Young Amazons

by Wanderer D

Chapter 11: Swamped

 
It was a surprisingly quiet September night in Gotham City. Most of the city was already in bed as strange things were beginning to happen around the waters of Lake Gotham. 

As a large lake freighter slowly move to port, a dark shadow in the water behind it broke off and started moving towards one of the city’s canals. It made its way deeper towards downtown until it reached one of the road bridges before jumping out of it onto the top of a box car, and quickly hopped its way across the rooftops.
 
At the same time, a large jewelry store was being broken into by several organized criminals who finished drilling their way out of a barred window and into the alley next to the building. The first man, a tall, bulky man with a black beard with some grey sprinkled in his hair motioned with his hands after checking to see the coast was clear and a black bag was thrown out into his arms.
 
Out of the now opened window, two men followed suit. One of them also had black hair, but in difference from his boss, he had a goatee rather than a beard. The other one was the smallest of them in terms of muscle. He was red-haired and had glasses. All three men now had black duffel bags wrapped around them carrying their haul.

“Alright,” The bearded man spoke up, “Grabbing them was the easy part, now we need to lie low until the heat dies down and we can move the rocks, clear?”
 
“Crystal,” The goatee man responded, just as a dark shadow began to loom on the alleyway.
 
“Um… speaking of heat.” The glasses wearing thief sounded very nervous as he was the first to see the dark figure.
 
“Oh, man! Is that the Bat?” The three men backed up a few steps and got ready for a fight. They looked up to the archway that was blocked by a car before the figure jumped down and smashed the front of the car underneath its weight, causing a massive wave of dust.
 
Once it cleared, what they saw looked more like a crocodile that was somewhat humanoid; he had glowing yellow, reptilian eyes, with a scar of the right side of his face, a tail, and was dressed in a simple black vest.
 
“Boys,” he said with a very thick Cajun accent, “I’m a whole different breed of animal.”
 
“And just when I thought this city couldn’t get any weirder,” The bearded man motioned his duffle bag to hide more behind his back, though the gems in it shone for a split moment before they were hiding from the crocodile’s sight.
 
“Looks like you had a busy night.” The reptilian man smiled, revealing a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. “That’s good; ‘cuz y’all working for me now.” The goatee and glasses wearing man both gave a small laugh upon that suggestion.
 
“Oh, really? Boys,” their leader said, “show the walking freak-show who’s boss around here.”
 
The two men stepped forward before the crocodile-man growled. He simply body charged into the glasses wearing thief which hurled the smaller man into the alley wall. He then swung his arm and knocked the goatee man into the dumpster.
 
“You city boys need to learn yourselves some manners.” The crocodile walked up to the final thief and towered over him.
 
“Who are you?” The bearded man asked as he had his duffel bag snatched right out of his hands.
 
“The name’s Croc. Killer Croc, but you can call me: ‘Boss’.”
 

 
“Gotham has a sudden burst of nine seemingly unrelated heists.” Bruce typed a few keys into the Batcomputer which brought up several recent news articles. “With stolen goods ranging from explosives to jet skis.”
 
He then put his fingers on his temple as he tried to figure out this strange mystery. “There has to be a link between these crimes.”
 
Bruce suddenly turned around in his chair as he heard the sound of a crane being operated. He saw the giant mechanical head of Arnold Wesker’s puppet Scarface being lowered down deeper into the Batcave.
 
“Apologies, Master Bruce,” Alfred said as he held the remote control to the crane. “Just a bit of Spring Cleaning.”
 
Bruce slid down the fire pole to the level of the cave that Alfred was on before the ropes released the Scarface head. Bruce took a step back as the head rolled over before he started walking over to the butler once again.
 
“Uh, Alfred, first of all, it’s still summer, and two; where are you taking the evidence?”
 
