The Inquisitor

Chapter 4

The Skull Helmed Savior


-Watchtower, corridor-


Dante was being led by some egomaniac of a hero that apparently went by the name of Booster Gold down a hallway back to his quarters/cell until the Justice League could figure out what they were going to do with him. Apparently this bizarre individual was an associate of the Justice League and had apparently trying for membership as of late, if the man's annoying incessant complaining was anything to go by while he continued to boast about his 'heroic' deeds.

When Dante heard that the man was trying to join the league Dante all but rolled his eyes in annoyance and disgust. Who in their right mind would let this egomaniacal fool onto any sort of a team for any reason, he would be far too caught up in his own lust for glory that he would forget just about everything else.

As Dante walked back to the relatively small room, he remembered the reactions from the Justice League after they saw that video. Many of them were angered or shocked but there were a few who were trying to stay level headed and rational such as that Batman person. Dante saw the disorder in their ranks and briefly wondered to himself as to how in the Emperor's name were they ever effective at anything they did. Whenever Dante and the others in Elias' retinue ran into a problem that was similar to the one like this, they would almost always approach it in a levelheaded and logical manner.

However those thoughts were not the ones that primarily dominated Dante's mind at the moment. Instead it was more of a maelstrom of conflicting thoughts. On one hand he wanted to know why and how he had been sent to this strange place. He also wanted to know where and when he was. Was he in the far past during the Dark Age of Technology or was it some sort of an alternate reality like those 'heroes' had said.

The thought of suicide had entered Dante's mind after he had found out about these new revelations. After all, he was a soldier of the Imperium only there was no Imperium to fight and die for. For someone who had spent most of their young life fighting for the glory of the Imperium and its Emperor, only to suddenly be cut off from the empire that he had been prepared to die for left an empty feeling in his body. It was almost as if there was nothing left to live for.

Thankfully Dante was able to pull himself away from those thoughts of cowardice and despair when he realized that the Emperor must have put him on this world for a reason. To simply kill himself now without at least discovering that reason would be a dereliction of his sacred duty to the Imperium and he would be no better than a traitor or a heretic. For now he would stay in this strange, heretical place, and he would find out what he had been sent here for no matter what it took. The only problem was that the young Inquisitor in training was still prisoner aboard this station. He would need to find a way off as quickly as he possibly could. This course of action would also bring in another problem, it was highly unlikely that the Justice League would simply allow him to waltz off the station via those 'Zeta-Tubes' he'd heard about from Green Arrow and Flash during several of the many stories they'd told him (those fools certainly loved to talk). Even if he was able to escape what then? These 'heroes' would surely try to hunt him down.

The answer quickly came to Dante. It seemed as though the only real way to get out of this place successfully would be to save those students at Gotham Academy. If he was able to rescue the students that were being held hostage then it is more than likely that the support of the people on Holy Terra would be more than enough to keep the Justice League from trying to keep him locked up.

The only problem with this plan was that he would have to find a way out of the place and reclaim his armor and weapons. Dante stopped by a nearby door that read "restroom" and said "Could you excuse me for a moment I need to relieve myself." Booster Gold looked over at the door and then back to Dante and shrugged "Sure, whatever kid, go on."

Dante was about to walk in when he saw the hero about to follow him in, most likely in an attempt to keep an eye on him. A quick look that said "do you mind?" made the idiot back off and just stay outside the room and wait for Dante to finish his business. Once inside of the restroom he immediately checked his surroundings to see if there was anyone else in the rom but found that the only occupant was himself. Dante then started to look around for an alternate exit and soon his eyes rested on a nearby air duct on the ceiling right above the sinks. It looked more than big enough to allow him to fit through.

Climbing atop one of the sinks, Dante hoped that it would be able to hold his weight long enough for him to get into the air ducts. Thankfully that was the case as they held during the several long seconds before Dante was able to remove the covering and slipped right into the vent. Once inside he started to crawl in the direction of the 'evidence room' that was supposed to be someplace nearby. The vents would make a lot of noise at the slightest nudge so Dante would have to move as quietly as possible, which would prove to be quite the challenge seeing as how he was on a time limit. With some luck that moron wouldn't know that Dante was gone until he had already gone through one of those 'Zeta Tubes' and was at Gotham Academy.

