Fanfic / Dance with the Demons

Catwoman: Who could have had it in for me this badly? I didn't think I made anybody mad enough at me to kill me.
Batman: I don't think it's that, Sel. I think it was a strike at me, through you. I've got enough enemies to fill half the state pens in the Union.

Dance with the Demons is a Batman fanfic written by DarkMark, featuring The Outsiders.

After years of teasing and flirting, Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle are tying the knot, surrounded by the whole super-heroic community and even their Earth-Two daughter, Helena Wayne.

Their happiness is abruptly and tragically cut short when Selina gets shot by a poisoned dart during the ceremony. Bruce's personal physician and friends manage to get Selina stabilised, but now Batman needs to gather his newest team, The Outsiders, and deploy his considerable investigative skills to find the culprit and retrieve a sample of the antidote within two weeks if he wants to save Catwoman's life.

Meanwhile, old enemies are also gathering and making plans of their own to bring about the downfall of the Dark Knight, once and for all.

It can be read in Dark Mark's homepage, and in FF.net.

This story this set in the same Fan Verse than Hellsister Trilogy (taking place concurrently with the beginning of the second story arc), With this Ring... (Green Lantern), Funeral for a Flash, A Very Kara Christmas, Kara of Rokyn, A Force of Four, Superman of 2499: The Great Confrontation and Superman and Man. Dark Mark has also written The Vampire of Steel, The Unfantastic Adventures of Bizarro No. 1, Here There Be Monsters, A Prize for Three Empires, X-Men 1970, FIRE!, Devil's Diary, Everybody's Gotta Leave Sometime and Maybe the Last Archie Story.

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This fanfic provides the next tropes:

• Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: Action-packed martial arts fights are interspersed with quiet talks between Bruce and Selina, or Selina and her alternate reality daughter Helena, for example.
• Affably Evil: Ra's Al Ghul may be a monster, but his manners are impeccable. He's unfailingly polite and respectful at all times.
• Alliterative Title
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: During the final battle, a bunch of Batman's villains plus an army of Kobra soldiers storms Wayne Manor.
• Alternate Universe Fic: This fic is set in a universe where Pre-Crisis Earth-One wasn't destroyed by the Anti-Monitor.
• Badass Boast: Ra's Al Ghul states he could in fact have Batman killed if he truly wished so.
  Ra's Al Ghul: "Be that as it may, if I wished to use her against you, why would I kill her?"
  Batman: "To anger me. To make me reckless when I came against you."
  Ra's Al Ghul: (sighing) "Detective, Detective. Yours is one of the finest strategically analytical minds I have ever encountered, but you are not using it. Why would I want you to come after me? Were I to desire your life, I would simply activate a group of my men from anywhere in the globe, and send them against you. You might triumph over one or many, but eventually one would kill you. This is a certainty, Detective.
• Ballroom Blitz: Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle's wedding gets interrupted when Selina gets shot with a poisoned dart.
• Batman Grabs a Gun: When Kobra troops are invading Wayne Manor, Alfred and several members of the Batfamily are desperate enough to grab firearms.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • In the fourth chapter, James and Barbara Gordon get ambushed by Killer Croc, who in turn gets ambushed by Batman.
  • In the final episode, Alfred, Robin (Jason Todd), Flamebird, Batwoman, and Cat King are ready to guard Selina's room with their lives from dozens of Kobra henchmen approaching, when they hear an explosion, followed by much screaming. Seconds later, Superman steps into sight.
    The Kobra troops were getting closer, appallingly fast. They were around a bend of the hall, and their foremost would perish. But none of them had much illusion that they could stand off all the invaders.
    Alfred allowed himself a tight smile, despite it all, and awaited the first man he would have had to kill since World War II.
    Then there came a great noise like unto an explosion, not far down the hall, at approximately the same site as the Kobramen were, by the sound of it. It sounded like the roof. Alfred wondered, wildly, why the idiots were coming from that direction. Couldn't be much surprise to it, at this point.
    Two Kobras skidded against the side wall at the end of the hall, their weapons twisted around their necks. They were on the far side of consciousness.
