6 months later
Cigarettes.
Sewage.
Alcohol.
Money.
Rust.
Blood.
Sweat.
Fist.
Thats how I wake up, the sudden crack of a fist against my jaw. All of the sudden the once dampened smells fill my nose as I fade back into consciousness and fall back in my chair. The back of the chair hits the ground with a thud, not to mention my head along with it. I groan loudly and cough as someone walks behind me, lifting the chair up just so I can get another jab to my nose. Blood streams down my nose down towards my mouth and I laugh at the sight in front of me, causing the blood to flow into my mouth and fill it with the taste of iron and salt.
"What are you laughing at you sack of мусор?" My assaulter says, his voice heavy with an accent.
He spoke in Russian but I can hear something else in his voice, definitely multilingual. Spanish maybe? Yes definitely Spanish, along with Portuguese and Japanese. English is the language he struggles most at, the one he knows least of. I smirk slightly and move my head in his direction, not being able to see him due to the black blindfold he has over my eyes. His heart is beating quite quickly, must be enjoying this or maybe it's his high blood pressure. One thing's for certain this guy really needs to lay off the salt, it practically forces itself in my nose from the scent of his sweat.
I spit in his direction,"Your mother would be proud, seeing as you hit like a woman." I tell him with a chuckle in my voice.
This earns me another round of quality time between his fist and my face, the ringing sound of his fist slamming into various places in my face; filling my ears before he relents. At first I am confused before I smirk and figure it out. He didn't stop on his own free will, rather he was told to stop by someone else. I could tell the second that I woke up that the Russian wasn't the only one in the room, the multiple beating of their hearts were like a beacon to my ears that were ready to hone in to the sounds of their resting pulses. I could tell who they were before the Russian even walked around and pulled the blindfold off of my head.
There in front of me stood some of the most feared crime lords in Gotham. Wilson Ibarri,Katherine Ryder,Owen Grace, and Anto Morritama all stare back at me with a look of disgust on their face. Not even mentioning the dozens upon dozens of of their trigger happy goons that look like they can't wait to put a few bullets in me. I laugh, which I guess must have sent a chill down their spine because they all shift their weight where they stood.
"Nice to see you all again. How's the family doin? What's the occasion? I doubt this is an attempt to get the ol'gang together, mostly since all of you hate each other." I say with a arrogant grin, which earns a right cross from the Russian.
"Show respect." He tells me and I spit at his feet which almost makes him punch me again, but Wilson raises his hand.
He is a large man, standing at nearly 7 feet tall. Shaven head, round baby like face and bright baby blue eyes, he would kill with the ladies if it weren't for the fact that he looked utterly disgusting most days. He is way too fat for his own good, and is always eating something, dried up food is always around his lips and stuck in his beard. It doesn't help that he doesn't seem to care about his appearance at all.
"It is true. I rather not be seen in public with this overgrown child, or the rest of these classless buffoons, but this is a rather urgent matter." Katherine says."You lied to us, you lied to me Logan.."
I smile as I look up to her, looking into her ebony eyes, reminding me of a rather pleasant night we spent together. She was a very attractive woman, standing at around 5 feet 4 inches, with a very curvy figure. If there are greek gods, Aphrodite blessed this woman and then some. She was gorgeous, in the face and the body, having a impressive bust size and nice hips(not to mention her round butt) that pushed against the dress she wore. I could tell from her voice that she was trying to keep it together, and from her eyes that she clearly was still hung on me. That one night most have been absolute bliss for her, more so than it was for me.
"Nothing personal babe, just business. Well, most of it. You were fantastic last night by the way." I told her, offering a wink, which turned into a bright smile when I saw her blush.
Owen steps forward, blocking my view of Katherine."You lied to us, Logan. You played us all, you did. Very well actually. You got inside, penetrating our defenses and climbed our ranks, becoming a very important player in our operations. A double agent. Enlighten us Logan, who do you actually work for? Who are you?"
I rolled my eyes and replied,"Ask Kat, I penetrated her the most, she should know the most about me."
Wilson raises his hand again and the Russian goes back to wail on me, for what must have been at least 10 minutes before the blob raises his hand again to make his pawn back off. At this point I am on the ground, the chair on his side, allowing me to watch the blood from my mouth pool on the ground. I hear the voice of Owen speak once more."Ready to talk?" He asks to which I shake my head. Wilson raises his hand once more and the Russian goes back to beating me to a pulp, kicking me in my mid section and stomping on my face. He finally stops when Anto screams at the top of her lungs, something in Japanese. I can't make it out much because of the sound of my ribs rattling each time I take a breath.
Eventually, large hands grab me by my shirt and pull me up right, punching me in the face once more."WHO ARE YOU!? TELL US!" Owen yells as me as he attempts to beat me in submission. I laugh and his fist halts mid swing.
