Author's Notes:
Yay! Two chapters finished in one day! Well, one for this story and one for The Lion King: Kopa's Return. A couple perks of being homeschooled: you get to get your work done faster and work on stories without being worried about being yelled at for working on stories instead of schoolwork (because it's done!)
Last chapter, I threw you for a loop with the twist that Deathstroke is really Hush in disguise. This chapter goes in depth of what happened to the mercenery... and a bit of how and why Hush is behaving this way.
Without further ado, please read, review, and enjoy...
"Did you get that? Hello?"
Terry's increasingly tense voice brought Coba back to reality. "Yes, we got it," she swiftly answered, ignoring the pain in her ribs.
"Batgirl," Terry murmured in surprise. He raised his voice once more. "How are you feeling?"
"Pained, but my progress report will have to wait till later," the young warrior answered. "Get Billings and Shreeve medical attention, right now."
"After what they did to you?" Selina could not help but inquire, perplexed.
Coba looked at her grandmother levelly. "Letting them die won't undo what they did to me. It won't help us find Hush if we don't know where he's taken the weapon, either."
Selina considered Coba's words, then nodded reluctantly.
"I'm on it," Terry answered. "I'll be back as soon as I can to discuss our next move."
"Alright," Coba responded. "Take care, bro."
"You too, sis."
"Who's Hush?" Dana inquired Bruce after her boyfriend had hung up.
Bruce looked at Dana, sorrow and pain clearly present in his eyes. The raven haired teen was unable to hide her surprise at this, but remained silent as he began. "Hush was an entity taken up by Thomas Elliot, one of my childhood best friends. Though I didn't realize it then, he hated me with a passion for having a good relationship with my parents, something he didn't have with his own. He had plotted to have his own parents murdered so he could inherit their money, but my father unknowingly ruined his plan by saving his mother... and Thomas held it against me for the rest of his life."
Dana was still perplexed. "Why kill his own parents?" she inquired.
"His father was an abusive drunk," Coba answered in a solemn yet mild manner for Bruce, being careful not to get him more upset, "aside from being rich. Thomas' mother refused to protect him from his father's abuse, something he hated her for."
"Oh," Tan said somewhat uncomfortably. "Sheesh. But what exactly did he do as Hush?"
"Impersonated others by altering his face," Wayne answered. Noticing Dana becoming more confused, he added, "He was a skilled surgeon, and was in many ways as formidable as Ra's al Ghul and the Joker."
"You keep using past tense when talking about him," the teenage girl noted, "and he's still alive."
"Hush is, but maybe not with Elliot being him," Coba explained.
Ditto was even more confused than Dana. "Meaning?"
"Elliot was shot one night," Bruce replied. "I didn't get any closer to the body to see if he was dead, but later police reports confirmed he was. For years, I let that be enough, but now..." he trailed off, his facial features even more grim as he looked down. But now, after Hush nearly killed my daughter, I realize how wrong I was.
Coba placed a sympathetic hand on her father's shoulder. "It's not your fault, Bruce. For his death or if he is still alive."
"She's right, Father. It isn't."
Selina, Bruce, Dick, Aaron, Dana and Coba turned in surprise to see a middle-aged man enter the cave, though only Bruce and Coba recognized him. "Damian," Bruce breathed in shock.
"It's my fault he's alive and doing all this," Damian continued gravely, ignoring the six shocked faces. "I had infiltrated the forensics lab at the police station to retrieve his body. It was my hope to revive him with my grandfather's Lazarus pit, to inspire him to be better." He looked at Bruce. "To return to you what you had lost so long ago: a friend."
Wayne lifted an eyebrow at his oldest son. "Why?"
Damian held his father's gaze. "In an attempt to repent for my mistakes to you."
"And it didn't work, did it?" Grayson spat angrily. "Instead of giving him his friend back, you made a more powerful enemy to him and to Coba. You added to your mistakes!"
"You think I'm not aware of that?!" Damian retorted, glaring at Dick.
"Enough!" Coba barked, sitting bolt upright. She was surprised that she did not feel any pain from her ribs or spine at her quick movement. Ace and Ed jumped up onto the table and laid next to her, which calmed her down considerably. "Fighting won't help matters."
"She's right," Selina sided with Coba, though she glared at Damian. "Although I still want to tear your face off for resurrecting the man who removed my heart."
"Didn't he keep it beating after doing so, though?" Brooklyn inquired.
Dana's face paled with disgust. "So, he removed it while it was still beating?"
