Ch. 10 Grey Area

Reaper

Lexicon burst through the door to the warehouse that she had seen Sgt. Lance go into, arrow knocked and ready on her bow. The warehouse was quiet, but she had never encountered this villain before, so she was more than prepared for the man to be sneaking around. She rounded one row of boxes to the next, keeping great care to be aware of behind and above her. After the end of the rows, Lexicon went for the door in the back, only to find it locked on from the inside.

Lexicon turned back and scoped out the rafters. Flying up to the top, she looked down upon the warehouse floor and found no sign of the villain's whereabouts.

A loud noise in the direction of the door she had entered through caught her attention. Flying over to the door, she found it closed shut. She tried to force it open, but it wouldn't budge. She attempted to radio the Watchtower, but all she got was static. An uneasy feeling crept into Lexicon's stomach. What was going on?

She made her way back to the center of the warehouse, explosive arrow knocked and primed, and every sense was on high alert. She wasn't sure who was playing with her head, but what she was sure of was that they'll be sorry that they did.

A faint rustle sounded behind her. Lexicon whirled around and was about to let her arrow loose when she was quickly struck by a seemingly invisible force straight to her stomach. The she lost her grip on her bow, causing the explosive projectile to let loose and strike the floor in front of Lexicon. The explosion knocked her back and left her dazed, but she was still just enough aware of her surroundings to find no sign of her assailant.

A speedster, she thought. Could it be the same…?

The lights of the warehouse burst to life above her, and at either end of the room, two imposing figures emerged from the shadows, one's identity hidden beneath a gray hood and shaded mask, the other a black and red helmet.

The hooded figure spoke let out a slow chuckle, "So, this is the great and powerful Lexicon." Lexicon felt the sarcasm and glee in his voice, and singled out a particularly painful arrow for him.

The black and red clad villain's body language suggested equal amusement, "And I thought this would be difficult."

They made their way down the row towards the dazed hero, who felt a cold fury spark inside her. Leaping to her feet, Lexicon fired a smoke arrow into the air, which split off into dozens of tiny smoke bombs into the air, creating a wide blanket of thick cover. Vendettuh barely had time to recover from the surprise move when Lexicon was suddenly leaping out of the thick fog, bringing her armored fist to his non-armored face. Lex gave him no time to recover, quickly following up with a swift uppercut from her bow, connecting the weapon with his jaw. Vendettuh quickly retaliated with a swift blow with the butt of his gun. Lex tried to recover but was quickly blasted from behind by Beelzebub. She quickly rolled to the side and let loose a volley of explosive arrows, forcing the villains to seek cover as the world around them exploded. Beelzebub started firing multiple blasts in her direction. She ducked them and ensnared him with a thorny vine. He quickly cocooned himself in fire, burning the thorns off. Unfortunately, the fire did nothing to consume the toxic spores the burning vines emitted, and they quickly filled his helmet, choking him.

Lex's assault was cut short, however, by Vendettuh getting to his feet. The villain leapt backward into the air, hurling explosive shurikens at the hero's back. Lex backflipped out of the way and swung her leg at Vendettuh. Her foot connected to the side of his head, sending him reeling to the side. Vendettuh swung his weapons in her direction firing them wildly. Lexicon dodged the bullets, but flinched internally as she felt them rip through her cape. She dealt a devastating blow to the villain's head and turned to face the fire villain, only to immediately crane her head in order to dodge his hand blasts.

Beelzebub had removed his helmet to reveal a face seemingly made of lava. He fired blast after blast in her direction, but Lexicon took off into the air and proved herself to be as evasive as any other flier he had met. Aiming towards the spot he calculated she would go, his blast struck her directly in the side. Lexicon cried out in pain and crashed onto the upper catwalk.

Lexicon cringed as she crouched onto the catwalk. Beelzebub's blast had gone through her armor and left a severe burn on her side. Lexicon looked up and saw a door at the far end of the walk. Lex quickly decided that she needed to get away from these two; she would need to get out if this warehouse as quickly as possible and into the open. Hopefully then she could radio the Watchtower and get herself some backup. Lexicon nocked her last explosive arrow into place, she ran for the door.

She never made it.

Figuring out her plan, Beelzebub focused his infernal energy more than he ever had before, and sent an arc of red lightning at the metal catwalk. The electricity connected and Lexicon screamed as pure pain surged through every limb of her body. The combined stress of the lightning and the flames underneath proved too much for the catwalk's rigging to take, and it gave out underneath Lexicon's feet, sending her crashing ten feet down onto the warehouse's hard concrete floor.

