Ever since the showdown between the Rogues, Professor Pyg and The Joker at the Observatory almost 2 days prior, Sionis Industries had been buzzing with an almost feral activity. After the news had hit that none of Black Mask's henchmen seemed to have survived the encounter in the Observatory - never mind whatever had happened to The Rogues - things had went from 'preparing for the possibility of war' to 'preparing for a guaranteed bloodbath'. If things were already tense prior to the showdown, now you could almost cut the tension in the air with a knife.
Up on the top floor in his office, Black Mask sat back in his chair with his hands behind his head and his legs up on the table while puffing away on yet another cigar. Considering the general atmosphere of horrific dread currently engulfing the rest of the building it would seem that Black Mask himself hadn't received the memo if his relaxed demeanour was anything to go on. Almost acting as a complete parallel to her bosses relaxed attitude, Kelly Li didn't look anywhere near as composed as her employer. Her usually neat and smooth looking black hair was frizzed out beyond all control, her eyes were sporting heavy looking black bags and from the looks of things she hadn't changed clothes in several days. Apparently Roman was doing more than enough relaxing for the both of them.
Currently sat in one of the chairs along the fine oak desk with a mountain of paperwork scattered all around her, Kelly rubbed her temples fiercely and sighed as she leaned backwards in the chair, exhaustion apparently beginning to get the best of her. However before the poor woman had the chance to properly unwind somewhere among the stacks of paper her mobile phone begun blaring its awful tuneless drawl. Tilting her head back even further and moaning in agony, Kelly lazily lutched forward and begun tearing through the piles of text-ridden white looking for her phone, eventually finding it in one of the smaller piles to her left. Swiping the phone to open it, Kelly wiped the back of her hand along her sweat-ridden forehead and answered the call with a weary voice.
"You've reached the office of Roman Sionis, Kelly Li speaking... Who's this?... Oh, Professor, it's you." Kelly said, turning towards Roman with wide eyes and silently mouthing obscenities towards her employer while she listened to the voice at the other end of the line.
Just a few seats up from her, Roman cracked open an eye and looked down at his companion with what looked like a raised eyebrow beneath his hellish mask.
For what seemed like the longest time Kelly sat silently as she listened to the insane ramblings spewing from the other end of the phone pressed against her ear. While the thought was a regular occurrence in her line of work, Kelly really wasn't paid enough for most of the nonsense Roman had her dealing with.
"Uh-huh... yes... no... Oh, right." Kelly said, her voice almost cracking and revealing the wickedly aggravated mood hiding away just underneath her steely visage.
"Well how soon can we expect the final shipment... uh-huh... excellent, I'm sure Mr. Sionis will be glad to hear it... Mhmm... uh-huh... well have your men drop off the rest of the troops to their specified locations and we can do the rest... uh-huh... uh-huh... no thank you Professor, I rather like my face as it is... mhmm... Well, thank you anyway. You have a pleasant day Professor Valentin. Goodbye."
And with that, Kelly Li hung up the phone and tossed it down onto the hardwood table with misplaced ferocity. Swinging her arm across the table and hitting the base of Roman's shoe with a balled fist, Kelly looked up towards her employer with dead eyes and a scowl on her face.
"Do you have a smoke?"
"Now now Miss Li, you know there's no smoking in the building..." Black Mask teased as he withdrew his feet from their spot on the table and sat back up properly in his chair.
"I'm not going to ask again Roman, do you have a smoke?" Kelly drawled out, one hand under her chin to stop herself from collapsing completely while the other was held out flat in front of Roman.
Without another word, Roman took the cigar from between the slits in his mask and passed it to Kelly with a nod. Without hesitating, Kelly pressed the cigar to her lips and sucked in one obscenely long draw before collapsing backwards into her chair with a defeated sounding sigh as a thick plume of dirty grey smoke slipped free silently from between her barely parted lips.
"So Pyg survived. Jesus Christ. It's been 48 hours since that fucking brawl in the Observatory. Not to sound crass, but how the FUCK is he still alive?" Black Mask asked, bewilderment apparent in his tone as he spoke.
Next to him, Kelly took another draw from the cigar before she passed it back towards Black Mask who gratefully accepted the now almost completely depleted cigar with what looked to be an almost friendly nod.
