Disclaimer: I do not own the Justice League, any of the Bat-clan or any of the killers
(A warning to all who read this, there will be excessive violence, murders, very excessive character death*, gore and other stuff like that. One hell of a lot of popular and important characters will die, If you are disturbed by this sort of thing then don't read)
The waters were disturbed, a young, ignorant teenage girl had dared to enter the dark, slightly dank waters of the infamous Camp Blood Lake, the resting place of many before her, yet she still dared to put herself in the danger for only a quick swim. She didn't believe what the camp counsellors had told her and the others, that the Lake was cursed, that anyone who swam in it was killed, there may be some weird stuff going on in the world, Metahumans, aliens and other such things, but a cursed lake which killed anyone who swam in it was off the scale. Her long brown hair trailed out behind her slightly chubby body as she swam across the lake, not a fear.
Unknown to the young girl a figure watched her from below the water, a deep hatred in it's eyes, which were visible through holes in the mask which cover it's 'face'. This girl had not only the audacity to come here, to his camp, but to swim in his lake. She had been a very bad child, and bad children were punished. But before he even began to move towards her, the figure of the girl swam to the side of the lake, floating there, but not pulling herself out. On dry land, or at least the pier, stood a short athletic girl, slim, with long red hair and a cute face, about the same age as the brunette, give or take a few months, her hands on her hips in a typical, 'What are you doing?', stance.
"Hey Babs" came the carefree voice of the girl in the water, her hair floating in the water around her "Why are you here?". The more mature girl looked down at the brunette, expression of exasperation and irritation, her red hair around her shoulders and a little across her face, messy, looking like she had been dragged through a hedge backwards, then again when you have to fight a crazy psychic plant-lady every couple months that wasn't as rare an occurrence as it sounded.
"You know why Nancy" came Barbara Gordon's (Batgirl to those in the know, although it has to be said Nancy is definitely not one of them), exasperation mingling with irritation obvious in her voice, partly at her 'friend's' disregard for the rules, not that she was a prep or anything similar, but she could see the good reason behind this particular rule, and partly at being woken up in the middle of the night so Nancy could go for a swim.
"Awwww, cmon Babs, don't be a prude" came Nancy's slightly winging, slightly joking voice. Barbara just rolled her eyes in irritation, not even bothering to ask if Nancy knew what a prude was, knowing her probably not, turning and walking back towards the cabin to go back to sleep, it was probably the most interesting thing to do around here.
The brunette girl let out an irritating laugh, somewhere between a cackle and a giggle, turning in the water and pushing off from the wooden pier, diving beneath the cool, clear water, hair floating around her. As she turned up to begin her ascent to the surface she felt two large, strong arms wrap around her figure, much stronger than her, holding her down, stopping her from reaching the surface, and the air. She felt the arms wrapping around her torso and thrashed wildly, attempting to beat the large man off her.
She couldn't breath, her lungs burning as the oxygen already in her system completely ran out, body forcing her to breath in a lungful of water. In one last ditch attempt to save herself she turned her head and lashed out at her assailant's face, hand crashing painfully against the hard white mask. After this she blacked out there and then, never to reawaken.
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It was Barbara who had first found her body, or what was left of it, a single severed head, lying in a pool of blood on the pier, it made even the seasoned Batgirl faint. Hours later she awoke, in the back of her father's car, driving quietly back to Gotham, throwing up several times when she awoke and sobbing her way through the rest of the journey. She had seen and experienced so much, but this, this made her so afraid, so very, very afraid, disgusted and pained. She had been the last person Nancy had seen before she had died, died a horrible, disgusting, undeserved death.
Back at Camp Blood the investigation was underway, it was already clear who the killer was, the location was enough to make it nearly certain, and the corpse shed more light on this sadistic mutilation, more evidence for the killer. After six years of peace, the town killer was back, he was killing again, and he would hunt down the other nine girls who had been at the camp, all of whom were now on their way back to Gotham city. No one in Gotham city is safe, no one in America. This kill had even attracted the interest of the mighty Justice League, along with the regular detectives and the armed forces stood three heroes, the menacing, faceless form of Question, the beautiful yet fear-inducing Huntress (1) and the quiet, serious form of Zatanna.
"This area reeks of chaos magic" Zatanna told Question for the umpteenth time, exasperation and annoyance obviously directed at the faceless man "But it's already long gone". The detective looked up at the magical woman from the floor, a bemused expression across his face (well they assumed it was, they couldn't really tell), a small piece of rotten, grey cloth between gloved fingers, placing it in a small evidence bag and slipping that into a pocket of his blue jacket. Straightening up he looked around, within seconds deciding there was noting else to be learned here.
