Chapter 51: Glory or Greed.

Authors Note: Hey people just finished watching the latest and last episode of Young Justice. Reach is gone but Darkseid is involved and I think this was the first time he was brought up in Young Justice. But hey who cares because it's canceled. Logic, what is the logic, 'well apparently we don't know what universe it takes place in and no one buys our comic books.' Highest rating show and its canceled because of a few minority errors. Gah! I hate cartoon network. The only reason I watched it was because Justice League was all it had going for it. Ben 10 was good, but that new version just sucks. It's not as serious looking as it was before. DC nation? It was just Young Justice and Green lantern, which was boring. Seriously stop making everything Kid Friendly.

Young Justice will probably be back after people bash Titans Go and that New Batman show which I hear will be created by those green lantern bastards so expect the dark knight to be a bunny hugging hero everyone hates…sighs I miss the 90's remember Batman the animated series and justice league. Remember when they didn't have stupid catchphrases and weren't afraid to say words like die or I'll kill you. But I've bitched long enough here's a new chapter.

BTW, Illusive Man updated his Red Crosshairs story and it's going to explain a lot when I get to his story arc. Also it is very entertaining as is Daniel Wilks story and JediMasterchris's story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Batman…I need a walk. (Walks down the road with Lonely Man playing)


"So that's pretty much it." Shadow said after just finishing the tour of headquarters.

Surge really liked it here. This place was like a castle. It was isolated in the woods, big enough to house an army and well-fortified for an attack.

"This is an impressive home you have." Surge said looking over at the rest of the team. "So is this everyone?"

"Yes," Reaper said introducing his friends. "You know us but here is the rest. This is Dusk and Star, Phoenix and Theodosia, Thanatos and Apollo, Ronin and Gauntlet and Artemis. She is our newest member."

Artemis was a young girl with short blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Her outfit consisted of a green sleeveless shirt that exposed her toned stomach. She wore a green arm band around her right arm and a pair of fingerless gloves. She wore green cargo pants with a utility belt, metal knee pads and black steel toed combat boots.

"Wait, isn't she apart of that Young Justice League?" Surge asked.

"Different Artemis." Shadow said. "She was worried about pissing off the original Artemis but I told her she has nothing to worry about."

"Yes, she is Tigress now." Red stated.

"Okay, so what do we do now?" Surge asked.

"Nothing really, I showed you your room. You can go to bed or go on patrol with Red here or just hang out. It's all up to you." Shadow said walking off to the living corridor.

"Actually, I was hoping you could tell me how you and Ally met." Shadow froze in his tracks while everyone including Breeze smiled wide. "Selina did tell me it was a funny story."

"Actually, we've never heard it either." Sarah, who had taken off her Whisper uniform, said with a mischievous grin.

"I don't know, Jayden might get mad." Breeze said innocently.

"Don't care, tell us." Hitgirl demanded.

"Okay, well…"

She was then cut off when the main doors of the H.Q were blown open.

"Oh, looks like a home invasion," Shadow said in false disappointment. "Looks like this tale is going to have to wait."

Everyone rushed to the main lobby of the mansion to see a group of what looked like mercenaries. One was an old man, the other was a man with red spiked hair, then there was a girl with blue hair tied in a ponytail, then a big bald man who's muscles where bulging and then a thin pale man with long black hair.

Everyone looked at them confused, except Surge who knew each and every one of them. He was broken from his trance when he heard Gauntlet yelling.

"About time, we called House of Wong over an hour ago!" He joked. "My spiced chicken better be there."

"What?" Pyro asked.

"You guys don't have our Thai Food?" Phoenix asked.

"No we don't, you freaking idiots." Aqua snapped.

"Dammit, I'm starving too." Dusk snickered.

"We were hoping we could take this more seriously." Johnson said lighting up a cigar. "After all we are here to kill you."

"Why are you here Johnson?" Surge shouted, making his way up to the front of the group. He was on a small balcony that looked down at the main corridor where Johnson and his team were standing.

"Well, look who it is." Johnson chuckled. "My soldier who went AWOL, you really let your country down boy."

"The only person who let our country and planet down was you!" Surge shouted. "Killing civilians while just to lure in the Justice League and kill them. You call that justice, that's murder!"

"Says the man working for assassins." Pyro shot back.

"We ensure peace asshole!" Phoenix shouted.

