HARBINGER RETURNS
He kept an eye on Codex over the next few weeks. He wasn't sure why; after all, they were really annoying. I must be a closet masochist. Every once in a while, they would try to come up with a "cool" moniker for him, which he would immediately shoot down; Blackhawk, Midnight Crusader, Nighthawk, Dark Angel. He always responded with the same bored, "No."
Then came the inevitable suggestion, "I know! You should be Blackwing!"
"NO FUCKING WAY!" he snapped instantly.
Their eyes widened in surprise. "Well that was an unexpectedly volatile response. I thought it was pretty nice; simple, elegant, non-pretentious."
"Drop it, Four Eyes," Levi growled with unhidden anger.
"So. I wonder what makes Blackwing so much worse than Midnight Crusader," they pressed.
"None of your goddamn business. Now fucking drop it!"
"Alright. Alright!" they said, gloved hands raised in surrender. They suddenly looked at their hands and then at Levi's. "Say, why don't you wear gloves? Aren't you afraid you'll be identified by your prints?"
It was like a switch had been flipped and Levi was back to sounding absolutely bored with conversation. "Don't have any."
Codex's eyes widened. "You had them removed?"
"Not by choice."
"How do you get a decent grip on things without finger ridges?"
Levi held out his right hand, palm up, and flexed the fingers, extending the retractable claws.
"Oh, wow!" They exclaimed as they grabbed his wrist and brought the clawed fingers to their face for a close inspection. He rolled his eyes and then watched unemotionally as they touched, prodded and examined his black, razor-sharp and very hard claws. They then looked at the fingertips. "How did you lose your prints?"
"Lifting a scalding high-pressure steam pipe off someone. The pipes had exploded in Saltmarsh Power Plant and some of them collapsed on the workers. Melted my gloves into my skin. Hurt like hell."
Their face contorted into a sympathetic grimace. "Yeah, I'd think it would."
After a few minutes of quiet, Levi turned quick to look towards the river. Without a word, he took off towards one of the popular foot bridges. Codex fired off a couple of grappling hooks from their gear to follow. "Hey! Wait up!"
As he approached the bridge, his sensitive ears confirmed that he had indeed heard cries of distress. "NO! PLEASE! YOU CAN KILL ME IF YOU WANT TO, BUT PLEASE, LEAVE MY WIFE AND KIDS ALONE! THEY'RE INNOCENT! THEY HAVE NOTH – UMPH!"
The poor man was silenced with a harsh punch to his gut. "STEWART!" a woman, presumably his wife screamed. A second later, the man that had punched Stewart was sent flying off the bridge into the river below.
"SHIT! What the hell was that?" One of the nine remaining men yelped just as the lights along the bridge all went out as Codex landed at one end of the bridge and cut the power with a single touch to the first lamp post.
A second man went flying in the opposite direction and into the frigid water as Levi came flying back through. In the dark of night, Levi was nothing but a blast of wind passing back and forth over the bridge.
"Hey! Don't take all the fun!" Codex called. "Leave a few for me!" The area around their face lit up, revealing a downright scary smile. "Tell me boys, who wants to be the first person ever to try out my new ultrasonic gun?" They were carrying what looked like a hand gun with a satellite dish on the end – straight out of a B rated Sci-fi movie. "You'll have to tell me what it feels like! This is gonna be so fun!" They weren't even bothering to hide their excitement.
They shot at the closest crook to them, and the man jerked, eyes rolled back in his head, and then he crumpled to a heap on the ground. Before the others could charge, Levi sent yet another flying into the river. Only four men remained. "SHIT! Forget the Supers! Let's get out of here! Harbinger's gonna kill us!"
Codex was blocking one way off the bridge, so the men turned to run the other way, only to find their way blocked by Levi. He walked towards them slowly, but deliberately. "You fuckwads work for Harbinger? Where is he?"
One of the men snorted. "As if we'd tell you! He'd kill us!"