“Little pet project of mine,” explained Alfred, “There’s no longer any need of them and I think it would be wasteful to simply get rid of them all.” He knelt down and tried to raise up the head onto but it was too heavy for him alone. Thankfully, Bruce could see he needed help and gave a hand as they moved it to some of the other items from the Batman’s past adventures.
 
“So I’ve decided to archive them,” Alfred continued as they set the head down, “A private museum if you will. A show of the Batman’s great’s accomplishments; even if we’ll be the only ones to ever see them.”
 
“That’s actually not a bad idea, Alfred,” Bruce smiled before he suddenly came to a realization. “Water.”
 
“Excuse me, sir?”
 
“I just figured out the link between the robberies. They were all near the city’s waterways,” Bruce pulled out a PDA that had a map of the city, “Six of them were near the canals and the remaining three were on Lake Gotham.”
 

 
While she didn’t suit up the day after she was saved by the Batman, Sunset had been patrolling the streets for the past five days now. She was now being extra careful while she was doing work as she didn’t want a repeat of what had happened earlier in the week.

However, unlike the first night, she was having much more success than she had before. The past few nights she focused on stopping very small groups of criminals; ranging from thieves committing some breaking and entering to thugs snatching purses.

It wasn’t anything too heroic or eye-catching, but she knew she had to start somewhere. It did also give her good experience which was something Zatanna told her she needed.
 
Sunset was currently sitting on the edge of a rooftop near the lake’s edge as she was resting for a few moments. The rest didn’t last long as she heard some scuffling in a nearby alley.
 
“No, please, help!” A voice cried out from the direction of the scuffle; to Sunset, it sounded like an elderly lady. Sunset went straight into action by sliding down one of the ladders of a building’s fire escape before she was soon back at ground level.
 
She made a quick dash around the alley before she found a large man trying to steal a purse from an old woman.
 
“Hey!” Sunset got the man’s attention as he let go of the purse and turned his back to the woman that he was robbing. “Stealing from little old ladies? Have you considered other job alternatives?”
 
The man gave no response as he pulled out a switchblade knife and pointed it right towards Sunset before he ran right for her.
 
“Always got to do it the hard way,” Sunset muttered before she ducked down and caused the man to overshoot his charge.
 
Sunset took advantage by doing a leg sweep that caused the man to end up on his back but before Sunset could finish him off with a hard punch to the face; he swung at her leg with his knife, causing it to graze outer right thigh.
 
However, the knife didn’t penetrate her skin; in fact, it didn’t even cut her skirt. All of it was thanks to the light enchantments that Sunset had placed on her clothes. The man was surprised by the fact that he didn’t even cause a scratch but it only lasted for a split second.
 
That second was all Sunset needed before she threw a hard, magic infused punch that knocked the guy out cold. Sunset got back up and dusted herself off before checking her leg to see that the enchantment worked like a charm.
 
“Oh, thank you very much, dear,” the woman said to her.
 
Sunset gave her a smile before she turned around and ran away. “No problem!” she cried out as she left the scene. The man was not going to bother anyone for a while and the woman would be long gone by the time he came to; that was why Sunset was running away rather than staying until some police unit patrolled the area to pick the attacker up.
 
Sunset soon found herself looking out towards the lake once more before she saw something weird involving a lake freighter. She dug into her coat pocket and pulled out a mini-telescope and got a better look at what was going on.
 
She saw a man operation a ship crane while two others had finished tying up what looked like the members of the ship’s crew and led them down into the ship. Sunset was about ready to move before she saw Batman hanging on oxygen tanks that were being lifted by the crane.
 
She saw him starting to fight the men before she decided to help him out. He probably didn’t need it, but she thought that giving him a hand was a way to make up for him saving her before.
 
She dashed over to the ship and then ran up the boarding ramp to the freighter before she found all three of the hijackers lying on the ground in pain around the bat.
 
“Aw, I was hoping I could at least help with one.” She sighed.
 
Batman slowly turned his head towards her before he glared at her. “Didn’t take my advice, I see.”
 