The crawl was a long one and by the time Dante finally reached the evidence room he was quite surprised that alarms hadn't gone off yet. Dante had to kick the grate below him a few times before it finally gave and he was able to get down into the room below him. There were numerous shelves that contained various items, many of which looked a lot like weaponry. Dante started looking around the room for his equipment, unfortunately most of the items in the room didn't belong to him. It took several minutes but Dante was finally able to find what it was he was looking for and then some.

His great coat, armor along with his weapons, but that wasn't all: the crates that had been aboard the Stormraven when he crashed were there as well. After rummaging through the crates he found more ammunition for his weapons as well as something that would prove to be very, very useful for this little rescue mission, a cameleoline cloak, better throughout the Imperium as the camo cloak.

The camo cloak was perhaps one of the most invaluable pieces of infiltration equipment that had ever been devised by the Imperium. It was able to change its color to completely match the environment to the point where only the most skilled of eyes could detect that there was something amiss.

Dante had used camo cloaks numerous times when his duties called for scouting behind enemy lines. After he finished donning his armor he attached the camo cloak to his armor and found that the cloak itself also had a hood attached to it, which would make it even more difficult for a watchful sentry to get a read on where he was at.

Dante then moved over to the door leading out of the room and leaned his ear up against it, listening in if there was anyone at all outside the room. Much to his relief there wasn't as much as a peep from the other side. Dante opened the door and carefully made his way in the direction of the Zeta Tubes which was made much easier by the fact that at every intersection there were signs that helped those unfamiliar with the station find their way around.

This made it relatively easy to find what it was Dante was looking for and soon he reached the chambers, all the while he hadn't seen a single hero wandering the halls. More than likely the rest of the Justice League was still in that room discussing what they were supposed to do about the hostage situation at Gotham Academy in or something similar to that. It worked to Dante's advantage as it would give him more time to gain access to the Zeta Tubes.

Nearly a minute and a half passed before Dante found what he'd been looking for; the Zeta Tubes. Without wasting any time, Dante moved over to the nearest console and tried to figure out how it was these things worked. Surprisingly enough however Dante found that the machine was simpler to use than he had initially thought it was going to be. As it turned out, all one really needed to do was input a set of coordinates from the database and then enter them into the computer.

Once Dante was finished putting in the coordinates into the computer terminal, the Zeta Tube gave a small, almost unnoticeable hum before it began to glow. The humming started to grow louder and louder until it reached its apex which told Dante that the time to leave was now. Dante backed away from the console and almost reluctantly walked through the portal, all the while wondering what he would find on the other side.


-Gotham City, GCPD barricade just outside of Gotham Academy-


Jim Gordon had been in many difficult situations throughout his career as a police officer in Gotham City. Of course that was a given seeing as how Gotham was the city with perhaps the worst crime rates in the entirety of the United States and that was just when one considered the non-super powered criminals that caused havoc there. Only now they had to deal with heavily armed terrorists. When Gordon had received word that the students of the school had been taken captive as well he all but rushed over there himself. Earlier in the day Gordon noticed that his daughter; Barbara never called in to tell him that she had arrived home from school.

At first he'd just thought that Barbara had gone to hang out with some friends from school and forgot to check in. Unfortunately that didn't seem to be the case as almost two hours after she was supposed to check in did he find out what happened. There was a frantic 911 call that said there were several gunshots coming from the inside of Gotham Academy. Soon after, there was a call for backup as the officers sent down to the school to investigate were almost gunned down by men with automatic rifles. Soon half of the GCPD was down there surrounding the entire school. The only contact they had with the terrorists was when they sent that video to the news.

After that there was no other communications whatsoever and Gordon already knew that these guys were serious when they said that unless there was some news regarding this 'Skull Face' person they would start killing the students. With that in mind, Gordon had ordered that there would be no communications with the terrorists until after they found the individual that they were looking for.