    The sounds that came to the defenders now were different. Men yelling incoherently, but having their voices stopped after sharp cries of pain. There was some gunfire, but it didn't seem to matter. And more Kobramen came flying, piling up against the side wall like so much thrown garbage.
    Alfred blinked, and imagined the others were reacting similarly.
    "Man," said Karl Kyle, in awe. "Just what kinda cavalry is this, anyway?"
    Finally, the tenth or so Kobra Cultist joined his brothers on the heap. Alfred knew who the man was who had put them there, and drew a great, sighing breath as his shoulders sagged.
    The man stepped into sight, his hands on his hips, and grinned.
    "I thought you might need me here," said Superman. "Diana's on her way. She's got the Purple Ray with her."
• The Big Damn Kiss: Between Bruce and Selina during their wedding.
• Blood from the Mouth: Blood drips from King Faraday's nostrils when Looker telepathically forces answers out of his brain.
  Plastic Man merely insinuated himself between Batman and the spy and wrapped himself about Faraday like a red-clad constrictor and held him firmly. The captive was starting to convulse. A slight bit of blood dripped from one of his nostrils.
  "Be careful, Looker," said Batman. "Possible cerebral damage."
  "Do you want me to stop?"
  "No."
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Kobra brainwashed King Faraday into working for him, via a dip in a Lazarus Pit.
• Cheshire Cat Grin:
  • In chapter 16, the Outsiders barge into a Kobra's base full of enemies. Batman just grins.
    Batman looked at him, briefly, and went to the door of the unit. He sprayed some acid from a vial in his utility belt on the lock. After enough of the metal had sizzled away, he kicked it open.
    Metamorpho filled the gap in the doorway as a calcium shield, receiving blasts of cold and fire on his surface. He thrust forward like a battering ram, bowling over Heatstroke, Coldsnap, and several others of their foes.
    The others came behind him, and looked upon a sea of enemies.
    "Looks like we've been expected," said Batman, with a grim smile.
    The battle was joined.
  • In chapter 21, fifteen armed Kobra cultists rush towards Batman and Nightwing. They can't figure out why Batman is smiling.
    With that, two doors at opposite ends of the hall flew open. No less than fifteen men, with arms, emerged from them. All wore the suit of the Kobra Cult. They were armed.
    There was no time to tell Nightwing to engage. Both of them were already rushing at their foemen. The ones Batman was facing were puzzled.
    They couldn't figure out why he was smiling.
• The Commissioner Gordon: James Gordon himself takes part in investigating Selina Kyle's attempted assassination and passes information on Batman.
• Continuity Nod: It's mentioned that Raven saved Supergirl's life during the Crisis, as told in Kara of Rokyn.
• CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: Batman and Superman successively perform CPR on Catwoman to restart her heart after she has been poisoned. Bruce fears his friend will blow Selina's lungs up by accident, but Lois reassures him that Clark is very careful.
  Bruce waved a row of people out of a number of folding chairs and lay Selina across them. He immediately placed his lips to hers and began CPR. While he did this, his hand went to the dart and plucked it from her neck.
• Decapitation Presentation: When interrogated, Ra's Al Ghul reiterates he had nothing to do with the hit on Catwoman... but should one of his men be involved, he'll send his head to Batman in a box. Of course, Batman insists that Ra's merely turns the culprit over to him.
  Ra's tented his hands. "I would think not. My ranks are more disciplined than that. However, I will give you this, Detective. If one of my men is involved in this matter, I will send you his head in a box, and a note of apology. This, I promise."
• Dedication: This story is dedicated to Batman writers O'Neil and Englehart:
  This one's for Denny O'Neil and Steve Englehart, who remembered the Dark, but never forgot the Knight.
• Disappeared Dad: He'll not admit it outloud, but a part of Bruce resents his father for getting killed and leaving him alone. He dwells on his feelings of abandonment during a nightmare as arguing with Thomas Wayne' ghost.
  The caped man wheeled in anger. Then he caught himself. Even in a dream, this was his father. Yes, he was angry at him. For dying. For putting him on this cruel, dark treadmill. For leaving him.