Sunset shrugged. “Well, it was always a plan to help in Gotham, so no matter what you say was going to change that. Besides, I just proved that this can only help this city as you clearly can’t be everywhere at once. I just saved an old lady from being mugged only moments ago.”
 
The Dark Knight said nothing in response before both of them heard a strange growling noise that sounded like it came from the top of the ship’s bridge. Both of them looked up to find nothing, but then that sound came once more; this time from behind the pile of oxygen tanks.
 
“My daddy used to say...” Both masked heroes turned to see a large reptile-like man staring them down. “‘You want something done right, best to do it yourself’”
 
The reptile showed his clawed hand before he swung down and knocked off the top of an oxygen tank. The tank suddenly shot towards Batman and Sunset like a torpedo as all of its compressed air was violently released.
 
The two of them dodged it, though it was just an inch or two away from hitting Batman. More tanks were sent flying but once again, both of them were left unscathed.
 
The reptile then soon pushed the rest of the tanks and sent them rolling right towards them. Sunset rolled out of the way but Batman took it one step further by first placing his foot on the first tank that rolled to him and then used momentum to jump up and spin over the tanks.
 
The tanks crashed into the side railing of the freighter, causing them to break it and fall into the lake waters as Batman landed back onto the ship’s deck. The lizard man took a few steps forward and soon towered over him.
 
“You look to be this Batman legend I keep hearing about. Well, folks are gonna start hearing about how Killer Croc stopped you good.” He then glanced over to Sunset. “You... I don’t think I’ve heard of you.”
 
“Guess word of me hasn’t spread as much as I thought,” Sunset said as she slowly moved into a fighting stance.
 
Batman made the first move before anything else could be said. He threw several punches but despite his imposing size, Croc was clearly much faster than he looked as he simply avoided the punches.
 
He then changed tactics by going for hits to the head but Croc raised his arms up to block them. Batman then tried to roundhouse kick Croc in the face, but like with the punches, Croc’s speed kept contact from being made.
 
The spin that Batman made in the kick had his cape in Croc’s face which temporarily obstructed his view which gave the Bat a window to throw a hard punch right into the crocodile’s solar plexus. Croc took a step back as he wrapped his arms around his gut in pain.
 
Sunset kept her distance as she continued to watch the fight. If Batman was having trouble with his opponent, then Sunset would be dead meat if she tried to join in, or worse, she'd be in the way. 

Croc launched his own counterattack which brought Batman to the edge of the freighter before the reptile-man tackled Batman and sent both of them over the ship’s side.
 
Sunset ran to the ship’s edge and looked down into the water below as the two faded from view. For a split second, she thought about jumping down to go after them, but realized she would be at a fatal disadvantage.
 
Knowing that she had to at least do something, her attention was directed to the henchman that Batman dealt with. She then remembered the captured crew. She ran into the bowels of the ship and found six men all tied together.
 
“Hey!” a man, who looked to be the ship’s captain, called to her.
 
“Hang on.” She ran over to them, “I’ll get you out in a few seconds.” She knelt down and started to untie the rope. It took her several minutes but she finally got all of them freed.
 
“Thanks a lot.” The captain rubbed his wrists as he was freed from the rope. “Who are you?”

“Just call me Alicorn,” Sunset responded before she quickly made a dash for the deck. She was taking another lesson Zatanna gave her to heart: never stay in one place as it’s a recipe for getting caught.
 
When she returned on deck, she found that several more of the oxygen tanks were missing and so were the henchmen. She looked over the railing to see the three of them and Croc getting away on a small fishing hauler.
 
She then glanced back towards the lake and saw Batman floating in the water.
 
“Hey, you okay?” She called out to him. He looked over to her but said nothing before a strange looking boat pulled up right next to him. He climbed into it and it soon sped away in the opposite direction of Croc’s hauler.
 
“Guess I should make myself scarce too,” Sunset said to herself before leaving the area as well.
 