"No doubt," Levi replied evenly. "But you have a choice. Either a slow death tortured by Harbinger, or a quick, painless death at my hands. Now, where is he?"
"Easy, Short-stack," Codex said. "Let's not go overboard, here."
"Why not? They don't have a problem with killing innocent women and children. They work for Harbinger, so that's to be expected. Filth like that cannot be allowed to live."
The four men pulled their guns and began shooting. Codex activated an energy barrier with a button on their belt. Levi used his wings to block the bullets as he continued walking forward. Once he was close enough, he swung both wings out with tremendous force, flinging two of the men against the sides of the bridge. One of them hit a lamp post, his spine snapping audibly, the other hit the rail, with his head slamming into a post.
Codex dropped one from behind with their sonic weapon, and Levi grabbed the last one by the throat, pinning him to the rail and breaking the wrist holding the gun. "No. Please. Don't kill me," the man pleaded.
"Tell me," Levi said calmly, his silver eyes cold and deadly as he looked down on the pleading man. "What were you going to do when those innocent children begged you to not kill them? Hm? Can you honestly tell me that you would have spared them? You're going to suffer the same fate you've inflicted on who knows how many people. But first, you're going to tell me where Harbinger is hiding."
"No. No. He'll kill me!"
"Tch! I'm going to kill you. Question now is whether it's a painless death or not."
"No! Please!"
"Where is he?"
"I DON'T KNOW!"
The man screamed when one of Levi's claws ripped his right nostril all the way up to the bone. "Wrong answer. Try again."
"I really don't know," the man sobbed. "He sends us our orders by phone. We work out of the old Paradise Estates condos."
Levi's faintly glowing silver eyes narrowed. "That'll have to do. It's a start, anyway." The man let out a strangled gasp as Levi's hand tightened around his throat and the claws pierced the flesh.
"WAIT!" Codex yelled. "Please don't do this! The police can get more info out of him!"
"Bullshit!" Levi retorted. "He'll be out on the streets killing for that sick madman again within hours. This way, he'll never hurt anyone again." His merciless grip on the man's throat never weakened.
"Don't stoop to his level."
"Think about it a moment. Harbinger is the most feared asshole in the world. He's brutal and has no regard for human life. The people who work for him are the same. Furthermore, the police are terrified of him. They'll kick this piece of shit back out on the street for no other reason than because they don't want to risk the wrath of Harbinger. It happens every time one of his men is brought in. This bozo said so himself, Harbinger is going to kill him, whether it's for failure or to silence him, and it's not going to be a quick, merciful death. He's going to die very slowly, and while personally I believe he certainly deserves it, I don't intend to let that happen to him, because that is wrong and would be stooping to his level." Levi felt the body go completely limp in his grip as he spoke. He could no longer detect the heartbeat's vibrations through the body. "I know it's not ideal, but the only way to put an end to the suffering and deaths of innocent citizens, is to end the murderers. The punishment fits the crime."
"But . . ."
"It's too late for him." Levi finally released his grip on the man's throat, and the lifeless body fell to the ground. He turned to the family, laying on the ground with Stewart using his own body to shield them as much as possible. "It's over."
The man looked up, then stood and helped his family up. "Thank you so much. Thank you for saving my family."
"Why does Harbinger want you dead?"
"It's not me he wants dead," the man explained. "They were supposed to kill my wife or one of my kids. I work for Opecorp. I designed a sonic weapon that uses infrasonic blasts to either disable or kill a target. It could be scaled up to wipe out an entire encampment, or scaled down to individual use, like a hand gun. But I accidently found out that the weapon was supposed to be given to Harbinger . . . I . . . I destroyed the prototype, the test results, the designs, everything. Opecorp first threatened my job, but when I quit . . . I guess that's when Harbinger sent these men after me and my family." The man had begun to cry. "I'm so sorry, Kate. I wish I had never invented such a weapon. We'll have to disappear."
