Judgement Day

by R. J. Vaz

In a world on the brink of submission by Brainiac one man takes the gifts he received from the Exobytes, and uses them for personal gain. When trying to avenge his horrific past the lines between hero and villain blurs into grey.

Judgment day

My name is James Nyte; and I am a murderer. My life hasn't been the miracle it's been for most but I've made due. Choices and decisions I've made have all been a precursor to this moment. Perching myself on the edge of this building I sit in the pouring rain just waiting. For what you ask? For the bait that's going to put me on the radar of arguably the most dangerous man in the universe. I know that sounds crazy but judgment must be passed on the ones responsible for the nightmare that is my life. After tonight there is no going back, no apologizing. My decision is FINAL.

Just then a light goes on in the apartment across the street from me. It would seem my prey is home but I need to be sure. I speak into my mask "voice activation key jay night. Drone one remain in stealth mode and activate retina scanners and voice recognition as well as cross reference other known data we have on the target such as height, weight, walk, dominant hand, shoe size, skin and hair pigmentation." The drone responds with an affirmative beep and begins scanning the target immediately. Seconds later the drone confirms all parameters are within the ninety ninth percentile. I hate to smile prematurely but I get the feeling this is going to go off without a hitch. I pick up my binoculars and peer into the window to see that she's one the phone. "Drone one record her conversation and then engage the target once she's done." "Drone one acknowledged."

I patch into police frequencies to see how things are looking on my side of town. Looks quiet enough for this to go rather smoothly. I look up into the night sky and let the rain pour down my face. My mind wanders to my mother and how she used to love the rain. Cleansing is what she said it felt like to her. I quickly look down at the street and shake the thought from my mind. I look back at the apartment window just in time to see her hang up the phone and walk out of sight. Then I get a message from my drone. "Drone one engaging target" "excellent. Now you are mine….Lois Lane."

Several years ago…

Gotham city; the only place in the universe the devil goes for vacation. Crime capital of the world where the king is a fool and the fool be king. In here blood flows like water and death like dollar bills. Only in this city could a good for nothing nobody can become a high rolling somebody. To some it's a shithole but to others its home. The Nyte family happens to be part of the "others."

They are all inside of their small apartment waiting for dinner to be done. The two children James and Jocelyn Nyte are sitting on the couch watching T.V. their father Angel is in the kitchen reading the newspaper. "Goddammit! Can you believe this shit! The joker escaped…..again! I think at Arkham they need to say don't drop the keys instead of don't drop the soap" just then their door gets smashed in and a half dozen men with guns come rushing in.

"EVERYBODY ON THE GROUND NOW!" screams the thug. Angel, holding a kitchen knife, quickly realizes he is outmatched and drops the weapon and slowly gets on his knees. "Look you can take whatever you want just leave my family alone" pleads the father. Then one of the thugs goes into the kitchen and grabs the mother. "Your all coming with us" demands the first thug. One of the men walks over to Jocelyn and tells her to get up but she doesn't move, instead she just lies on the floor crying. Her mother looks at her and says "don't worry baby just do as the man says and everything will be alright I promise" Her own voice shaking with fear. Jocelyn nods her head and slowly begins to get up. Growing impatient the man grabs her by the hair and lifts her to her feet "c'mon we ain't got all night!" the man yells.

In nearly an instant Angel is on his feet charging towards the man screaming "you motherfucker!" Angel slams into the man hard enough to knock him off his feet. Once he hits the floor Angel is immediately on top of him and starts bashing his head with a wrench he picked up from a nearby table. He gets a couple good hits in when one of the other thugs hits Angel in the back of his head with the butt of his gun. Lights out.

The next thing Angel hears is his wife screaming. He opens his eyes to find that she is being lifted by a magnet attached to a crane. The smell of dirt and rusted metal erupt into his nose and he quickly surveys the surrounding area to find that they are in the Gotham city freight yard. James and Jocelyn are a few feet behind him to his left still crying each with a thug at their backs.

Then Angel hears the one sound that rips and tears through all the others. A sound so sharp it cuts into his ear like a knife to butter. It's a very distinct, very familiar, yet very terrifying PING of a flipped coin. When Angel turns to his right he sees the silver coin fall into the hand of Gotham's very own twin headed monster, the malicious and infamous Two-Face.

"Hmm it seems that luck is not on your side" growls Two-Face. "Luck? What's luck got to do with any of this?" asks Angel. Two-Face walks towards Angel and takes out two custom magnums from the holsters inside his jacket. One is silver, the other jet black; both with the insignia of his coin on the handle of the guns. The black one has the scarred side of the coin and the word LAW engraved on the barrel in silver, while the silver gun has the clean side of the coin and the word ORDER engraved in black.

"Unfortunately for you and your family, luck is all that remains in these fading moments of your life."Two-Face says with cold certainty. He kneels down beside Angel and starts showing him his weapons. "Let me introduce you to the only women in my life, LAW and ORDER. They're both magnums but I've customized them accordingly. You see…" Harvey interrupts"ORDER has less power than the average magnum but still packs a punch nonetheless. What it lacks in power it makes up in speed, since the recoil is far less it allows me to use it with one hand and fire it as rapidly as any other hand gun. Perfect for giving off warning shots, keeping my opponent at bay or just wounding them for interrogation.LAW on the other hand is a two-handed power house. I can sever human arms at the shoulder, legs at the kneecap or thighs; I've even been known for blowing off half a human head with this. So when ORDER fails, I lay down the LAW. So if I were you id start wishing for some good luck, cause luck is gonna determine whether your crippled by ORDER or die by the LAW"

Two-Face stands up and walks away from Angel. Then with his back turned Harvey asks "why were you investigating us?" "Investigating you?" Angel asks while raising a curious eyebrow. "I don't know what you're…" "DON'T PLAY DUMB WITH ME!" Screams Two-Face. He turns to Angel "you've got two choices, either you tell me what I want to know or I kill your children right now"

"But I don't know anything I swear" Angel confesses. "You've got until the count of three" says Harvey. "But I really don't know what you're talking about, I'm just a simple mechanic" "one…" "I never investigated you I swear!" "Then why did my men trace the origins of several text messages to an account in your name? TWO!" "What? Listen I'm sure if you give me some time this misunderstanding can all be cleared up" begs Angel. "Sorry…you're all out of time"

"IT WAS MEEEE! DON'T KILL HIM! PLEASE!" screams Angel's wife. Two-Face turns towards the crane. "It was you?What asurance do I have that you're not covering for him?" Harvey asks in his attorney tone of voice. "The man I spoke to is called Dr. Jekyll; he wears a late nineteenth century trench coat and top hat and half the teeth in his mouth are gold studs." She replies. "Any school girl could make that description" barks Harvey. "We spoke on several occasions about how you're planning on smuggling in some very high tech weaponry. One of the times we spoke was in the iceberg lounge" she pleads

"Yes we know that much" Two-Face gestures one of his men to step forward. The man steps to the left of Two-Face with a duffle bag and drops it on the floor and then steps back. Two-Face looks at Angel "open it" he commands. With shaking hands Angel slowly unzips the bag and is nearly kicked over by the horrid stench. He crawls back a few feet and vomits. Two-Face reaches into the bag and pulls out half of Dr. Jekyll' head and shows it to the woman.

"As you can see we've already dealt with him. I had to take his teeth out since they were pure gold, figure it could get us some small time spending money. And in case you're wondering how we fit him into this bag well it wasn't easy….we had to cut every portion of his body into halves hahahahahaha" Two-Face drops the head to the ground and takes a couple steps towards the crane. "Who were you going to report this information to if you haven't already?" Harvey asks. "The Gotham Gazette" she answers. "The Gotham Gazette?" Angel interrupts. "I thought you were done with them?"

