Have you given thought to a name?”

Bruce Wayne walked up to Jason Todd and joined him as he looked out on the ocean. The sky was clear. It was a perfect day.

“Yeah,” said Jason. “Tim has Robin…he's more than earned it. Dick has Nightwing. I wanted something similar but that I could make my own.”

“Any ideas?”

“I was thinking Red Robin, but that just sounds too much like Tim. Finally, I came up with one that just felt…right.”

Jason turned to face Bruce. “I used to love reading about the Blackhawks in World War II. There was something about them that just summed up the heroism of the Allied forces. Then, when I saw Checkmate was going to be contracting Blackhawk Express for some of our missions…it hit me.”

“Blackhawk,” said Bruce.

“Blackhawk,” said Jason.

Bruce smiled. “I like it, Jason. It suits you.”

Jason smiled back. Blackhawk, Red Rook of Checkmate. Batman and Blackhawk. Yes, it was just about perfect.

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NOW

Parry. Thrust. Strike. Block.

Batman moved his stance, never facing away from his foe, as they took each other's measure. The Red Bee was moving step for step, never wavering. His swarm of cybernetic bees were maintaining their formation just behind the red and black clad man, but never made a move towards Batman.

The Dark Knight knew what that meant. The Red Bee wanted this fight, without the aid of the bees. They were smaller versions of Mr. Terrific's T-Spheres, modified as winged insects. Batman knew what Terrific's spheres were capable of and knew he was fortunate to have developed countermeasures against them. Time would tell if they worked against these insects, however. His electromagnetic pulse had taken down the Bee's cloaking field, but the bees were still operating. How well was another question. It could be the bees were still recovering from the EMP and that was why they were hanging back. Either way, the Red Bee needed to be taken down.

“Checkmate doesn't have all the information,” said the Red Bee. His eye lenses reflected the dim streetlight from the windows. The Bialyan embassy was surprisingly quiet considering the events of the previous few hours. Security was obviously focused on the damage to the embassy entrance. Of course, despite the last few minutes of fighting, the two men had barely made a sound. “There is more going on here than meets the eye.”

“Who do you work for?” demanded Batman. “Where are my people?”

“Todd and Kyle? I don't know,” said the Red Bee. “My people are looking for them now.”

“What people? Who the hell do you work for?” Batman prepared to make another move.

“You'll find out soon enough,” said the Red Bee. He crouched low and tried to sweep Batman's legs out from under him. The Batman anticipated this leaped up while striking down with a batarang.

The batarang met the Bee's leg…and skipped off of it with a sound of metal on metal. A small whine of servo-motors could be heard as the Bee regained his balance.

“What the hell are you?” said Batman.

“You'll never know…Bruce.”

Batman's attention was shaken for a split second at the utterance of his name. In that second, the Red Bee leaped up and kicked at Batman's head.

The fight was on.

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DC Infinity Presents

#8

“Shades of Gray – Part 4 of 6”

By Mike Hintze

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Elsewhere

The Bialyan Embassy was less than a block away. Jason Todd, aka Blackhawk, peered out from the low rooftop. His ribs ached and his head was fuzzy, but he was alive. He had been pursued by some kind of Frankenstein wannabe into the sewers of Stockholm and had ended the fight by decapitating the creature with its own broadsword. Now he needed to see what had happened to Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, after they had been separated in the Bialyan embassy attack.

The mission had not gone as planned. Blackhawk and Catwoman were assigned to meet an informant with information on illegal genetic weapons being sold to Bialya. The informant had made arrangements to meet them at a hotel room not far from the embassy. When they arrived, they had met a man named Glaublich who told them of the encrypted information within the Bialyan ambassador's computer. The ambassador was involved in the negotiations with the buyer of the weaponry and had hard evidence on that single computer system. Blackhawk had been given the security access codes to gain entry into the embassy undetected and obtain the information. Batman had seen it as an opportunity for Blackhawk to gain respect and a sense of accomplishment with his new role as Checkmate's Red Rook.

Jason and Selina had gained access into the embassy when they were assaulted. Someone had known they were coming, presumably their ‘informant' had lied to them. He would be dealt with soon enough. Now, Jason needed to see to Selina. He knew she and Bruce were close…if Jason lost her now, he didn't want to have to face Bruce.

He activated his sensor array within his tattered mask. The embassy was abuzz with activity near the front, which was nothing more than rubble from Jason's earlier altercation. He switched to infrared and scanned the office he had meant to get into. His breath stopped. Two images showed up, two men. One was unknown to him, with small objects swarming around him. The other though…it was Batman. He had come to rescue him. Now, he was fighting the unknown man…and the fight wasn't going as one-sided as Jason might have thought. Bruce was holding his own…but barely. Suddenly, Batman paused, an uncharacteristic move for him. Something had made him pause…and the unknown man made his move, kicking Batman in the head. The Batman went down hard.

Blackhawk fired a grapnel line across the street and hit the maximum retraction function on his gauntlet. He was pulled at faster than 100 mph across the street soundlessly and released his trajectory so as to fly through the window of the embassy. It would alert the authorities, but he couldn't stand by and let Batman be beaten.