  For making him have to be the Batman.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Geo-Force can control the ground... which means he can form a volcano under your feet.
  The ground and floor above it began to tear apart, forming a small ravine between the warring forces. The ceiling and walls of the chamber felt its effect. The Batman looked up, wary of the mountain above collapsing on them.
  "Rex, Rainie, prop it up!" he ordered. The metamorphic pair switched from shielding to splay their metallic forms out in the shape of an interlocking skeleton pressed between roof and flooring, holding the Outsiders and a few of their foes pent in a protective cage.
  Geo-Force was not yet done.
  The floor beneath them continued to crack, and the crack reached deep into the Earth itself. From it, Brion Markov summoned the molten rock that undergirds its cooled and hardened crust.
  That was when Kobra's legions learned that some things are more to be feared than their master's retribution.
  The superheated rock, controlled by Geo-Force, burst up and splattered upon them, leaving some of them time enough to scream, but not many.
  The super-villains, sharpened enough to changing conditions by their battles against heroes, were first to run, shielded somewhat by Coldsnap's power. They managed to smash their way through the fleeing Kobraites, several steps ahead of the volcanic fury.
  Somehow, Geo-Force was keeping the carnage away from his side, though the Outsiders felt a bit of its heat. Batman looked on, his face as grim and unmoving as basalt.
  Finally, he said, "Stop it, Brion."
  Brion made no move to stop.
  "I said—" Batman began.
  "I know what you said, friend Batman," said Geo-Force. "I know what you said."
  After a few minutes, he let the lava flow subside. Steam rose from the crack in the floor. Geo-Force brought his hands together, and the great gap came together, at least up to forty feet below them.
  The Outsiders looked beyond it. A mass of newly-cooled grey stone overlay the floor of the chamber beyond. There was no evidence of the men whose bodies had been consumed by it. A shapeless gravestone, bearing no names.
• Doorstopper: It sits at 134,065 words spread over 23 chapters.
• The Dreaded: In the seventh chapter, The Creeper bumps into three thugs. They spot his green hair and grinning countenance, draw the wrong but understandable conclusion, and run away in sheer panic.
  Then a head hung upside down in their view. A head with a tremendous grin on it, and the clincher: grass-green hair.
  At that point, Blinky and his boys weren't too concerned with niceties like the head's skin color, or the fact that a red-dyed sheepskin was hanging down from the newcomer's shoulders on either side of the head. The three of them had processed two pertinent facts.
  1) Laughter.
  2) Green hair.
  They managed to get out a string of frightened obscenities, but the only really relevant thing they said was two words: "The Joker!"
  In such cases, you didn't stop to wonder why the Joker would want to horn in on you busting up an ATM and grabbing the money. Maybe it was his territory. Maybe he needed the dough, too. Maybe he just didn't like your looks, or it had been too long since he killed somebody. It really didn't matter.
  All that mattered was getting the hell out of there before he did something that left you on a slab with a toe tag and a big grin all over your face.
• The '80s: Although it's not explicitly stated, the story is set in the mid 80s.
• Evil Gloating: Kobra, the master of the Kobra cult, gloats about killing Batman during their final battle. Batman doesn't care.
  Kobra: "You waste both of our times. Both of us know the wine of violence. Both of us know that this must end here, with a long and heady draft of it. I will toast your death with it."
• Evil Is Hammy: Kobra needs to pontificate before, during and after a battle, failing to notice Batman doesn't care about his ravings. In chapter 22:
  Kobra: "I congratulate you on your sterling effort. Truly, your wife would be pleased. However, I have a final trump your side cannot counter: a force-field which I have activated. It encases this entire floor, above it, below it, and on all sides. Your allies cannot penetrate it. Nor can you. But there is a way in."
  Batman: "What is it?"
  Kobra: "We have always known it would come down to this. The final battle, the Ragnarok. If I am your Midgard Serpent, and you are my Thor, then we must fight. However, no one has yet prophecied which of us will be slain, and which be slayer."
• Evil Only Has to Win Once: Ra's points out that, should he want Batman killed, he would simply send his sleeping terrorist cells against Batman one after another. Eventually, one of them would succeed.