 
Bruce stood near the Batcomputer with a towel wrapped around his neck. The only sounds that could be heard echoing in the cave were the sounds of electronics running and the dripping of water that came from the drenched Batsuit.
 
The sounds of footsteps soon took precedent as Alfred walked up and looked at the dripping outfit.
 
“Master Bruce.” Alfred picked up one of the boots and dumped out some water, “Your Batsuit may be drip-dry; you, however, are not.”
 
Bruce’s response was to slam his fist down on the console. “Sorry, Alfred. I let myself get caught in a fight on Croc’s terms rather than my own. Next time, I’ll be sure to stay out of the water when fighting him.”
 
“Well, it would certainly leave quite less of a mess for me to clean up.” Bruce turned and gave Alfred a small apologetic smirk.
 
“Croc wasn’t the only one I ran into; I also had an encounter with Sunset again.”
 
Alfred’s eyes slightly widened. “Miss Lucciola? I see. So it appears that she is still willing to stay here.”
 
“Looks that way. Although, I have to admit, she seems to be taking the lessons she’s learned to heart. Like not to bite off more than what she can chew, or be more aware of her surroundings.”
 
“Well, that’s good to hear, but I still find it very unnerving that a girl her age wants to take up this kind of lifestyle. Especially one with so much talent,” Alfred said.
 
“We can only hope that maybe she’ll find that she not really cut out for this sort of thing and goes back to being a normal teenager.”
 
As soon as Bruce said that, the Batwave suddenly went off. The computer screen then showed a news reporter in a studio with a picture that read ‘Gotham Flooded’.
 
“This was the scene moments ago as Gotham’s financial district was hit by the largest flood in the city’s history,” the news reporter said as images of ranging torrents of water engulfing the district were shown.
 
“What?” Bruce asked as he was completely shocked by this sudden turn of events.
 
The screen now showed images of people being saved from the water. “Emergency crews are now arriving to assist with the evacuation of local residents. The cause of the flood is still unknown.”
 
The Batwave went off once more on a different screen; this time it showed a map of Gotham and three glowing red lights.
 
“Three bank alarms in Gotham’s waterlogged financial district?” Bruce wondered before he came to the same conclusion as Alfred.
 
“Your amphibious acquaintance?”
 
“Reptile, Alfred. He’s a cold-blooded reptile.”
 

Sunset was enjoying breakfast at her apartment while flipping through some channels on her TV before she ended up catching the local news report about the flooding. She guessed that Killer Croc probably had something to do with the freak floods, but decided that Batman could handle him.

As for her, she would go down there and try to help save those who had been caught up in the water.

After getting suited up, she headed for the financial district which actually wasn’t too far away from her place. She went over a few blocks, jumping from rooftop to rooftop before she reached several streets that had found themselves under an inch or two of water; though the real heavy flooding was still ahead of her.

Sunset was soon traversing the flooded streets on building ledges and balconies before she saw what looked to be a boy no older than five years old with a grey-haired dog trying desperately to keep their heads above the water.

“Help! Someone, please!” The poor boy cried out in terror.

“Don’t worry! I’ll get you out of there!” Sunset called out to him from a balcony that she was on. She looked around for anything that she could use to try to fish the boy out.

Thankfully, there appeared to be a few long pieces of plywood from a submerged pickup truck that could be used. The water level was only half a foot below the balcony’s edge so Sunset reached over and picked up one of the wet boards before holding it out to the stranded child.

“Here! Grab this! I’ll pull you up!” She shouted. The boy nodded before he placed his dog on the board and he grabbed the other end. Sunset then slowly started to pull him over; not making any rapid motions that might accidentally throw him off. 

After about a minute, she pulled both of them up on the balcony. The boy quickly wrapped his arms around Sunset’s waist while his dog tried to shake himself dry.

“Thank you so much! You saved me and Rusty!” Sunset blushed at the affection he was giving her but it was actually cute.

