Yo.
It's been a long time since I last updated this story. Around March I believe.
It's just kind of hard for me to come up with ideas for this story, since I'm not an expert on the lore of DC and Marvel, as I mentioned in chapter 1. I find my other DC/Marvel story to be much easier to write and come up with ideas for.
Anyway, I won't hold you guys up anymore. Hope you enjoy the chapter.
Chapter 2: Departure
"Hey" - Speaking
'Hm?' - Mental
[ ] - Scene/POV Change
__
Flying around high up in the sky, Wonder Woman could be seen with a frown on her face as she looked at the ground below her. It had been nearly two weeks since Joker and Scarecrow escaped from Arkham, and they had finally made some noise. Well, not them directly, but their henchmen had been causing trouble in multiple cities. She had just finished 'fighting' another group of the thugs, making that ten in total, and that was just today.
As she was flying, Wonder Woman caught sight of a couple being cornered in an alley by yet another group of henchmen, making her let out a sigh as she began descending to go deal with them. She was thoroughly annoyed. It was pretty late, a little after 10 PM, and she just wanted to go home and rest. While she wasn't physically tired - there was no way she would be tired from such weaklings - the annoyance that had been accumulating over the past two weeks had her mentally fatigued.
Once she touched down in the alley, the thugs were, as expected, startled and frightened by her appearance, while the couple had hope shining across their faces as they looked at her.
"Go. I'll deal with them." Wonder Woman said to the couple as she flashed them a smile, getting nods from them as they ran away as quickly as they could while thanking her.
"Crap! What do we do?!" One thug asked shakily as he took a step back, with a few others doing the same.
"Relax! If we all attack at once, we can take her!" One brave (dumb) thug yelled out to the others as he raised his crowbar up in the air.
"You fools." Wonder Woman said lowly as the henchmen charged at her.
When the first thug reached her, Wonder Woman simply gave a strong (weak for her) palm thrust to his face, breaking his nose and sending him to the ground. When another minion tried to attack her, she just took the metal bat out of his hands and hit both of his knees with it, getting a shout of pain from him as he, too, was sent to the ground.
The last 10 henchmen seemed to hesitate after the quick show of strength, but apparently decided not to back down, since they surrounded her in a circle a few seconds later.
What followed was nothing short of a one-sided beat down. No matter what the thugs attacked with, whether it be fists, melee weapons, guns, it didn't matter. None of them could even touch her, let alone put a scratch on her. It didn't even take her a minute to dispatch all of them.
Taking her sword off of her hip, Wonder Woman walked over to a barely conscious thug and held her sword to his throat as she addressed him.
"Listen to what I'm about to say, and make sure you understand me clearly. If I catch any of you doing anything like this again, I will not be so kind, and your punishment will be far worse than a few broken bones. Do I make myself clear?" Wonder Woman asked with a deadly tone and a dangerous look in her eyes. She was tired of these criminals and their games.
Gulping, the thug just nodded weakly, not wanting the sword at his throat to go any further than it was.
Staring at the criminal with cold eyes, Wonder Woman just scoffed as she knocked him out with the butt of her sword.
With the situation taken care of, Wonder Woman took off into the sky, fully intending to go home.
[ Next Day ]
The next morning, Diana found herself being contacted by Batman, who informed her that they finally had a lead on Joker and Scarecrow's location.
After taking a quick shower, Wonder Woman could be found flying in the sky with a grumpy look on her face. She had been asleep when Batman contacted her.
After flying for a while, Wonder Woman finally reached her destination, which was an abandoned, decrepit hospital in Star City. This was supposedly Scarecrow's hideout, which Batman found thanks to one of his drones.
Landing on the ground, Wonder Woman began stealthily walking around, and whirled around with her sword drawn when she felt someone tap her shoulder.
Only to instantly relax when she saw that it was none other than her closest friend, Wraith, one of the few people that could sneak up on her.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you." Wraith said as Wonder Woman sheathed her sword.
"It's alright. I'm just a little jumpy." Wonder Woman said as she rubbed her eyes.
"Tired?" Wraith asked while looking around.
"I didn't get much sleep last night." Wonder Woman replied with a sigh.
"Then, let's wrap this up quickly." Wraith said, getting a nod from Wonder Woman as the two began sneaking up to the warehouse. The two of them were often paired up to go on missions like this. Black Canary sometimes joined them, but she was with Green Arrow and Batman, who were going after Joker.
"Something is wrong." Wonder Woman whispered to Wraith with a frown.