"We don't murder people, especially civilians to prove a point." Gauntlet shouted.

"I know who he is." Thanatos said looking at his data screen. "Col. Johnson, he's one of those protesters against the super heroes. He's the founder of some secret project that's been put on ice for years called…Acolytes. Pretty much a team of super humans that work for the government."

"So you're fighting fire with fire." Zoom asked.

"I don't care who they are." Shadow said as he drew his sword. "They came to our home to kill us and they aren't leaving here alive."

Johnson chuckled while puffing out smoke. He threw his cigar away and pulled out a phone. In minutes a whole swarm of enhanced assassins in black and silver armor jumped through the windows of the mansion. They were wearing army tactical gear with swords on their backs and helmets with red dots for eyes.

"Are they cyborgs?" Shadow asked.

"Negative, I have thermal readings and heart beats. They are enhanced meta humans." Thanatos stated.

"Yes, you see my project would have been scrapped if it wasn't for the funding my friend here gave me." Johnson said looking back at a new figure. "Isn't that right Cyrus?"

A man in his mid-twenties slowly walked into the room. His hair was short and white, and his outfit was a sleeveless black coat, a black vest with black pants and boots. He wore fingerless black gloves and a pair of enhanced sun glassed. He drew his Wushu style broad sword with a gold hand guard and a red handle and grinned.

"Enough talk, now is the time to fight." He snickered.

"My thoughts exactly." Shadow grunted. "Warriors attack!"

The warriors let out a battle cry and charged at The Acolytes.


(!)

Breeze led Whisper, Zoom, Hitgirl, Phoenix, Apollo, Artemis, Dusk and Star to fight the ground men.

Breeze smacked her staff across one of the assassins head while Star smacked her whip around another's ankle and Apollo fired her hand mounted guns.

Whisper, Artemis and Dusk fired their hand guns at them keeping them away. Dusk looked over at Artemis who took down another assassin and grinned.

"Hey, great job newbie." Dusk said as he drew his tonfas. "Gauntlet was right you are a great shot." He then smacked his weapon in another assassin's stomach and then smacked him across the face.

"Thanks." She said firing an arrow in an assassins head.

Phoenix and Zoom used their powers to take out each assassin with great ease. As Phoenix fired a burst of flames at three assassins Zoom came to a sudden realization.

"Is it me or are we taking these guys out a little too easily?" Zoom asked as Phoenix looked around. The dead and unconscious and realized that they were slow and dysfunctional.

"Yeah, mobsters made me sweat more than this." Phoenix said running a hand through his head. "There's something else going on here."

"There always is." Whisper said as she loaded a new mag into her gun and fired a round into an assassins head.


(!)

Gauntlet was currently starring down Pyro whose veins were glowing orange. He cracked his iron knuckles before readying his powers as well.

"So why do you hate us?" Gauntlet asked.

"You guys always acted so high and mighty around us. That you never thought what would happen to those who just got sick of you." Pyro spat.

"We don't do this for fun or for popularity." Gauntlet snarled, igniting his hands. "We do this so we won't sacrifice our soldiers anymore."

Gauntlet charged at Pyro and the two exchanged punches. Gauntlet got the better of the fight thanks to his hands being armored, but Pyro had better training than him. Gauntlet threw another punch towards his face but Pyro was quick and dislocated his right shoulder.

Gauntlet let out scream and fell to the ground clenching his shoulder. Pyro let out a chuckle and lit his hands up.

"Ashes, Ashes we all fall down, eh kid?" Pyro said as he aimed his hands at Gauntlet. "See ya around."

Just then Gauntlet was coated in a stream of fire. Pyro was laughing maniacally stepping closer and closer to him. His grin soon faded as Gauntlets form started rising from the flames, only he looked different. His eyes were glowing dark orange and his hair was still there only replaced by fire.

"Pitiful mortal." His voice said in sync with Vulcans. "You aren't worthy to harness the power of my flames." Vulcan then raised his hands and redirected the flames unto Pyro.

"What the hell is happening?" He shouted as he started to burn.

"You can only create fire." Vulcan grinned. "I can control it."

Pyro let out a high pitched scream before only the sound of fire blazing was all that was heard. Vulcan dismissed the flames and smiled when he saw that there was no one standing before him.


(!)

Aqua and Brawler had their hands full with Surge and Red Crosshairs. Surge's arms cackled and Red's eyes turned into crosshairs.

