Elvis:

"More riddles, Batman," Gordon said.

This time there was no grunt. Batman was angry with himself for having turned his back on the petite girl last night. How she had managed to attack without him hearing, he wasn't certain. Either way, he was taking both the Riddler and her down tonight. This time he wouldn't underestimate the girl.

Tonight the riddle was in the form of a rebus. The first word consisted of the head of a cow, which looked to be mooing, and a bee. In between the first set of pictures and the second, was the word "the." The second was a picture of the lower half of a gold human leg. The third picture was of Elvis Presley standing on an outline of the state of Tennessee.

"I'll get back to you on this," he said, tucking the paper into his belt and disappearing through the window. "I have another one for you, Oracle. Tonight it's a rebus. First word, moo-bee. Second word, gold calf."

"Moo-bee?" she asked.

"That's what it says. A picture of a cow mooing plus a bee. The second picture is a human calf, colored gold. Moo-bee the gold calf."

Oracle's laughter over the comm-line made him frown. "Mooby! Mooby the Golden Calf! Who would have thought the Riddler had seen that! Mooby the Golden Calf is from the movie Dogma. Represents the worship of false deities. Is that the only thing there?" she asked as she typed away.

"There's a picture of Elvis Presley standing on Tennessee. Graceland?"

"In Memphis. Golden calf, Memphis... I'm guessing Egypt, Batman." There was a bought of furious typing and a pause. "Museum of Natural History has a small gold statue of the bull god, Apis, inlaid with a diamond in the center of its forehead and an obsidian eagle on its back. Apis' temple of worship was placed in Memphis, Egypt."

Gunning the engine of the Batmobile, he headed to the museum. "Got it. Out."

~ ~ ~

With Benny and Trigger at his side, the Riddler strolled through the museum on his way to the Egyptian wing. His main target tonight was to be the priceless statue of Apis. Priceless it might be considered, but he knew he could get a very good price by adding it to someone's private collection. There was a great many smaller items he intended to take from the cases tonight, which would fetch some extra money once sold.

"Here we go, gentlemen. You take those cases there, Benny. Trigger, you get the statue. I'll handle these cases here."

Grunting, the men hurried to disable the alarms and unlock the cases. Benny quickly cleaned out his assigned cases of the various scarab and eagle jewelry pieces. The Riddler scooped up the small puzzles along with a few other items in his cases, dropping them into his pocket. He gave the weighted pocket a satisfied pat before glancing at his watch.

"No sign of the Bat." He looked the other cases over quickly, deciding there was nothing else worth taking at the moment. "Let's get out of here." Stepping out of the wing, he walked smack into the heavily muscled chest of the Dark Knight.

"Not tonight, Nigma," he growled.

"Batman! Good of you to make an appearance!" Edward said cheerfully.

Wasting no time, Batman threw a punch knocking the lighter man off his feet. The two henchmen immediately dropped their bags of goods and rushed the vigilante. As a team, they barreled into the masked man, slamming him into the wall. Each one suddenly found themselves being tossed unceremoniously to the floor. Before any of the men could get up, a figure swung out from the ceiling beams, aiming directly at Batman. He saw the girl a second too late as she crashed, heels first, into his chest.

Dee growled as she pulled forth her bo staff, swinging the weapon to extend it. She allowed him to stand, backing of and waiting in a relaxed pose to see if he would strike. Batman stood silently, letting his cape close around him. Behind her the men all began to stand, groaning and rubbing the backs of their heads. Benny was the first one standing and he helped the Riddler up. As Eddie pulled the handkerchief from his pocket to dab away the blood at the corner of his mouth, Trigger stood and retrieved the two bags. At the movement, Batman's cape flipped open and two batarangs came flying out, slashing the tops of the bags off. As the sound of trinkets spilling from Benny's bag filled the hall, Dee made her next move.

In a charge, Dee made it look as though she were aiming high with her bo staff. As she reached him, he ducked and her attack quickly switched, landing a hard blow with her foot on his shoulder. Her bo staff came down across the side of his head with a loud crack. Like lightning, he grabbed a hold of her foot and threw her into the wall. The girl barely weighed anything to him. She hit the wall and fell backward, staring up at the ceiling, stunned and coughing. Everyone went silent as the Riddler hurried over to her. His eyes narrowed when he saw the trickles of blood coming from her nose and mouth.

"Wrong move, Batman," he snarled, quickly standing as he pulled a gun from his jacket.

The henchmen followed suit and began shooting at Batman. The vigilante rolled into the next room. For a moment the gunfire stopped. When he peered around the edge of the doorway, he was immediately shot at again. He managed to see the Riddler heft Query over his shoulder in a fireman's carry and run out of the hall. Benny and Trigger laid down cover fire for each other as they gathered the spilled loot.

"Go! Go!" shouted Trigger as he locked a fresh clip of bullets into his gun.

Batman took that chance to throw a batarang, knocking the gun from the man's hand. Trigger spared no time in retrieving the firearm, grabbing up his bag instead and bolting out of the hall after Benny. Outside the Riddler was waiting, Dee still over his shoulder and groaning now. As soon as his men were out and running past him, he tossed one of the little bombs he had taken from her backpack. The Dark Knight was just running toward the door when the little explosive bounced through and exploded in a brilliant flash of orange. Bits of wall crumbled down into the doorway, half filling it. Satisfied enough with that, he turned and ran after his men who had just reached the car.
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