Sachel sped through the air of Gotham as quickly as her wings would allow her. She had gotten to the Watchtower via the Emergency Teleportation System and made her way to the nearest Gotham teleporter faster than anyone could stop her as Superman fed the coordinates of Lexicon's location into her ear.

"Don't worry, Sachel," he had said. "She'll be ok."

"I hope you're right," she had said, but for some reason, she couldn't shake the feeling that Lexicon was in more danger than she realized.

I'm coming Lexicon.

Lexicon struggled to get up as she heard footsteps approaching her. She looked up to find herself at Beelzebub's feet, red lightning crackling in his fist

"I must admit, you are far more trouble than we had anticipated. However, it matters not. You will die here tonight, Lexicon, and so will begin the suffering of Sachel. I must thank you for your hand in this my dear."

Lexicon's rage boiled at the villain's last sentence. How dare this bastard…

The explosive arrow was still nocked in her bow. Using what strength she could muster, Lexicon let the arrow fly between the demon's legs causing it to explode directly behind him. This caused Beelzebub to fly forward only to be met by a devastating uppercut from Lexicon's bow. Beelzebub landed on the ground hard, dazed. When he looked up, Lexicon was struggling to stay standing, but managed to have an electrical arrow pointed at the Arch-demon. Despite the burn on her side, the blood trickling down her face, and the tremors going through her body, Beelzebub saw she was brightly lit with an almost blinding determination like he had never seen.

Lexicon struggled to keep her hand steady, but she kept her arrow pointed straight at the villain ensuring he wouldn't move. Beelzebub's sudden lack of concentration had caused the flames around them to fade out, but Lexicon was sure the smoke would alert the local authorities to her presence. They would alert the League, and this adventure would be over soon enough.

That was the last thought that entered her mind before the resonating gunshot rang through the warehouse and the last thing Lexicon thought before she felt the hard thump in her chest. It caused her to lose grip on the bow, causing the arrow to fly harmlessly into the darkness. Lexicon looked down and saw a circle of blood forming on her chest, right below her heart. She looked back up to see Vendettuh limp out of the shadows, his gun still smoking and pointing strait at her. Vendettuh replaced the clip and pointed the gun back at her.

She heard the bullets fly through the air, and felt them penetrate deep into her body. The shock from the impact had all but numbed the pain, leaving only room for disbelief and fear in Lexicon's mind. Almost in slow motion, she fell to her knees, and through fading vision saw the two villains converge onto the fallen hero, now gasping from air. A tear formed in Lexicon's eye as Vendettuh point the gun at her one last time.

Sachel…Monokrome…I'm so sorry.

A flash of light, a fleeting pain, and then there was nothing...but darkness.

Vendettuh and Beelzebub stared at the fallen hero at their feet for a moment. Without taking his eyes off of Lexicon, Vendettuh said to his cohort "Burn it down. I want everyone to see this."

"With pleasure," Beelzebub said, igniting his hand and turning to spread it across the warehouse.

Vendettuh turned and retrieved a fireproof suitcase with a shuriken emblem on the case. He opened it up and reached inside his armor to pull out a note labeled "Detective Grare." He placed the letter inside the case and sealed it shut. He turned with his partner and together they left the scene of a murder.

Sachel's heart froze in its place. No sooner did her destination come to view did the flame and smoke begin to billow out of it.

Oh God, please no.

Pushing her wings more than she thought were possible, Sachel sped for the warehouse.

Monokrome saw the smoke and flame billowing in the distance, and immediately ran for the location. As he ran, he thought he caught a glimpse of the two villains heading in the opposite direction, but when he stopped to look back, they were gone.

Monokrome reached the warehouse to find the flames put out, the ruins of the building smoldering in the night.

The Grey Warrior walked through what was left of doorway to find it seemingly empty. A sound caught his ear. He walked past to find Sachel crouched down, sobbing. He rounded her and was stunned to see her cradling Lexicon's body in her arms.

"Sachel…" he whispered. Sachel looked to up to meet his gaze with sheer pain and agony in her eyes.

"I was too late," she croaked. Monokrome couldn't believe what he was hearing; his brain was unable to process what his eyes and ears were screaming at hm. And yet, for all his denial, for all his disbelief, nothing could change the fact that Sachel held cradling in her arms: Lexicon was dead.