"I was but then my editor called me and asked if I wanted to take this story off the books because everyone else was already assigned to other stories." She says. "What about Vickie Vale? He couldn't have asked her? What could she be doing that's more important than this?" Angel responds; his voice rising just below a yell. "Its complicated honey" she pleads; her voice shaking as she tries to hold back the tears that have yet to fall.

Now Angel's voice roars like thunder "COMPLICATED! IT'S COMPLICATED! YOU JUST WILLINGLY PUT THE LIVES OF OUR FAMILY, OUR CHILDREN IN JEAPORDY FOR A COUPLE HUNDRED WORDS ON THE FRONT PAGE!" now crying she responds "it's not like that…" "IT'S NOT? TAKE A LOOK AROUND! YOU'RE HANGING FROM A MAGNETIC CRANE, I JUST OPENED A DUFFLE BAG FILLED WITH CHOPPED UP HUMAN BODY PARTS AND THERE ARE MEN WITH GUNS READY TO SHOOT OUR CHILDREN AT A MOMENTS NOTICE FROM THIS MANIAC!"

"THANK YOU" Two-Face says with smug satisfaction. Harvey intervenes "your dysfunctional problems are apparent but let's focus on the matter at hand shall we? You have still failed to present any evidence beyond a shadow of a doubt that you're not lying and the jury is out. All that's left now….is to pass sentence" those last words froze the blood in Angel's veins and his heart sank so far it was replaced with a void of hopeless sorrow. As Two-Face digs into his right pocket and retrieves his coin Angel turns his head to face his frightened children. Their faces screaming daddy help us please, yet all he can do is return a reassuring glare that everything is going to be alright. He couldn't bring himself to even mutter such a lie to his children.

He hears the PING of the coin once again and turns to face Two-Face whose back is towards him. Angel looks up to his wife hanging from the crane not sure how to feel. His emotions ranging from contempt to apologetic, pity to empathy, hate to love. Of all the many emotions flowing through him he didn't allow her to see any of them. All that could be seen in his eyes was a volcanic fury of demonic proportions burning deep into the very core of her soul.

Two-Face catches the coin and stares at it for a few moments in a dark silence that only solidifies the frozen fear encompassing the surrounding area. Still glaring at his coin Harvey says "well it appears that you've lucked out…" Angel glances at Harvey's back then returns his gaze back to his dangling wife and manages a small smile. "…but he didn't" Two-Face shifts to face Angel and points his LAW magnum at him and fires a shot through his throat exploding the back of his neck and lower cranium.

The fragments of meat and bone splatter on half of Jocelyn who is in shock and can't even scream. James lets out a huge cry and tries to run to his father's side but is quickly stopped by the hand of the thug standing behind him. His crushing grip on James' shoulder brings him to his knees. As Angel's lifeless body hits the floor it's apparent that the only thing connecting his head to his body is the layers of skin left by the front of his neck. Jocelyn stares at her father's body while it twitches unable to blink. Two-Face hovers ominously a few feet away; gun in hand still blowing smoke out the barrel.

"You're a monster!" the mother screams. "Compliments didn't save him, what makes you think they'll save you?" Two-Face replies in a very nonchalant tone.

Metropolis, Present day…

I use my grapple line to zip over to the window. Just as I'm about to crash through it, drone one opens it up and I swing right in. I take a look around the room I'm in. clearly it's the living room judging by the couch and entertainment set up they have going on here. Some pretty expensive things they have here; lamps, tables, paintings and such. I guess a reporter's salary is more than I thought but then again she is the best in the world isn't she?

"Where is she?" I ask. "Target is situated in the master bedroom five meters north west of your current location" the drone replies. "Good. Now from the phone call you recorded I want you to make a simulated voice pattern and have the data transferred to drone two. Don't want anyone knowing that Miss Lane is M.I.A."

The drone gives two affirmative beeps and begins processing the request. I take a look at the small portable computer on my wrist and punch in a countdown of three minutes and fifteen seconds. That should be more than enough time. I walk down the short hallway and find Lois Lane on the floor. I reach down and hoist her up over my shoulder; then make my way across the room to the window.

"Drone two enter the master bedroom and initiate decoy sequence alpha." I command. A second drone enters the room and lies down on the bed. Then creates a hologram image of Lois Lane around its shell based on the data drone one took of her earlier. I open the window and ready my grappling gun. "Drone one implement exit strategy beta, were going home. Oh and before I forget make sure our surprise is set up and ready to go."

Drone one beeps the acknowledgement and I fire my grapple gun and soar threw the air. "You don't need to worry about a thing Miss Lane. Everything will go according to plan and you'll be fine." I blatantly lie to her. Underneath us at street level about three cop cars pull up to the building. Predictable as usual I think to myself. Waiting on the roof of the building across I watch the star labs science police rush into the building. A moment later drone one is hovering beside me.

"Home" I say. And with a beep we become surrounded in a bluish haze of energy, and the area around me is decompressed into a twisted version of reality as my mind tries desperately to comprehend what's happening. Darkness ensues for a brief moment afterwards and then reality reforms around me and I'm back in Gotham on the roof top of my building.

Gotham City freight yard, (past)…

Young James is crying and throwing up from the horrific sight of his father's body twitching on the floor. Jocelyn remains frozen; her cheeks stripped by the flowing tears from her unblinking eyes clearing their way through the dirt and filth. Two-Face looks to the thug that dropped the bag. "Get rid of them."

The thug walks over and picks up Angel over his shoulder followed by grabbing the duffle bag with his free hand. He heads over to the compactor and dumps them in. the man walks over to the control unit and waits for confirmation. "Destroy the evidence" says Harvey

The man activates the compactor at the same time the wife screams in defiance. "Hush now sweetie. Your conviction is soon to come." Harvey reassures. The hum of the machine almost seemed to drown out all other ambient noise. Slowly crushing Angel and what remained of Dr. Jekyll. The popping of hundreds of bones, the splattering sounds of meat and blood was the only thing that cut through the air and exploded in James' ear like a missile. He didn't know it then but those sounds he would remember for the rest of his life.

Two-Face walks over to the children and kneels down in front of them. "Seeing as how this is a family endeavor…it's only fair if everyone participates." Growls Two-Face with half a smile. "Get away from them!" the mother demands. Without turning around Two-Face snaps his finger and the thug operating the crane pulls a lever that causes the crane to descend rapidly. He stops it before it hit the ground but that doesn't save her. Nails, bolts, shrapnel and other pieces of metal that are lying on the ground shoot onto the magnet with piercing force. A couple seconds later the thug pulls the lever again and the crane recedes. "Motion denied" replies Two-face

"Now…where was I? Oh yea family participation hahahahaha." Two-Face eyes both of the children as he reaches in his pocket for the coin but suddenly stops. He then stands up n gestures to one of the men behind them with a nod of his head. James then feels himself being lifted into the air by the back of his shirt; his incessant screaming and kicking doing little more than to achieve a slight annoyance from the man.

"Sorry kid but your sister seems incapacitated at the moment so that left us with only you as our choice to call to the stand." Explains Harvey. They reach the compactor and Two-Face nods to the man controlling it who nods in return and proceeds to open the machine. "Drop him in" demands Two-Face.

From all his kicking and screaming James accidentally manages to kick the man in his face, successfully raising his disposition from annoyed to angry. The man lifts James up as high as he could and practically slam dunks the boy into the compactor. Two-Face lifts himself up over the wall of the machine and stares down at the boy for a moment; then drops him a black object with a blinking red light. "Here's a radio. Press the button on the side when you want to talk. We'll be in touch. " and with that the top of the compactor slams shut leaving James in near total darkness.