That was obviously easier said than done as they had no idea who this individual was or where they could find him. Gordon hadn't seen or even heard from Batman which probably meant that he was either out looking for 'Skull Face' or he was sneaking into the building to take down the terrorists. Gordon hoped to god that whatever it was he was doing he'd do it quickly and save the people that were being held inside. From early on in this little siege, the police were struggling to find a way inside the building without being spotted by the terrorists.

They couldn't go in from the air as there were several men with military grade stinger missile launchers on top of the roof so that plan was out. Going in through an underground entrance wouldn't work either since this particular part of the sewer line was just too small for the police to fit through. For now the GCPD would simply have to hold their position and either wait for an opening or for Batman to come in and help save the hostages that were trapped inside. As Gordon continued to wait for any word, be it from the terrorists or some of the other officers who were trying to locate this 'Skull Face' person, he heard the crack of thunder which was soon followed by a downpour of rain.


-Gotham City, just outside of Gotham Academy-


When Dante had arrived in Gotham City via the Zeta Tube, he was almost immediately accosted by several thugs who assumed that he was some sort of wannabe hero. They were easily dispatched and soon found themselves on the ground groaning and moaning in pain from the dislocated limbs or broken bones.

Under normal circumstances Dante would have just killed them all but given how he didn't know the area he was currently in, he decided to spare them. If they would be so kind as to provide him with directions of course. It only took a second for them to give up the directions on how to get to Gotham Academy and Dante rewarded them for their generous information by knocking them out rather than putting a bolter round in their heads.

It only took Dante roughly fifteen minutes to reach the school via the alleyways and backstreets as the directions were quite helpful. On his way to the place he saw a multitude of unscrupulous looking individuals wandering around which made Dante stick to the shadows as best he could to avoid them. Ordinarily he wouldn't really care if he got into a fight with a possible enemy but time was of the essence so sneaking around would prove to be faster than getting into a drawn out confrontation.

Eventually though Dante found himself in an alleyway that was just past the police cordon. Apparently law enforcement had made the decision to cordon off a large area and evacuate the residents that lived in the vicinity of the school. A wise decision on part of the police considering what these individuals were apparently armed with. As Dante neared the edge of the alley he heard a loud boom. For a brief instant he thought that it was some sort of an explosion but soon realized that it was merely thunder.

Just a few moments after hearing the booming thunder, Dante saw rain beginning to fall downwards. It was a trickle for the first couple of seconds but it soon escalated into a downpour. This would give Dante a serious advantage as he made his way inside the school. The sheer amount of rain falling would limit visibility for the law enforcement officers and the terrorists and given that Dante was already wearing a camo cloak, he would be almost completely undetectable unless he was very close to someone. Even though the police officers couldn't see very well in this weather, Dante could see just fine due to the optical sensors built into his helmet.

Dante started to make his way around the cordon, and searched for any exploitable holes in the perimeter. He had to give these police officers some credit. They were very careful and quite shrewd when it came to deploying their forces effectively. As Dante moved he eventually spotted a small but noticeable flaw in the perimeter on the eastern side of the school. There were a pair of police vehicles that were parked further away from each other and the officers were spread out a bit further from each other.

Immediately Dante started to make his way towards the cordon and saw that the two officers were focusing all their attention on the school that was right in front of them. As a result they weren't paying all that much attention to what was going on behind them. The young inquisitor in training carefully made his way around them without drawing too much attention to himself. That was going to be the easy part, the hard part was getting into the side entrance without being detected by either parties. True the lack of visibility and the camo cloak would definitely help keep Dante from being spotted but there was always the possibility of a sharp eyed individual noticing something.

As he made his way past the law enforcement officers he thought that one of them may have seen him but it turned out that this wasn't going to be the case. Dante let out the breath that he didn't know he was holding in and continued past the cordon and into the side yard of the high school. Once he was by the grass he went prone and started to crawl towards the glass door that was right up ahead.

Upon seeing such a design flaw he rolled his eyes. If this was an imperial world such a structural weakness would never have been tolerated and if someone was stupid enough to create something like that they would never get hired for another construction job for the rest of their lives. Now any proper building would have had something that would be able to shield it from heavy weapons fire and assault in the event that something like this occurred. Hell they may as well have just handed the building over to these criminals.