"Yes, to both questions" Kyle growled.
The raven haired teen gagged. "Okay, I think I'm gonna be sick now."
"But what was it you did with Hush after reviving him?" Aaron asked Damian, moving the conversation from the gruesome events the women were discussing.
"Amanda Waller requested that I brought Thomas in after learning what I had done to him," Damian explained gravely. "She wanted him to become an agent in Cadmus." He looked away sadly. "In a matter of weeks, he became the best agent. Yet, not all of his training came from myself or the other agents: as I discovered just a day before giving Coba her powers, Thomas was secretly training with Slade Wilson, sharing secrets of Cadmus in hopes of taking it down as he did. So far he has not succeeded, but I assure you he'll try."
"Wait a minute," Selina said in angered shock, "you gave my granddaughter powers?"
"Cadmus had combined the DNA of two beings with supernatural abilities and stabilized the effects with chemo," Damian explained. "When we discovered Thomas' treachery, we knew Slade would not rest until the powers were his. The only way to be sure he never got them was to inject the mixture into another person. Coba was fighting cancer then, and I knew from the start that she would be the most capable of using them wisely when they developed."
"Was that because she saved your life as a disobedient kid?" Dick inquired sourly. "Or because of her genetic make-up?"
Damian fixed Grayson with an irritated gaze. "Those were only part of the reason. The other part was much more complicated than that: it involved looking at all of the possible candidates and guessing their futures and personalities. They were all physically stronger than her, but their fighting spirits were either too weak or strong to the point of being willing to kill to survive. I knew that to give either of them the powers was to add more chaos to the world. Coba was physically weak and close to death upon arrival at the hospital, but her strong fighting spirit was clearly present in her eyes. After switching the regular chemotherapy with the mixture, her physicality slowly became stronger."
"Hold on, we're straying off topic a bit," Coba stated. "Did Hush leave Cadmus somehow after you discovered his betrayal?"
"Yes: we kicked him out. We could only guess that he worked alongside Slade after that and died at some point. That is, until just before I learned about your injuries tonight."
Batgirl became nervously interested once more. "What do you mean?"
"I had found the warehouse he, Shriek and Spellbinder were hiding in," Damian answered. "It was still burning when I got there, but not so much that I could not go in without getting burned. To my surprise, the computer was unscathed. I found a video on it dating back two weeks. Unfortunately, I was unable to save it onto a disk before I had to leave to avoid the authorities."
"What was in the video?" Bruce inquired.
"The death of Deathstroke, Father," Damian replied sagely. "Thomas slashed multiple wounds into him before he had the chance to heal, then pushed him into a vat of acid. Slade never did climb back out. After the vat was emptied of the chemicals, his skeleton remained at the bottom."
"Despite how sick Hush's mind is, filming something like that doesn't really sound like something he would do," Catwoman said in confusion.
Coba immediately produced the answer. "The Lazarus pit affects more than just the body, Grandmother: it affects the mind as well. As the person gets stronger physically, they lose a bit of their sanity as well."
"Sounds horrible."
"It is," Bruce gruffly stated. I should know: I endured it a couple of months ago.
"Wayne! Do you copy?" Terry's voice crackled over the com.
Bruce turned the mic back on. "We hear you, McGinnis. Report."
"I went back to the site where Shriek and Spellbinder were located. They were too weak and shaken up to say where the guy they call 'Hush' went—"
"—so you went back to where they were attacked and looked for clues," Coba finished.
"I'm glad you're feeling better, sis, but do you mind not finishing my sentences?"
"Sorry," Coba apologized. "Continue."
"I followed tracks left by his heat signature to some laboratory here in Gotham," Terry continued. "It's something called 'CADMUS Labs.' I'm inside right now. Help would be appreciated."
"Good work," Grayson praised. "We'll be there as soon as possible. Keep your eyes open: there's no telling what he'll do."
"Alright, thanks. I'll report back if I find anything." With that said, Terry hung up.
Nightwing swiftly took control of the situation. "Damian, Bruce and Selina: stay here with Coba," he said authoritatively. "Ditto: you and Batwoman come with me."
Catwoman glared at the man. "If you think I'm going to sit around while Hush is still out there, you're crazy," she said icily. "I'm coming along."
"Fine," Dick sighed.
"I think it'll be better if I come along," Damian stated. "I know the current Thomas better than the rest of you do."
Grayson glowered at Damian. "You've done more than enough."
"Grandfather," Coba began in an anxious voice.