Feeling a flaming pain flare up his rib cage and the side of his face James tries to get up. He reconsiders that course of action as his hand presses down on a warm, wet surface that he's unable to determine if its cloth or not. "Dad…" he mutters to himself and jumps back as the smell of fresh blood, sweat, wet hair and rusted metal surge through his nostrils like a hurricane.

Crying he slowing starts standing up and can hear small pieces of uncrushed bone cracking and breaking under his weight. A crackle from the radio startles him and he hits his head against the wall of the compactor. "Hey kid, how does it feel to be reunited with your daddy? Hahahahahaha!" Two-Face snickers. James quickly picks up the radio and pushes the talk button "let me out of here!" he cries.

"Oh we'll let you out but first we're going to play a little game. The rules are simple. All you have to do is choose between the life of your mother, and the life of your sister. " He says darkly. "NNOOOOOOO!" screams the mother. "Leave him alone he's just a child! I'm the one you want so just take me!" she pleads desperately. Enraged Two-face bee-lines right towards Jocelyn and un-holsters his LAW magnum aiming the barrel directly at her head. "I strongly suggest you start exorcising your right to remain silent or watch both of your children's futures extinguish in an instant! The choice is yours."

Unable to do anything she lowers her head in defeat and lets the tears come flowing down. "That's better; hey kid." He clicks on the radio. "I hope you've done some considerable thinking in there because the last part of the game… " He nods towards the thug operating the compactor who in turn acknowledges and activates the machine. "…is that you're going to have to make your choice before the compactor crushes you to dust just like your old man. " the mother opens her mouth to scream something but quickly reconsiders as Two-Face presses the barrel of the magnum against Jocelyn's temple. Her little girl still paralyzed from shock is glaring at the spot her dad's body once occupied with unblinking eyes; streams of tears rolling down her cheeks and her hands trembling at her sides.

Inside the compactor James is panicking. The hum of the ceiling closing in on him in the darkness; every few seconds he can see it getting closer from the blinking red light of the radio. The mental pressure of being slowly crushed alive fully weighing down on him; Along with the added weight of the lives of his mother and sister hanging at tip of his lips. He pleads and begs with Two-Face to stop this but Two-Face doesn't budge. Looking down at the remains of his father in the crimson hue of the radios light the reality that he won't survive this without making a choice is becoming more and more apparent. Then the radio hums to life. "Tick, tock…tick, tock…tick, tock…tick, tock…" Two-Faces voice growls in. As the ceiling is now touching pushing down on his head everything seems to fade into the background and flashes of his mother and sister stream through his mind. The only sound's he hears is the hum of the compactor, his own heartbeat, and the groveled tick tock of Two-Faces voice.

"MY MOTHER!" he yells into the radio. "I CHOSE MY MOTHER" Two-Face makes a gesture with his hand towards the thug at the controls to stop it and he obeys. A few moments later the compactor opens up and James is pulled out of the machine and placed on his feet. "Hey get a load of this boys" he points to the side of the boy's face that's still throbbing in pain. "He painted the left side of his face with blood as a tribute to me" he gloats. The thugs give a few cheers and some clap their hands. "I'm flattered kid really but…given my criminal status I can't legally adopt you and I'm not the bat nor am I fond of birds. Besides you know what they say, two's a party and three's a crowd!"

Two-Face places his hand on the boys back so that they could walk together. "Come'ere kid I want you to witness the fruits of your decision" he takes James over to a pit of metal and shrapnel where his mother is hanging above it. "Mom no! Don't do this please! Noooo!" One of the thugs punches James in the face knocking him to the ground. "Sorry kid but part of becoming an adult is being able to live with the choices you make. You only get a handful of second chances in your life; and this is not one of them"

James places his hands on the ground and lifts his upper body upwards. He spits dirt from his mouth while trying to shake the haze of being punched by a man. "But I thought you said I had to choose which one to save?" he asks. "I said no such thing. What I said was you would have to choose between them. Whether it was for life or death was solely up to coin" Harvey corrects him.

With that said James looks up at his mother; sorrow and guilt written all over his face. She returns his gaze with her own, emanating a sense of pride, courage and reassurance that only a mother could give. Because she understood that the decision he made was the right one and that her son would one day grow into a great man. "I love you James." She smiles to him. "Take care of your sister ok?" "I will mom…I love you too…" his voice cracking as he strained to keep the tears back.

Then the magnet turns off and his mother plummets into the pit; her body torn and shredded by the jagged metals below. The sinking feeling in James' stomach seemed to have engulfed his entire body up to his throat. For as he sat in the dirt and cried no sound managed to escape the void that he would carry with him for the rest of his life. A void so strong it felt as though it would implode his very being…or maybe that's just what James had wanted to happen, but it never did. Instead he heard the crackle of Two-Face congratulating him.

"Well done kid! You've successfully managed to free yourself from the chains of parentage and become a man of your own free will." James had heard enough and explodes. "NO! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT! ALL OF THIS IS BECAUSE OF YOU!" he screams and picks up a rock and charges at Two-Face. He throws the rock at his head but Two-Face pivots his body and un-holsters ORDER from his jacket. After dodging the rock James attempts to hit Two-Face with his fist. Before he could do so however he gets pistol whipped so hard he almost forgets where he is.

"you've got a lot of heart kid I'll give you that; I'm certain we'll meet again one day and perhaps then you'll be able to step to us. But on that day your also gonna thank me for what I've done for you today…you'll see. Let's go boys" and like that Two-Face leaves James and his sister alone in the freight yard.

Gotham City, (present day)…

"Good evening Miss Lane." My voice a few octaves lower from the masks voice modifier. She awakens slightly disoriented and surveys the room. Piecing everything together her eyes fall on me and she stares at me with an almost blank glare, but I know she's really cursing my existence in her mind right now. I look at her neck to see the mark left by the dart and reach over to clean it up. "As I'm sure you've surmised by now the injection my drone gave you was a sleep agent. I know our boy in blue keeps an ever steady ear trained on your specific heartbeat so this seemed the most effective way of abducting you without his knowledge."

She still stares at me with that blank look and all I can think of is there's no turning back now. "Don't worry Miss Lane you'll be safe for the most part. I won't lie and say you're a hundred percent safe because you're not. All you need to know is that I'm not going to hurt you unless it becomes absolutely necessary." After looking me over for a few moments she finally speaks. Her speech slurred a bit from the effects of the sleep agent. "Why…are you…doing this?" she asks.

"For justice…redemption…retribution, vengeance. Pick which ever reason you like." I tell her. I lean back from treating her wound and she asks "what do you…want from…me?" I stare down into her with a piercing gaze. "What I want Miss Lane you can't give me. All I need from you tonight is for you to just play your part." "Sir" drone one interrupts. "What is it?" I demand. "Superman has just arrived at the apartment."

"Your boy is quite punctual, I like that. Have they found our present yet?" I ask while still eyeing Lois. "Yes they have" the robotic monotone voice replies. "Good. Initiate the countdown sequence." I command and hear an acknowledged beep in return. Again I think to myself there's no turning back. The look in Lanes eyes have changed from blank and glassy to focused and angry. "Judge me however you wish Miss Lane for I assure you, your opinion means even less to me than my own life. Now come; the curtain has risen and its time for you to make your debut."

Metropolis, Lois and Clark's apartment…

"What happened captain?" asks Superman? "Our systems reported a break in Superman but there doesn't seem to be any evidence to support that." The science police captain replies. "Where is Miss Lane?" Superman asks. "I'm right here" says Lois from the hallway. "Lois!" Superman begins walking over to her quickly. "Lois are you alri…" he lets the sentence trail off as he stops mid stride.