Levi felt sorry for the man. "Look for a man named Nile Dawk. He works with an agency that specializes in making people disappear. You and your family will have a whole new life and it will be as if your old life never happened. You can find him on the 14th floor of the MP Tower. Tell him the short little asshole sent you. He'll know who you mean. Codex, I trust you'll be able to see these people get there safely."
Codex had a sad look on their face as they regarded Levi. "Of course." They then put a cheerful look on their face. "Okay! Follow me. We're off to MP Tower!" they said as the strode across the bridge. "My name is Codex, and I'll be tour your guide today. And we're walking!"
As soon as they were out of sight and earshot, Levi leaned over the railing and vomited.
The Commander found Levi brooding atop Mitras Center, the city's tallest skyscraper. "I hear you killed seven men the other night."
"What of it?" Levi challenged.
"That was murder."
"No shit, Sherlock. But considering how many lives each of those men have taken, I can't bring myself to feel bad about it."
"But alive, they could have led us to Harbinger."
Levi huffed out a bitter laugh. "Don't kid yourself, Eyebrows. They would never have talked. They were more afraid of Harbinger than they were of any of us. The police are so afraid of him that they'd've turned those mean loose immediately; no questions asked."
"I take it you've had experience with Harbinger."
Levi didn't answer.
The Commander sighed. "We could really use your skills and resourcefulness in the Scouts. The only stipulation would be no killing. We question suspects ourselves before turning them over to police."
"I'm not joining your little band of boy scouts."
"Is killing that important to you?"
"That's not the point. I work alone." Levi turned to fly away, but then hesitated. "Do you really think I enjoy taking people's lives, regardless of the horrors they've committed?"
"Don't you?"
"No."
"Then why do it?"
"It's a necessary evil. I do it so no one else has to." Done with the conversation, Levi flew off across the city.
"You stain your hands with blood to spare others the pain of such a burden." The Commander said quietly as he shook his head. "There has to be another way."
Levi found out from Codex that The Commander had gotten all of the Super Heroes in Mitras to join forces to take Harbinger down. He was perched on the edge of a rooftop overlooking Somerset Park, Mitras' largest park. These guys should know that Harbinger is planning on them teaming up against him. He's not just super strong. His intelligence is far beyond average – he's smarter than most geniuses. He knows all of the Supers are here and he's planning on taking them all down at once. I just hope he never got a hold of one of those sonic weapons Stewart had been working on. I know Stewart said he destroyed it and the research, but one of the other employees may have salvaged something. Kenny said there are rumors everywhere in Mitras about Harbinger's supposed new super weapon.
Levi knew that the other heroes were scattered about the park, awaiting Harbinger's arrival. Supposedly, Harbinger was setting up some kind of bomb in the park to go off during the upcoming River Festival. I know that this is definitely something Harbinger would do, but usually there's something for him to gain from his destruction. I can't find anything that he can gain from this, unless he ransoms the people at risk to city hall. Even so, it's usually impossible to tell what he's up to until it's to late. I can't shake the feeling that this is a trap. His real target is all of the heroes.
He scanned the park below. He could already make out several of the heroes, but he also detected a number of Harbinger's men. He spotted several coming up from the sewers and drains. Then he spotted over a dozen vehicles entering the park from multiple entrances. Definitely a trap. He's being way too obvious about drawing attention to his entrance. Can't tell which car is his, though.
Once all of the vehicles arrived about a hundred yards from the center of the park, they stopped, and at least six people got out of each vehicle. He's not among them. Where is he?
There was a loud explosion in the very center of the park, like fireworks going off, followed by a lot of purple, blue, gold and green smoke and sparks. "Ladies and Gentlemen!" sang Harbinger's obnoxious voice. The smoke cleared and Harbinger stood in a lime green zoot-suit with a wide brim fedora on his head. Under the open suit jacket he wore a dark purple button-up shirt and there was a dark purple band around the crown of his hat. Shiny brown leather shoes adorned his feet and a pair of black jewel earrings adorned his ears. "Here I am! Come and get me!"