"Yes, that was indeed Pyg. It should go without saying that once again he sounded more unhinged than usual, which is really saying something."Kelly replied as she shook her head. "Anyway, according to Pyg both of the Abramovici twins are dead and, I could be wrong, but I think he said he was stuck by lightening?" The female finished,barely managing to suppress a giggle as she spoke.
"Guess we have Mardon to thank for that. What else did he say?" Black Mask asked.
"Not too much, at least not to much that made sense. Something about his Mother being angry with us and something about rusty nails..." Kelly's voice begun to drift off as she recounted her conversation with the mad professor. Roman really couldn't blame her."Oh, he did confirm that while he failed to take out any of your requested targets at the Observatory he was proud to confirm that the final shipment of our Doll-O-Trons are indeed ready for deployment. He's dropping the last 30 of off at Point 23 as we speak."
"Well, at least that's something. Did he confirm if Point 0 through 22 were set up and ready to go?" Black Mask asked as he arose from his chair and begun heading towards the shattered window that overlooked the City he lusted to make his own.
"According to Valentin all the points are stocked and ready to launch tonight sir." Kelly added as she too rose to her feet and begun walking on after her boss.
"Good. Inform the men that Operation ENDGAME has finally begun. Tonight the Clown and the Bat die at my hands, and Gotham City will be mine and mine alone..."
Mark's eyes sprung open and he looked around the room with an unshakable fogginess to his view. From what he could see he was currently sat in a horribly uncomfortable plastic chair in what looked like a dusty old hospital room. The room itself was unremarkable and seemed to be completely devoid of colour bar a a few single streaks of red that managed to permeate the overall grey and monotonous look the room seemed to have grown accustomed too.
Perhaps more concerning though was the fact that Mark didn't seem to be able to move his body, his long frame feeling as if it were encased in concrete as he sat silently in the chair looking out into the all consuming grey around him.
A few feet directly in front of him was a long and -surprise surprise - grey hospital bed. The bed was surrounded by three Doctors, all of whom were facing away from Mark and had their attention focused on the woman laying on the bed, her face bright red and contorted with pain. Eventually through the haziness Mark was able to acknowledge that the woman on the bed was none other than his old girlfriend Julie Jackham, and from what he gathered, considering the massive bump on her stomach and almost palpable pain on her face, she appeared to be reaching the final stages of Labor. In the bed Julie puffed out shaky breaths in a rhythmic fashion as she did her best to deal with the pain wrecking her system. Around her, the three faceless Doctors inched closer and closer towards the woman the further along she got.
"That's it my dear, not long to go now. Just give us one more big push!" The tallest of the three Doctors said almost sinisterly, his voice oddly familiar voice although in his state of disorientation Mark couldn't quite place where he'd heard it before.
"Time is of the essence my child. Mother doesn't like slow-pokes..." The more rotund Doctor stated matter-of-factly as a shiver went rocketing down Mark's spine as the Doctor's voice swam around in the air around him almost tauntingly.
Meanwhile, the Third Doctor never said anything, his attention focused entirely on Julie and the baby she was soon about to bring into the world.
With the Doctors encouragement, Julie merely nodded in response before her hands clamped down tight on the bars at the side of the bed and she moaned in agony, pushing with all her might one last time. Seconds passed and Mark felt his whole body tense up as a shrill cry filled the air while Julie collapsed down onto the mattress behind her, her eyes glazing over instantly and her skin suddenly turning a vomit-enduing pale colour.
Mark did his best to scream out, desperately trying to let the Doctors surrounding the woman know that Julie was slipping away and felt tears prickling at the corners of his eyes when his voice was nowhere to be found and his body remained entirely unresponsive. Completely ignoring the now apparently dead woman laying in a heap on the hospital bed, the third Doctor sneered aloud and reached down onto the bed and took the baby into his arms. Try as he might though, Mark wasn't able to see the child's face.
"Ugly little thing... Suppose it would have to be with Parent's who looked like that..." The Doctor hissed as he turned around towards Mark, revealing himself to be none other than The Black Mask, glaring down towards the wailing infant in his arms with an indifferent look apparent in his beady hazel eyes.