  Ra's Al Ghul: Why would I want you to come after me? Were I to desire your life, I would simply activate a group of my men from anywhere in the globe, and send them against you. You might triumph over one or many, but eventually one would kill you. This is a certainty, Detective.
• Find the Cure!: Catwoman has been injected with an unidentified poison, prompting Batman and his allies to look for the culprit to find the antidote.
• Finger-Tenting: Ra's clasps his fingers as pondering the unlikelihood that one of his men went renegade and attempted against Catwoman's life.
• Get Out!: In chapter 6, Batman quite tactlessly tells Selina he has made a deposit at a bank so they can have children in the event that he gets killed.
  "Sure as I can be." Then he looked up at the ceiling, with its stalactites high above, swallowed, and looked at her again. "But I have to tell you something, Selina."
  She waited.
  "In case I don't, I've made a deposit. At a bank. Not money. I've told Alfred about it."
  Her eyes widened.
  "You must use it, in such an eventuality, to—"
  "No, Bruce! Don't even say it. Tell me you'll stay home with me. Please."
  He looked her in the eyes and could not answer.
  "We will have children, Selina," he said, eventually. "One way, or another."
  She turned over on her stomach, careful not to pull out the IV line attached to her arm.
  Bruce bent over her. "Selina," he said.
  "Go away," she said, and he could tell she was holding back tears. "Go play Batman. I'll be here if you get back. Go."
  "Selina."
  "Go away!"
  He stood and left.
• Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: By the end of the story, Catwoman's life has been saved, her would-be murderer has been caught, and the enemies of the Batfamily have been defeated. To celebrate it, Batman and Catwoman stay down in the Batcave and don't get out until the next day.
• Good Is Not Soft: If you're a member of a terrorist cell looking to murder Superman's best friend's wife, butler and sidekicks, don't expect the Man of Steel to go soft on you.
  Two Kobras skidded against the side wall at the end of the hall, their weapons twisted around their necks. They were on the far side of consciousness.
  The sounds that came to the defenders now were different. Men yelling incoherently, but having their voices stopped after sharp cries of pain. There was some gunfire, but it didn't seem to matter. And more Kobramen came flying, piling up against the side wall like so much thrown garbage.
  [...]
  Finally, the tenth or so Kobra Cultist joined his brothers on the heap. Alfred knew who the man was who had put them there, and drew a great, sighing breath as his shoulders sagged.
  The man stepped into sight, his hands on his hips, and grinned.
  "I thought you might need me here," said Superman.
• Groin Attack: Batman is more than willing to grab testicles to squeeze answers out of a suspect.
  Geo-Force said, "Friend Batman, whence does our path lead now?"
  "Back to Gotham for the moment," Batman replied. "Where we will take every crook in Gotham from the Joker to the lowest pickpocket, grab him right where it hurts, and squeeze till we get some answers."
  "Uh, Batman, could I not do any of the squeezing, please?" begged Halo. "I mean, I'm not that kind of girl."
  "Hush, Halo," advised Katana.
• I Control My Minions Through...: Kobra leads a cult of duly-indoctrinated terrorists who are fanatically loyal to his cause.
• I Have Your Wife: Invoked. Ra's Al Ghul very calmly explains that if he wanted to hurt Batman through Catwoman, he wouldn't kill her; he'd hold her hostage until the Dark Knight met his pre-release conditions.
  Ra's Al Ghul: "Now, as to the matter of your wife. If I wished to use her against you, Detective, I can assure you of this: I would kidnap her. Oh, yes, I would. I would make certain that she was alive and that you knew it, but that you also knew that I had power over her. And thus I would have power over you. But I would not kill her. Not unless it presented great advantage to me, or unless all else was lost and it was the last stroke I could play. I promise you, Detective, I am far away from my last stroke."
  Batman: "You may be closer than you think."
  Ra's Al Ghul: "Death follows close behind us all, Detective. But in most cases, I am the one who pushes its hand. No. I am not lying to you. I had nothing to do with the attempt on your wife's life. Now, if someday your wife should be taken by brigands, there is the possiblity, and no more than that, that I may be behind it. That will be if I need your help, and you refuse a polite request. Should you perform that request, she will be freed unharmed. This would be done, certainly."
