A Batman and M.A.S.K. Crossover
By The Hitman

"Hush, Dagger!"

Angrily Sly Rax silenced his nervous partner. "How am I supposed to open this safe if you keep up that noise?"

Cliff Dagger continued to throw worried looks around in the dark office they had broken into. There was a storm coming and already thunder could be heard and occasional flashes lit up the room. It didn't exactly make things easier for Sly Rax who had a hard time adapting his eyes to the weak light provided by a small flashlight he carried with him.

"I don't like it here." Dagger told him.

"You been doing this kind of stuff hundreds of times before," Rax admonished him between clenched teeth. "Why are you being so scared now?"

"I don't know, there´s just something in the air" Cliff tried to explain. He knew that it was vital to the job Miles Mayhem had in store for the team that he and Rax managed to steal the information locked in this safe. Normally he wouldn't worry, but this night didn't feel normal.

"If you´re referring to the storm, it worries me too." Rax said. "I want to get home before it really breaks loose!"

A minute passed by in silence, except for the thunder outside and the clicks from the safe as Rax turned the wheel, trying to listen to the mechanism. A movement caught Daggers attention, he touched Rax´s shoulder and they both threw looks around them, before Rax again became angry.

"What are you worrying about? There is no guards, the alarms has been cut and no one will go outside in this wea..."

He didn't get any further. As lightning bathed the room in light both men saw a huge silhouette standing in window. During the split second before it went dark again the silhouette spread out something that mostly resembled wings. Not able to help themselves, both men yelled out in fright. Then the silhouette was again swallowed up by the darkness.

Sly Rax brought up the flashlight and swept through every sector of the room. Within moments he again spotted the shadowy figure. Not wasting any time Sly opened fire with his Stiletto mask, but the darts seemed to pass through the figure, before the sound of glass breaking was heard and the figure disappeared as the pieces of a mirror fell to the floor.

"Oh no, Sly! It’s behind you!" Screamed Dagger as the figure rose into space, its wings spread wide, then fell, its wings now a fluttering cape wrapped tight about the body of a man.

The man landed in front of Sly Rax, who was transfixed. A foot shot out from the darkness under the cape and in the next moment Rax flew into a conference table, breaking a few chairs in the progress. He stayed down. The man turned for Dagger.

He couldn't see much of the man’s features, they were hidden by a cowl with spiked ears. He wore some kind of muscled bodyarmor and a yellow symbol decorated his chest. Cliff brought up a chair and swung for the man. As fast as he might be, the shadowy figure was faster. He ducked under the swing and his fist went ballistic, propelling Dagger of his feet. He too crashed against the conference table. A jolt of pain shot trough the body of Dagger before the world around him went dark.

When Cliff Dagger regained consciousness the man was gone. Rax was still out of it, exactly were he had been the last time Dagger had seen him. The flashing blue lights and the sirens of police cars echoed in the night. Not wasting any time, Dagger heaved Rax over his shoulders and quickly ran for the elevators. Noticing that none were on this floor, but on their way up from the ground level he turned for the stairs instead. He got down to the garage huffing and puffing with the dead weight of his partner still on the back. He threw him into the passenger seat of Jackhammer. As he rolled out of the garage two police cars tried to block the way. He activated the gun turret and simply blasted them out of his way before disappearing into the night, knowing full well that there would be hell to pay once he got back to the hideout.

Commissioner James Gordon returned to the police station. Angry that the criminals had managed to escape his net. He figured that he wouldn't have heard the last of this, since the office belonged to none other that Rupert Thorne, one of the biggest business men in Gotham City. Most people also knew that he was the biggest crime boss in the town, but without evidence there was no way of locking him up. Thorne would probably use the incompetence of the police as a weapon to get more power in the city. As he walked into his office he noticed that the window was open. He quickly closed the door.

"What information do you have for me on the two men?" the low, almost whispering voice of the Batman came through the darkness.

"I´m afraid I don't have any." Gordon said, lighting his pipe. "They managed to escape before we had secured the building. Wanna tell me what you found out?"

"Those men weren't ordinary burglars." Batman said. "They were wearing strange helmets. One of them shot darts from the chest."

Gordon puffed on his pipe for a moment. Thinking. "They drove off inside a Ford Bronco. The strange thing was that as two cars tried to block his escape, he raised the aft section of the chaise and it turned into a cannon tower."