"Yeeeeeuch! It's a boy! Mother doesn't like boys. THEY MAKE PYG FEEL SICK!" Said the Fattest Doctor as he turned around to look at the child, the horrifying Pig mask Mark knew all too well glaring right at him as Professor Pyg dragged his chubby index finger lightly along the baby's forehead.
"Now now Gentlemen, let's not be too hasty!" The tallest Doctor said as Mark felt his stomach drop. Oh no, oh god no. Not him, anyone but him."Everyone has their merits. Roman, you've got the resources. Pyg, you've got the talent and well... i've got a bit of everything really." The Joker said, turning around and delicately taking the baby from Roman and cradling it tenderly in his long ghastly limbs before handing it over to Pyg.
"Besides, by the time we're done with him he'll be absolutely perfect. Right Pyggy?" The Mountebank snarled with a insidious sneer as he cricked his pasty features over to look at the still frozen Mark.
Carefully holding the baby in his arms with a lopsided grin on his greasy features, Pyg oinked aloud rubbed his hand down gently over the babies face. Mark felt himself being filled with a red hot fury and groaned aloud as his body still refused to co-operate.
"This little sugar-lump is the clay my craft desperately desires. Mother Goat demands no less than perfection. And mother always get's what she wants..." Pyg muttered aloud as he turned the baby around to face Mark, a blank and bloodied dolls mask already fused onto the newborn's face.
And with that, Mark found himself thrown violently from his dream-scape and back into the waking world with an earth-shattering fervor. Sitting up in the bed with his heart pounding furiously in his chest, the weather controlling meta-human looked around the room frantically with his eyes wide and entire body a bundle of tensed nerves. Fortunately, he was still in his motel room, unfortunately that meant he was still in Gotham. To his left he could see Axel fast asleep on the single armchair in the corner, apparently giving Mark some space to recover from The Joker's attack. While it was a cute gesture, Mark was a meta-human after all and an increased recovery rate was just part of the package.
Clamping his eyes shut tight, Mark placed his head into his hands as he tried to calm himself down. Everything was fine, it was all just a dream. Josh and Julie were fine, they had to be. Turning his body around to place his feet down onto the carpet of the motel room, Mark winced and pressed a hand down hard onto the wound on his stomach. While his advanced healing was almost certainly useful for recovering from things like this it didn't mean it wouldn't hurt like a bitch in the meantime.
Reaching over to the dresser and grabbing his phone, Mark narrowed his eyes and read the time. 9:57pm. Good, it wasn't quite too late to give them a call.
Putting in his password and opening his phone-book, the male couldn't help but crack a smile when he highlighted the number he'd been looking for, Julie Jackham. Pressing 'Call' and then holding the phone up to his ear, Mark listened to the buzzing noise of the call with baited breath as he awaited the woman on the other end to answer his call.
"Hey Mark" Julie said from the other end of the phone, her voice warm and friendly. "How you doing? You haven't called in a few days..."
"Hey Julie. Yeah i'm fine. It's good to hear your voice. How you both keeping?" Mark asked, his body melting back into his usually relaxed state as he spoke.
"Yeah, we've been fine. The Weather's been oddly nice over here, so Josh got to go to the Zoo after all. He keeps telling all his friends that his dad made the weather nice for him. Josh keeps asking about you, and by that I mean he keeps asking if you're going to bring him back a present." Julie said, amusement apparent in her tone. Mark couldn't help but laugh at the thought.
"Of course I am. I'm the best dad ever after all. Speaking of which, is he around. I really... I just really need to hear his voice." Mark said, desperately trying to hide the pain he was feeling.
"You're in luck. One second, let me get him. Josh! It's your dad!" Julie shouted. "Oh and Mark, be careful. I don't know what you're all doing in Gotham, but just... be safe okay? Anyway, here he is."
"Hi daddy!" Josh exclaimed as he took the phone from his mother. "I miss you. Hows your vacation? Mom said not to ask if you got me a present or not..."
Sat at the edge of the bed, Mark's voice broke as he felt tears beginning to slip down his cheeks.
"Hey kiddo. I'm fine, and of course I did! It's your birthday next week isn't it? Can't believe you're gonna be 4 already little guy..."