But he digressed and continued towards the entryway itself. Upon getting closer to the glass he saw that there was only a single guard nearby and he wasn't even looking at the doorway that Dante was right outside. Instead he was looking out a nearby window at the main police barricade that was to Dante's left. He man's lack of tactical thinking would prove to be his undoing.

Dante tapped the side of his helmet activating it's built in auspex scanner. When it revealed that there wasn't anyone else that nearby that would be able to hear the sound of glass breaking, Dante trained the sights of his weapon at the terrorist's head and squeezed the trigger.

The glass shattered in an instant as the bolt round went straight past the relatively thin layer of glass and struck the man's head, causing it to explode in a fountain of blood and gore. The body fell to the ground with an ungraceful thud and more blood started to pool beneath the body. Dante paid it no mind as he almost leisurely walked into the school. Once inside he quickly spotted an open door that apparently led into a nearby closet. Upon seeing that his mind quickly formulated a hasty ambush plan.

After taking his now deceased enemy's primitive vox unit, Dante grabbed the legs of the body and dragged it into the closet. This left a rather conspicuous blood trail along the way. The corpse was hoisted up into the small closet and put in at such an angle that if someone were to open the door, the dead body would fall right on them, which would keep them off balance for a few moments.

Eventually Dante heard someone on the vox unit's receiver say "Why are you late with your status report?" When the individual didn't receive an answer it demanded that whoever was on the other end of the line respond immediately. Of course Dante didn't say a word and it soon said that they were sending someone to their current position to check their status.

The young inquisitor in training then hid himself in a nearby room that had a sign that read "men's room". He kept the door slightly ajar so that way he'd be able to see what was going on outside and breathed as softly as he possibly could so that it would be harder for anyone to notice him. Within just a few moments Dante heard the sound of footsteps making their way down the hall. Soon the enemy came into view and Dante saw that there was only two of them. Dante kept himself quiet as they looked around for the missing man. Very quickly one of them noticed the blood trail that led into the nearby closet.

As the pair of terrorists walked over to the closet, Dante slowly opened the door that lead into the men's room and trained his bolt pistol down at the one that wasn't opening the closet door. One of the guards opened the door and as Dante had expected, the headless corpse fell right on him, the weight of the impact knocking him off balance.

Dante seized this golden opportunity and burst out from hiding and fired two bolt pistol rounds into the back of the hostile guard, making two giant dinner plate sized holes in his upper and lower back. Blood and gore spurted outwards onto the other guard who was caught completely flabbergasted. The man found himself tackled to the floor and had the barrel of what was perhaps one of the most powerful handguns in history against his temple while Dante's left forearm was shoved up against his throat.

"If you don't do exactly as I tell you to, I will send you to oblivion myself, scum!" Dante said and the man nodded quickly as he struggled for breath. Dante eased up on the man's neck a little but only enough that he could speak without much interference. "Where are the hostages located and how many of your comrades are in this building?" he demanded but the fool couldn't form any real coherent sentences until Dante got tired of waiting and spoke again "And might I suggest you speak quickly!"

"T-there are about twenty eight more of us. Ten are guarding the hostages, fifteen are patrolling the halls and entrances of the building and the last three are on the roof. The hostages are in the gymnasium," he said; fear etched into every word he spoke. It was quite pathetic to Dante. These cowards were more than willing and able to abuse and kill those that couldn't fight back but when faced with a real threat they were easily dispatched.

There was a call on the man's radio demanding that they give a status report on what happened to the missing man. Dante shoved the barrel deeper into the terrorist's temple "You will tell them that you have found him and that the reason for not reporting in was due to an issue with his communicator, and that you cannot return until you have fixed a problem with one of the locking mechanisms on one of the doors nearby."

The terrorist nodded fearfully before Dante handed him the radio with his left hand and the prisoner spoke with as much sincerity as he could "Sir there was a false alarm, Stretch just had a mechanical problem with his radio, but it's been sorted out. However we can't make it back just yet, there's an issue with one of the locks on one of the doors, and we're gonna need a couple of minutes to fix it."