"Please, tell us who you are." Katherine pleads with me, holding her hands together as if she were begging me."Just do it. When you do, I promise that no harm will come to you." Once she finishes each of her counterparts scoff.
"He compromised our entire business,is probably working for the cops, and you promise his safety if he tells us simply who he works for?" Wilson asks Kat as he munches on a Snickers bar."You must know how absurd that sounds right?" He finishes, which earns him a glare from Kat before she turns towards me. She mouths a plead to me, a look of desperation in her eyes. I smirk in response, and turn to Owen, who is staring intensely at me.
"Okay." I tell them to which they all take a deep breath."You all want to know who I am?"
"Yes baby, and once you tell us we can all go home, we can be together." Katherine responds, a glimmer of hope in her eyes as she says it. Owen's grip tightens on me, pulling me closer to his face and in turn his rotten breath. "Who are you!?" He yells at me after I take a minute to recover from the smell of his breath.
I decide I have taken quite enough from these people, gritting my teeth before grinning to him. I pull my head back and in a rapid motion, I head butt Owen as hard as possible. It does a lot more to him than it does to me and that's exactly what I was counting on. He stumbled backward, yelling insults to me and calling the Russian to help him, despite the Russian not even working for him. I smirk as the man moves towards me."Pay back." I say as he rushes forward to attack me. Before he can, I kick his left knee in, causing him to fall into a kneeling position. I finish my assault by lifting my chair to stepping and spinning, slamming the leg of my chair into his jaw. 3 other men rushed up to aid the Russian before confronting. Only three? Not even a challenge. I whip around and offer the closest one a butterfly kick, and then giving the second a drop kick to the chest. The third attempts to tackle me but I don't allow it, front flipping over him before turning around chair first to ram him into a wall hard, so hard that the wooden chair breaks from the force. Unfortunately that doesn't take care of the handcuffs I have on.
There are 5 men running up to me by the time I notice the cuffs, two with bats and three with pistols. I roll forward as they pull the trigger, shooting their own comrade in the chest multiple times before realizing I had moved from my place. By that time I leaped up, pulling my legs as I did so to move my cuffed arms to the back of me to the front, as well as splitting my legs to kick two men in the front and back of me in the chest. I duck once again to avoid gunfire, taking the hands of one of the men that have a pistol and pulling his arm out, only to lift my knee up and break his arm. With the gun in hand I spin to my right side, shooting 3 men in the head until I get tackled into a cargo box. I cough as I slam my elbows into his back and slamming my knee into his chest multiple times until he lets go. I shot the tall and bald man twice in the chest, before I use him as a body shield for the other shooters. I place my cuffed hands in his left armpit to shoot the first gunman clean between the eyes moving my eyes to the other to watch him pull out a semi-automatic.
My eyes widen as I push my meat shield over and fall onto it to dodge the gunman's fired shots, rolling forward and over the dead body to shoot the man in his abdomen. I stand as I watch the final body drop, turning to look at my captors. When I do a firing squad greets me, all equipped with Semi-automatic machine guns."Holy Sh-" I say, interrupted when my body is assaulted with multiple rounds of lead with so much force that I am flung backward a couple feet, before everything goes black.
By the time my eyes flutter open again and my breathing restarts, I look up to see that only about 10 seconds has past by what I see on one of the gunman's watches. I groan as multiple bullets begin to pop out of their places in my body and fall to the ground, while others simply roll off of my skin. I hear gasps as I begin to sit up, as the bullet entry wounds heal over. I look down to see that my handcuffs are now apart. One of the bullets must have severed my bondages, I say to myself as I lift my body up to a standing position. I stumble a little bit before regaining my balance.
"How-how did you survive?" I am asked asked which makes me smile. No matter how long I live and who I come across I am always asked the same exactly thing. What are you? How did you survive? Why are you dead? I'm not saying one shouldn't have questions, but does it really matter if I am about to kick all of your asses? Don't think so.
However, almost as certain as the questions there is always that one guy who still thinks that he's some badass and I'm the punk that will go down with a single blow. That guy here is my original captor, the one who gave me quite the memorable beatdown. I guess I should make his just as memorable.
He rushes up towards me, rearing his left fist back, his eyes telling me that he is aiming for my jaw. I rear my right arm back quickly in unison, thrusting it forward with precision towards his already incoming fist. The world seems to move at slow motion as a tingling sensation in my hand springing to life, skin moving as what lies beneath them forces itself to the surface.
The beast within.
When our fists collide my claws are only half out, but half of 12 inches is still pretty deep and plenty painful. Just like how my claws come out they were inserted in between the knuckles, tearing the skin and the muscle there and sinking furthermore into his hand. The two outer claws split the skin on the side of his hand, peeking out, while the middle peaks out of the base of his palm.
The look on his face is priceless.
