A/N: Ninety-Six reviews... Ha ha ha, almost 100!
I WILL have this story done by X-mas, even if it means I have to mug all of you to do so!
The tide of war changes as one grows older and wiser. The desperation of a demon just may kill the residents of the metropolis or will it instead kill the heart of a man clinging so desperately to sanity?
The Watchman
---
"It didn't take more than a couple of steps into the lobby to realize Desade was right. Ripper made his presence known even before we could see him with our own eyes. The desk where the secretary sits in the lobby, you know the one with the big "JCN" logo over it? Poor woman never stood a chance. Ripper must be fond of blades or something because the lady's head was pinned to the wall, blade through her skull like a notepad with a pushpin. We didn't have time to waste though, it was time to end this game once and for all.. It wasn't hard to guess which floor he was on. You'd have an easy time too if you saw the number "13" in blood by the elevator door..."
The ride up to the thirteen floor seems to continue forever. With each ping of the next floor up, the trio find their hearts beating faster. Up into the darkness, where demons fly instead of angels. Ripper might decide to simply cut the elevator cable, sending them falling to a certain death. Hell, he might just be waiting for the doors to open, attacking with wild abandon and chaos. With luck he'll be gone, vanished forever into eternity, never to return. Luck doesn't tend to be on their side it seems these days.
Eight......
"Just who exactly are we going up against?" Dr. Light inquires, breaking the deathly silence that had filled the tiny compartment.
"You remember Brain from the Brotherhood, right?" Raven answers, glaring at the doc. "Its him inside of a nanotech android's body."
A raised eyebrow at the explanation "He injected himself into an AMAZO body? Why didn't you tell me that sooner, Watchman!"
Gar snaps his head back at the doctor, eye to eye, and growls at him "Because you wouldn'tve done it. You're not the bravest villain we know."
"EX-Villain, thank you very much! I thought we were dealing with a rogue android, not a maniac brain inside of an unstoppable shell!"
"He can be stopped." Raven warns "Anything built by human hands can be killed."
"But it might take more than just the three of us to do it!" Light persists. "Don't you realize that having that body alone makes him almost invulnerable from physical attacks?"
"Realize that." Gar remarks, glaring at the elevator as it reaches Ten.. Can't this thing move any faster?
"And with that mindset Brain's in, he'll be expecting us. Hell, we probably walked right into his trap!"
"Realized that too."
"So why are we walking right into it then?!"
"You really are a pathetic little man.." Raven sighs, trying her best to ignore him while the counter reaches eleven.
"Being pathetic and being smart are two different things, goth. We're about to get our asses killed all because of some psycho nutcase! And the best plan we have is just to walk straight into it!"
"Would you stop worrying so goddamn much you little.."
"Light!" Gar snaps back at the doc "What do suggest?"
Taken aback by the quick question on Watchman's part, the former bright villain stumbles for a second as the counter reaches twelve.
"He could assume we're cops about to rush the room right now." Looking up at the hatch, he tells them "We need to get up top, now."
"Gar, you're not actually going to.."
"Raven, no time! Just do it!" The pleading in his eyes, different from the angry ones moments prior, convinces the Goth to do so.
Incased in a black ball of energy, the three are pulled into the ceiling, resting above the elevator as it finally comes into its station at floor thirteen.
Crouching on the metal roof of the lift, the two young adults are surprised to hear gunfire rocket into the space they once occupied. Dr. Light's expression, while worried, takes on an ever-lightening smile. As the gunfire eases, Raven whispers at the doctor "Any light jokes and I'll rip your head right off."
"Now what, Gar?" Light asks the makeshift leader, grinning despite her threats to his general well-being.
"Simple. We attack with the sun at our back." Flipping him a thumbs up, his confidence in the mad doctor seems to be restored.
"Now that I can do."
---
On the floor above the hallway, elevator riddled with bullet holes and smoke, an air shaft vent bursts open, dropping its metal grating to the floor. Startling the shooters inside, a ball of light drops down, sending a piercing light throughout the room. Raven and Gar phase through the shaft psychically, dropping down with Light behind them and charge their would-be assassins..