"You're not Lois…" Superman says with a hint of shock and terror in his voice. The officers look around at one another in confusion when Lois starts to laugh. Instinctively the officers raise their weapons at her and slowly back away. "She's a drone with a small shield generator. Your weapons are useless." Superman informs them. With their weapons still raised the captain looks at Superman and says "sir I could have one of my men from outside launch an EMP grenade into…"

The captain's words fade into the background as superman hears a ticking noise and watches Lois's face, while still laughing, begin to flash with static and eventually change into a skull. "EVERYONE DOWN!" yells Superman who immediately hyper-sonic dashes towards the drone. He grabs the drone causing the image to distort as he runs into the bathroom and drops into the tub covering the drone with his body. An instant later the drone self-destructs.

The glass in the window is completely gone. The tiles are cracked and falling off the walls along with the glass from the mirror. The tub is cracked with water shooting out of the broken faucet and the shower curtain is on the floor after being blown off by the blast. Superman stands up completely unscathed as the officer's head into the bathroom; the captain making his way between them.

"Superman are you alright?" asks the captain. "I'm fine captain. How are you and your men?" responds Superman. "All accounted for sir. Could I ask why you decided to bring it in here instead of outside?" the captain inquires. "Well for one thing I wanted to minimize the debris, and if this thing had any chemical agents in it I knew it would be much easier to contain if it were inside." Says Superman. "Well miss Lane is gonna have a stroke when she sees the damage" an officer says. "Yea poor Kent" adds another and they all start laughing

"Alright that's enough outta the breakfast club! This is now an official crime scene so start putting your energy towards looking for clues to miss Lane's whereabouts." Commands the captain. He then turns towards Superman who has gotten out of the tub and is standing about three to four feet away. "You know captain I can search the area a lot faster than your men can. It may still be dangerous here so I think it may be better if you just pulled out and let me handle this" Superman suggests.

"Be that as it may Superman if we got scared and ran every time there was a little danger then we would be in the wrong line of work. And with all due respect sir, superhero or not we are trained professionals who know what to look for…you don't." Superman stares at the captain for a moment a little taken back by the Captains straightforwardness. Realizing he was wrong to suggest that he take over their job when there's no need to, he simply cracks a smile and says "my apologies captain I was out of line. I didn't mean to undermine or discredit the abilities of you and your team. It's just with this whole Brainiac invasion going on I guess I've forgotten that you're here to help and protect just as much as I am."

Just then the sound of ticking creeps its way back into Superman's ears and the smile abruptly disappears. He hyper-sonic dashes into the bedroom just in time to see an officer open the closet revealing a giant present wrapped in green wrapping paper with a bow on top. Just as the present explodes superman grabs the officer and carries him into the living room, he turns around to see green gas seeping from the doorway and into hall.

"MASK'S!" yells the captain but Superman is on it already. Standing at the doorway he sucks in all the gas. Almost immediately He flies out the window and heads upward. "I WANT TECH SUPPORT IN HERE NOW!" screams the captain. "Yes sir!" responds an officer who gets on the walkie. Another officer is already scanning the room to find out the threat level of the gas. After a moment he heads over to the captain.

"Well?" he asks. "We're gonna need that tech up here pronto. I don't know what that gas was but my readouts are indicating that it was potent enough for two entire cities." The officer replies. "My god…where is that damn tech!" the captain demands. "ETA thirty seconds sir" says an officer. The captain makes his way towards the living room window and looks into the sky

Superman is already in the upper atmosphere when his vision begins to blur. His lungs start constricting causing him to cough. He slows down as he begins coughing frantically. His eyes begin to burn and he involuntarily starts shooting heat vision into the sky. His muscles start to convulse and flex uncontrollably and he begins flying out of control. He tries to cover his eyes with his hands but with his muscles acting on their own that becomes a whole other mission entirely.

The tech scans the area and immediately gets results. "Oh my god. That was nerve gas. An amount this strong would cause any human being to flex so hard their bones would snap, organs would rupture or worse explode." The captain looks over to the senior medical officer and very seriously asks "could this affect superman?" to which the med officer replies "well under normal circumstances and given what we know about him and his physiology I would say no. but with the sheer potent magnitude of this gas and how similar his nervous system is to ours I'd have to yes and that its probably already in effect."

"Alright I want a med evac chopper on the roof five minutes ago! Medic your with me, the rest of you stay here and secure the building and get a CSI team in here to get to work on the drone and box fragments now!" the captain orders. He and the medic race towards the door. "And if you find out anything you let me know pronto." He says while exiting the room. "Yes sir!" is heard from one of his men as he turns to head down the hall to the stairway that leads to the roof.

Somewhere in Old Gotham…

I'm perched on the edge of a roof a few blocks away from the destination I was given. Using my drone I manage to survey the area well enough to see what I'm getting into. Although their dressed in street clothes I can spot his thugs a mile away. He has them in pairs attempting to inconspicuously patrol the perimeter of the building. Strange, I know he's a mad man but to choose a location that's being renovated by the Justice League is either plain stupidity or we may have to raise his intelligence status to genius level.

"Why have you brought me here!" Lois demands. I ignore her and recall my drone; it's almost time to get this underway. "What are we doing here? Can't you see that Brainiac has already started bottling up this section of the city? We need to get out of here!" Lois yells. She's really beginning to annoy me. "The only place we are going is deeper into this side of town" I tell her. She stares at me for a moment as if trying to piece things together. "Are you in league with Brainiac?"

For the first time in a very long time I let out a genuine laugh. After a few moments I finally manage to reply. "No I'm not…no one ever truly is in league with Brainiac. He always has his own agenda, the assimilation and absorption of all knowledge throughout the universe. Pretty simplistic for a complex being such as him. That's why I'm not at all concerned about this invasion. I know Brainiac will be taken down simply because of his behavioral pattern and his dependence on machines. If you ask me I'm far more concerned about the Exobytes."

"Why would the Exobytes concern you? Superman and the Justice League said they were fine." She defends. "Yes but they never said where they came from. They just arrived right in the nick of time for an invasion from Brainiac? That can only mean one of two things: Either the League knew this invasion was coming for quite some time or, the sudden arrival of the Exobytes wasn't from the League and they're saying it was so they don't create mass panic. Either way they're hiding something."

"Superman would never lie to us!" she defends again. "Even if it was in the best interest of the planet to do so?" I ask. She stares at me angrily with glossy eyes. She knows my logic is sound but her loyalty and faith in superman is still fighting to follow him blindly. Whatever her position is on this matter doesn't concern me because we have more important things to take care of. I press a button on my wrist and my drone fires a sleep dart into Lois' neck. "Oowww!" she pulls the dart out and looks at it then looks at me. "Why you son of a…a…bitc…" and she's out.

I turn and face the complex once more to double check if the course of action I've chosen is the right one. Not seeing any better options I put the binoculars away and turn back to Lois. Without looking away from her I say "I think it's about time to initiate phase two. Is everything ready?" To which the drone replies "affirmative." I smile beneath my mask. "Good, start it then." The drone beeps and lights start flashing on it showing that it's processing the command. I pick up Lois and head over to the drone. I lay her over the drone on her stomach evenly so she doesn't fall. "Stay here until I call for you" I command the drone who just beeps in return. I turn and run towards the edge of the building and jump off. Gliding through air I think to myself: I love it when everything goes according to plan.