"You two are really starting to piss me off." Brawler said. "Surge, this guy is a fucking Red and you're working with him?"

"He's not a communist, he's just trying to find his place like the rest of us." Surge said.

"And you two should have stayed home today." Red said. "Cause then you could have at least lived longer, but we believe in second chances, so you can leave or die."

Brawler answered by charging at him and tackling him to the ground. He tried to send a fist to his face, but Red blocked it and sent his fist into Brawler's jaw. He then planted his boot into his chest and knocked him off.

"You got moves Russian I'll give you that." Brawler said. "But I have connection to real top notch military assets." His arm then bulged with his veins popping out and sent it to Red's face.

Red caught it and clenched his fist in a vice grip. The bones in his hands started to crack as he started to fall to his knees.

"Dammit, Aqua get this freak off me!" He shouted while trying to break free from Red's grasp.

Aqua using a specialized water tank on her back, she manipulated the water and pressurized it to a whip and smacked it into Red face knocking him back into the wall. She was about to strike him again, but was hit with a bolt of electricity.

She fell to the ground, grunting in pain as her body seized up from the electricity. Surge grinned and charged up his arms again and charged at Brawler. He sent his fist along with a surge of electricity into his face. Brawler let out a chuckle and grabbed his next oncoming fist.

"You're too weak to take me on Surge." Brawler grunted. He then sent his knee to his stomach knocking the wind out of him. Surge fell to the ground clenching his stomach while Brawler stood over him. "This isn't how I wanted this to go down but"

His sentence was cut short when Red kicked him off. Brawler quickly got up and swung at Red's head. Red blocked and delivered a head-butt to his face. Brawler was sent back and quickly hit the floor and swept his legs knocking Red on his ass.

Red, starting to get irritated, sent his boot into Brawlers kneecap. Brawlers leg bend forward and the man himself let out a scream of pain.

"Dammit, Aqua help!" Brawler shouted.

Surge had his veins cackling and was ready to strike Aqua with a bolt of electricity. Acting fast, she waved her arm unleashing all the water from her tank onto Surge. His electricity went haywire as he let out a scream and fell to the floor.

"Water can hurt electricity just as much baby." She grinned and then turned her attention towards Red and held her hand out to him. Red had his sickle raised ready to end Brawler, until an unseen force grabbed his wrist and twisted it behind his back. His blade fell while Brawler rose from the ground and Aqua applied more pressure.

"What the hell is this?" Red grunted as he fell to his knees.

"I can control all sorts of water buddy." She snickered. "Even the large portion of it in your body."

"Quit screwing around and end him already." Brawler chuckled.

"Sorry buddy, say hi to mother Rus." She was forced to end her sentence when a bolt of electricity flew threw her chest.

Brawler didn't even have time to grieve when Red quickly grabbed his sickle and ran it through Brawlers heart. He let out a choked gasp and fell to the floor off to find his sister in arms in the next life.

Red looked over at Sure to see him soaked to the bone and holding a now destroyed cell phone. Red examined the phone closely to see that the broken edges of the screen made it look like something came out.

"Did you absorb the electricity from the phone?" Red asked.

"Hey, whatever works in a pinch right?" Surge shrugged.


(!)

Ronin and Reaper were running for their lives, dodging another ball of dark matter that tore anything in its path to pieces. Darkness charged up another sphere and fired at Reaper and Ronin. They couldn't hide behind cover since the damn thing tore everything in its path to pieces.

"Reaper, shoot him with your gun!" Ronin shouted.

Reaper didn't need to be told twice as he transformed his scythe into his energy cannon. He aimed at Darkness and fired three rounds. The black haired man smirked and waved his left hand up creating a five foot wide force field disintegrating the energy bolts before they came close to him. The force field dispersed and both the heroes' eyes widened in shock as Ronin grabbed Reaper and dragged him into the darkness of the room.

"Run all you want I will find you." Darkness snickered.

Reaper and Ronin watched him from the rafters of the ceiling. They made sure to keep their voices down as he stalked the living quarters below.

"Did you see that?" Ronin asked in a neutral voice.

"Yes." Reaper said. "His spheres disperse eight seconds after being fired."

"And his force field did you see how that dispersed?" Ronin asked drawing a few throwing knives.

"It broke apart at the center." Reaper grinned.

"That's where we strike." He said.

Reaper readied his gun and Ronin readied his knives.