Only to discover the "shooters" are in fact security guards under the station's employ. Mouths bound with gags, eyes wide, fearful, their hands from the wrist to the fingers are encased in rock, surrounding the triggers on their pistols. The sight surprises the trio at both the cruelty and complexity of the sight. Terra's handiwork is even more sinister than..
Two knives pierce through the men's backs, jutting out through their hearts and spraying blood in a wide arc. Eyes shooting up in shock, they muffle gurgles through the bloody gags before falling to the ground, their lives ended by a sinister, laughing madman at the end of the hall.
"Ripper!" Gar shouts, giving chase with Raven and Light behind him. Each step brings him closer to the black mass bounding down the hallway. The cackle bounces off the wall, filling Gar's ears with its vicious, hatred-laced sound. Many a night that sound has kept him awake at night, bolting from his bed in a cold sweat. Now is the time to end it!
---
As they round the corner, however, the gruesome sight stops them in their tracks. Arranged throughout the room like a picture of horrible battlefields from ages ago or the ravings of a fiction writer are the bodies and corpses of the news room. Several of the bodies are hung from the ceiling, their organs hanging from their torn flesh, dripping blood in a large puddle just before the trio. Some are bent over the news table, arms and legs missing with mouths open in silent screams, begging for release. Gar thought the murder at the hotel smelled bad.. No, this is even worse. These kills are fresh, no more than an hour at best. Bile and blood form with the excrement of death to form an overpowering smell that forces Raven and Dr. Light to avert their eyes and clasp their noses.
Garfield Logan will not look away... He looked away at the office months ago, he looked away at the hotel... He turned his eyes away from Ripper while he fought White Rabbit drug lords and for the cure hidden far away in Gotham City. No, this bloody scene is the result of all of that blindness foolishly hiding his watch over the madman now laughing in the middle of the room. With Terra by his side, grinning just as insanely as the maniacal Ripper, it looks more like a scene straight out of a horror film than actual life. Give him Wicked Scary any day, that's nothing compared to this gruesome display.
And yet, throughout this incredible display of savagery, amidst the carnage of human innocence and decay, Gar finds the nerve to tell Ripper the one thing no one in the room expected to hear.
"You're losing your edge, Ripper."
Both Raven and Light, as well as Ripper and Terra stop their reverie to stare at Gar. With expressions akin to surprise that Gar would dare insult Ripper in a manner befitting an asylum inmate, they then begin to question his motive. What good can come of daring Ripper to up his game?
"What did you say, boy?" Ripper, his laughter long gone, asks with burning eyes. Molars crunching from anger rather than glee, it seems the young vigilante has hit a vital nerve.
"I said you're losing your touch!" Gar shouts, stepping into the pool of blood. Sticking to his boots all the while, he cares not for the appearance of his attire. With his eyes meeting mechanical ones across the room, he dares to continue. "All you do is keep killing and killing. After awhile though a person can get used to it. I don't enjoy it but I can handle it. This is no gift nor is it any sign of a worthy adversary."
"How dare you..."
"How dare I? How dare YOU" Gar snaps back, fists balling up like boulders at the end of his arms. "You killed this room full of people and dozens other in this building I'm sure. You have your puppet over there unleash a monster that's tearing up the city... and for what?!" Stopping to stand in the middle of the blood-soaked floor, Gar shouts at the menace not more than ten feet away "DO YOU FEEL LIKE A BIG MAN NOW, RIPPER?! I'M NOT IMPRESSED!"
"Watchman, are you crazy?!" Dr. Light yells across the room.
"No, weakling... He's growing up.." Ripper answers, teeth snapping together as a scowl would look. "You're not impressed, boy? You think all of this is the best I can do?!" Hand starting to twitch, Ripper's own skeletal fingers clench around his cane. "Perhaps I have been underestimating you and your kind. Maybe now you can handle a fight meant for adults and not made for CHILDREN!"