The voice on the other end let out a growl of frustration "Understood, but hurry the hell up and return to your patrol route." With that having been said Dante tossed the radio away from the coward and said "Thank you for your cooperation," right before hitting him square in the side of the head with his bolt pistol, knocking the man unconscious.

Ordinarily Dante would have just killed the man and be done with it but he had little doubt that the fool would provide at least some information on those that were behind this cowardly action. Besides Dante had no real doubt that the law enforcement of this place would want to make an example at least one of them themselves, it would be rude not to oblige them at least this small opportunity to help give judgment. Dante pressed on, leaving the dead and unconscious bodies where they were laying as the amount of blood on the floor and walls would make it near impossible to hide them properly anyways.

He looked over the weapons of the terrorists and he found a strange autogun that was made out of both wood and metal and had a sickle shaped magazine. Dante however ignored this particular weapon, he had more than enough ammunition for his bolt pistol and plasma pistol to finish this on his own. This didn't even include his chainsword and psi-maul.

Besides the weapon was rather heavy and if Dante were to take it then he would start feeling fatigue from all the weight he was carrying more quickly. However he did see a combat knife on the belt of one of the terrorists. That would come in handy when he needed a close combat weapon that didn't run on promethium fuel or at least one that allowed him to use tactics that involved stealth. Dante continued to walk down one of the hallways that led towards the auditorium.


-Gotham Academy, Gymnasium-


The auditorium was relatively quiet aside from the sounds of footsteps and the occasional chatter by the guards who stood watch over the hostages that were all laying down on the floor with their hands on their heads. One of the hostages was a thirteen year old redheaded girl, Barbara Gordon, the daughter of the Gotham City police commissioner. What had once started as just a dull day for her in school had quickly escalated into what she was sure was quite possibly her worst nightmare.

Earlier in the day, specifically during lunch period, a number of large trucks pulled up around the school each one carrying several heavily armed men who began to pour into the school. They corralled all the students and teachers into the school gymnasium. Before being taken away by the terrorists several students and teachers attempted to call for help but no one was able to get a signal with their cell phones. This explained why police sirens weren't heard until relatively recently, the terrorists probably did something to make someone outside school grounds call the cops or something like that.

Barbara wondered to herself why they hadn't taken her as a more, special hostage. After all her father was Gotham's police commissioner and using her would gain them a lot more leverage. Maybe they didn't know who she was but if they did then it was unlikely that they really cared. Perhaps she should be grateful for that as they would probably end up taking her as their special hostage and kill most of the other students and considering what she saw them do to one of the teachers when they made their little announcement, she wouldn't put it past them to do something like that.

Turning away from some of the more disturbing possibilities of how this could turn out Barbara noticed that the terrorists kept mentioning someone that they were calling "Skull Face" or something like that. She also noticed that whenever they mentioned that guy they seemed both angry and if Barbara was right, somewhat worried. They didn't seem to be worried about this "Skull Face" as an individual but more on whether or not he would end up showing up.

Barbara had to admit she would have thought that they would be more worried about someone like Batman showing than they would someone that they were calling "Skull Face".

Eventually Barbara was broken out of her thoughts by noises that sounded a lot like gunfire. Apparently it was coming from outside of the auditorium. The hostages almost lifted their heads up to try and see if there was anything going on but when the guards decided to point their weapons at them they quickly went back down onto the floor they did earlier. Some started to whimper in fear that these terrorists would kill them.

"Don't do anything stupid and we won't fill you with holes!" the leader ordered harshly. The sounds of gunfire continued to echo throughout the gymnasium and Barbara couldn't help but wonder who was combatting the terrorists and which side was winning.


The hallway leading into the gymnasium was running crimson with blood of the terrorists. There was so much of it that it was actually starting to form a large red puddle that spanned from the gym to where Dante was currently standing. More than a fair number of corpses were in the corridor, all of which were missing large chunks of their bodies. Some of them looked as though parts of their bodies had been scorched and then melted.

