"Never, Never I return!

Still for victory I burn

Living, thee alone I'll have

And when dead, I'll be thy Grave

Thro' the Heav'n & Earth & Hell

Thou shalt never, never quell

I will fly & thou pursue

Night & morn the flight renew."

"My spectre around me night & day."

William Blake

Wayne's mutated face clearly displayed a mix of confusion and anger. Pam simply smiled and for a good minute, nothing happened. Jack felt his breath hitch as he wondered if maybe this wasn't going to work and then there was the faintest tremor. It felt as though something had hit the building and the commissioner relaxed.

The tremor increased and then the whole building was shaking. By now, the men outside would have pulled back even further, knowing what was about to happen. The chandelier overhead began to sway and then the first cracking noises were heard. Wayne looked around wildly.

"What is this? What are you doing?" There was a hint of panic in the monster's voice. He thought he had prepared for everything but faced with the unknown, he hesitated. He almost seemed to forget about the prisoner just inches from his claws as his instinct screamed at him to escape.

Chunks of the wall began to fall and then green leafy plants burst through, flowing into the room on all sides. Before they had entered the building, Ivy had walked all the way around it. To any observers, it would have appeared that she was merely scouting the site. It would have taken very sharp eyes to see the tiny seeds she had sprinkled in a circle that enclosed the building.

Under Ivy's direction, the seeds had burst and the plants inside had smashed through the walls, both shoring them up and compromising their structure. The green mass coming at them from all four sides was essentially, the only thing holding up the building right now. One thought from Ivy and the building would collapse on all of them. Pam would probably survive, cushioned by her vines as she was, and she would do her best to save Jack and Harley if she could but Wayne would most likely be crushed.

"I'm giving you one more chance to surrender, Mr. Wayne or we all go out together." For a moment, Bruce simply stared at the greenery that covered all four walls and was crawling across the ceiling and floor now as well. The thick stalks were shooting out tendrils towards him and in a matter of minutes they would cover every surface.

"Very smart, Jack. I didn't know you had such ruthlessness in you." Then Wayne simply grinned and the floor opened up beneath him. He yanked the bound Harley through the trapdoor with him knocking over the chair she'd been sitting on. Pam snarled in anger and vines shot out from the plants closest to the stage and grabbed the edge of the trapdoor before it could fully close.

Jack cursed as he ran for the stage. He couldn't let Wayne get away, not when they were so close. Kicking the chair out of the way, he jumped into the open trapdoor, feet first without a second glance back. Training served him well as he landed hard but on his feet. His gun was in his hand as he stood still, surveying his surroundings. The only light was from the open trapdoor above him which left him in a dim room with corridors leading off in two directions.

There was no way of knowing which way to go. The room brightened a bit as Nygma's drone flew down to join him. It shone a light around and then flashed a quick pattern at Jack and took off down one of the corridors. The drones could detect body heat so he could only hope it was actually following a trail and not picking a direction at random.

Jack followed behind it, straining to hear or see any little clue. This place was like a maze and there were closed doors he passed by without searching them even though it went against every cop instinct he possessed. If he spent time checking everywhere, Wayne would have time to escape so trusting the drone was his best chance.

He heard a noise behind him but it was just Pam following him down. Her plants were tearing up the ceiling behind her, opening more of an escape route. Jack trusted her to cover his back and indeed she was sending vines out to yank open each of the doors that she passed so it was unlikely the Bat-Demon would be able to slip away.

The only problem was that Pam's passage was noisy which not only told their quarry that they were coming but could possibly mask a sudden attack if it came from behind. Still, Jack followed the drone to a brick room where a ladder led up to some higher level. There was also a metal door set into the floor. The drone seemed confused, hovering near them with the trail uncertain.

Jack peered up the ladder but everything above was in darkness. It probably led to the catwalk above the stage but he didn't think Wayne would go up there. The vines were everywhere now and the catwalk would be compromised. He couldn't rule out the possibility but the metal door was the more likely path. The police commissioner tugged on it experimentally but it wouldn't budge.

As much as it galled him to wait, he needed Pam's help and it took her a few minutes to join him. He gave her a quick overview of the situation. She peered up the ladder as well and then shook her head.

"My babies up there didn't sense anyone so he didn't go up." Her vines wrapped around the handle of the metal door and heaved. Nothing happened. Several more tries yielded nothing. The door was too well sealed. The drone beeped and produced a thin blowtorch.