Breaking the conversation, however, is Desade smashing through the window looking over the avenue the trio had come from. Clothes torn, face scratched all to hell, the sadist roars in disgust at Dr. Light.
Like the spark lighting a powder keg, the motion sets the standoff alight. With a thrust, Gar leaps ahead at Ripper, claws out and screaming for the Brain's soul. Terra tries to protect her master by firing a beam of yellow energy only to be deflected by Raven, her eyes white with dark magic.
Dr. Light attempts to join in the fight but Desade throws him through the ceiling with his chains... The brawl is on, one way or another..
As Gar lands on Ripper, the two crash into the newscaster booth, smashing the simple wooden structure as though built with matchsticks. To his credit, Gar lands on top of the creature, landing two vicious shoots across his bony face. The second blow knocks the jaw out of place but a hard kick from under Gar sends Watchman flying against the wall. Adjusting his critical bone back into its proper place, Ripper runs over and tries to kick Gar hard in the ribs. Watchman will have none of that, grabbing the leg and thrusting upward to headbutt the face with his own skull.
The shot, however, only hurts Gar as the skull is thicker than he had expected. Damn nanotech body. Ripper answers the attack by swinging his cane, now extended to appear blade-like, at the face of his nemesis. Gar smartly ducks, responding this time with a punch to one of Ripper's eyes. Not shattering the target struck, it does however elicit a howl of pain from the monster. Reeling back, Ripper holds his eye and howls at the Watchman, his opponent returning the sound with a lion-esque scream of his own.
"There is no advantage in this room.." he whispers out loud. Looking towards the door, he bounds off for the walkway.
"Oh no the fuck you don't!" Gar replies, going chase. He doesn't hear Terra and Raven fly through the roof as well, pieces of debris falling in their path.
---
Bursting through the door leading to the roof, Ripper frantically looks around for a hiding place to ambush Gar. His search is futile however as Dr. Light and Desade come tearing through the concrete roof, chains of energy and steel flailing about and exchanging shots on the other. Looking to the other direction, he sees Terra and Raven locked in a test of strength as they blast through the other side of the roof.
"Can't I have ANY privacy in this city?" he begrudgingly laments at the sight. His words are short-lived as Gar kicks him in the back, throwing him hard against the dull gray floor with a thud.
"You'll find plenty of privacy in hell, Ripper. Get up.." The words, spoken through heavy pants of adrenaline and lack of oxygen, sound more menacing than usual from the stalwart Watchman.
With the city in chaos behind them as the Scorpion devastates the city, Air Force fighters have begun to arrive. Streaking over the building like heralds from the Gods, they deliver missile after missile onto the target in question. Each blast echoes through the town, shaking cars and windows in its wake. On the ground, the monster howls and shrieks with each hit, both from above and the Titans below.
"Face it, Ripper. Your little plan didn't work. Letting me fight that scorpion out west weeks ago was sloppy on your part." Each step towards the object of his hatred feels like a gain in confidence at the same time. For all of his threats, all of his vile actions, Ripper seems nothing more than a scared brain in a jar that happens to have a body now...
"Cadmus made practice so much easier for our little Terra." Even though the words come out confident, they appear to be hiding something else.
"Practice made the beast larger? I get it that the scorpion, then and now, were distractions. Sorry but you're not throwing me off anymore."
Cane stomping to the ground, Ripper answers happily "Distraction away from me? Garfield Logan, don't you realize that EVERYTHING you've dealt with since joining this city was BECAUSE of me?!"
Before Gar can answer, Ripper throws a handful of blades at him. Dodging successfully, Gar yells the name of his opponent as Ripper kicks Raven away from Terra. Guarding the metahuman, cane-blade held in a defense, Ripper tells the group assembled.
"Everything that has happened since your arrival has been my design. For example, the giant scorpion you see before us? Who said it was just ONE creation? Terra?"