“You’re more than welcome. I couldn’t just let you stay out there.” She then kneeled down to look at the boy at eye level, “But, could you tell me what happened?”

“I was out taking Rusty for a walk before the water started to come,” he explained. “We got on top of a bus but the water just kept rising until we got swept away.”

Sunset gave him a small smile. “Well, you should be safe now until you can be truly rescued. Now, I got to see if anyone else needs rescuing, so you be good now, okay?” Sunset got a running start before she jumped off the balcony and onto the ledge of the building next to it.

“Thank you!” The boy waved. “You’re my favorite hero now!” That comment warmed Sunset’s heart and once again galvanized her to keep up with what she was doing.

Sunset soon found herself leaning up against another ledge two blocks away before she heard the sound of a motor getting closer. She soon looked down and saw two men on jet skis driving by with a large amount of cash in water-proof bags.

A few moments later, she saw Killer Croc on another one with Batman pursuing him. However, it appeared that he didn’t notice the third man coming right behind him until he took a swing at Batman. The Dark Knight moved out of the way, only to be knocked off his jet ski by Croc.

“Mind your cowl now!” Croc taunted as he escaped while the other man stopped and turned around. It was clear that he intended to run over Batman who was floating in the water. Sunset knew she had to do something and against her better judgement; she decided that she would need to jump and try to land on the jet ski.

She waited a few moments as she tried to time it right before she jumped off the ledge down to the flooded streets below. She was off by a fraction of a second so instead of landing on the jet ski, she landed on the man and knocked both of them off.

The sheer impact knocked the man out so Sunset quickly grabbed him before he drowned and brought him back to the surface.
 
“Meant to land on the front of his jet ski.” She grinned to Batman before she lost her grip on the thief. “Hey, can I get a hand with him?”
 
Batman gave her a hand as he got back his jet ski and the two of them tied the thug up before hanging him upside down from the lance of the Gotham Knight statue.

“So, Croc was obviously behind all this,” concluded Sunset.

“All the major thefts these past few days were all related to him. He and those three henchmen of his used the flood to make off most of the contents of several banks in the area.” Batman explained to her.

“Well, at least we got one…” Sunset gave a slight silver lining.
 
A moment later, the bearded thief was slowly coming too and the first thing he saw when he awoke was the dark cowl of the Batman with his eyes practically bearing into his soul.
 
“Croc’s story. Spill it,” ordered Batman.
 
“I ain’t telling you anything!” He spit back.
 
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way.” Batman clearly had very little patience for the man.

“Forget it!” The man still remained defiant. However, an idea popped into Sunset’s head and she tapped Batman on his shoulder.
 
“Allow me,” she climbed over the jet ski and was now face to face with the criminal. “Now, then, you’re going to tell us what we want to know, or I can easily just pick your mind apart and find it.”
 
“What!? You’re bluffing! And when did you become a sidekick for the Bat?”
 
“Ally, not sidekick. My motif doesn’t exactly mesh with his. Besides, I’ve already got a mentor.” Sunset waved dismissively at the thug before she placed her hand against his face and her eye mask began to glow brightly.
 
“Wait, what are you doing!? No, stop! Get out of my head!” The thug screamed. “Okay, okay! I’ll tell you!” 

Sunset stopped a fraction of a second after he said that. She then climbed back to the rear of the jet ski and left the thief facing Batman once more.
 
“Now then, talk,” Batman said once more.
 
“Alright! He’s ex-military, I think. Mercenary type. Some think he’s a genetic experiment, a crossbreed soldier or something. Others think he messed with the wrong kind of voodoo in the bayou. Me? I’m thinking circus freak...” The man explained.
 
“Facts,” Batman responded sternly, “not folktales.”
 
“What’s to tell? Croc’s just showed up recently but he plans to make his name fast by pulling off some big jobs.”

“Bigger than robbing banks?”

“Croc said today’s flood was just a dry run.”
 
“If I wanted to do some big-city Croc hunting, where would I go?”
 