Gotham City freight yard, (past)…

Kneeling in the dirt covered in blood and sweat James cries out for his mother and father who will never answer him again. Empty and alone he doesn't know what else to do. This vast void he feels is ironically saturated by the presence of his sister, Jocelyn. She still stands in the same spot with pieces of their dads spine stuck to her dress. Comforting it should be to have her there with him; alive and yet her lifeless expression, more porcelain now than human, is disconcerting to say the least. The fact that he originally thought he was choosing to save his mother's life begins eating at him

James stares at the blood pool engrossing where his mother lies. Occasionally he would look towards the compactor but only for a few moments as images of his recent residency of that metallic tomb flash into his mind and he is forced to turn away. He crawls over to where Jocelyn is implanted and he hugs her crying. He tries to tell her that they have to do something and they have to go but she doesn't respond. He grabs her shoulders and shakes her while calling her name; nothing. Eventually he gives up because the truth is even if she was lucid he has no idea where they would go or what they would do. He doesn't even know where they are.

Hours crept on ever so slowly. At some point James must've cried himself to sleep because he awoke from the dirt to the early morning sunlight and a man, a freight yard worker, asking him if he were alright. The next thing James knew he was in a police precinct trying to relive the horrid events for the officers but being unable to do so from the knot in his throat and the rivers flowing from his eyes.

As the officers worked with him a psychiatrist was with his sister trying to do the same thing. Like the officers he bore no fruit either. After a while they meet up with Lieutenant Gordon. "Ok boys what have you got for me?" asks Gordon. "The kid is completely hysterical. We're not getting much outta him right now except that he keeps repeating that it's all Two-Faces fault." Says the officer. "Oh no Harvey…" a hint of sorrow in Gordon's voice. "The girl is far worse. She is completely traumatized by the events and her mind has essentially locked itself away in an attempt for self preservation." Says the psychiatrist. "Jesus Christ. That's terrible. Are there any known relatives? Close family friends?" Gordon asks hopefully. "None sir. They were very private and both the mother and father were the only children. Both of their parents are dead and beyond that we haven't found anything yet. My guess is the family had some kind of falling out and split. Gonna be difficult to locate if at all." Says another officer.

Gordon paces back forth obviously disturbed by this. The psychiatrist is the first to break the silence. "It's clear that the only option left is foster care. Well as a temporary solution until you can locate the other family members. The girl on the other hand would be better off coming with me to the Gotham children's hospital under the care of Dr. Leslie Tompkins and myself."

"Your gonna admit her into a nut house?" asks the officer. "Would you prefer Arkham? I hear they have a lovely revolving door policy" counters the doctor. "No no no" interrupts Gordon. "Your right that would be best for the girl but what about the boy?" he asks. "Naturally he would come for a few sessions as well though he won't need as much attention as the girl will. I suspect he will be well enough within two years. Depending on how the foster care goes maybe sooner…maybe longer."

Metropolis, (present day)…

"Sir! HQ says that something crashed into metro bay at high velocity near strikers a few minutes ago" says the helicopter pilot. "Good that's our boy people!" the captain says confidently. The medical officer is looking off into the distance clearly deep in thought. "Something on your mind officer?" inquires the captain. The medical officer turn to the captain very reluctantly; takes a deep breath and asks. "Sir…what will we do if we should arrive on scene only to find that…Superman is…is…" the captain interrupts. "Don't think like that officer! If doomsday couldn't take out the man of steel then I don't believe there to be a great many things that can. He's gonna be alright."

The medical officer turns back to gaze out into the distance once more; struggling to believe the words of the captain to be true. Moments pass and they finally come to the bay where they believe superman to be. Before anyone can even think to ask, their doubts are washed away with the sudden splash that erupts before them. The chopper bounces around violently as they are struck with turbulence within the shadow of this 150ft colossus. After some momentary disruption the pilot regains control and the chopper steadies out. The rest is short lived as another titanic splash erupts even closer than the last. The pilot begins to steer away when another one explodes possibly even larger than the previous two.

More and more splashes are appearing around them so the captain tells the pilot to land on the helipad at Strykers Island. He then tells his officers to get in touch with the Chinatown and little bohemia precincts and warn them of oncoming tidal waves. The captain looks to the medical officer. "What can we do to stop him!" yells the captain. "Well the nerve gas is causing his muscles to flex and constrict violently. Any sudden reflex such as clasping his fist or pounding his chest would produce enough force to cause these splashes. This means we have no way of getting to him alive."

"So we just sit here and watch him flex for god knows how long while innocent people die from the tidal waves?" the captain shakes his head. "That is absolutely unacceptable!" he yells. "The casualties should be minimal since our data of superman tells us that with his level of power metropolis should be reduced to a hole in the ground by now. Seeing as how it isn't, that can only mean that somehow Superman is managing to control these outbursts to a degree. As far as stopping him goes, unless you guys have some sort of weapon that could be fired underwater with the capability to shut down his nervous system than no we can't stop him."

The captain looks back to the squall ensuing behind them. "Fine then, we play the waiting game." After waiting for what felt like an eternity the tempest dies down and the team gets ready to dive in and retrieve the man of steel. Superman shoots some very carefully timed heat-vision blasts to alert the team of his location. They finally reach Superman and pull him to shore on Strykers Island. The medical officer rushes to his side and starts to check him out.

Superman raises his hand to signal them to stop. "I'm alright officer. I just need a little sun that's all" his body still making slight twitches here and there. "Listen superman you still have some of the effects of the gas in your system and I think it would be best if you came with us to S.T.A.R. labs HQ for a full examination." Pleads the medic. "No no no I can't stop, not yet. I gotta find Lois." Superman says as he walks away from the officers. The captain grabs Superman's arm to get his attention. "Look superman the doc's right you gotta go back and get checked out. It's in your best interest."

"And what about Lois's best interest?" Superman counters. The captain stands his ground. "Don't you worry about Ms. Lane alright? You just worry about recovering and we'll get her back safe and sound" the captain pledges. Superman turns to fully face the captain and looks him dead in the face. "If I turned tail and ran to the hospital every time I was hurt there would be countless bodies filling cemeteries right now. So with all due respect captain you're out of your league on this one. I know what to listen out for, you don't." the captain stares back puzzled at the statement. Superman begins to slowly float upwards. "I suggest you leave this to me now. I'm sure your team is needed elsewhere" the captain points a finger up at superman. "You can't just toss us to the side like this!" he shouts. "I wasn't asking captain."

With that said superman launches into the sky. The captain and his team make their way back towards the helicopter. Superman reaches the upper atmosphere and hovers there for a moment. He takes a deep breath as he prepares to concentrate. He closes his eyes only to have them shoot open again. To his horror he can hear Lois's heart beat….a billion times over. It's as if she's everywhere at once. Thinking to himself that this doesn't make any sense he knows these other beats must be artificial. But trying to sift through them to locate the authentic one is gonna take some time and time is something Lois may not have.

Lower east side of old Gotham…

I take out the perimeter guards one by one with ease and precision. Afterwards I make my way down into the basement where "he" awaits me. Upon reaching the door I signal for my drone to make its way here and then I stare at the steel separating me from finality. What awaits me on the other side I wonder…a greeting…or an ambush? I take one deep breath to steel my nerves and then I kick the doors wide open. I dash inside and roll behind a crate for cover. I survey my surroundings to see what my next move should be when I realize I don't hear anything. No yelling, no gunfire just pure silence. I slowly stand to see what's going on and standing in the middle of the room is Two-Face with four of his thugs, two on either side. He looks at me and says "boy you sure are jumpy. Relax kid, you got heads"

Just the sound of his voice is enough to make my blood boil. I make my way towards them just as my drone enters the room with Lois. "Ahhh there she is. My benefactor will be pleased, you did good kid." He tells me with a smug look on his face. "First I wanna see the chip" I tell him. "oh a straight down to business kinda guy, I like that" he snaps his fingers and one of the men reaches into his inside jacket pocket and pulls out a data chip.