Eyes glowing yellow, she turns to the monster and raises an arm in its direction. With a yell, she closes her fist and, at the same time, the scorpion explodes into thousands of smaller insects. Hard to see from this distance, they now appear to swarm the Titans like locusts instead of a simple, hulking beast.
Laughing again, Ripper announces "They surely won't survive long against THAT swarm, now will they Terra? What will they do now?"
As Ripper's laugh increases, he doesn't realize that the tide may in fact be turning against him. With the simple beep of a communicator, Robin's voice announces over Raven's comm.
"Raven, keep your position. We just got some support.."
Ripper halts his humor, surprised by the sound. "What?!"
Gar, now, chooses to laugh. Not a simple one either... In a style eerily familiar to Ripper's own, Gar howls with delight. Throwing his arms into the air, he shouts in delight.
"WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING, BOY?!"
Still chuckling, Gar stares down the nanotech monster. "You weren't the only one making allies these past few months, Ripper!"
Confused, even Desade questions Gar's sanity. "What kind of allies?!"
"Why do you think I never killed anyone this past year? Why do you think I WORKED with villains rather than JAILING or KILLING them?!" Pausing to gloat at their stunned faces, Gar proudly declares "You have an army of rock.. I HAVE AN ARMY OF HEROES AND VILLAINS!"
"Bastard... miserable, rotten, son of a bitch bastard..." Ripper growls through his teeth, enraged as Raven, Light, and Gar stare on with confident, glaring smiles. How dare they.. Do they really think they have the ultimate trump card? Do they think they can best him? No, not the smartest being in existence.. Not Ripper.. No one can... NO ONE!!
'You think this is the end, hmm? You think you've bested ME?!" Desade to his side, Terra behind him, Ripper stares at the trio as they close in. If he could sweat, he might be doing so now. At the threshold of defeat and disgrace there exists one final act to be had: Desperation.
"I WILL NOT LOSE EVER AGAIN!" Ripper screams, bringing out a syringe from his inside coat pocket. As the trio defend themselves, Ripper shockingly plunges the needle into Terra's heart. Eyes bulging, the rock goddess screams in fear as the contents pour into her own bloodstream.
"NO!!" Gar shouts, confidence abandoned at the sight now unfolding.
"You may have beaten my diversion but now you will experience the true nature of my goal. ENJOY THIS CITY FOR NOW, CHILDREN, FOR I NOW UNLEASH THE BIGGEST EARTHQUAKE IN HISTORY!"
Snapping his fingers at Desade, the sadist replies by wrapping his chains around Ripper. With a great thrust, he hurls him at the nearest towering Skyscraper. Desade follows suit in a Spiderman-like function, swinging away with his chains grappling onto several buildings.
As the drug takes hold inside Terra, Gar and the others surround her. Body glowing with golden energy, she screams in agony as her powers begin to lose control.
"Watchman?!" Light asks, seeing the stunned look on his face.
"Gar, we have to stop her!" Raven implores, knowing full well the damage such a quake could..
"Both of you chase down Ripper and keep him there. I'll stop Terra, I promise." The words are spoken cold, lifeless, sending shivers up both of their backs.
"Gar, you can't, its too late..."
"GO!" Gar, eyes beginning to tear up, yells at the pair of them. Like it or not, someone has to do this to keep Ripper from escaping again..
As Raven summons up the energy for the two of them to fly, she looks back at Gar. "Gar?" Eyes meeting his, she tells him "Good luck..."
---
A/N2: And the fight continues.. Blood and death surround us but will the bright light of peace return to the city or will it crumble like ancient Rome before the horde?
Gar can't catch a break anymore... Even when he finally begins to have a one-up on Ripper, he unleashes Apocalypse Now..
Trivia:
- "You're losing your edge" is quoted from Batman speaking to Joker in the New Batman Adventures.. Damn similarities.. I blame Zenn and Tru for that.
Rhetorical:
Wouldn't it be funny if, instead of Riddler, Catwoman, or Penguin in the Dark Knight sequel, they had Clock King instead?