"Did you say it was a Ford Bronco?" Batman asked. "

That was what we identified it as." Gordon replied. "It didn't have any license plates. What do you make out of it?"

There was no answer. Surprised the commissioner looked around the room, but there was no sign of the vigilante. "Not again!" He swore for himself. "I should nail him to the floor to prevent him from doing that!" He sighed, then reached for the phone. He knew that this was more than he could handle. If the two men came from where he expected, this would be something for the army rather than the police."

"You idiots!" Miles Mayhem barked, slamming his hand into the table. "How dare you return with empty hands? You know full well that those papers inside of that safe is vital for the big hit I´m planning! You´re supposed to be professionals!"

"Fighting MASK is one thing," Sly Rax said, still feeling shaky after the single kick he took. "but fighting Batman is more than even we can handle. That man is not human!"

"Batman?" Snorted Mayhem. "There ain´t no Batman! It’s just a big publicity stunt in order to stop people from hightailing out of Gotham City!"

Both Floyd Malloy as well as Bruno Sheppard laughed at the duo. Rax and Dagger felt how their cheeks went red.

Mayhem put his hands on his back, pacing through the room in anger. Occasionally he snorted and barked, mostly complaining that he was surrounded by incompetent dolts. Bruno watched him pace for a while, before he went over to the corner and began lifting weights, something he always did when there was nothing of any interest around him. Malloy began toying with a computer game, trying to advance in his Pokemon game. Mayhem glared at them, then turned to Vanessa and Nash Gorey.

"Vanessa, plan B tomorrow!"

The Batmobile shot through the darkness of the forest outside Gotham City. Batman had already stopped three other burglar attempts and one rape. The sun would rise in one hours time and he had to get back to the cave before then. He would have been back an hour ago, but he always had to take alternative roads home in order to make sure no one would be able to trace him back home. He went though a hidden entrance, into a tunnel before finally stopping in the garage in the cave. His faithful butler Alfred was already waiting for him, a tray with food in his hand.

"Alfred, run this in the computer. I want a full analysis of it." He handed Alfred a small metallic thing he had dug out from the wall in Rupert Thorne´s office.

"A dart, sir?" Alfred asked. "I trust you´re taking up a less violent hobby." He received no reply. Batman had already walked into the vault where he stored his suits. As Bruce Wayne stepped out a few minutes later, Alfred were already running a full analysis on the dart. Putting on his terminal glasses, Bruce begun feeding the computer with all information he had on the two men he had encountered. Soon the computer had through cross-references isolated the two men as Sly Rax and Clifford Dagger from VENOM. Bruce scanned through the information about the whole group, their weapons, vehicles and the organization founded only to battle them - Mobile Armored Strike Kommand. He didn't bother with hacking into the files of the MASK personnel.

"These guys are professional terrorists." Bruce said. "If they were breaking into Rupert Thorne's office they must be after something big. Those guys doesn't concern themselves with small loot."

"Perhaps it would be wiser to let those MASK deal with them." Alfred said dryly. "You have a meeting tomorrow and should get some sleep now."

"I don't want the army to turn Gotham into a battlefield." Bruce bit off. "I´ll go out again tomorrow night. Perhaps I´ll find out what they were after."

Later the same day Vanessa Warfield walked in to Rupert Thorne's office. She was dressed in a black jacket, white blouse and blue jeans. Her red hair was tied back in a knot in the neck. She wore a silver briefcase in her hand.

"I´m Tamara Benning from Gotham´s insurance company," she said to the secretary. "I´m here to examine the amount of damage caused by the burglary last night."

The secretary let her in without even checking for clearance. Vanessa looked at the conference table in front of her. It looked almost like a tornado had hit the place. It was hard to believe that the Batman had only needed one kick and one punch to deal with Rax and Dagger compared to the damage made to the room. Several chairs were broken, the table itself was still standing, but was cracked. A big mirror was broken and there were darts from Sly´s Stiletto mask impaled in the wall. Dagger had also managed to tear down a blackboard while exiting the room.

She begun taking notes and as she did that also paced through the room. As she passed the window she casually scratched her hair with the pen, actually a signal to Nash Gorey who were watching her from the outside. Within moments the fire alarm went off and people begun vacating the floor. Vanessa pretended to follow, but quickly darted into another room where she hid until the floor was completely empty. She returned to the conference room and quickly went to work with the safe. She wasn't a master of opening safes as Sly Rax was, but he had managed to crack the code just before Batman had showed up, and all Vanessa had to do was to turn in the numbers Rax had told her and within moments the safe was open. With haste she went through the papers and collected the ones Miles were after.