• Made Out to Be a Jerkass: As Batman, Bruce has no option but to leave Selina alone in order to search and capture the culprit, leaving people puzzled when they call and are told Bruce Wayne isn't in his manor taking care of his bedridden, sick wife.
• Magma Man: Geo-Force can control all kind of rocks, including molten magma.
  The floor beneath them continued to crack, and the crack reached deep into the Earth itself. From it, Brion Markov summoned the molten rock that undergirds its cooled and hardened crust.
• Making Love in All the Wrong Places: After the final battle, Batman and Catoman stay down in the Batcave. Batman seals the cave's entrance, and they don't go back up until the next morning.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": In chapter 7, the Creeper bumps into three crooks breaking into an ATM. Believing him to be the Joker, they "managed to get out a string of frightened obscenities" before running away.
• Mind Rape: King Faraday doesn't want to reveal how he was turned into a Kobra agent, and what kind of trap he was leading Batman and the Outsiders into, so Halo telepathically forces the truth out of his head.
• The Mole: King Faraday attempts to mislead Batman into a Kobra's trap. Unfortunately for him, Batman sees through his cover story.
• Mundane Utility: In the seventh chapter Heatstroke, pyrokinetic member of the Masters of Disaster, shoots a stream of flame to light up King Faraday's cigarette.
  Nobody said anything. He took his lighter out, snapped it once, twice, three times. No soap. Fuel had run low.
  One of the group let a stream of fire pass from her finger to the end of Faraday's cigarette. That did the trick.
  The American grinned. Guess super-powers were good for something, after all.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Talia Al Ghul attempts to get Catwoman assassinated when the latter gets married to Batman. Of course, when Batman inevitably solves the case, he asks Talia if she seriously thought he would never figure it out.
  Catwoman: "You wanted to kill me. After I fought beside you, trusted you, twice. With my life. Talia, Talia. You claim to love my man. But I can't believe you know what the hell love really is. Not a bit of it."
  Talia Al Ghul: "I do know what love is, you witch! I know because you broke my heart. And so did he!"
• Nerves of Steel: When Selina gets shot, Bruce doesn't panic. He doesn't scream. He doesn't lose his composure. He rapidly assesses the situation, considers the tools at his disposal, coordinates his friends' efforts to save Selina, and forces himself to let them handle it when it's obvious he'd stand in their way.
  [Kori] was awed. He wasn't letting himself shout, panic, even interrupt the team working on his wife. The man was so strong.
• Nothing Personal: Inverted. Batman accuses Ra's of trying to get back at him, but it turns out Ra's hasn't taken any of his defeats personally.
  Batman: "Convince me that you're not a suspect in this matter."
  Ra's Al Ghul: "Why in the name of heaven above and hell below would I have attempted to murder your wife, Detective? Tell me."
  Batman: "I've put you in jail before."
  Ra's Al Ghul: "And I escaped, did I not?"
  Batman: "I've wrecked many of your crazy schemes in the past."
  Ra's Al Ghul: "And I have hatched many, many more, including some you do not suspect the existence of."
• Not Me This Time: Upon discovering the poison is a mixture of toxins used in the Middle and Far East, Batman suspects Ra's Al Ghul is behind the assassination attempt. Nonetheless, Ra's Al Ghul shoots his theory down by pointing out he gains nothing with it.
  Ra's Al Ghul: "Why in the name of heaven above and hell below would I have attempted to murder your wife, Detective? Tell me."
• Parental Substitute: This story being set in Pre-Crisis continuity, Bruce's uncle Philip Wayne was the one who raised him after Thomas and Martha's deaths.