The terrorists were attempting to lay down a suppressing fire with their weapons while Dante stood around the corner where the corridor turned off in another direction. He held in his hands both his plasma pistol and his bolt pistol. A few moments earlier Dante had arrived near the gymnasium and one of the more vigilant guards managed to spot him as the camo cloak wasn't really meant for indoor usage unless it was in low light conditions. The guard found his head removed via a quick blow from Dante's chainsword.

Of course now thanks to that observant guard's warnings the other terrorists knew exactly where Dante was and many of them were converging on his location. Thankfully though they all arrived in waves rather than all at once and this allowed Dante to manage their attacks. Many of them had already been terminated but there were still at least fifteen more of them five of which were inside guarding the hostages.

They peppered the cover that Dante was using with autogun fire and he was instantly thankful that the walls of this structure were able to block enemy fire with relative ease. When the shooting finally stopped, Dante fired three rounds from his bolt pistol at the terrorists, one shot going wide while the other two found their marks sending another body hitting the floor staining it red with even more blood. The weapon then made a clicking noise afterwards signaling that it was now completely out of bolt rounds and that it needed to be reloaded.

Dante holstered his bolt pistol for the moment and aimed his plasma pistol downrange even as the enemy started to inaccurately fire back. Dante fired two rounds from his plasma weapon and another two hostiles fell to the floor. One of the terrorists was dead while the other was on his back screaming in agony as he desperately tried to keep his wounds closed with his hands but the sheer heat being generated by them burned his hands whenever they got close to it. Another plasma round hit the man in the head, putting him out of his misery. Soon the weapon's temperature began to heat and Dante thumbed the plasma pistol's venting unit.

Soon steam billowed out of a small exhaust port near the barrel and within moments the weapon was again ready for battle without being a threat to the user. However instead of using the plasma pistol Dante reloaded his bolt gun with his last remaining magazine that contained roughly fifteen rounds. More than enough to put an end to this little fight but afterwards he'd need to rely on his plasma pistol and close combat weapons.

Dante continued to fire his bolt pistol again and again until most of the hostiles were either dead or dying. Eventually they were all on the floor, with large wounds in various parts of their bodies and Dante didn't have so much as a scratch on him. This was due to the fact that the terrorists weren't really aiming their weapons at him as much as they were simply pointing them in his direction and pulling the trigger, hoping that their shots would land a hit. The few rounds that did manage to hit him were deflected by his carapace armor.

Offering a small prayer of thanks to the machine spirits in both his weapons and armor Dante moved down the gore choked hallway and towards the gymnasium. Dante propped himself up against the wall and slowly started to open the door. Autogun rounds went off and ripped through the metal door with relative ease and Dante heard screaming coming from the other side that definitely belonged to the hostages.

Deciding that it would be best to at least try to get the remaining scum to surrender as it would keep the hostages from getting killed, Dante shouted "I'm going to give you a very simple choice; surrender and release the hostages unharmed or I shall kill you all." For a moment there wasn't a reply and Dante could have sworn that they weren't going to give him one when finally someone, possibly the leader of the terrorists gave a reply.

"Screw that, we're holding all the cards here, you come in and we gun you down like a goddamn dog." It seemed that now negotiations were effectively over as the terrorists started to unload a countless number of rounds into the door, all but shredding it to pieces but since Dante wasn't in the line of fire he was relatively safe. Eventually the bullets ripped the metal door out from its frame, causing it to fall to the floor with a booming noise.

After a few moments of firing they stopped and Dante took this as a sign that they were reloading their weapons. Seizing the opportunity that was now presented to him Dante raised his bolt pistol and fired six of his seven remaining rounds at the remaining terrorists. Only four of the six shots found their marks, two of which hit the same person while the remainder went wide and hit the wall on the far side of the gymnasium. This left only two remaining hostiles who had already finished reloading their weapons.

One of them never got the chance to fire as a plasma round impacted his upper chest and he was thrown off his feet and onto the ground from the force of the impact. The last terrorist meanwhile did something rather desperate. He grabbed the nearest hostage, a girl with mid length blond hair that fell down past her shoulders in curls. "Don't move or I swear I'll paint the wall with this little girl's brains!" he yelled.