The bearded man’s eyes widened. “Oh, no way!” He shook his head, “Boss Croc’s cold-blooded, man. I talk, I wind up fish food!”
 
Batman grabbed the man’s face and started to tighten his grip around his cheeks. “You don’t talk, we could all wind up fish food.”
 
“And I could always just go through your head again,” Sunset added.
 
Faced with the realization that he really had no choice, the man confessed. “Alright, he’s hiding out in the sewers, near West Grand’s canal.”
 
“Thank you,” Batman said before he punched the man unconscious.
 
“Well? Let’s go,” Sunset said.
 
“What’s this ‘we’? I’m going after Croc, you’re going home,” Batman told her.
 
“Don’t treat me like some kind of pest, alright? Despite what you might say, you’ll probably need my help. You go down there alone, it’s still three on one; with me, you’ll have a better chance. Look, I’ll distract his henchman while you focus entirely on Croc. What do you say?”
 
Sunset thought she made some good points. If that fight on the freighter was any indication, then he knew it was probably going to need all his attention to be on Croc. However, those henchmen would probably do whatever it took to try and distract Batman and leave him wide open to whatever Croc would throw at him.

After a few more moments, Batman sighed before he made his decision. “Alright, but you are to listen to everything I say and follow my orders to the letter, understood?”
 
“Perfectly.” Sunset nodded as Batman started up jet ski once more and they started to head towards Croc’s hideout.
 
“By the way.” Batman glanced back to Sunset. “Can you actually read minds?”
 
Sunset smirked. “Nah, I was just bluffing, and he fell for it.”
 

 
Sunset hung onto the Batman tight as they zipped through the flooded streets. They soon came across the street where the henchman had told them and Batman stopped the jet ski.
 
“Here.” He turned around and handed her a small object, “It’s a rebreather; keep it firmly locked in your mouth so you can breathe,” He told her before he pulled out a second one and placed it in his mouth.
 
Once he saw Sunset get the rebreather in, he revved up the jet ski and it soon began to sink into the water. It soon split in half and revealed a diver propulsion vehicle. The two of them soon descended deeper into the sewer tunnels.
 
After many tight corridors and turns, Batman pulled up and had them resurface in what clearly was Croc’s hideout. His jet ski, the cash, jewels and gold that he stole were all seen in the small chamber.
 
“Ugh,” Sunset complained as she was dripping from head to toe, “I knew I should’ve learned a waterproofing spell for my clothes.”
 
“Having second thoughts, are we?” Batman said as he walked out of the water.
 
“Not at all. Just complaining about the fact that I will have to take a dozen showers and burn these clothes just to remove the stench this place is coating them in. I’m not backing down from this.”
 
Batman walked up to the table that had much of the stolen goods laid out. He picked up a diamond and looked closely at it.
 
“Hey,” Sunset tapped his shoulder, “These are maps of the city’s waterways right?” She held up several pieces of paper to him. He looked at them closely. “What are they?”
 
“Schematics of Gotham’s canals,” he explained.
 
“You sure got a lot of bloodhound in you, for a bat,” Croc’s voice echoed before the two of them turned to see him coming out of the other tunnel. Batman subtly motioned Sunset to get behind him.
 
She was well aware of her limited abilities and the fact that she wouldn’t stand a chance in a one on one fight with Croc. Maybe someday in the future, but certainly not today.
 
“I see the little lady is still following ya; taking someone under your wing, are we?” Croc chuckled, “No answer, huh? Well, then how about an answer to this; what do you think?” He held up his hands and waved his hands around the room. “A dry little spot to catch my breath between heists.”
 
“And right beside the overflow pumps for Gotham’s canal system.” Batman threw the map onto the floor.
 
“They were designed to drain the canals into the bay in case of flooding.” Croc moved away from the other tunnel and towards the one that Batman and Sunset had entered through. “But I did some thinking. If you reverse the pumps-”
 
“They draw water in from the lake, filling the canals until they submerge any part of Gotham situated below the lake’s level,” Batman stated.
 