Behind the meta-human and now wide awake in the chair, Axel couldn't hide the massive grin spread across his face as he listened to Mark break down on the phone. For such a stoic bastard, Mark really was a big softy underneath it all.
Up on the Rooftop of the sleazy motel stood both Cold and Lisa, the siblings standing side by side and looking out on the sun setting across the wide Gotham Skyline with content smiles on their faces. It had only been 2 days since things up at the old Observatory had went pear-shaped but Cold was pleased to report that a few days to himself had really helped settle him down. Obviously the looming threat of The Joker's mysterious device made relaxing and getting himself back to full strength just a little bit harder than it should have been, but since when did the threat of a W.M.D get in the way of the Snart Siblings precious R&R time?
"I really hate to ask, but what did the Scarlet Speedster say was the plan then?" Cold said eventually, turning his head to look down at his sister as he spoke.
"Well, according to The Flash his sources say that The Joker has went deep underground since we confronted them the other night. Apparently he's biding time for his next move, but it's gonna be soon. He's not exactly known for his patience..." Lisa said with a shrug.
"Y'know it's funny, I didn't get that from him not even letting us finish a sentence before opening fire on us. Must've been the new black suit, made him seem more welcoming than what i'd come to expect from the aforementioned psychopathic clown." Cold replied with a playful smirk, earning a laugh from his sister.
"Yep, costume changes always seem to have that effect. The sleekness of the new suit really did help balance out the crazy his entire face was giving off." Lisa added. Cold shook his head and failed to suppress a chuckle.
The Siblings stood in silence for what seemed like forever, apparently comfortable enough in each others presence to bother with meaningless conversation. They'd had a rough childhood without a lot of respite, and with Len growing up as the only mixed-race kid in a mostly white neighbour hood with an abusive father to boot, so little moments like these where he got to just be around Lisa really did mean the world to him. Eventually though Cold couldn't avoid the issue at hand any longer and with a forlorn sigh looked at Lisa and spoke up.
"So... how many devices did Hartley say he built for the clown?"
"He says his memories of being locked up are sketchy at best, but Hartley seems to remember building one main device and 4 smaller ones to act as both back-ups and conduits for the main one. Seems the main device only has a limited range of potency, so the 4 smaller devices should help strengthen and widen the blast radius. Basically Lenny, it's really not looking good." Lisa replied anxiously.
"Shit. Shit shit shit... Not to sound negative, but the fact Hartley can't remember what exactly the device does is what's concerning me more though Lis." Cold noted.
"You can say that again. I mean, at least if we knew what exactly The Joker had up his sleeve we could prepare ourselves even just a little bit, the uncertainty is killing me..." Lisa added, her arms folded tightly across her chest as her eyes remained fixed on the still setting sun.
"Lisa, no matter what happens when The Clown does make his move, you know I'm not going to leave you. Right?" Cold said as he reached out and placed a hand down gently on his sisters shoulder. "I did once before, and I... I... just know that when push comes to shove, I'm not going to leave you again."
Next to Cold, Lisa sighed aloud and looked up at her brother with uncertainty clearly visible in her eyes. Despite this, the brunette shifted closer to her brother and linked arms with the taller male, a small smile gracing her features as she allowed her head to drop down and rest against her brother's bicep.
"I know big buy, I know..." She said, her voice drifting off towards the end as they both stood in silence and watched the sun finally set over the rest of the hellish city.
Not a moment later, a sudden blur of bursting red zoomed through the parking lot of the motel, up the stairs and onto the roof just a few feet behind them, inadvertently interrupting their brief moment of peace. Sighing aloud and adjusting his now ruffled parka, Cold turned his body around to look at their guest with an overconfident smirk on his face.
"Well well well, if it isn't the Scarlet Speedster. Come to tell us the good news?"
In front of the Snart siblings, The Flash made a face at Cold and took a single step forward.
"Eh... not exactly..."
The time was 23:58pm and over at Sionis Industries things were slowly beginning to build up to a tense and unrelenting peak. With only two minutes to go, Black Mask could literally feel the electricity in the air as puffed on yet another cigar while carelessly playing with the walkie talkie in his hand. In less than 2 minutes his plan to make the city his would be put into play and every living soul in this godforsaken concrete jungle would know his name. Stood a few feet behind him, Kelly Li stood with her back straight and a clipboard wrapped tightly in her hands. By now she had showered, changed outfit and prepared herself for the long night ahead. Most nights with Roman were 'interesting' so to speak, this however was going to be a real game-changer.