The tension only mounted further when Dante drew his new combat knife while keeping his bolt pistol trained directly at the man's head and gave him a very simple ultimatum "This is your last chance, release the girl and surrender immediately and I will spare your miserable life. If she is harmed or not released in the next ten seconds then I promise you that you will die." The leader of the terrorists let out a laugh not to dissimilar to one who had gone completely mad.

"Screw you! Screw you, you fucked up son of a bitch! You're gonna let me go and I-" the man's mad rambling was cut short when Dante threw his newly acquired knife at the weapon the man was holding. The knife impacted the man's index finger, slicing it off and preventing the weapon's trigger from being pulled. The man screamed in agony and let go of both the girl and the weapon.

With the girl now out of harm's way Dante was about to fire the last remaining round in his bolt pistol when the man produced a small detonator in his left hand "S-stay back, or I'll blow us and a lot of innocent people here and throughout the city to hell!" he yelled Dante ignored him and aimed his bolt pistol at the hand that produced the detonator. Dante scoffed, the man was clearly bluffing. Just a few seconds earlier he had been so desperate to live and now all of the sudden he wanted to die?

Dante thought for a moment before he realized that the detonator wasn't connected to anything which meant that it was either fake or the man had given up all hope of getting out of this situation with his life. The Inquisitor in training didn't care which one it was, and instead of doing what the man demanded of him Dante aimed his bolt pistol at the hand that was carrying the detonator instead of his head and squeezed the trigger.

The terrorist leader's hand and part of his forearm practically exploded in a shower of blood and bones but the detonator for whatever bombs were in the area was destroyed so the threat had apparently been neutralized (I don't know if destroying the detonator like that would work but just go with it for right now). The hostages started screaming once again as they saw the gory display in front of them.

The now one armed man fell to his knees and was cradling his stump in his remaining hand while screaming his lungs out. Dante calmly walked up to him and grabbed both sides of the man's head. Then without any hesitation he twisted the head ninety degrees, making a small but still audible snap. Dante let go of the man's head allowing him to fall forwards onto the ground.

Dante turned his attention to the hostages "If you wish to leave this place then please, then I suggest follow me." Slowly the hostages started to stand up and looked at their rescuer, none of them said a word at first but eventually one of them found their voice "W-who are you?" it was the same girl that had a gun to her head just a few moments earlier. Dante had expected that someone would eventually ask them who he was and he had prepared an alias, just in case and although it wasn't the most original, it essentially summed up who he was and what he did.

"You may call me: The Inquisitor." Dante then started to move the group towards one of the doors that lead out of the gymnasium. He didn't take the same route that he had taken to get to this area as Emperor knew that the students would more than likely have a difficult time seeing the carnage that he'd inflicted just a few minutes earlier. The last thing he wanted was somebody whining about how the students had been further traumatized by seeing the aftermath of the battle.

The students looked like they wanted to sprint for the doors, desperate to be out of the place they had been trapped in for quite some time. Thankfully though Dante managed to keep order and prevented the students from turning what was a relatively calm walk into a stampede. Within just a few minutes, the students were at the front door with the Inquisitor in front of them.

Dante opened the doors and most of the students all but rushed outside of the building, happy to be alive and well. The GCPD looked on in a mixture of shock and relief that they seemed to be unhurt. Several of them looked at their rescuer with curiosity and wondered just who he was but they were more focused on making sure that the students were unharmed as they were let through the police cordon.

Many of the students stopped running out to thank him which although wasn't all that unexpected to Dante he was still completely flabbergasted by how they reacted to his deeds. Back in the Inquisition the duties he performed were necessary to keep the Imperium's people safe but it was often thankless work due to the brutality and sheer ruthlessness of it. It had been so long since a civilian had actually thanked him for something that Dante didn't even really know how to react.

Instead of saying anything Dante decided it best not to say anything at all to the students and instead just gave a nod as a response. Once the students finished clearing the building he walked down towards the police cordon to inform the other officers that they would find one living terrorist inside the building that they would be able to question.