“Which includes just about all of downtown, where the good shopping is.”
 
“But if that happens… then thousands of lives would be lost!” Sunset concluded to her horror.
 
“And I’ll shed a crocodile tear for each and every one.” Croc flashed his sharp teeth in a sick grin. Sunset looked down and saw Batman tightening his fist.
 
He then moved into a fighting stance which was met with Croc lifting his tail up high, before bringing it down onto the water. And as if on cue, the moment he did that, two large crocodiles came right out of the water.
 
“And speaking of, my pets haven’t had a decent bite since we arrived.” Croc then turned around and started walking into the water, “Now, if you’ll pardon me, bat snacks, I’ve got some more pumps to reverse.”
 
Croc soon vanished into the sewer waves before Batman and Sunset began to quickly back up away from Croc’s pets.
 
“Run, down the other tunnel!” he ordered. Sunset nodded and ran with him right behind her and the crocs behind him.
 
“Stop!” he shouted as they ran a few feet into the tunnel, as the crocs followed behind and blocked their way. Sunset was about to say something before he wrapped his arm around her waist. “How much do you weigh?”
 
“About a hundred and twenty-four I think.” Batman held up his other arm with his grappling hook in hand and shot it into the roof of the tunnel. The two of them then swung over the two snapping reptiles before they were outside the tunnel.
 
Batman then threw a Batarang at the top of the tunnel entrance before it started to beep and then exploded. The whole roof of the tunnel collapsed and kept the crocodiles trapped on the opposite side.
 
“Well, that will take them a while to crawl out,” Sunset admitted.
 
“Come on, we need to stop Croc now.”
 

 
“Nothing like good old elbow grease,” Sunset heard Croc say as she and Batman reached one of the major overflow pumps. They were still hiding in the water as they saw Croc turning a large wheel that controlled the pumps.
 
Knowing they had the element of surprise, Batman made his move by latching his grappling hook onto the wheel right by Croc’s head.
 
“You are peskier than a fly in a-” he didn’t get to finish his saying as Batman was being pulled by the hook right towards Croc and punched him hard in the face. Croc crashed into the wheel and then stumbled forward. Batman jumped over him and delivered a double kick right to Croc’s back which knocked him into the water.
 
Sunset got out of the water and ran towards Batman while keeping her distance from Croc. Her attention was locked onto Croc’s two remaining henchman who started running towards Batman. He merely pulled out a bola and threw it out which tied the two men up.
 
“Catch of the day,” Batman said before he turned around and started to reverse the wheel on the pumps. Sunset looked and saw an indication that showed the pump was currently outputting water into the canals.
 
“Hurry,” she shouted, “the water’s probably rising as we speak!”
 
She then heard Croc growl and turned to see him just running past her and body slamming Batman against the pipes behind him. He delivered a few hard punches that knocked the Dark Knight onto the ground before grabbing him and throwing him into the water.
 
Croc then turned towards Sunset. “Sorry, darlin’ but my momma always taught me to treat a lady with respect, so I ain’t gonna fight you.” He walked over to his henchman and held up a claw, “They, on the other hand, probably never got the same advice.”
 
Croc cut the bola and freed his men. The two henchmen got untangled and then looked directly towards Sunset. Sunset took a deep breath and got ready. She did say she would help keep those two distracted while Batman handled Croc, and that’s what she was going to do.
 
Everyone was quickly distracted by the earthquake-like roar Croc gave before he looked back at the wheel and started to turn it.
 
“You gotta put your back into it, boy.” Sunset saw the indicator showing that the pumps were outpouring again. Batman resurfaced out of the water and got ready for another round with Croc.
 
“You best give it up, Bat. By the time they figure out what caused the flood, Downtown Gotham will be my personal swamp.” Batman charged forward and started to fight Croc once again while Croc’s goons ran towards Sunset.
 