Levi growled involuntarily. I knew it was a trap!
Bolt was the first hero to attack. Electricity crackled around her as she moved in swiftly. One of Bolt's unique abilities was the ability to stop a bullet using the electric current she generated. But the bullet from the gun of one of Harbinger's men easily pierced her back and struck her heart. A look of shock was on her dying face as she fell. "HA! Rubber bullet! Extra hard and fired from an extremely high-powered rifle! I've been dying to try that out! This is gonna be so much fun!"
Bolt! No! Levi still refrained from attacking. He observed, looking for patterns and weaknesses. It was all out war as the more than 200 men Harbinger had with him opened fire on the heroes. The weapons were quite varied and obviously not standard issue. These weapons were designed specifically to kill Supers.
Levi then saw Rapier and Razor moving in from opposite sides. /Eld! Gunther! No! He's expecting that!/ Levi warned them telepathically. Both men veered off, but it was too late. Harbinger picked up two very odd-looking objects beside him, pointed one at each high-speed hero, and both dropped instantly. "NOOOOOO!" Levi cried out as he watched them fall. He had barely been able to see the distortion created by the concentrated, low frequency sound wave that traveled outward in a narrow band, barely expanding as it moved out from its point of origin. That was a focused sound wave! Shit! He did get a hold of an infrasonic weapon!
Harbinger laughed maniacally as he began shooting down Supers like flies, even killing some of his own men in the process. Levi dove in to attack. At just over a mile away, it still took him nearly 30 seconds to reach his target, and in the meantime, 42 people were either injured or killed by Harbinger's weapons. As he was closing in, Harbinger, somehow sensing his approach, turned and fired at him.
Levi shifted just enough to avoid a fatal hit, but the infrasonic sound wave, extremely loud and extremely focused, hit his right shoulder. He let out a short, sharp cry as the wind was knocked from him, but continued forward. Running on adrenaline and oblivious to the extent of his injury, he gripped the dagger in his right hand, came in below the line of fire, and slashed through Harbinger's right forearm. He followed up swiftly with a deep slash to the left forearm, causing Harbinger to drop both weapons. A powerful roundhouse kick sent the madman flying back away from the dropped implements of destruction. Levi drew his own gun and fired a bullet into each weapon to permanently disable them.
As he raised the gun to fire at Harbinger, he was horrified to discover the villain had already regained his footing. Levi barely got his arms up in time to protect his head from the devastating backhand. He still was sent tumbling several yards across the rough ground, dropping his gun in the process. Harbinger began striding towards him as he began to get back to his feet. Levi greeted his oncoming foe with a sneer. "You still hit every bit as hard as I remember. But tonight, that's not going to matter. Tonight, you die."
"Cocky little son-of-a-bitch, aren't you?" Harbinger giggled. "Do you have any idea how many heroes have told me that over the years? Every single one of them turned out to be a zero!"
"I've been training five years for this. You'll never harm another soul again after tonight."
"Do I know you?"
Levi's devious smirk intensified. In answer, he removed his mask.
Harbinger's red eyes widened and a smile spread across his face. "Well, well, well! If it isn't Jerome's little boy! Back from the dead a second time! Oh goodie! Now I get the fun of killing you all over again! I haven't forgiven you for killing my precious Jerome. Like my earrings? They're made from those tear gems you cried five years ago!"
Levi rolled his eyes and swung a left hook at the lunatic's face. "You talk too much."
Harbinger caught the fist before it could make contact. "But that's one of my best charms," he countered. Levi immediately went to kick his opponent in the ribs, but Harbinger caught the leg in his arm. With both his left hand and right leg immobilized, Levi extended the claws on his right hand and drove them into the flesh of Harbinger's abdomen and was rewarded with a pained cry of surprise.