"The lack of guards?" Wraith questioned, getting a nod from his partner. Indeed, there was no sign of life whatsoever, which was never a good sign.
Reaching the entrance, the two heroes walked inside, making sure to keep an eye out for any traps, and Wonder Woman grimaced at the foul smell assaulting her nose.
Turning a corner, the two stopped when they came across a gruesome sight. All around the corridor, numberous corpses and dismembered limbs could be seen scattered around, not to mention the copious amounts of blood.
Crouching down, Wraith dipped two of his fingers into the large puddle of blood.
"Wonder Woman." Wraith called to his partner.
"I know. This is fresh." Wonder Woman said with a frown as she looked around.
The further the two went into the hospital, the more blood and gore they saw.
As the two were walking, they both suddenly jumped to the side when they felt something behind them. Just in time too, since two red tendrils shot forward through where they had been previously standing.
Turning around quickly, Wonder Woman and Wraith could see the creature that attacked them.
It was a skinny, blood red creature, with its... skin, if it could be called that, almost looking like liquid. It had glowing eyes that were completely white, and incredibly sharp teeth, with the inside of its mouth being the same glowing white. As the tendrils snapped back, they formed into hands with sharp claws.
They knew very well who this was.
"Carnage." Wraith stated with his cold, robotic voice as he analyzed the villain in front of them.
"You foul creature! Are you the one that murdered all these people?!" Wonder Woman asked the monster fiercely with a heated glare.
The only answer she got was a sinister, dual layered laugh.
"Why are you here? You usually only operate in New York." Wraith asked calmly while discretely reaching behind his back, beneath his cape.
"What can I say? I got bored. So when the clown came to me and said he had something fun planned, I figured, 'why not?'." Carnage said carelessly with a laugh.
"The clown? You mean you've joined up with Joker and Scarecrow?" Wonder Woman asked with some shock. Carnage was just as bad as Joker. Some would even say Carnage was a bigger threat, since he had powers, unlike Joker. For them of all people to join forces... Whatever they had planned could not be allowed to succeed. Period.
"Scary, huh?" Carnage asked with a sinister tone as he threw his head back and let out another laugh.
Taking the chance, Wraith withdrew his hand from behind his back and threw a small silver disk towards Carnage. Turning to his partner, Wraith quickly gave her two ear buds, getting a look of understanding from her.
The moment the sliver disk hit the wall next to Carnage, a high pitched sound wave was suddenly released through the entire corridor, making him let out a loud screech as he clutched his head in agony, trying futilely to stop the pain.
With that taken care of, Wraith began looking through the walls of the hospital, trying to see if there was anything of importance, and stopped when he found nothing.
After restraining Carnage, Wonder Woman removed her ear buds as Wraith deactivated the sound wave.
"That was... Easy." Wonder Woman said to her partner. She hadn't even needed to do anything.
"Indeed. However, I feel that this was only meant to be a distraction." Wraith said, getting Wonder Woman's attention.
As Wonder Woman was about to speak, she was cutoff when the pair heard a police report coming from one of Wraith's gauntlets, stating that there had been an explosion in Gotham.
Quickly grabbing Carnage, Wonder Woman and Wraith exited the building, before both flew up into the sky, with Wraith having thrusters from his hands and feet keeping him afloat. Nodding at each other, the two took off towards Gotham.
[ Gotham ]
Not long later, the two friends reached Gotham, and they could see that the city was in a state of pure chaos. People were fighting in the streets, buildings were on fire, cars were flipped over, etc. Below them, Batman, Black Canary, Green Arrow, The Flash, and Hawkwoman could be seen trying to contain the situation. They also had Batman's sidekicks with them.
Throwing Carnage on top of a roof, Wonder Woman quickly descended from the sky, followed closely by Wraith, and the two immediately jumped into the fray.
"What happened?!" Wonder Woman yelled over all the loud noises as she dodged a punch thrown at her.
"Scarecrow. He and Joker put multiple bombs around the city. Some were regular bombs, but others contained fear toxin." Batman replied as he subdued one of Joker's minions.
"Where are they now?" Wonder Woman asked as she stood back to back with Wraith.
"They left after detonating the bombs. I heard them mention the bank." Black Canary said with a frown, frustrated that they let two major villains slip through their fingers.
"Wonder Woman and I will go after them." Wraith stated, getting nods from the others. Turning to Wonder Woman, they nodded at each other, before they both began flying towards Gotham Bank.