As she exited the room two guards appeared in the hall, sent up to investigate the alarm. They ordered her to halt, and drew their handguns. Vanessa executed a hand springboard and kicked down the first guard. Before the other had a chance to adjust his aim, she hit him with a back hand chop and followed up with a hard kick. The guard went down. She left through the garage and made it over to Outlaw without further incidents.

"I got the papers." she told Gorey. "Now let´s get out of here." "You got it." Gorey replied.

"Excellent!" Miles Mayhem beamed as he looked through the papers Vanessa had brought him.

"Wanna tell us what was so special with those papers?" Sly asked.

"As you know, Rupert Thorne is the crime boss of Gotham City." Miles said. "He needs weapons for his men to keep other organizations in check. His own factories create those weapons, but to avoid outsiders discovering that he himself makes weapons, each factory only makes one part of them. This list tells exactly which factory who makes those parts. All we have to do now is raid each of those industries, and then deliver them to the Contraworld. We will then have a massive supply of weaponry for our future plans!"

In Nevada, a group of people gathered inside a secret base of operation "We have information that VENOM is currently operating in Gotham City." Matt Trakker informed the team.

"Gotham City?" Hondo MacLean echoed. "What can they expect to find in a God forsaken place such as that?"

"I don't know." Matt confessed. "VENOM has already raided two factories, but none of them construct anything that could be of any interest for them. The only connection is that both factories are owned by the same man, a Rupert Thorne."

"Could it be some kind of blackmail against him then?" Calhoun Burns asked.

"It could be, but it can also be that the parts will be of use combined with other parts. We just have to wait and see. But in the meantime we better take the transport over to Gotham City so we can stop VENOM before they can cause to much trouble."

Soon, a strike team consisting of Thunderhawk, Rhino, Firecracker and Condor was loaded on the huge MASK transport, who then took off for Gotham City.

Batman too had gathered information regarding VENOM´s raid of the factories. Like MASK, he was confused since the parts didn't seem to be of any use for the terrorist unit.

"I need to find out more." He told Alfred, as always by his side. "Thorne’s office was raided again earlier this morning by a woman claiming to be from the insurance company, probably one of VENOM´s agents. I believe whatever was in that safe gave them the information they were after. Perhaps Thorne has duplicated in his safe in his house. I will pay him a visit."

In the meantime VENOM had raided a third factory as well, and for obvious reasons, Rupert Thorne was furious.

"There is absolutely no doubts that those raids is connected with the burglary last night and the other one this morning!" he yelled to his underlings. "Those guys know which places to raid and they also know what they are after. But I´m not planning to stand here with my arms folded and not rise a finger to prevent it. I want a full guard at the last factory. It’s only a matter of time before they attack that one as well, and I want you to give them a warm welcome!"

"Mr. Thorne," Candice, one of his underlings asked. "What about the shipment of the same goods coming in by boat tomorrow morning?"

"They are of no concern." Thorne dismissed. "Those guys know nothing of it. Just send the boys out to deal with the terrorists, I will go and meet up with the shipment."

Upon landing in Gotham City, MASK was immediately updated with the latest news by a PNA representative.

"Another raid." Matt said after reading through the report. "This factory belonged to Rupert Thorne as well, and the items stolen seems to be completely worthless."

He handed the report over to Alex Sector. "Run the information of all three strikes into the computer and see if it can come up with any idea what they are after."

"Right away, Matt." the older man said, adjusting his glasses. He seated himself in the computer room housed in the sleeper unit in Rhino. Within moments he had linked up with the main computer in the Bunker and begun running the information. The computer came up with several solutions, but Alex could exclude most of them since they wouldn't be of any interest for VENOM. Finally he had a report ready for Matt.

"According to the computer it is most likely that the components they are stealing are the parts of some kind of weapon."

"But why would a businessman create weapon parts?" Brad Turner asked.

"Let´s see what kind of information we can find concerning Rupert Thorne." Matt said, punching in the request in the computer. Soon the screen was filled with new information.

"It seems that Rupert Thorne is also responsible for most of the Mafia in Gotham City. Creating those "innocent" parts in different industries might be a way to create weapons without anyone noticing it. Obviously Miles found out about this and the documents stolen told him which factory who constructed the parts." He looked at a map that showed the location of Thorne’s industries. "Now, if only we know where the last piece is being made we could spring a trap for VENOM."