"Martian, pick us up" he growled, placing a hand to his earpiece, ignoring Zatanna's eye rolling and the irritated glares of the other detectives. Within seconds the three leaguers' atoms disassembled themselves, flying through the air and space at thousands of miles an hour, towards their destination, the teleportation grid on the watchtower. Within seconds the atoms of the three leaguers reassembled, returning them to normal on board the watchtower. Question immediately began to sweep off towards the labs only to have his coat grabbed from behind by Huntress.
"Where do you think your going?" she asked her lover, a dangerously silky tone to her voice, enough to make him flinch slightly, a slightly worried tone in his reply.
"I need to study this sample", he knew it was lame but it was simply the truth, unfortunately (or fortunately) Huntress didn't agree.
"Charles Victor Sage!" she warned her eccentric boyfriend, arms crossed and head tilted to the side slightly, one thought flashing through his mind 'Use of full name, not good'. "You will give that to Batman, we are going out tonight". Question swallowed at his girlfriend's order, he knew how she could get if he really annoyed her and decided now was really not the time, so he, handed the sample to the nearest leaguer (a very confused Creeper, in any other situation the last person he would entrust something important like this to), asking him to give it to Batman, before stepping back over to Huntress and offering her his arm with a smile (ok she couldn't see it but she knew it was there).
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Barbara sat in her bed shivering, arms wrapped around herself, her red hair hanging wild and unkempt around her shoulders and across her face. The last thing she ever did to that poor girl had been simply a go at her, the last thing anyone had ever done to her before, before, it was too horrible to think about. Just the image of that head, the blood, so much blood. When she fainted she had fallen over, her face had fallen into the pool of blood, and she could still feel it, the blood of a dead girl on her face, on her. It felt like it would never wash off.
Slowly she lay herself down, grief and sadness filling her mind, her eyes and cheeks red from the tears. She tried to relax, to let herself fall into sleep's soft and comforting embrace, it seemed a mile away, the image of Nancy's severed head, the memory of their last conversation, the feel of blood on her skin holding her back, yet eventually the escape into sleep came. Her eyes closed, her body relaxed and she finally allowed herself to slip into the world of her dreams, away from the death of Nancy, from Batgirl, from reality itself.
Barbara found herself in a huge building, hot and metallic, metal pipes and machinery filling the entire room. Brushing lightly against a pipe she leaped back with a cry, it was so incredibly hot, it had burned her arm from only a second long touch. As she stepped forwards she heard a horrible sound, the sound of blades being scraped across metal, a horrible *screeeeech*. She could hear the sound getting closer, mixed with an evil cackle, not like the Joker's insane giggles, much more sinister, scarier even, enough to make even her shrink away.
"Come to Freddie" came a slow, deliberate and sinister voice from behind her, causing her to spin on the spot to look at the man standing in front of her, murmuring 'Oh god!' under her breath at the most disgusting man she had ever seen, he made Two-Face look like Superman. The figure raised one hand to his own face, long nails, no, they were knives, attached to a glove, he raised the glove to his face, blades resting against his bald, burned head. "This, is god". Lunging at her he swung the glove, causing Barbara to jump out the way and into a large pipe. She screamed in pain, throwing herself off the pipe and out of bed, back in real burning agony.
Barbara heard a worried shout and felt the strong hands of her father grabbing hold of her. Lifting her back onto the bed, shivering in fear and pain instead of sadness, what was that thing? That monster? Her back hurt so badly as her dad gently examined it, whispering to her, comforting her, and her arm, it felt worse than almost anything she had ever felt before. But it couldn't have, she had only been dreaming, it wasn't real. Pulling her arm around and looking at the hole in her sleeve she swallowed, that ole, these burns were real. The monster in her dreams was really real.
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The next day Barbara was making the long, painful trek up to Wayne Manor, boots sinking into the mud, it had rained the night before, although for some odd reason she couldn't hear it in her bedroom, it made walking harder and more painful. It hurt to walk, it hurt to do almost anything, but she needed to know about the thing that had killed Nancy, tried to kill her. It took her at least half an hour and copious amounts of pain to reach the main gates to Wayne Manor from the edge of Gotham, and a further five to make her way up past the gates and to the front door. Raising her left hand (it hurt to move her right one), she knocked twice to be rewarded with the sight of Alfred, a small smile across his features.
"Miss Gordan, it's a pleasure" the old man told her softly, stepping aside and gesturing for Barbara to enter, which she did, stepping inside and wiping her muddy shoes on the mat "Master Bruce is in the cave, I assume you can find your own way".
"Thank you Alfred" Barbara told the old Englishman quietly yet warmly, being around Alfred was very comforting and she really needed just that after everything she had been through in the last day and a bit. Stepping onto the plush carpet she nearly winced, somehow the carpet made the burn on her back move and hurt even more than on the hard concrete or mud outside. Walking through to the clock she opened it allowing the door to open into the Batcave, eyes instantly jumping to Bruce, who was sitting, cowl-down at the large computer screen, blue eyes focussed on the screen.