"They grew back," Levi sneered. He soon grunted as the wind was again knocked from his lungs when Harbinger threw him across the open ground and into a large tree trunk nearly thirty feet away.
"That hurt, little boy! Maybe this time I'll just remove your entire hand!"
The battle with Harbinger's men, in the meantime, intensified when Kenny's men joined the fray. As soon as the villain's sonic weapons were disabled, Kenny gave the order to attack. The battle had now turned in the Supers' favor. Harbinger snarled in rage when he noticed. Levi's confident smirk returned as he picked himself up off the ground. "Bet you didn't see that coming."
Harbinger spun to face the small Super, but both were surprised when The Commander drifted down between them. "Give up now, Harbinger, and make this easy on yourself."
The madman was immediately back to his smiling self. "HA! One; where would the fun in that be? And two; there isn't a jail or prison in existence that can hold me!"
"Commander! Get away from him! You can't take him. You don't know what you're up against," Levi warned.
"Better listen to the little boy over there. He's speaking from experience. Though apparently, he didn't learn his lesson very well, seeing as he thinks he's gonna kill me tonight."
"There's been too much killing already. More killing will solve nothing. Come quietly, Harbinger. We have questions for you," The Commander stated.
It started off as a restrained giggle, but quickly escalated into a full-blown laugh of insanity. "You crack me up . . . Commander, is it? Oh, my gawd! That self-righteous speech was just too much!" Tears began running from his red eyes, he was laughing so hard. Without any warning, Harbinger lunged at The Commander.
The Commander evaded the punch easily enough, still hovering just above the ground and going straight up so that Harbinger passed below him. The villain was quick, however, and pulling out a heavy cord from within his jacket, spun around and looped it around the blond Super's ankle. With a powerful yank, The Commander was slammed into the same tree Levi had been thrown against. The massive trunk cracked under the force of the impact, and splinters flew in all directions.
While Harbinger had been engaged with The Commander, Levi had taken flight and was now diving in at all of 200 mph. "HARBINGER!"
The Super Villain turned and looked up with his trademark smile and prepared to strike the attacker down, but he never got the chance. Just outside of striking distance, Levi snapped his wings open and forward with tremendous force. The result was nothing short of spectacular. The thunderous roar was deafening, and the shockwave was clearly visible. It created a large, round crater in the ground, but as it reached a central point, the shockwave rushed back outwards.
This was the one drawback to the attack. If one was too close to the target when the attack was unleashed, the attacker could get caught in his own shockwave. Determined to ensure that Harbinger died, Levi had set off the shockwave at point-blank range. Though he pulled back quickly, he was not fast enough to fully escape the backlash of his own attack. It caught his feet and lower legs and sent him tumbling across the torn-up ground for dozens of yards.
Levi groaned as he slowly picked himself up from the dirt. His ears were ringing and his head was swimming. He could no longer hear the sounds of battle going on elsewhere in the park. He looked towards the crater left over from his final attack. In a daze, he limped over to the edge, looking down at the mangled corpse within. White hair, lime green and purple cloth, were all stained dark with blood. The twisted grin gone since the lower jaw was off to the side, barely hanging on by the skin. Red eyes were wide with shock, but unseeing. The skull was caved in on the left side and the limbs were bent in places no leg or arm should bend.
Levi stumbled back. It was over.
Though oblivious to the continuing battle all around him, he heard The Commander's voice clear as day. "Damn it," he said under his breath, and then louder, "Was it really necessary to kill him? We needed to question him. He had information about Titan."
Levi turned to face the tall blond, not bothering to conceal the rage in his silver eyes. "Do you really have to ask that? Hundreds of thousands dead by that sick fuck's hands over the years and you ask if it was necessary to kill him? Hundreds of Supers dead by his hands, many of whom were more experienced and even as strong as you, and you seriously think you could have held him long enough to ask questions? You seriously think he would've even deigned to answer such questions? You're an even bigger fool than I thought you were." That said, he spread his wings and flew away.