They both jumped down ready to strike, but Darkness was quick and fired two spheres at them. Reaper and Ronin used their reflexes and kicked off each other's feet dodging the spheres creating two holes in the roof.

Ronin threw some knives and Reaper fired off a few shots. Darkness put up his shield again and deflected the attacks. He waited for the shield to come down before he could attack, but was interrupted when he felt a blade run through his stomach. He looked down to see the handle of a combat knife sticking out of his stomach.

He fell to his knees while Reaper and Ronin towered over him.

Shadow fired a magnum round into one of the elite assassins head and watched her body fall to the ground. His home was under attack, his team was under fire and there were a lot of bodies to clean up. So why, why was he unfazed by all this.

He looked over and saw Hitgirl going one on one with Johnson. They both parried their attacks and fought with all their strength but Hitgirl got the upper hand and landed a left hook to the colonel's jaw. He fell to the ground, but quickly drew his berretta. All the warriors soon gathered and corned the colonel.

"Johnson, it's over." Surge said. "Hang it up."

"It's never over." Johnson grunted. "You haven't done anything. People will know what you've done and then the government will give me more recruits for the Acolytes. By years end I'll have an army of meta humans."

"You gave power to those who couldn't control it." Surge said. "You were so quick to kill off the Justice League that you never actually believed in your team. This attack was a total failure because of you."

"It's Cyrus's fault." He snarled. "These assassins of his didn't do anything but fumble around!"

"That's because they are defected." A deep said.

Before Johnson could move a silver blade ran through his chest killing him in only a few seconds. Everyone readied their weapons and powers, but the assassin was unfazed by it all.

"These soldiers were forced fed combat training and implanted with the same chips we use for combat drones." Cyrus said in a neutral voice. "These Acolytes, they were merely a distraction."

"A distraction for what?" Red Crosshairs asked.

"You will find out in time." Cyrus grinned. "For now you should tend to Thanatos and Theodosia. They are in critical condition."

Everyone felt panic run through their hearts. Red and Hitgirl fired their guns at them, but Cyrus quickly threw a smoke bomb. When the smoke cleared Cyrus was gone without a trace.

"Son of a bitch." Phoenix shouted.

The team ran to where they last saw Thanatos and Theodosia. The evidence room or museum as Shadow would call it. They walked into the main lobby and gasped in horror at what they saw.

Thomas was lying in a pile of scrap metal which used to be his suit and Theodosia was strung up by her hands covered in cuts and bruises.

"Theresa!" Star shouted as she ripped her mask off and pulled out her knife cutting down her sister. Shadow grabbed Thomas and lifted him up slightly.

"Tom, talk to me. What happened?" Shadow asked in a sincere tone. Christine, now out of her Apollo armor, quickly tended to his wounds. Thomas grabbed Shadow by the collar of his coat and pulled his ear to his mouth.

"C-Cyrus…has…Adonis." Thomas whispered.

Shadow's eyes widened as he eased his brother back and let his girlfriend treat his wounds.

"What the fuck is going on here?" Shadow asked himself.


(!)

Darkness was wandering through the woods clenching his stomach. His wounds were bleeding badly and he couldn't last much longer.

Something snapped in the woods, alerting Darkness. He carefully looked around to see if the warriors were following him. He felt something dig through his back and looked down to see three blades sticking through his chest.

"Sorry boyo, but there's only room for one dark matter man in this town."

Darkness looked behind him to see the sadistic smile of Leonae. He pulled his blades from his chest and watched his body fall to the ground. Leonae pulled a cloth from his coat and wiped his blades clean as a dark figure walked behind him.

"Was that really necessary?" Leonae just shrugged as he retracted the blades into his arm.

"Jason, if it was Robin you would have ended him too." Leonae said as The Red Hood walked up from behind him.

"Looks like we missed the party." Hood commented. "I guess I wasn't the only one to underestimate Jayden."

"I knew Johnson back in my soldier days." Leonae commented. "He was lost when I met him. He could never have matched the Shadow Warriors."

"He's the one who gave you those powers didn't he?" Hood asked.

"Yes, there was something off with that project. So I stole their resources and left." Leonae grinned. "But who what that guy that ran away?"

"I don't know." Hood said. The two were then joined by a man with a biotic right arm and buzz cut hair and a woman with long red hair and orange skin. "But we better be ready, The Outlaws will soon take Gotham by storm."