"Hello Barbara" Bruce greeted her, eyes not moving from the screen, no trace of emotion in his voice at all. She continued down the stairs until she was standing behind Bruce, looking over his shoulder at the picture on the screen, showing a large man in a dirty, ragged clothes, wearing a white mask and holding a huge knife. "The camp blood killer" Bruce told her "Killed over two-hundred people, including your friend Nancy, but I assume that's not why your here". As he said that he swivelled the chair around to face her. Barbara sighed and went straight to the point.
"Do we have any meta-humans on the record who kill people in their dreams" she asked in all seriousness. Turning Bruce typed something into the computer and a large skull-faced man appeared, wearing a huge blue cloak with a hood.
"Just one, Doctor Destiny" he told her emotionlessly as ever, "Real name John Dee, is this who you wanted?". Barbara squinted at the screen, this was nothing like the guy she had seen, anyway he had referred to himself as Freddie, not John Dee or Doctor Destiny.
"No, he called himself Freddie, and he looked nothing like that". At this Bruce raised an eyebrow as if to ask for clarification. "He wore different clothes, a dirty red and green sweater, a dirty brown hat, and a glove, with knives on the fingers. And his face, it was burned, horribly, like Two-Face but worse".
"So we have two pretty much unknown killers stalking Gotham" Bruce growled, "Great"
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The figure of a huge man stood atop a hill on the outskirts of Gotham City, this was where the bitches who had dared to enter his resting place, defiling it with their very presence, had fled too. But if they thought they were safe here then they were very badly mistaken. He would hunt them down, hunt them down and kill them like he had done to so many before them, for that was why he had come back as the dead, to punish the living. Gripping his machete he stepped from his vantage point, starting this, the latest hunt to the death, rage flowing through the tattered remains of what had once been his soul.
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Thousands of Miles Above GothamFor the first time in a week J'onn J'onnz, better known as the Martian Manhunter, lay down in his bed to sleep, a luxury that he didn't often award himself, yet Earth seemed not to be in any danger at this point. His eyes morphed, forming eyelids which slid across his eyes, turning the world black and allowing his mind to rest and recuperate. The moment he fell into sleep he knew something was wrong, he wasn't just mentally shut off, he seemed to be standing in the main tower of the watchtower, how did he get here?
"Is this a dream?" the Martian asked out loud, he had never had one before, no Martian had. Looking around he wasn't sure, everything just seemed like a regular night at the Watchtower, heroes and staff wandering around, doing electronic work on the computers and other mechanical equipment in the room. Turning his sights set on Batman marching purposefully towards him, cape flowing out behind him.
"J'onn I need to speak privately with you" came the usual curt tone of the Batman, this was far to realistic to be a dream, he must have woken up without realizing. J'onn nodded silently, following the already retreating form of Batman towards the main conference room. Stopping the door slid closed and Batman turned back to J'onn. Crossing his arms Batman gave a wide, evil smile, showing off yellowy-brown teeth, rotten and disgusting, not at all like Batman's usual gleaming white set (Not that J'onn really ever looked, but he could tell they were different). His voice sounded different as he spoke, much more evil, less growly, almost sounding darkly amused. "I love what you've done with the place, shame it has to go"
As the last word left his mouth the walls and ceiling burst into flame, trapping J'onn within the room and causing him to gasp in fear.
"Batman? What are you doing?" He asked, fear obvious in his voice as he looked at the fire around him. Batman only smiled even wider, stepping back and throwing his cape out in front of him, obscuring him from sight for only a moment. As the cape fell Batman had gone, instead stood a smaller man, features burned, one hand wearing a glove, blades protruding from the fingers.
"You think I'm the Batman? WROOOOOONG!!!" Freddie told the petrified Martian, taunting him, knowing that J'onn wouldn't move into the flames, not even to save his own life.
As she walked past the room Kara Zor-El, known to the world as Supergirl, heard a groan, not enough to be heard by any human, but easily enough for her, a groan of pain and fear. Turning instinctively threw a punch straight through the steel door, tearing it off it's hinges and tossing it behind her. Looking inside she gasped, causing the fast approaching Wonder Woman, who had been alerted that something was wrong by the sounds of the door being torn off, to push her put the way and enter the room. Inside lay a body, green blood flowing freely from numerous slash marks, the rest blackened and burned, the body of the last Martian, J'onn J'onnz.
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The giant screen in front of Batman and Batgirl flashed several times, indicating an incoming message, at which Bruce immediately pressed a key causing Superman's face to appear, filling the screen, expression grave, voice far harsher than usual.
"J'onn is dead"
(1) Huntress has rejoined the league at this point