Thea didn't wait for anyone to react.
Lifting her sword, she twirled it once with a flourish, the blade glinting as it pointed toward the sky.
"For the honor of the League—"
She caught herself just in time and coughed.
"—No, wait. For the freedom of Gotham!"
As the first gunshot rang out across the battlefield, Thea had already slipped behind cover.
She wasn't ashamed of it; after half an hour of dueling Talia, her body was drained and her shoulder still throbbed from the earlier cut.
A quick check confirmed it was only a surface wound.
Still, her current battle outfit looked great but offered zero protection.
Next time, she decided, she'd borrow a high-density Kevlar suit from Batman.
Ignoring the ongoing firefight, she vaulted over a barricade and ducked into the rear lines to patch herself up and grab a drink.
She had barely taken two sips when Felicity whispered breathlessly in her earpiece—
and Thea nearly choked on her water.
"What did you just say? Sisters fighting over a man?!"
Apparently, the "Talia vs. Thea" rumor had reached its final evolution:
the entire battlefield now believed the two women had been dueling over Batman.
Thunder could've struck her and she wouldn't have been more stunned.
How… how do people even come up with this? she thought blankly.
What happened to 'don't spread rumors'? Half these idiots should be in prison for slander.
When Felicity confirmed that everyone in the area—both sides—was gossiping about it,
Thea honestly didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
She squinted toward the field, calculating silently.
Maybe… if she just wiped them all out, the rumor would die with them?
It was tempting.
Unfortunately, killing everyone on the field was a bit inconvenient.
Her earlier satisfaction at trapping Bane had already faded.
Now she was both the scapegoat and the stand-in target.
Meanwhile, the actual couple—Batman and Catwoman—were saying nothing.
You two seriously aren't going to clear this up?
Annoyed, she slumped back behind cover, not even pretending to fight anymore,
watching from afar as Catwoman pummeled the Pigman senseless,
and Barbara and Robin fought side by side against two Talons.
Catwoman looked torn between anger and catharsis—
her starring role had been completely stolen by Thea's "sister-drama,"
and now she was venting all that frustration through her whip.
Each strike cracked across Pigman's oversized head like thunder.
If she kept that up, he'd be drooling by morning.
Barbara and Robin were holding their own, their teamwork smooth and instinctive.
But the Talons—elite assassins brainwashed and trained from childhood by the Court of Owls—
were no easy opponents.
For now, it was a perfect stalemate.
"Thea, I know you're recovering," Bruce's voice came through the comms, calm but urgent.
"But you can't hold Bane for long."
"Yeah, yeah, I know…"
Thea lazily glanced toward the giant white cocoon that was Bane.
Bruce was right—the brute hadn't really been trapped; he'd passed out briefly
after absorbing too much of the web compound's chemicals.
Now, his ridiculous metabolism was already flushing the sedatives out.
He was stirring again.
Counting her remaining arrows, Thea frowned.
She had five ice arrows originally—
two used on Killer Croc, one wasted on Penguin…
that left two, one of which she'd just fired.
Only one left.
The distance was far, so she aimed high and loosed another in a long arc.
Accuracy didn't matter much; as long as it landed nearby, the freezing reaction would trigger.
A burst of blue mist exploded where it struck,
and in seconds, frost spread across the ground, crawling up Bane's legs.
Within ten seconds, the brute was refrozen solid.
"You can use ice powers too?"
The voice came from behind her—Firefly,
watching with a strange, almost offended tone.
Thea glanced at her warily.
The way the pyromaniac's eyes lit up,
you'd think she was ready to fight the cold itself.
"Uh… no," Thea said quickly. "It's not me. It's the arrowhead. Chemical reaction.
And that—" she added, wincing at her quiver, "—was my last one."
Firefly still looked unconvinced.
If she ever met the likes of Captain Cold or Killer Frost, Thea thought,
this woman would probably have a full-blown nervous breakdown.
Over comms, Batman's analytical voice cut in.
"Interesting design. Liquid nitrogen? Or liquid ammonia?"
He sounded genuinely curious.
It was the first time he'd seen her tech in action—
first the web-arrow, now this.
Knowing she couldn't fool him, Thea shrugged.
They kept the talk surface-level, exchanging a few quick words about the chemistry.
"Hey, can we not do a science podcast right now?" Barbara snapped over the line.
"A little help here?"
Thea sighed.
"Fine, fine, I'm coming."
Not because she wanted to play hero—
but because she had other plans.
After all, she hadn't come to Gotham for charity work.
And who in Gotham had more money than the Court of Owls?
Dozens of ancient families, two centuries of hoarded wealth—
it was practically begging to be stolen.
But she'd need to be subtle about it.
No one could suspect a thing.
She drew one specially designed arrow from her quiver—
a prototype containing a microscopic tracking chip.
It was a "gift" from one of Malcolm's subordinates,
stolen from Ray Palmer's company.
Even Felicity didn't know she had it.
Her plan was simple:
mark one of the Talons,
track them back to the Court's hidden vaults.
Spotting her target—a slightly slower Talon locked in combat with Robin—
she waited.
Robin's baton came down hard; the assassin dodged sideways, opening his guard for an instant.
Thea moved like a shadow, loosing her arrow at the perfect moment.
Her aim was deadly.
The shaft struck clean into his side.
"Argh!"
Even brainwashed assassins felt pain.
The Talon roared, whirling his blades in a storm to force Robin back.
He yanked the arrow from his abdomen, eyes scanning the crowd,
searching for the sniper who'd hit him.
By then, Thea had already melted back into the chaos.
A quick glance at her visor display confirmed it—
the nanotracker was active, embedded deep in his organs.
Perfect.
She smiled faintly and shut the signal off for now.
Later.
"Thea," Layla's steady voice broke in,
"our informants report multiple crime families mobilizing. They're heading this way fast."
"How far?"
"Less than two blocks."
Thea frowned.
Was this premeditated, or an improvised counterattack?
She guessed the latter—Talia's retreat had thrown the balance,
and the Court must've decided to intervene.
If they got surrounded, they were finished.
She scanned the field again.
"Selina, fall back to me."
"What is it now?" Catwoman asked,
having just sent the dazed Pigman staggering away with one final crack of her whip.
Thea handed her a magnetic arrow.
"You've seen this one. My magnetic charge arrow.
I need you to plant it behind the incoming enemies—
somewhere that covers at least fifty meters of range."