  Philip Wayne adjusted his hearing aid a bit and smiled. Bruce was almost 40 now, and he'd darned near given up on getting the whippersnapper married. To him had fallen the task of raising the boy, after his brother Thomas and Thomas's wife Martha had been shot dead in the street those long years ago. He'd never seen a boy so intense and serious as Bruce had been. The boy was either cracking half the books in the library, or doing experiments with his chemistry set, or building up his body, or doing gymnastics. But he'd turned out well, and then some.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Whatever you may say about Ra's Al Ghul, he's a very practice man who doesn't take -most of- things personally, doesn't bear grudges and doesn't act rashly or carelessly. So what if Batman put him in jail? He escaped. So what if Batman ruined several of his schemes? He's hatched and brought to fruition many, many more.
  Ra's Al Ghul: "True, I could have done such a thing, for that reason. Yet, I did not. Why? Because, above all, Detective, I am a very, very practical man."
  "To begin with, there is the concept of justice. Your wife stood against me, once and only once. It is true, you gave me a death in that adventure. A quite painful death. But it was not permanent. Thus far, my deaths have been but trifles. One renewal in the Lazarus Pit and I am reborn. Her discomfiting of me was substantial, but not as great as your own."
  "No, her death would add but little to my power, and no profit. If I wished redress for my many hurts at your hands, then have no doubt, Detective: I would kill you. Someday, perhaps I shall. Perhaps not. Be that as it may, if I wished to use her against you, why would I kill her?"
• Put Their Heads Together: In the fourth chapter, Killer Croc smashes two guards' heads together.
  Croc ripped his arms out of the straitjacket, tearing the reinforced fabric asunder like wet paper. His freed hands whipped out, grabbed the two burly guards, and cracked their heads together in a guaranteed skull-fracture impact. They fell unconscious. He had their guns in the next instant.
• Race Against the Clock: Catwoman has been poisoned, and Batman has two weeks to find the culprit and force them to hand over the antidote.
• Redhead In Green: Red-haired Barbara Gordon wears a stunning green outfit during her first scenes.
  His daughter Barbara, redheaded and lovely in a green outfit, entered.
• Red Herring Mole: Some early clues such like the composition of the poison -"a mixture of toxins used in the Middle and Far East. Some stuff which has been traced to the Hashashin"- misled Batman into thinking it was Ra's Al Ghul the one who got Selina poisoned. It wasn't him, though. It was Talia.
• Revenge by Proxy: Subverted. When questioned by Batman, Ra's states he wouldn't get Catwoman assassinated to get back at Batman. That would be stupid.
  Ra's Al Ghul: "Your wife stood against me, once and only once. It is true, you gave me a death in that adventure. A quite painful death. But it was not permanent. Thus far, my deaths have been but trifles. One renewal in the Lazarus Pit and I am reborn. Her discomfiting of me was substantial, but not as great as your own. No, her death would add but little to my power, and no profit. If I wished redress for my many hurts at your hands, then have no doubt, Detective: I would kill you."
• Rogues Gallery: Lampshaded by Batman.
  Catwoman: Who could have had it in for me this badly? I didn't think I made anybody mad enough at me to kill me.
  Batman: I don't think it's that, Sel. I think it was a strike at me, through you. I've got enough enemies to fill half the state pens in the Union.
• Secret-Keeper:
  • Dr. Douglas Dundee, the physician who delivered Bruce Wayne, knows his secret identity "because he had to patch him up so often".
  • James Gordon knows his daughter is Batgirl, but he's unaware of Batman's true identity (which Barbara knows, of course).
    "I'm going to try to hook up with some of the others," she said. Gordon had learned years ago that his daughter was Batgirl, but the Batman's true identity was a mystery to him.
• Ship Sinking: Bruce/Talia is decisively torpedoed when Batman marries Catwoman and declares his relationship with Talia is over.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: During their final battle, Batman isn't impressed with Kobra's gloating, and literally suggests him to stop talking.
  Batman: "We can do this easy, Kobra. Give me the antidote. If it works, you go free. You have the word of the Batman on that."
  Kobra: "You waste both of our times. Both of us know the wine of violence. Both of us know that this must end here, with a long and heady draft of it. I will toast your death with it."
  Batman: "You talk too much."
• Shut Up, Kirk!: Selina doesn't believe Talia knows what love is. Talia is not amused.