Pam and Jack both got out of the way as Eddie directed his little invention to cut through the edge of the metal until the whole thing buckled and heaved. Only then were they able to pull it out of the way but by now precious time had been lost. The beanstalk-thick vines were slowly reducing the building above them to rubble so it was no surprise that the door led down into another tunnel below. Wayne probably thought it was his only way out but he was wrong about that.

Eddie had sent mini-drones down into every sewer line within a five-block radius of the old theater. They were designed to register movement to track the passage of anyone trying to flee and then follow any figure that disturbed them. If Wayne kept running, he would end up trailing a swarm of mini-drones and then he would run into the armed squads who were blocking every route. There would be nowhere left to go.

"He's to your left, moving fast." Eddie's voice was distant in their earpieces as he continually monitored a stream of data from multiple sites. There was still one more of the lesser demons out there and they needed to find her as well.

Jack didn't bother to reply but turned to his left and followed the drone that was lighting the way for them. Pam threw something into the water behind her and some type of thorny plant sprung up, blocking the tunnel behind them so Wayne couldn't double back and slip past them. Their net was closing in upon him fast and he didn't even know it.

The service tunnel here was wet so they had to watch their step. It wouldn't do to trip and hurt themselves with a dangerous enemy so close ready to take advantage of any weakness. Jack was forced to holster his gun so he could concentrate on his footing as the light from the drone was the only illumination they had. The darkness was absolute beyond the five-foot radius of the lights but Jack was confident that he would have notice if Wayne headed back towards them thanks to Eddie's robots.

The floor was relatively flat and straight so Jack and Pam were able to pick up their pace as they followed Eddie's directions urging them to keep going forward. Rusty tracks went up the middle of it threatening to trip them at every opportunity. From the looks of it, this service tunnel had once been used for deliveries, probably by handcars. Over a century of limited maintenance had left it cracked and worn making it more dangerous but the lack of side passages meant they could keep going in one direction without worrying about losing their quarry.

If the drone hadn't been equipped with both heat sensors and electronic scanners, they would likely have stumbled right into Wayne's trap. Only the drone halting and beeping a warning made them stop and see the small, explosive devices placed in a line across the tunnel's width. If they had stepped on them or set them off, they would be dead and the walls would likely collapse on their remains. Wayne wasn't playing around anymore.

The small metal explosives in the stylized shape of a bat were something Wayne had used before but he preferred to use his own claws to kill people. This was probably just an attempt to slow them down but the fact that he'd risked killing Jack and Pam instead of taking them on himself, meant he was getting desperate.

Jack removed a small device from one of his pockets and tossed it in among the bat-bombs. There was a flash and then nothing. Chief Nygma had given Jack the small EMP device in order to short out electronics but there was only one way to be sure it had worked. Jack and Pam retreated a short distance down the hallway and then the drone extended an arm and picked up each of the apparently inert bomb and moved them to the side.

It was safe to go past now but they'd lost more time and the two of them would have to move slower to make sure there were no more traps set up along the way. The only good thing was that the Bat-Demon wouldn't have a lot of time to set up anything elaborate as he was running, especially burdened by a hostage but they couldn't underestimate his cunning when backed into a corner as he was now.

"Commissioner, I've been reviewing the schematics of the theater. The service tunnel you're in ends in a short while. It was supposedly sealed off years ago but who knows what Wayne's been doing down there? Stay alert, sir."

Jack didn't acknowledge Nygma's voice in his earpiece. No point in making more noise than he needed to down here. Pam had the same equipment so she would have heard the same report. The tunnel curved ahead of them and as they eased around the corner, they were met with a brick wall and no sign of any way through. Jack played his beam around the area in frustration.

There was a chain attached to the wall with a metal collar at the end of it. It looked fairly new. He examined it carefully. There were scratches on the wall that looked like they had been made by claws, rather small claws. Could this be where he had kept Aaron Langstrom? If so, he was gone now too, another captive Jack had to rescue. Just in case, he tugged hard on the chain to see if it was any kind of secret lever but nothing happened.

Either they had missed some grate or hatchway along the route or Wayne had never come down here in the first place. Maybe he had gone up into the theater despite what Pam's plants had told her, maybe he had gone the opposite way in the tunnel. Even the bat-bombs could have been set weeks ago. There were too many possibilities. Jack snarled in frustration and had to resist the urge to punch the wall.