The Commander looked down into the depression and noticed a bit of paper sticking out from the former villain's jacket. Three jet black beads fell from the inside pocket as he pulled the paper out. He picked up the beads and then looked at the paper. It was the photo that Harbinger had taken of Levi five years earlier when he nearly killed the boy. Though he didn't know the story behind it, The Commander knew that the image was of the small Super that had just flown away.
Levi didn't fly very far. His adrenaline rush faded fast and the pain in his shoulder, feet, shins and ankles caught up to him. No longer able to fly, he landed hard on the small knoll at the end of the park by the river. He fell to his knees, out of breath and gasping in pain. The Commander landed behind him just in time to see him vomit . . . or rather, try to. "Fuck," Levi croaked between heaves. "I didn't even eat anything . . . this . . . this shouldn't be . . . happening."
"Does this happen every time you take a life?" The Commander asked gently as he knelt down and began rubbing the smaller man's back. Levi nodded in response, still heaving. "I understand that you had a run in with Harbinger a few years ago. I also gather that encounter didn't end well for you. You took off your mask. You wanted him to know who you are. You wanted him to know who was killing him."
"So what," Levi snarled, finally finished heaving.
"It still didn't give you the right to kill him. He had vital information about Titan that we-"
"That soulless piece of dried up shit has murdered thousands of people!" Levi snapped angrily as he leapt to his feet and spun to face the tall blond. "Add in all of the family and friends left behind in pain, mourning the loss of the ones they loved. Add in again all the people in the future that will miss out on a friend, lover, savior and those that will never exist because of those deaths! That sick fuck has negatively altered literally millions of lives! That monster will NEVER harm another living soul again!"
"That's what prisons are for," The Commander countered.
"PRISON?!" Levi let out a bitter laugh. "You put far too much faith in the so called 'justice' system. Harbinger was imprisoned twice; once was in a high security mental institute and guess what . . . he escaped . . . twice! He escaped and was free to keep right on killing. Most of the time, the police won't even hold him or his men!"
"That's still no excuse to murder him."
"HOW MANY MORE PEOPLE HAVE TO DIE, COMMANDER?!" Levi shouted. "How many more innocent lives are worth losing to spare his one worthless life? Can you tell me that?"
The blond stood there with his mouth open, but nothing came out.
Levi's glare deepened. "I thought not. The system doesn't work, Commander. Criminals and Super Villains are arrested, but either get released because the police are scared of them, they get off on some asinine technicality, bribe their way out or they escape prisons that are ill equipped to hold them, freeing them to continue to kill and ruin every life they touch. The rights of the criminals outweigh the rights of the innocent. The victims' right to feel safe from their tormentors means nothing. Thousands of people will sleep better knowing that Harbinger's reign of terror is truly over. They don't care what information he took to his grave. It wasn't worth the risk of losing thousands of more precious lives when he escaped again. And he would have escaped."
"I know how you feel about killing people, Commander, but I have to agree with this guy," said Bloodhound as he walked up.
The Commander sighed. "I'm not saying that I disagree with him. His reasoning is sound. It's just . . . the information we believe Harbinger had could affect millions of lives."
"Tch. That shit stain has already affected millions of lives too many. It's over." Levi turned to limp away.
"He's bleeding internally," Bloodhound stated. "And he's running a fever."
Levi paused. "How the fuck can you possibly know that?"
"The nose knows," the lanky giant stated.
"Bloodhound, perhaps you could drive us to St. Sina?" The Commander suggested.
"Fuck off, Eyebrows. Beringer's already gonna be overrun with torn-up Supers. I'll heal fine on my own." Levi turned and again started limping in the general direction of his daytime hideaway. That was the last thing he remembered.
Levi woke up 24 hours later in a hospital bed.