"How do I know it's authentic?" I ask. "Check it yourself" he replies and the man walks over to me and hands me the chip. I take it and place it into my drone who begins scanning the chip and downloading its contents. Two-Face just stands there half smiling at me when suddenly my drone begins making whaling noises and short circuits. The drone hits the ground and Lois' body rolls forward. I look at my forearm and see that the drone had sent me an authenticity message before the shutdown. I look to Two-Face and raise my voice "what have you done!"

"You didn't think we would just hand you the chip without some kind of fail safe? It's encoded with a virus that selects a file at random and corrupts it. Should said file be downloaded into another device that device becomes infected and terminated." He says. The thug that handed me the chip picks up Lois and begins walking back towards Two-Face. I bend down to the drone and eject the chip. "And how do I know that the file I need isn't corrupted?" I say angrily. "You don't…you're just going to have to chance it!" he proceeds to laugh maniacally.

I stand up and insert the chip into my forearm computer. It scans the chip for a moment and then I have access to the files. I search through the files for the one I need when I hear the sound of a chain rattling. I look up to see that behind Two-Face the man that grabbed Lois is hooking her to a chain. "What are you going to do with her?" I ask. "I don't see how that's any of your business…but if you must know we're going to give her a little makeover so to speak."

I stare at him and his guards for a moment and then look back down at the holoscreen on my arm and select the file. It downloads for what feels like forever. Once the bar reaches the end my lungs cease breath as not only I but Two-Face and his thugs await the outcome. A few seconds pass and nothing happens when suddenly a video window pops up and I see Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman standing before Lex Luthor only he looks different.

The video ends and I'm in near total disbelief. Lex Luthor gave us the Exobytes? Which means he probably has some way of controlling them and in turn; us! And if the league has decided not to tell anyone it can only be because they have no way of counteracting him right now. We may all be at the mercy of the ticking time bomb that is Lex Luthor! The revelation alone is enough to implode my mind and crush my insides from the gravity.

Suddenly I am ripped out of my head and back into the reality before me by the crackle of his voice. "Intense isn't it?" I glared at him wishing for just one moment that my Exobytes had made me a Kryptonian. "How did you come across this!" I demand. "You're a smart boy, I'm sure you can figure it out" he says with a smirk. I think for a sec and say "of course…you had to get it from Lex himself otherwise the chip couldn't be authentic. Not even Lex is smart enough to outsmart the combined technical genius of batman, steel, and mister terrific"

"There's really no telling what Lex is capable of" Two-Face says ominously. "Now that our deal is struck I think it's time to end things" Two-Face snaps his fingers and his thugs raise their weapons towards me. "I thought you said the coin landed on heads?" I say as I ready myself. "It did…for your entrance. Your exit however yielded a different result." He smiles. Silence lingers as the stare down commences. The first thing to break the silence is the rattling of the chain hoisting Lois up over what seems to be a vat of acid.

"Kill him boys!" he shouts. Before they fire I'm already dodging towards the nearest pillar; a small explosion flashes and smoke fills the area. "Cease fire and spread out! Do not lose your cool…yea being trained by the bat doesn't make him one" Two-Face commands. So they're expecting tactics like Batman huh? Effective as that would be and as much as I'd hate to agree with that garbage, I'm no Batman. So instead of trying to be and doing what they expect, I'll just come at them with a different approach.

They all immediately begin checking the ceiling and dark corners for me. So I step out from behind the pillar and plant a Thermite mine down followed by launching a sleep dart into the neck of the nearest thug. He goes down in a matter of seconds. Before he hits the floor I throw a Gauss grenade at the second closest thug which explodes with an electrical discharge that sends him into a paralyzing spasm.

The third closest thug is already turning and about to take aim while the furthest thug is running in for a closer look. I decide to give it to him and taser pull him towards me putting him directly in the line fire from the third thug. As he's shooting up his friend I grapple to the ceiling but release before I reach the top and glide down over to the thug and drop kick him. His rifle goes flying off somewhere and he tries to retaliate by sweeping me. I respond by jumping over his sweep and coming down on him with an elbow to the temple. I turn to face Two-Face and find that the rifle this thug lost found its way into his hands; and it's aimed right at me.

"This is the end of the line hero!" he shouts! Then a stream of bullets wiz past me as I dodge; the end of my cape gets shredded. Once I stop he repositions his aim to bring the full force of the rifle bearing down on me. This time I get aggressive and flip over the hail of bullets to cartwheel kick the gun out of his hands. He takes a swing at me but I block and return with a punch to his faces followed by a flying knee that sends him crashing into a crate. He un-holsters his magnums but I kick them out of his hands before he can have a chance to feel their weight.

I grab his collar firmly so he knows to take me seriously. "Looks like the coin landed on tails for you" I tell him but he replies with laughter. Before I can demand why the ground begins rumbling all around us. "No…the coin is still yours" and with that the wall in front of me explodes and I jump out of the way taking Two-Face with me. We hit the ground and Two-Face kicks me off of him. I get myself up on my feet and notice the ground is still shaking in intervals of a few seconds. I look ahead of me and realize why "SOLOMON GRUNDY! BORN ON A MONDAY! RRRRRAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

He charges at me and for a moment I freeze. This titan of death has my number and there's nothing I'm able to do about it. I think of Two-Face telling me that it's the end of the line for me. Suddenly an explosion under Grundy knocks him off balance and he smashes into a pillar. Two-Face and I both stare in confusion and then I remember placing that Thermite mine down in preparation for his thugs. I snap myself back and regain focus on my objective; only the mission parameters have been super sized. It's Time to change tactics.

The monster rises and this time I'm on the charge. I throw a heavy shuriken at him which seems to barely even tickle him. He swings so I jump and use a glide line to take me towards the wall behind him. As I go over him I throw a sticky bomb on his face. It explodes causing the monster to slightly stumble. I reach the wall and kick off it throwing another sticky bomb at its leg then use my zip tie line to bring me to the monster. The bomb explodes bringing it down on one knee just as I arrive to drop kick its face. I land just behind the monster who swings to backhand me but I dodge roll back then jump in the air to throw my Gauss grenade. Just as it whizzes past the monsters head he thunder claps me sending me across the room and colliding into the wall.

With my ribs cracked or possibly broken I push a button on my wrist when I hear Two-Face gloat "hahahahaha you missed rookie" I crack a smile beneath my mask "no….I didn't…." just then Superman comes crashing in through the ceiling and punches Grundy into the opposite wall. Superman rushes to Lois and rips the chains off her and carefully places her on the ground. Two-face obviously confused has no idea what to do. I slowly bring myself to my feet "I had as many radio signals around the world as I could repeating Lois' heartbeat at a low frequency. I knew he would be listening in so all I had to do was shock Lois to get her heart really pumping and shut off the radio feed. It was never my intent to bring him in on this but I also never expected you to bring Grundy."

Grundy gets back up and throws a crate at Superman who quickly grabs Lois and dashes to the other side of the room. Grundy charges Superman and is met with the same action. They collide with an unruly force that shakes not only the foundation of the facility, but the very earth itself. At this time Two-face finds this to be an opportune moment to high tail it out of here, I disagree. Before he can reach the doorway I catch him with my grapple line effectively ending any delusions of escape. I slowly make my way towards him.

He looks back at me as the building rumbles from the eruption of brutality taking place behind me. "What are you doing! They'll bring the whole place down on us!" he screams. "What's wrong? Does it frighten you to know that your fate is being decided by something other than your damn coin?" I ask. He glares at me while we feel the force of another shockwave. "My feelings are irrelevant. The only thing that holds any meaning is the coin. Absent all emotion, it is justice in its purest form" he says to me. I look at him disgusted; not from his appearance, but as a human being.