  Selina: "You wanted to kill me. After I fought beside you, trusted you, twice. With my life. Talia, Talia. You claim to love my man. But I can't believe you know what the hell love really is. Not a bit of it."
  Talia Al Ghul: "I do know what love is, you witch! I know because you broke my heart. And so did he!"
• Spared by the Adaptation: Jason Todd -who was still dead and apparently never returning in the time this story was written- doesn't get crowbarred to death when he runs into the Joker.
• Story-Breaker Power: So Hal Jordan -who is more than capable of drawing toxic substances out of a body quickly and efficiently- can't save the day before the end of the first chapter, it's stated that the poison killing Selina has some yellow components.
• Storming the Castle: At the beginning of the second chapter, Batman and the Outsiders strike one of lairs of Ra's Al Ghul. They've just taken the guards out when Ra's welcomes them over a speaker.
• Superman Stays Out of Gotham: Subverted in the final battle when Superman and Wonder Woman arrive in the Batcave to help the Batfamily to beat an army of Kobra cultists.
• Supernaturally Young Parent: Due to parallel world shenanigans, Helena Wayne looks about the same age as Selina.
• Tempting Fate:
  • In hindsight, Bruce thinks a grand double wedding where he and Selina tied the know together with Dick and Kori was asking for trouble.
  • Right before Catwoman gets shot, Alfred explains why he avoids to say "Nothing's wrong":
    Daphne Pennyworth: "Something wrong?"
    Alfred: "Hm? Oh, no, no, nothing's wrong yet. I don't believe anything's wrong at all. Not yet."
    Julia Remarque: (suspiciously) "What do you mean, 'not yet', Granddad?"
    Alfred: "With the Master, in all things, it just seems best to say...not yet."
• There Was a Door: Kobra's troops are rapidly closing in on Alfred, Robin and other masked heroes when Superman crashes through the manor's ceiling and starts delivering a beatdown.
• Together in Death: During a nightmare, Batman sees his father's ghost telling he was lucky to die with his wife.
  "You see your problem, boy? You just don't have a sense of timing about these things, or kings. You should have arranged to die so high with your wife. That's life. You die at the same time, that's no crime. You're together forever. All weather. No more bills to pay, no more dragons to slay, no more kids to worry over, no more patients to hurry over. Life's endurable, but death's incurable. You see what I'm hearing?"
• Weaksauce Weakness: Hal Jordan's power ring can't extract the poison out of Selina's body. Hal glumly reckons some of its components are yellow-colored.
  The man in the green, black, and white costume focused the energy of his power ring on Selina Kyle's body. As before, he knew it would be enough to sustain life, but not to cure.
  Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern, knew that there had to be some yellow material in the poison that ravaged the former Catwoman. Even the ring had limits. It always would.
  Sometimes, those limits cost lives.
• Weddings for Everyone: The story features a doble wedding, with Batman and Nightwing getting married to Catwoman and Starfire, respectively.
• Wedding Smashers: Bruce and Selina's wedding gets interrupted by a hitman shooting a poisoned dart at the bride.
• Woman Scorned: Talia Al Ghul attempts to get Catwoman assassinated out of jealousy.
• You Have Failed Me: It's pointed out that the leader of the team guarding Ra's Greenland's base is still alive because he hasn't screwed up as of yet.
  The detachment of guards at a remote area of Greenland were watchful, as they had to be. But they really didn't expect anything to worry about. A couple of idiots had wandered onto the property at times and either been escorted back or left in pieces, whichever the team leader had deemed most expedient. So far, the team leader had kept his head on his shoulders. That signified he had done his job well.
• You Shall Not Pass!: When the Kobra Cult is invading the Wayne mansion, Alfred and other four members of the Batfamily get armed and position themselves in front of Selina's room's door, ready to fight to the bitter end.
• You Talk Too Much!: Said word by word by Batman when Kobra's gloating becomes overbearing.
  Batman: "We can do this easy, Kobra. Give me the antidote. If it works, you go free. You have the word of the Batman on that."
  Kobra: "You waste both of our times. Both of us know the wine of violence. Both of us know that this must end here, with a long and heady draft of it. I will toast your death with it."
  Batman: "You talk too much."

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