"Exactly one minute to go Sir. I just received a progress update from Pyg and he says all 23 cache's are fully stocked and waiting for your orders."Kelly announced, an oddly uncharacteristic giddiness to her tone that Roman couldn't help but smile at.
"Good to hear Ms. Li. Care to come forward and watch the fireworks with me?" Black Mask said, his head turned over his shoulder and looking towards his assistant with softer eyes than she had become accustomed to.
"Why, It would be my pleasure sir..." Kelly said without hesitation, stepping forward and standing side by side with her employer as without another sound he raised the walkie-talkie up to his lips.
"Operation ENDGAME is active gentlemen. Give 'em hell!"
As soon as the clock struck 12, Black Mask's plan sprung into action. Around the city at what seemed like every single major landmark, 23 consecutive shots could be heard echoing in the air followed by a bone-chilling chorus of barbaric moans and fumbling footsteps. Within seconds hundreds of Professor Pyg's Doll-O-Trons came pouring out of every dark nook and cranny of the city, flooding the streets with their special brand of chaos as the hulking monsters begun tearing apart each and every single thing that was unfortunate enough to find themselves in the creatures lines of sight. Screaming and blind panic quickly suffocated the previously calm atmosphere while numerous sirens could be heard ringing around the city, drowning the peace in uncontrollable hysterial.
The GCPD and those costumed freaks could try as hard as they liked, there was no way of stopping Roman's Endgame. After all, his goal was incredibly simple. While this pathetic little gangwar with the clown had been amusing if nothing else it had been a real eye opener for Sionis. This City, no matter how hard he tried, was too tightly wrapped around the fingers of the Bat and the Clown to truly be his. And that's when it hit him. While originally tonight's goal was to bring the City to it's knees the plan had changed and now Black Mask wanted nothing more than to burn this City down into an ashy cinder. If Roman couldn't have this city, then no one could.
Back up on the top floor of Sionis Industries, both the Black Mask and Kelly Li looked out upon the uncontrollable madness currently englufling the city. Black Mask looked visibly pleased with himself, while just to his left Ms. Li's attention seemed to be more focused on the Blackberry in her hands.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Roman asked as he placed his hands on either side of his garish mask and removed the disguise from his head. "Nothing like a little cleansing fire to get the ball rolling. This City will be nothing more than a distant memory by sunri..."
As Black Mask spoke however, 4 earth-shattering explosions could be heard from around the city, the entire Sionis Industries Building shaking in response to the sheer ferocity of the blasts. Turning his head over his shoulder and looking towards Kelly with a look of pure unrelenting fury on his face, Roman took off away from the window and stalked over towards his desk, with Kelly following on close behind.
"Sir, what just happened? The Charges weren't set to go off until 12:30 to keep the GCPD busy? And weren't there more of them?" Kelly said, the concerned tone to her voice piercing through the madness and automatically drawing Roman's attention away from the desk and onto his assistant.
"How the fuck should I know? FIND OUT WHAT'S HAPPENING, NOW!" Black Mask screeched, turning his body around away from Kelly to look back out towards the window.
"Checking as I speak sir... Oh no. Something's going on sir. I've just received word that charges have been set off at The GCPD, Ace Chemicals, The Botanical Gardens and at Gotham University. We never placed any charges there sir, and according to the Squad leaders all of our bombs remain operation yet un-activated. Roman, what the hell is going on?" Kelly asked as she herself took off out of the office and towards her own desk, hoping her personal computer would provide her with the answers she desperately sought.
"I'll tell ya what's going on Miss Li." Roman snarled as he reached underneath his seat at the long oak desk and popped open a hidden compartment. "The Joker has finally made his move. Mother-fucking son of a BITCH!" Roman barked furiously as he withdrew a fully loaded military-grade Grenade Launcher from the compartment under his desk and held it proudly in the air. Inspecting the weapon and making sure it was fully loaded and ready for action, Roman placed the gun down onto the table and begun fixing his infamous moniker back onto his head.