I kneel down beside him and say as ominously as possible "well, you're gonna have a front row seat to my idea of justice" I lean back and lock eyes with him as I unsheathe one of my Katars. The blade shimmers from the florescent lights above us. I break my gaze from him to look upon the blade and all its beauty. Consciously I soak in the gravity of this moment that I have dreamt of for what feels like an eternity. I return my gaze towards him only to look on his throat for which my blade will ravage through. Like the red sea his throat shall be parted from Adams apple, to spinal cord. How glorious it will be to stare into his faces as they contort with pain, and watch as his ember of life fades to ash. I grab the line constricted around him to pull him closer to ensure one hundred percent accuracy. With Katar in hand I reach back, and thrust forward!

PING! Before I can process what happened I hear the words "let him go!" in a commanding tone behind me. I look around for my Katar and its several feet out of range even if I lunged for it. The next thing I know Two-Face says "never thought I'd be glad to see you" and immediately gets knocked in the head with something I couldn't even see. Then it all comes together and I realize the one standing behind me, is Batman.

I pivot my head to look over my shoulder at him. There he stands just short of any melee attack I could deliver from this position, yet close enough that his taser batarang could clip me and have me out before I even realized I moved. "Come to save the life of a murderer Batman?" I ask. "No, I've come to save yours" he replies. I shoot a questioning look at him "me? I need no saving Batman I have everything under control" the building rumbles yet again as Grundy slugs Superman.

"No, you don't" he says. "And killing him won't solve anything. Vengeance isn't the answer" while still grasping the line around Two-Face I pivot the rest of my body to face Batman and trying my best to ignore the pain in my ribs. "And what would you know huh! What could you know about the pain I feel, the pain he caused! Don't pretend to give a rat's ass about me now because you didn't when I left you three months ago and you didn't years ago when I needed you most!"

"I understand what you're going through more than you could ever hope to know. When you left I thought it was because you couldn't hack it. That maybe all of this was too much for you. I see now that I was wrong. But you were wrong as well too think you could do this without me stopping you. While you were in training you clearly missed the most valuable lesson we taught. All life is precious whether it's a million or its one. Casualties of war and acceptable losses are not acceptable in our line of work"

"Did you ever stop to think that that's just not realistic?" I retort. "Did you ever stop to think that your parents might be disappointed in you?" he counters. "They would be overjoyed" I tell him. "Overjoyed to tears that their son who avenged them has officially murdered all they stood for" he says. "Stop acting as though you know anything about me!" I yell.

"name: James Nyte, former occupation: technician at steel works, before that did some time for an armed robbery, used to follow around street gangs in hopes of making it big. You have a sister that's in a mental institution due to the trauma of the night you lost your parents at the hands of Harvey Dent a.k.a. Two-Face which is what set you on this path of self degradation. I know all there is to know about you and everyone that's come under my tutelage. This is your fresh start, a clean slate. Don't soil it with the blood of this filth on your hands. Now I'll say it again, let him go."

I stand there contemplating the words of my ex-mentor. I know he's right but I can't seem to curve this insatiable blood lust. Knowing that Two-Face is at my mercy here and now is a day that I've been awaiting for years. I can't just let him go! But I can't kill him either. For if I do I'll become just like him, besides I already have someone else's blood on my hands. Its time this cycle reaches its conclusion.

I let go of the line wrapped around Two-Face and watch as he thuds against the floor. Without looking at Batman I say "do not mistake this gesture. I am no longer your student so I don't take orders from you. I'm letting him live because it is right not because you said to." Before Batman could reply the building rumbles as Superman takes a ferocious punch to the gut that brings him down on one knee. Grundy roars and lifts his hands above his head to prepare for a double hammer fist that'll send Superman miles below sea level. Superman looks up to see Grundy preparing his attack and as the monsters hands begin to swing down a barrage of gun-fire erupts from behind him. Lois managed to grab one of the rifles on the floor. With the monster momentarily distracted Superman flies upwards at Grundy unleashing an uppercut that knocks Grundy through the building and into the night sky.

The building rumbles and shakes, debris falls everywhere as the floor above begins collapsing all around us. Superman manages to grab us and fly us out onto the street. "What about Two-Face?" I ask. "Forget him, we'll have to wait for the debris to be cleared to find out whether he survived or not" Batman says as he accesses a mini computer. "Yea and my nerves are still too shot for me to accurately use my x-ray vision, no thanks to you." Says Superman. "Just what were you thinking anyway? You could've gotten her killed!"

"Like how she got my parents killed and destroyed my family?" I counter. "There's no way Lois could've known what would happen to your family" says Superman. "Your right, but that doesn't change what did happen and y'know what? She needs to be held accountable for her choices just like we are. She wants to play heroin reporter than she needs to think like we do" I say. "That doesn't give you the right to put her life in danger!" says Superman. "And what gives her the right to put others in danger!" I yell. "What the hell is going on! What are you talking about I didn't kill anybody!" shouts Lois.

"Approximately eighteen years ago you were investigating Intergang. A lead came up that somehow linked them to Gotham but you were so busy you couldn't take up on it. Refusing to lose the story you contacted some old friends in the Gotham Gazette to look into it, only they had no one available so you pushed for them to find someone to get you what they needed so they found my mother. A retired reporter turned honest house wife got dragged into it and discovered that Two-Face was smuggling weapons in for Intergang for a small cut. Unfortunately Two-Face found out…I'm sure you can imagine what happened next."

Lois and the group were silent for a few moments as the wind blew the smell of smoke and brick their way. "Look I'm sorry for what happened to your family. Had I known what would happen I wouldn't have gone through with it but I didn't? You can't blame me for that." Lois pleads. "Like hell I can't. Whether purposefully or accidentally the source of my families torment can and will always be traced back to you."

"I won't stop reporting" Lois says firmly. "What a selfish, self-centered witch. I don't know how Clark Kent does it. One day you're gonna stick your nose in the wrong place and someone close to you is gonna suffer for it. And on that day of Judgement I'll be there." I say firmly. Superman begins to speak "if you harm her I swear" I interrupt "relax Superman I'm all done with her. We're on the same side after all"

"Doesn't look that way to me" Superman replies. "Well that's good to hear because we could use your help" says Batman. "What? He can't be trusted" exclaims Superman. "We don't need to trust him" counters Batman. "It's not like I trust you guys either" I interject. "And don't worry Superman I'm not helping you." I look towards Batman. "As I said before I don't take orders from you anymore" I turn and walk away.

"Fine James but just keep your communicator handy for when we call on you" Batman says. "James Nyte is dead" I think back to the night my parents were murdered and how my final act that night was to kill my mother and tonight my final act was to spare that murderer. My only chance of washing away her blood from my hands was to stain them with his and I let him go. I hope you're proud of me mother. I look back towards them and say "from now on you can call me….Final Judgement." And with that I use my grapple line and take off.

"The only reason why I'm not taking him in is because I know you'll be against it, but I need to know why and it better be a good reason" demands Superman. "Because he's one of us, and with Brainiac bottling up cities around the world we're gonna need all the help we can get." Says Batman. "One of us? He's no hero. More like a ticking time bomb!" Superman yells. Batman intercedes before Superman has a chance to continue. "Look Clark I know you can't see past the fact that he put your wife in harm's way but the truth of it is he did good. He got Two-Face to expose himself, took out his thugs, managed to get hold of Two-Face and even improvised when things didn't go according to plan."