"What?" Bruno Sheppard said. "Aren't we going to strike at the last factory? Why not? It’s the only part we´re missing!"

"Because, dumbskull," Miles said. "Thorne will most probably be waiting for us with enough firepower to deal even with our vehicles. I´m not going to drive straight into the lions den."

"So what will we do instead?" Sly Rax asked. "We can't just hang around waiting for things to cool down." Rax still wanted nothing else then getting as far away from Gotham City as possible, fearing another encounter with Batman.

"I have to see if there is another way of getting the parts we need." Miles said. "If there is a storehouse with the items we can raid, or if he have parts coming in from elsewhere."

"How will you do that?" Dagger asked.

"I´ll take Gorey with me and sneak inside one of the other factories. Through the computer network Gorey might be able to find something useable."

Even a yard guarded by big dogs were not enough to keep Batman away from his prey. With the help of the winds, Batman flew in over Thorne’s house with a hang glider, landing without a sound on the roof of the crime boss’ house. Using the rope he lowered himself down to the office, disconnected the alarm and sneaked inside. Using the same technique as Sly Rax, he listened closely to the tumbler. Once he got the safe opened he looked through the documents and carefully photographed everything of interest. There was even a few things he could find useful later.

While he were still looking through the documents, he heard commotion outside. For a moment he wondered if his glider had been discovered, but as he listened he found out that several cars, loaded with armed men where going to the last factory. He returned the documents, closed the safe and climbed back to the roof, and moments later glided away, heading for the car.

"Alfred." He said through the radio of the car. "Thorne is waiting for VENOM at the factory."

"Well, that is good news indeed, sir." Alfred answered. "If Thorne deals with the trouble for you, then perhaps you can come home early for once."

"There is more." Batman said, ignoring the butlers dry remarks. "Thorne is also expecting a shipment of the same item by boat later tonight. Somehow I doubt that VENOM will attack the factory. They might go for the boat instead."

"While monitoring one of the police frequencies, I heard that government troops, the ones who called themselves MASK, arrived at Gotham City earlier today." Alfred reported. The news didn't appeal to the masked man.

"I had hoped it wouldn't come to that." He said. "They have a bad habit of shooting to much. Keep monitoring their movements and keep me informed."

With all Thorne’s security gathered at the last remaining factory, Miles Mayhem and Nash Gorey had no problem getting inside one of the other factories and broking into the office. It didn't take Gorey long to tap into the network and on Miles orders, he began to search for information regarding the component he was after.

"It seems that this component is constructed at another factory located in Utah and this factory is only a middle hand." Gorey reported. "A shipment is coming in by sea tonight!"

"Excellent!" Mayhem said.

"Indeed it is, sir!" Gorey said. "Luck is on our side. Had we attacked tonight, the shipment would not yet have arrived and we would be forced to go away empty-handed!"

"Gorey!" Miles barked. "You´re an idiot!"

"Thank you, sir!"

Batman had in the meantime made his way to the harbor. The boat was on it’s way in to the port. He used the distraction to take out the guards one after another. He knew that he would also make it easier for VENOM to get there if they were indeed going to strike at the unloading of the boat, but that was something he would have to deal with later. He didn't want to have two groups of thugs to deal with at the same time, and with the advanced weapons VENOM used, he wanted to have his full attention with them, not wanting to have to worry about one of Thorne’s men coming up in his back. He had already made a call to Gordon so he would be out here in less then fifteen minutes.

Batman´s phone call had been monitored by MASK, who had just been in the progress of dividing their team in small groups to keep watch over each one of the remaining factories, as it was now they could all go down towards the harbor.

"We have to split into two teams once we reach the port." Matt´s voice was filtered by the visor in Spectrum as it came over the radio. "The team under me deals with VENOM and the rest of you take on Thorne’s men. Try to avoid injuries, we will have enough to answer for anyway before we can go back home."

VENOM was also approaching the port. They were surprised to find so light security.

"Most of them are probably waiting for us at the factory." Miles guessed.

"I don't care where they are as long as they are not here. Things will go more smoothly. Go to attack mode!"

All the vehicles begun converting. This fact was not missed by Batman who wondered how he would be able to bring down the chopper and the flying car and motorcycle. A sound from behind caught his attention and he spotted MASK rolling down the pier. Like VENOM, they were converting to battle modes.