"We'll find them if I have to tear down everything within five blocks of here." Pam put her hand on his shoulder. He took several deep breaths and turned around. They would have to start a sweep and who knew how long that would take? Jack was pretty sure he had everything in place to prevent Wayne from escaping but he had to concede that there was always the slim possibility that he'd missed something.

"Commissioner! I've got movement in the sewers near you. I think it's them." Eddie's voice held a note of excitement.

"Great but how do we get there? We haven't seen any sewer connections." Jack felt a spark of hope at this new lead.

"It looks like there was an access hatch about fifty feet behind you on the left. He must have disguised it somehow."

"On it." Jack turned and hurried back up the tunnel with Pam right behind him. When he'd gone roughly fifty feet he played the flashlight around the area. The drone helped by shining a light on the coordinates Eddie had sent. The wall didn't look any different than the rest of the tunnel but when Jack hesitantly began pushing on it, one concrete block moved slightly under his hand.

It took Pam's vines and both of them pushing to dislodge the concrete slab that had been fitted over the sewer tunnel's opening. Only someone of Wayne's enhanced strength could have moved it on their own. Both of them went through carefully. This section had been designed to handle runoff rather than being a main sewer line so while the walls were wet and slimy, there was no strong odor.

"The movement is a thousand feet ahead of you, northbound." Jack made sure they were facing the correct direction and then the two of them set off at a quick pace. They had to hope there were no more traps because the important thing now was to catch up to their prey.

He couldn't hear anything ahead of them but the robotic sensors were not only designed to sense movement but a percentage of them were programmed to detach from the walls and follow the source of the movement. Wayne should be accumulating a swarm of tiny drones in his wake and the farther he ran, the more of them there would be. Eddie would tell him if anything changed.

The tunnel was straight and if it wasn't so dark, he probably would be able to see Wayne and Harley ahead of him. The only light came from the drone probing ahead of them with its wide beam and the small flashlight in his hand. It only illuminated a small area at a time so they had to rely on the sensors to know where Wayne was headed. They hadn't seen any side tunnels but even if they did, they wouldn't need to search them unless Eddie's drones were wrong.

"Jack, something's changed. The drones are recording a human-sized mass lying in your path. Wayne's still on the move."

Harley. Jack increased his pace, fearing the worst. Wayne had probably discarded her both as a distraction and because she was slowing him down but it was unlikely he would have left her unscathed. He thought he'd been prepared to lose her but now the thought of finding her body made him want to vomit.

He almost missed the bundle of blackness as his beam swept over it but then his brain registered that something was wrong. The creature stirred briefly before lying still again. For a moment, he couldn't make any sense of what he was seeing and then he could see membraned wings folded around a small body and he realized who it was.

"Is it Harley? Is she okay?" Eddie's voice in his ear sounded concerned. Pam made an irritated growl behind him. They both knew what had happened. Somehow, Wayne had retrieved his other captive and then discarded him here to slow them down. They couldn't ignore an injured or sick child, even a mutated bat-demon version.

"No, it's not Harley, its Aaron." The boy stirred again at the sound of Jack's voice but other than that, he barely moved. Was he drugged or just weak from his time spent chained to a wall? Hesitantly, Jack moved forward to circle around and check on the boy's condition. As his beam fell on the bat-like face, yellow eyes snapped open to peer up at him. There were no visible injuries that Jack could see.

"Aaron? Can you understand me? My name is Jack. Don't be afraid. I'm going to take you to your parents."

Pointed ears swiveled in his direction and Aaron moved weakly, struggling to sit up. He seemed to have trouble with all of his limbs as his wings flailed awkwardly. Instinctively, Jack moved forward to help the boy to his feet.

As soon as he touched the furred shoulder, he realized his mistake. Aaron snarled and flung himself at Jack's face. Claws slashed over the upper half of Jack's face and as he stumbled back in shock, Aaron was on him bearing him down to the ground, his fangs snapping at Jack's throat. It was a good thing his arms were long enough to hold off the surprisingly solid body.

Pam yelled something at him but he was too busy struggling with the angry, hissing bat-demon in his arms to comprehend what she was saying. Blood ran down into his eyes so he could barely see and then he heard the faint beeping sound of one of Wayne's bat-bombs. Vines wrapped around him and his furious assailant and then there was a deafening "boom!" and everything went black.

A/N: This chapter was really hard to write. I rewrote certain scenes multiple times and I still don't know if I'm satisfied. But the next one is going to be even harder with what I have planned so this will have to do.