Before Dante could reach them however he saw three 'heroes' from the Watchtower, Superman, Batman and Black Canary approaching him from the police cordon, and none of them looked very happy. This was rather understandable considering what Dante had done on their precious Watchtower, amongst other more recent things.

The first one to speak was Batman "You are coming with us, now." The tone with which he spoke suggested that resisting or arguing with would be a very bad idea. With no small amount of reluctance, Dante followed the three of them back to the nearest Zeta Tube.


-The Watchtower, interrogation room-


Almost an hour later Dante was sitting across from Batman in one of the Watchtower's interrogation rooms, still clad in his armor and weapons. When Dante arrived back on Watchtower, the heroes made an attempt to remove his weapons from his person but he had adamantly refused. When they tried to push the issue he informed them that he was completely out of ammunition for his weapons.

Dante made a point to inform them that if they attempted to disarm him then they would have to quite literally need to pry his weapons away from his corpse. Reluctantly they allowed the boy to retain his weapons and armor if only to avoid any unnecessary violence, besides with the boy's weapons without ammunition the only harm they could really do was if he decided to hit someone over the head with them.

"Why did you do it?" Batman asked or rather demanded of Dante who wasn't quite sure what he was referring to. Was it the deception towards that idiot Booster Gold (the egomaniac had been practically fuming with anger from what Dante had been hearing)? His escape? Or was it how he saved those people? Dante tilted his head to the side a little and said "I've done many things in my life Batman. You'll need to be a little more specific than that."

The caped crusader glared at the teenager but didn't raise his voice like most of the other leaguers would have at that point instead he kept completely calm "Why did you murder almost all of those men?" he asked.

Dante was surprised but he didn't let it show in his body language. That was what they were so upset over, a few dead terrorists? It was laughable, what kind of moron would be upset that their enemies were dead?

"They had already executed a civilian and were planning on murdering even more of them if they didn't get what they asked. I gauged their weapons and willingness to go through with their threats and therefore determined that lethal force was the fastest and most efficient solution to the matter at hand. Besides any society with any remote amount of intelligence would have had them executed sooner or later. The only thing I did was hasten the process."

With that having been said, Batman's fists clenched in anger. "That doesn't matter, you don't just kill people because you feel like it even if it's the most efficient way at the time." That one threw Dante for a loop "Wait, you mean to tell me that you do not slay your enemies?" he asked. Batman gave his signature glare as he responded "No, we don't kill, we never kill under any circumstances. We capture criminals, alive,"

'Just how stupid are these people?' Dante wondered but he digressed "Regardless, I was merely doing my sworn duty, protecting mankind from all threats both within and without and I would rather die a million deaths than falter even slightly in that duty."

At that moment Batman developed an unreadable expression and walked out of the room leaving Dante alone in the room with nothing to do other than think about whatever it was that came to his mind.

Once Batman exited the interrogation room and walked to the adjacent one that was used to observe the interrogations he saw the other members of the league standing there waiting for him. Batman knew that they weren't going to like his suggestion but they had very little choice at the moment.

Praise for Dante's actions was spreading like wildfire throughout much of the country's social media. The news, internet polls and bloggers, everyone was showing him support for his actions in rescuing the hostages in Gotham Academy despite how he murdered all but one of the terrorists in the process. If the Justice League decided to imprison him then things would go very badly for them as there would be much public outcry against it. Besides even if they did try to imprison Dante it was unlikely that there was a jury anywhere that would convict him for his actions, despite the ruthlessness of them.

When Batman explained their little predicament, several members of the Justice League (Captain Marvel especially) were not all that happy. However he explained that although Dante would no longer be confined to the Watchtower they weren't going to just let him run around loose and possibly endanger more lives. Instead they would give him hero status and a city to patrol.

The Green Lanterns, Aquaman, Black Canary, Zatara, Red Tornado and a few others saw the logic in this as it would allow them to keep a close watch on him. However there were other heroes who were more reluctant to let someone like that get hero status but eventually relented after Batman pointed out that it was either that or let him completely loose on the streets with no one to keep him in line.

With that having been done Batman returned to give Dante an offer that he normally wouldn't give someone of his reputation.

To be continued