"Get ready for a fight Miss. Li, I've got a feeling things are about to get wild..."
Before The Flash even got a chance to say what exactly he was trying to, around the City the four massive explosions rung in their ears and the 3 Costumed Individuals currently standing on the roof of the Motel turned and looked at each other with confusion apparent on each of their faces.
"What the hell was that?" Lisa asked wide eyed as she looked out upon the burning city while Cold himself placed his hands into the pockets of his parka and looked out at the madness with his usual stoic glare.
Behind the pair of them, The Flash had his index and middle fingers pressed to his right ear and seemed to be talking to someone.
"Lau...Canary. What just happened? Oh no way, seriously? Can't we just catch a break already? Alright, tell them i'll be there in a second. Flash out."The Scarlet Speedster said as he blurred forward so he was standing right behind the two Rogues.
"Right, according to the Others both Black Mask and The Joker seem to have simultaneously made their moves. Mask's Doll-O-Tron Army is tearing apart the city while The Joker has just activated the 4 smaller devices, doesn't seem like he's activated the main one yet though. Nightwing's trying to get a lock on it, but that's gonna be hard until he actually activates it." The Flash said, a mild panic to his usually cocky tone.
"Okay, so what do we do then?" Cold asked.
"We've got a few teams spread around the city making their way to each of the Joker's devices. Since we still don't know exactly what they're meant to do we need to shut them down now before he's got a chance to properly activate them. You guys however have the fun part. Since Black Mask has just unleashed an army out onto the city, We're going to need you to make your way over to Sionis Industries and see if there's a way to shut the horde down while we deal with the beacons. Get the other's ready and move out" The Flash said before within the blink of an eye he was gone, leaving nothing behind after him but a blood red streak in the air.
Still stood close together on the roof, Cold turned towards Lisa with a bored look on his face as he begun making his way over towards the stairs leading back down towards their rooms.
"Fucking hell, remind me again why were doing this?" Cold sighed while behind him he heard the brunette chuckle.
"'Cause technically one of our own started this shit show, and now were gonna go finish it?" Lisa replied.
"Since when did you become the honorable one?"
Back over at Sionis Industries the members of Black Mask's security team were doing their best to seal the entrances into the building shut tight in a last ditch attempt to keep the escalating madness outside from breeching their walls. While Black Mask had set the Doll-O-Trons free, it didn't mean he had much control over them and as a result several of the faceless horde were currently trying to tear their way into the building. Luckily for the guards Black Mask had been courteous enough to give them a heads up and as a result they had mostly managed to secure the building before the horde had been unleashed. However, as the finishing touches were finally being put into place somewhere not to far in the distance three sets of massive headlights could be seen rocketing closer and closer towards the building with no sign of stopping.
Inside the lobby, several of the guards had huddled together to try and get a better look at the approaching lights before, unfortunately for them, they realised too late that the lights were heading right for them.
Within seconds the headlights got close enough to the building to identify that they belonged to three identical 24-wheeler trucks and before the guards inside the lobby had any time whatsoever to react the three trucks came crashing through the walls and fired onwards through the stone walls and thundering into the Lobby before eventually coming to a stop when they crashed down hard into the walls at the other end. All the guards and all the Doll-O-Trons trying to force their way into the building had been completely decimated by the trucks and besides the screeching and wailing noises from outside in the rest of the city, the inside of the once lively Lobby was now completely silent.
"Oh boys! I gotta say, that was just c'est magnifique! Glad Roman's loaded because the cleaning bill for this place would make even the likes of Bruce Wayne recoil in disgust!" The Joker announced with almost child-like glee as he hopped over the broken windows and begun pacing his way into the lobby. Behind him, Harley Quinn and a gang of Clown-Masked Men all carrying semi-automatic rifles followed on close behind now that their path into the building had been cleared by the trucks.
Walking up towards the truck that had landed the furthest into the lobby, The Joker walked up towards the sealed doors and rattled them with the base of his cane.
"Honey, were home!" The Clown Prince announced with a sneer as the back doors to all three vans suddenly sprung open, revealing countless more clown-masked men inside two of the vans and more importantly, the main Device tucked away neatly inside the van The Joker was standing directly in front of.
"Boys, get yourselves ready. We've got a show to put on!"