"Coba, you're staying here," Grayson said flatly. "Going out there with your injuries could get you killed."
"I wasn't going to say that I was going to come," Brooklyn informed him. "I was going to say—"
"Don't try to justify Damian's actions, either," Dick snapped.
"Be careful!" Coba yelled. The strain of doing so caused her to moan in pain and gently touch her chest. "That's what I was going to say," she said quietly, embarrassed that she had yelled. "This whole thing may be a trap. Don't let your anger towards Hush blind you to the point of not being in control."
The one-eyed man stopped in surprise at Coba's shout, but relaxed his tone. "I'm sorry, kid," he apologized. "I shouldn't have interrupted you like that. I know you didn't directly say it, but you're right: I am mad at Hush. He nearly killed you and Bruce tonight."
"I know," Coba said grimly. "Just... be careful of how much you use it."
Nightwing warmly hugged his injured granddaughter, being careful not to add more pain to her. "I will, kid," he promised.
Coba returned the hug. Both she and her grandfather knew she did not want him to go, yet they knew just as well that he and the others going could not be talked out of it. "Good luck," she murmured.
Grayson fondly ruffled her hair with a grin, then released her and stood up. "Alright. Get better." He turned to Selina, Dana and Herbst after Coba nodded affirmatively. "Let's go." Without saying another word, the foursome left Bruce, Coba and Damian.
Batgirl lay back down uneasily a few minutes after the four companions left. "Something's not right," she said quietly.
"What do you mean?" Bruce inquired.
"Terry's newest report. It was... well..." she trailed off uncomfortably.
Wayne comfortingly grasped her right hand in his hands. "What about it?" he asked gently, though there was a concerned edge to his voice.
"Leaving Shriek and Spellbinder without information isn't something he'd do," Coba answered after a tense hesitation. "He wouldn't ask any of us for back up either unless he was in the middle of a fight. By the tone of his voice, he wasn't in one. And when he says he's coming straight back after getting information, he means it. As my mother told me last night in a dream, things are not as they seem."
Bruce's eyes grew wide. "You're right. That is strange. But Hush hasn't been able to mimic voices that well, if that's what you're getting at."
"I regret to inform you that he has been trained in that area," Damian said gravely. "Hence why he was able to go under the guise of Deathstroke without the rest of us knowing it was him instead of Slade."
"Is there anything else that changed about Hush that you haven't mentioned?" Coba inquired calmly, though with a little bit of irritation.
Damian shook his head. "None that I can think of."
"What's going on?"
The three people and two animals turned their heads in surprise to see Terry standing a few feet away. The teen hero looked at Damian. "Who are you?" he asked.
"Damian Wayne," the middle-aged man answered. "You must be Terry McGinnis, the new Batman."
"Uh..." Terry cleared his throat and turned to Bruce. "I overheard the last bit of that transmission where 'I' was at CADMUS," he said. "My mic's been down ever since we found out Deathstroke was really Hush. Or Hush was really Deathstroke..." He became confused. "How do you say that?"
"Right now, it doesn't matter," Coba stated. "Did you get an answer from Shriek or Spellbinder?"
"Yeah," McGinnis replied. "They said he was going to take the machine to the telecommunications building."
"But why would he say to meet him at CADMUS?" Coba pondered aloud.
"As a distraction, maybe?" Terry suggested.
"Or a trap," Bruce stated. "He might be trying to lure certain individuals so they can be killed by the machine first."
"Why would he kill just a few when he's going to kill everyone, anyway?"
"Revenge," Damian answered. "Considering the location, the trap was undoubtedly meant for me. Perhaps even for Coba, considering how stubborn she is." He looked at Bruce. "It might be for you as well, Father."
Coba stared at the ground in shock. "He knew we'd survive," she breathed in horror.
Oh no! It's another suspenseful note!
Bruce: Oh no!
Ace: Oh no!
Terry: Oh no!
Dana: Oh no!
Kool-Aid Man: OH YEAH!
*Everyone chases Kool-Aid Man off the set*
Yeah, everyone's in danger—again—and there's nothing Coba can do... or is there?
Ed: But why'd you have to kill Deathstroke?
I already had it played up to be that he was dead. Though, it wasn't an easy decision to make, and I might have him still be alive (all I'd have to do is say that the video was fake). But then again, I'm still not sure...
Ed: There is still a character poll up on WNR's profile page from "Last Resort!"
Yes, thank you, Ed. *Gives him a cracker.*
*Ed takes the cracker with a thankful squeak and eats it.*
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