He crashed through the window.

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“Oh my God,” said Green Arrow. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Green Arrow and Aztek had just entered the hotel room where Blackhawk and Catwoman had met their informant. The room had scanned empty before they had phased through the walls…but now, there was definitely someone here. Someone that shouldn't have been.

Because she was supposed to be dead.

“That's quite the greeting, Oliver,” said Vera Black. She had called herself Sister Superior in the past and had led the proactive black-ops team called the Justice League Elite. Problem was, last Green Arrow had heard, the JLE had died in a nuclear conflagration in Gateway City*. Of course, no bodies had been recovered…but with no one hearing anything from the JLE members since then, the worst had been assumed. “I would have thought you'd have better words to say to an old friend and teammate.”

(*See DCI's 52 #6 – Elitist Mike)

Green Arrow had served with the JLE in their first incarnation. He had had differences with the way Vera and Ali-Ben Khalid had run their operation, but in the end they had gotten the job done with little to no casualties. When Oliver had heard of the death of the JLE, he had been genuinely saddened.

“Well, I had heard you were dead,” said Green Arrow. “Killed in Gateway City.”

“It was close,” said Vera. “I won't deny it. As it was, we lost Coldcast, Heckler and Bloodhound. Mitch Shelley made it out, but he wasn't the same.”

“I had heard he ended up in a short-lived Doom Patrol or something.” Green Arrow waved down Aztek, who had charged up her gauntlets. “Don't worry, Duo. She's a friend.”

Aztek geared her energy gauntlets down. “Where is the occupant of this room?” asked Duo.

“I don't know,” said Vera. “I only arrived here moments ago.”

“You didn't show up on my scans,” said Duo.

“There's more to me than meets the eye,” said Vera as she raised her hands. They came apart and morphed into various weapons and laser cannons. “There's not much of me left that scans as human anymore.”

“Still sexy though,” said Green Arrow.

“Thank you, Oliver,” said Vera.

“So what brought you here?” asked Green Arrow. “Why not let us know you were alive?”

“I tried,” said Vera. “There is no more Justice League. No one answered the communication net.”

“There may be no more League,” said Oliver, “But the network is still active.”

“Oh,” said Vera. “Well, I tried.” She raised her hand and an energy discharge arced over Green Arrow and Aztek. They collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

Vera raised her wrist and a small communicator came out. “Green Arrow and Aztek are off the board.”

“Are they dead?”asked the voice on the other end.

“No,” said Vera. “The memory charge will make them forget our meeting.”

“Maybe we should kill them,” said the voice. “Might make things easier in the long run.”

“No,” said Vera. “I vaporized Glaublich. SHADE will take care of Todd and Catwoman. These two don't need to die.”

“Not yet, anyway,” said the voice.

“You know, Booker,” said Vera, “That we will get this done without killing our friends. Too many have died already.”

“Maybe,” said Major Disaster, “I'm just saying, you get Queen and Bats involved and we could have opened a whole can of whupass we don't want to deal with.”

“They don't know we're here,” said Vera, “And they won't until its too late. I trust you made it out of the embassy intact?”

“I had to open up on Catwoman and that Blackhawk guy,” said Disaster, “But we made it out ok. SHADE is on the scene. As far as I can tell, no one knew we were here.”

“Time to move then,” said Vera. “We need to get Zanetti out of Bialyan hands.”

“We're at the extraction point,” said Disaster. “We're all waiting patiently for our fearless leader.”

“I'm on my way,” said Vera as she disappeared in a haze of light.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Frankenstein is down.”

“Amazing,” said Niles Caulder as he moved his wheelchair to the monitor bank. “His head was removed from his body, yet the lifesigns are still active.”

“He just needs someone to get the head reattached,” said King Faraday. “The nanobots in his blood will do the rest.”

“Agent 31 is on the scene,” said Father Time. “He's already been advised to do so.”

“This Blackhawk is more formidable than he seems,” said Caulder. “Remarkable.”

“I'd expect no less from someone trained by Batman,” said Faraday.

“You think this Blackhawk is the same man that called himself the Red Hood?” asked Father Time. “The uniform is different…even the fighting styles were slightly different.”

“It's him,” said Faraday. “Blackhawk is Jason Todd.”

“Hm,” said Caulder. “I'd love to examine him. I haven't had the opportunity to research one that has been resurrected by a Lazarus Pit.”

“If that's how he returned in the first place,” said Father Time. “I have my doubts about that.”

“Nevertheless,” said Faraday, “Its obvious we need more backup onsite. Agent 52 is fighting Batman as we speak…although the audio feed is off. Batman must have used something in his bag of tricks.”

“I'm impressed,” said Caulder. “I wondered if Kord could hold himself up against Batman.”

“My nephew,” said Jarvis Kord as he entered the room, “Is capable of much more.”

“I have faith in Agent 31,” said Faraday. “Let's see how he does.”

“Sic'em, Wild Dog,” said Father Time.

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Next Issue: Red Bee takes on Batman and Blackhawk, we learn more about Vera's plans…and we learn more about ‘The 52'! All in Checkmate #9!