Arriving at the bank, the two could see multiple news trucks, along with a large crowd gathered outside of it, who thankfully hadn't spotted the duo up in the sky yet.
"Wonder Woman." Wraith suddenly spoke up, getting the heroine to turn to him.
"What is it?" Wonder Woman asked with a raised eyebrow. Her curiosity grew when he just silently stared at her for a few seconds, before shaking his head and looking away.
"Never mind. Let's go." Wraith said as he flew onto the roof of the bank, with Wonder Woman doing the same, all the while staring at her partner with a mixture of confusion and concern. She had never known him to hesitate to speak his mind, especially with her.
Entering through the skylight, the two could see Joker and Harley Quinn holding up the bank with the clown's henchmen, along with over twenty scared hostages. However, they could also see a few dead civilians, making Wonder Woman clench her fists.
After running a scan over the whole bank, Wraith found that Scarecrow was not here, and passed that info along to the heroine next to him.
"Well, at least we can get these two." Wonder Woman said with a sigh. As she was about to jump down to confront the pair of villains, she was stopped when Wraith placed a hand on her shoulder.
Turning her head, Wonder Woman saw Wraith holding out a pair of high-tech goggles for her. Understanding what he was about to do, she grabbed the goggles and put them on.
Once that was done, Wonder Woman watched as Wraith dropped a tiny pellet down to where Joker and the others were, with it creating a large plume of smoke when it hit the ground, and the two heroes immediately came out of their high up hiding place and went into the cloud of smoke, taking out enemies left and right.
"Oh?! Looks like a hero has joined us, Harley!" Joker's loud voice came from somewhere in the smoke, not sounding the least bit worried. Thanks to the goggles she was wearing, Wonder Woman was able to see clearly, and frowned when she saw that he was holding someone hostage with his gun pressed against their head as he tried to find his way out of the smoke.
It didn't take long to take out all of the henchmen, barely thirty seconds. This was also enough time for the smokescreen to begin dissipating. Fortunately, most of the hostages took the chance to run while the villain's vision was impaired.
"Awww, I thought it would be, B-Man." Harley said with a pout once she was finally able to see who was attacking them.
Not in the mood for their games, Wonder Woman charged at Harley and quickly began subduing her, while Wraith focused on Joker, who was laughing with his finger on the trigger of his gun, terrifying the hostage in his arms.
"Where is Scarecrow?" Wraith asked while standing a few feet away from Joker and his hostage.
"In a cornfield!" The Joker answered with his signature laugh.
"I won't ask again." Wraith said. A short distance away from them, Wonder Woman had just finished tying up an unconscious Harley Quinn.
"Ah ah ah, shouldn't a 'noble hero' like you be more worried about this innocent young woman?" The Joker asked as he tapped his gun against the mentioned young woman's head a few times.
"She'll be fine." Wraith stated simply as he folded his arms, making the clown villain let out a loud laugh.
"I wouldn't be so sure!" The Joker said with a mad gleam in his eyes as he laughed hysterically and pulled the trigger.
Or, at least, he tried to. Try as he might, his finger just wouldn't move, much to Joker's annoyance.
"You see, Joker, I've had enough. We capture you over and over, and you manage to escape every time, never learning your lesson. You're simply too far gone." Wraith said calmly, getting a curious look from Wonder Woman, and even Joker.
"What are you gonna do? Kill me?! We all know you 'heroes' don't have what it takes to finish the job!" The Joker said with another laugh.
"You see, that's just it." Wraith said as he held one of his hands out in front of him, with Wonder Woman and Joker watching in shock as the gun in Joker's hands was dismantled.
Wonder Woman was especially shocked since, just like the rest of the League, she had thought that Wraith didn't have any powers, since he only ever used martial arts and his gadgets (including his armor), much like Batman. Apparently, she knew even less about him than she thought.
"I've never considered myself a hero. All I've tried to do is fight for what I believe in. Hero... Villain... I couldn't care less about which one people choose to think of me as." Wraith continued as he used telekinesis to make Joker release the final hostage, and she immediately took off running.
Pulling the clown's body forward through the air, while also making it so that he was unable to speak, Wraith unsheathed the sword that was on his hip, showing that it was a beautiful silver blade that had glowing red and gold runes inscribed on it.
"Are you really about to do this?" Wonder Woman finally spoke up as she walked closer to her friend.
"You can leave if you wish." Wraith responded without turning away from Joker.
"Why would I do that?" Wonder Woman asked as she placed a hand on her hip.