"Now all hell will break loose!" Batman muttered to himself. "I wanted to avoid this!"

"MASK!?" Miles yelled from Switchblade as Thunderhawk flew in to intercept him. "How can they be here?"

"Well," Rax voice came through the radio. "As long as it ain't the bat..."

"What is going on?" Thorne asked. He had expected very little trouble, but now a war was breaking loose on the pier. "Get those trucks loaded." he ordered. "We have to get out of here as soon as possible. All that firework will attract the police!"

The crane begun to haul up a load of components from the boats storage. It didn't go far. A small metallic piece with lethal ends came spinning through the air and cut the ropes, causing the crate to fall back down into the boat.

"Batman!" Thorne yelled. "Shoot him!" The men opened fire, but none was able to hit the target, as the shadowy figure disappeared into the darkness. The crime lord himself tried to find his way back to the car. He knew that all would be lost here, and he wanted to avoid being captured.

Leaving Condor to Malloy, Vanessa turned to deal with Thunderhawk. Matt Trakker saw her coming and banked hard to avoid the first laser blasts. Mayhem broke off in an effort to still manage to get his hands on the shipment. He was not a little surprised to see that a firefight had broken off on the ship. He used the distraction of the gunfight to lower himself over a deserted crate and caught it with his hook. He lifted again without any of the Mafia men being able to stop him. Not that they didn't try, but they were to far away to do any damage.

As he begun to fly off, he spotted a movement on the crane and his attention was drawn that way. The movement turned out to be a man; a man in black cape moving in and out of the shadows.

"The Batman?" He said to himself. "He really exists! Well, he won't be able to stop me!"

From his utility belt Batman produced a portable grenade launcher. He loaded it with his grappling hook and shot it towards Switchblade, the hook fasting itself on the right pontoon. He begun dragging himself up. Miles felt the change of weight and was amazed to discover that the vigilante was hanging on to his chopper.

"This guy is more persistent than MASK!" he said, throwing Switchblade into several evasive maneuvers to shake the masked man off. But the vigilante remained with him. Miles made a new couple of maneuvers, only to find that the caped crusader used this to his own advantage. The chopper had come very close to another crane, and as Mayhem adjusted his course to clear it, Batman leapt clear and at the same time he swung the rope, still attached to Switchblade, around the crane, stopping the chopper dead on its track. In panic Miles realized that he would loose control of the chopper any second and crash. He had no other choice than to eject the canopy and jump for it. He landed softly, despite the relative high fall and quickly ran for cover before Switchblade crashed into the pavement and exploded.

"You’ll pay for this, Batman!" he yelled angrily just as Stinger drove up next to him.

"The police are coming," Bruno reported. "We´re getting out of here!"

Around him all VENOM vehicles begun to break off and headed away from the pier. The sound of sirens coming closer was heard even over all the commotion going on.

"Is it over already?" Brad asked from Condor as Vampire too broke off and ran away.

"There must have been something going on even before we arrived!" Matt said.

"Who took out Switchblade, and what happened to the guys on the boat?" None of the agents could answer the questions. Instead they had to convert back into conventional modes and wait for the police to arrive.

"I don't know about you guys," Hondo said. "But I feel that we accomplished very little tonight, but still are the ones who has to clean up."

"It’s one of those days." Brad answered.

Later the same day the team was back on the transport on their way back home. Since they were working for the government, the police of Gotham City had no choice but to let them go, even though James Gordon would have wanted some information from them. He had not been pleased to learn that VENOM had managed to escape, so had Rupert Thorne as well, even though most of his men had been captured.

"It was like you said, Hondo." Matt said. "We accomplished very little, but there was someone who made a lot of job back there. That someone was the one who called the commissioner and warned about the shipment of the components, and probably the same person who took out the people on the boat and Switchblade."

"I don't know," he said. "But I believe that the commissioner had a secret agent of his own operating out there."

"That’s what’s worst with this job," Hondo said. "all this security!"

Commissioner James Gordon had already forgotten about MASK and PNA. He had more pressing matters on his mind. A gang of thugs on motorcycles were wreaking havoc in the city and the public safety was to be considered. But he had a friend who would be able to handle it.

The commissioner switched on a signal placed on the roof of the station and a giant bat-symbol shot up in space. He lighted his pipe and waited.

The End