Superman thinks on this for a moment, then grabs Lois by the waist side and levitates gently into the air. "You're right Bruce. But just like how I can't look past him almost getting my wife killed you shouldn't be looking past the fact that he would've killed Harvey had you not intervened." Superman replies calmly. "How do you think I got there conveniently in the nick of time? I've been watching him since he left. I knew everything he was up to and if at any time I saw things getting out of hand I would've stepped in and ended it like I did."

"Just because you managed to prevent him from killing Harvey doesn't absolve him of his actions nor does it make him a hero. Y'know Bruce your obsession with control and need to repent for your own sins is forcing you to repeat them. You might see potential in him; which isn't wrong because it's there but, don't let what you see blind you from the reality that you may have created another Jason Todd."

Then Superman turns around and flies off towards metropolis leaving Batman alone to ponder the final lingering words of the man of steel. Finally he activates his communicator. "Oracle this is Batman" he says "yea Bruce I read you loud and clear" Barbara's voice comes in from the other end. "I need you to start compiling a list of villains who are M.I.A. and create wanted ads for them and divide them up and send them to each precinct."

"Whoa that's gonna take some time. How are we gonna handle this when all our manpower is fending off Brainiac?" she asks. "We aren't. This is strictly for the new heroes. This way we concentrate on Brainiac and they get a chance to earn their stripes. Start with Solomon Grundy, his current location should be near Gotham Botanical Gardens…Batman out."

Gotham City, Diamond District precinct…

I need to get to a hospital but the closest thing to me is this precincts teleporter to the watchtower. I don't want to affiliate myself with the justice league anymore but this is the only choice I have. I feel like I'm wandering around slowly losing consciousness when I hear someone ask "hey are you alright?"

I look in the direction of the voice and see someone that looks more creature than man, with huge purple wings and a galaxy in his gut….I must be hallucinating. "Leave me alone" I shrug him off and continue walking. "Hey we are just trying to help you" he…it says. "Yea my goy you don't look so good" says another voice. It came from this guy dressed in green and black with super speed who couldn't seem to manage to sit still. The only thing I kept thinking though was…what the hell is a goy?

"Listen weirdo's I'm fine. Now go about your business before things get serious" I tell them. Their response; laughter. They just laughed at me. That's when another voice says. "Still with that asstastic attitude. Man in your condition you wouldn't be able to take one of us with our limbs cut off let alone all three" that came from the hooded guy dressed in orange and black with what looked like a Shazam lightning bolt on his chest. I must seriously be trippin. And what did he mean by still?

"Listen" begins the purple…uhh thing. "You seem like a guy who's been through a lot and has lost his way. We are simply here to extend a helping hand" he lifts his hand towards me and this energy appears and swirls around me. "What are you doing to me?" I demand. "What needs to be done" he says. Then as mysteriously as it appeared, it vanishes along with all of my injuries. I stand in silence for a while mulling over what has just happened. Finally I look up and ask. "Who are you guys?" almost immediately after asking the question the voice of the guy in green echoes in the confines of my mind with the answer. "My name is Ekzile the commander of this little band, the brute in orange is Syon the muscle of the group, and the…purple thing as you called him is Kruxius our leader. And we are the Exiled Force."

I look over the three again and ask "what do you want with me?" Kruxius replies "as I said we are here to offer you a helping hand. We are very good at what we do and you seem like you are as well" "not better than me though" Syon interrupts. Kruxius and Ekzile shoot him a look and then turn back to me. Kruxius continues "we would like to know if you would be willing to join us?" I contemplate this for a while as I stare at them. Before I can even ask them my question however, Ekzile speaks up first with the answer. "The league didn't send us we are a separate entity. We work with the league not for them so when they need help they call us or other such organizations that are available. The league will give us objectives on these missions but it's up to us to execute them how we see fit. At the end of each mission the league will compensate us with something depending on the threat level of the mission so yes we are sort of like mercenaries."

I glare at Ekzile. "Can you stop doing that." he laughs back "sorry it's become kind of a habit" I turn from Ekzile to look at Kruxius. "Ok so I guess I could give you guys a shot but if I don't like it?" I ask. "You are free to leave whenever you wish to and we will respectfully accept your decision" Kruxius answers. "Ok then I guess you've got yourselves a new member" I tell them. Kruxius just says alright and shakes my hand while Ekzile runs up the wall and around the ceiling shouting a bunch of weird noises. "Don't mind him he's always like that. In fact we all get a little crazy from time to time" says Kruxius. We all start to head out towards the exit of the precinct when I ask. "So the group is called Exiled force right?" "Yea" says Kruxius. "But Ekzile isn't the leader?" "Nope" says Ekzile. "That's a little misleading don't'cha think?" "Nope" they all answer in unison.

Gotham City Sewers…

A hand full of shadows can be seen cascading along the walls of the sewers from the dimly lit lights running along the ceiling. The Splashing of water and echo of footsteps could be heard for blocks in these tunnels; if there were anyone in the depths to hear them. The beings responsible for the burst of life in Gotham's underworld are none other than Two-Face and his gang.

"DAMMIT! THAT PRICK MADE ME LOSE LAW AND ORDER!" Shouts Two-Face. "They were my favorite guns!" one of the thugs looks towards Two-Face. "You could have my rifle if you want sir." Two-Face thinks it over for a second then nods his head in acceptance. The thug throws his rifle and Two-Face catches it with one hand. "Y'know sir at least you made it out with what you came for" one of the men point out. Two-Face stops walking and turns to address the man. "Thank you Mr. Hyde for that reminder. Could I see it for myself?" Two-Face asks. "Of course boss" Mr. Hyde says quickly and reaches into the pocket of his white trench coat to reveal a black device. He unfolds the device and pushes several buttons causing a hologram of radio waves to appear. He then hands over the device to Two-Face.

"Magnificent isn't it? That ignorant fool had no clue that hidden within the video file I gave him was program to seek out and download the encrypted frequencies the Justice League uses to communicate. Now all I need is a way to decrypt them. I suppose I could consult calculator again. His program was every bit as efficient as he boasted it would be." Two-Face reflects on the possibility for a moment while flipping his coin when he is interrupted by Mr. Hyde "yes sir and once you have the frequencies you could tap into their communications so the villains could know the Leagues every move. I'm certain that would gain you high favor with Lex Luthor sir."

Two-Face catches his coin and laughs "you think too small Hyde. I'm not telling Luthor anything nor am I just gonna sit by and listen to their communications. I plan on using the league and their subsidiaries to do my bidding. You see Hyde in order to become a Boss you've got to think like one" Mr. Hyde begins to tremble from what he is hearing and his forehead begins to perspire. "You mean…you uhh plan on taking down…Lex Luthor sir?" Mr. Hyde says in a shaky tone. "Well he is competition after all. But Luthor is just the end game for now my concerns lie within the vicinity of our fair city. For in order to face Luthor and take what he's got I'll have to amass the means and resources necessary to do so. Cobblepot is first on the list" A dark tone encompasses his words as he remains looking into the hologram.

"Mr. Hyde I must inquire, who else has knowledge of this?" Mr. Hyde thinks to himself for a few seconds then looks around the claustrophobic tunnel at the men standing near him. "umm no one outside of this tunnel sir" he says. Two-Face looks down at the coin in his hand and crack's a devious smile. "Excellent" then he raises his rifle and fires repeatedly. A few seconds later he stops and the men are all on the ground, blood flowing into the sewage water. Mr. Hyde's once white coat now stained in shades of yellow, brown, green, red and black. Two-Face looks at his dead men then at the scarred side of the coin in his hand. He places the coin back in his pocket and looks at the hologram of the frequencies once more then turns to continue down the tunnel…laughing.

To be continued in

Arkham Knights…?