"You understand what's about to happen, right?" Wraith replied with a question of his own.
"Of course." Wonder Woman said with a nod.
"So be it." And with that, Wraith sheathed his sword, much to the confusion of Wonder Woman. However, before she could say anything, she watched as blood started running down Joker's neck, before his head suddenly fell off.
'What speed!' Wonder Woman thought to herself in astonishment. Not even her sharp eyes had seen Wraith swing his sword. He was just surprising her more and more.
Releasing his telekinetic hold, Wraith threw Joker's corpse over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, while picking up the detached head with his other hand. With that done, he began walking to the entrance/exit of the bank, while Wonder Woman silently followed behind him.
Once they finally exited, they were greeted by the cheers of the civilians. Standing at the front of the crowd, Wonder Woman could see Hawkwoman and Black Canary, both of whom ran up to them with shocked expressions when they saw the corpse Wraith was carrying.
"W- What happened?!" Black Canary asked quickly onced they reached Wraith and Wonder Woman.
"I killed him." Wraith said bluntly, making Black Canary and Hawkwoman go silent.
"...Come again?" Hawkwoman said, sure that she must have misheard what was said.
Floating up into the air - this time with no thrusters - Wraith's deep, robotic voice boomed acrossed the area as he began addressing the gathered crowd, with the news cameras focusing on him.
"I'll say this once, so listen carefully. From now on, any criminals who go around murdering innocent people, will now be dealt with more harshly. Clearly, these prisons are incapable of containing even the criminals that don't have any superhuman abilities, so I will now be using a more effective method." After saying the last part, Wraith held up Joker's headless corpse in one hand, while holding the head up with the other for all to see. Down below and around the world, civilians, heroes, and villains all stared in shock at the fact that one of the most infamous villains in the world was dead. Killed, to be exact, and by a hero at that.
"Wraith!" Hawkwoman yelled as she flew up into the sky with her mace cocked back.
"Did you even try to stop him?" Black Canary asked Wonder Woman with an expression that was a mix of sad and angry.
"No." Wonder Woman replied with a shake of her head. She wasn't going to lie about it. She made her decision, and she stood by it.
Up in the sky, Hawkwoman swung her mace at Wraith, and her eyes widened when she was stopped by an invisible force.
"I do not wish to hurt you, Shayera. Please, stand down." Wraith said as he turned his head to look at Hawkwoman.
"Then, why would you do something like this?!" Hawkwoman yelled angrily.
"Aren't you tired of this endless cycle, Shayera? Capturing villains over and over, only for them to escape each time?" Wraith asked the winged heroine.
"Of course I am, but that doesn't give us the right to kill them!" Hawkwoman exclaimed with a glare as she tried to fight against the invisble hold, inwardly shocked at the fact that Wraith had powers.
"And here I'd thought you'd be one of the few to understand." Wraith said as he shook his head. "Go to sleep." Once he said that, Hawkwoman drifted into unconsciousness, and Wraith gently lowered her to the ground with his telekinesis. Just because she didn't agree with his mindset, it didn't mean he hated her or anything like that. The same went for the rest of the League.
On the ground with Wonder Woman, she just finished subduing Black Canary, taking care not to give her any serious injuries. It was good that she still had the ear buds that Wraith had given her earlier.
"Sorry, Dinah, but it's time for change." Wonder Woman whispered to her unconscious friend. Looking up at Wraith, she watched as he telekinetically lowered Joker's body and severed head to the ground, before turning to her and holding out his hand.
Flying up into the air, Wonder Woman grabbed hold of Wraith's hand with a smile, and the two of the nodded at each other before flying away, just as the Batmobile arrived on the scene.
This would be a day forever remembered in history.
...
Sooo... What'd you guys think?
I'll be frank. Even as I was writing this chapter, I felt it was decent at best. I especially didn't really like how I handled the scene with Carnage.
I was having trouble deciding how to have Wraith and Wonder Woman leave the JL. Some of you may be upset that I killed Joker off so early, but that's what I chose to go with.
Let me know what you guys want me to do with Harley Quinn. Vote to either have her eventually join Wraith and Wonder Woman (like how she joined Batman in Injustice 2) or kill her too. Please don't say keep her alive just because she's a (very pretty) woman. Be objective.
Moving on, we got a look at one of Wraith's powers, telekinesis. It is not his only one. Not by a long shot.
Anyway guys, if you have any advice for me regarding this story, feel free to PM me.
Til next time, guys. Sorry if the chapter was lackluster.