The howl of terror is like music to my ears as he recoils, trying to pull his hand from my clawed fist's grasp. The tugging only makes his pain worse as he managed to rip my crawls from their slot in his skin. I smirk while he backs up, screaming bloody murder which inspires looks of terror amongst the many that populate the room.
I smile sinisterly, knowing that I look more animalistic this way."Let's get to it shall we?"
My speaking encourages all out mayhem in the room as rifles unload their clips toward me, only for me to press forward, bobbing and weaving through the ammunition that streaks through the air. My unnatural speed sends another surge of panic through the air as I near my first assailant. I rip through the man like a ribbon with my first mark being his firing arm. The arm comes clean off and flies through the air and eventually to the ground. I make my next attempt on his head, taking that clean off as well before going for the rest of the army.
The adrenaline shooting through my veins in these few seconds are of the likes I have never felt before. Even with bullets slicing through my body like high speed needles I have never felt more alive. More like an animal. More unlike who I used to be. The epiphany hit me like a freight train but a bullet embedding itself into your forehead does more than enough to mess up your train of thought and moment of emotional clarity.
Of all of the places of being injured in, the head hurts the worst. My neck jerks back but by now, the lead in my brain doesn't even matter anymore. They have successfully unlocked "The Savage". The berserker rage slows through me, and the next things I know everything turns black.
If someone were to ask me what happened, I could only give them a fraction of the story. It came in snapshots, like a picture. One of my arms tearing a guy in half. The next image is of someone getting disemboweled. Is that a heart I have in my hand? Gross. Even through all the snap-shots I am able to keep an eye on the bosses, who are being escorted out the back. It's time to get myself under-control, which believe it or not is harder to do than you would think.
When I finally come to focus, I am standing triumphantly on a pile of dead bodies, chest puffed out as I let out an eardrum shattering roar of victory. I hop down and narrow my eyes towards the exit, leaping over the massive carnage. I kick the door in to see a van going about 70 a mile or two down the road.I'll never catch in a straight shot but I might be able to cut it off. I turn my head right and break into a full sprint. My guess is that they'll try to take the bridge towards the down-town Metropolitan area, considering the roads they are taking. While I can't see them, because of the obstacles between us, I can still hear the rumble of the engine and their frantic screaming at each other. I follow that sound as I bound ontop of a couple buildings, leaping the distance easily to make the chase a bit less close.
I leap off of a rooftop onto the street sprinting to my left down an alley. I bound over a 10 foot gate without even touching it to the other side, bracing myself for the impact that I am about to feel.
I break into the street just as the truck gets there, lunging forward with my built momentum, shouldering the side of the van with all my strength. The pain is blinding, shattering my shoulder and probably every other bone on the left side of my body. I fall to the ground taking deep breaths while my healing fixed the damage I presented it. It only takes a few seconds before I am able to stand, although a little disoriented so I can see my handy work.
The impact I presented to the van, caused it to tumble over and crash into the diner on the other side of the road. I walk over to the gaping hole where the window used to be, walking through it. The restaurant is left in shambles,everything is tossed around and the counter was destroyed by the projectile I had made the van. The van is flipped over and the bottom of it is now leaking fuel and oil every where. Infact there is a large trail leading outside."Convenient for me, not so much for you." I say as I rip open the van door to check if there were any survivors.
A bullet to the brain answers my question. I stumble back a couple times which invites 5 more shots to my chest and midsection. I grunt as the bullet pop out of my skin, and the clicking of an empty barrel can be heard. I stare down my assailant, who just a few hours ago I was sharing a bed with.
"Why? Why would you do this?" A bleeding Katherine asks me. I evaluate her condition. Her head is bleeding, which suggests a concussion or some brain damage. Her legs are twisted and broken and there is blood coming from her torso that she may or may not be feeling due to adrenaline. Long story short, she is in no condition to put up a fight of any kind.
"Nothing personal sweetheart, it's just what I do." I tell her as I take a couple steps forward."Just like when you would steal people's livelihood, and plunder their insurance money. It's always just business." I tell her as I take a step closer. She tries to move but pain shoots up her body. I reach and go into her inner coat pocket, pulling out a lighter and a pack of cigs. As I look around her, I confirm that the others are either unconscious or dead.
"You bastard! Burn in hell!" She says, spitting in my face. I calmly wipe the spit from my face, placing the items I have pulled from her in my pocket. I clench my fists and place them on both her shoulders, slowly unsheathing my claws to pierce her skin."Where exactly do you think I come from?" I tell her, suddenly shooting my claws through her body. She wails in agony as I pull them out and sheath them again."Well, maybe it is a little personal." I tell her, walking out of the diner with her cursing me any and every way she can.
I lit a cigarette and place it between my lips, taking a long drag before dropping the the lighter on the trail of fluid leading into the diner. Seconds later the entire thing bursts into flames before my eyes. I walk over to a nearby phone booth and punch a number.
"Black Mask, it's done."