Sunset ducked down as the goatee man tried to hit her in the face and then she rolled to the side as to avoid the kick the glasses wearing man tried. She got back up on her feet as she dogged another punch before she counterattacked and delivered a hard one right into the glasses wearing man’s kidney.
 
While one attacker was temporarily distracted with his pain, Sunset could focus more on the remaining thug that was still coming after her. She did a small backflip, but made sure it was close enough that her feet could kick the man right into his jaw. He fell backwards on the ground as the other man rejoined the fight.
 
As he started to dash towards her, Sunset decided to try something new. She held out a hand and started to channel some energy. What happened next was something not that amazing, but it would make all the difference.
 
A small orange field of energy appeared right before the man’s legs; it looked like an ethereal one by two wooden board. The man didn’t see it until he found his leg colliding right with it and tripping him forward until he landed hard on his face on the filthy stone ground. The impact was so hard that it both knocked him out cold and also smashed his glasses.
 
“You’ll pay for that!” the remaining thug shouted as charged towards her. However, he was so blinded by rage that Sunset merely jumped and delivered a kick to his face causing him to crash into the wall behind him; which caused him to get knocked unconscious as well.
 
Sunset then turned around to see Croc being knocked into the water, while the pumps were reversing the overflow and one of Croc’s teeth was embedded into the wheel.
 
“Boy, you are beginning to stick in my craw!” Croc yelled as he and Batman clashed in the water once more. Batman’s punches were blocked before Croc wrapped his arms around him and dragged him under the sewer waters.
 
Sunset stared at the water as the bubbles soon vanished before everything became calm and eerily quiet. Her deep fear was that Croc was going to resurface while holding Batman’s drowned corpse.
 
Finally, something appeared from the water; it was Croc’s hands and it looked like he was struggling before they went back under again and the bubbles stopped once more.
 
A few moments after that, more bubbles appeared before Croc surfaced… with Batman carrying him underneath. He got out of the water before he threw Croc’s body onto the ground.
 
“What happened?” Sunset asked, “Is he...”
 
“No, he’s just out of breath,” Batman told her, “Crocs may spend a lot of time in the water, but they still have lungs; not gills.”
 
“So he’s not unstoppable underwater then.”
 
“Yeah, now then, you want to wake one of those two up so they can give lizard-lips a little mouth-to-mouth?”
 
“Ugh,” Sunset stuck her tongue out in disgust, “Thanks for giving me that image.” Batman smirked before he gave Croc his rebreather and got the cold-blooded monster breathing again.
 

 
Much of the flooded waters had receded as Batman finished chaining up Croc and his goons to the Gotham Knight statue where he and Sunset left the other thief.
 
“This ain’t over, aqua-bat! Gotham is gonna be my backyard bayou!” Croc roared as he struggled in the chains.
 
“I won’t hold my breath,” Batman merely said before he grappled onto the nearby roof where Sunset was waiting as police cars started driving towards the statue.
 
“Well, hopefully the police can handle him with ease. Last thing we need is him to escape before he gets to prison,” Sunset said.
 
“GCPD will make sure they take all the steps necessary to contain him. They’d be stupid if they didn’t take the precautions.”
 
“Yeah, all in a day’s work, I guess.” Sunset dusted off her hands, “So, I have to ask, aside from being wet behind the ears,” she brushed her hair and some water dripped out, “Uh, quite literally; how do you think I did?”
 
The Dark Knight said nothing. 

“Look, I know what you said before about being somewhere else but I’m not going anywhere; I’m here to stay so you might as well get used to it, okay?”
 
Batman continued to say nothing before he pulled out his grappling hook and latched it on to a nearby building.
 
“Tell Zatanna that the Batman thinks you did alright today, Miss Lucciola.” He then jumped off the building and swung away.
 
“What!?” Sunset’s eyes widened as he said that. She then sighed. “I knew I should’ve kept all that magic stuff to myself.”