Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other series I might use for inspiration.

Blood and Rage

"Lobo…" Naruto trailed off.

"What the frag! I thought the main man had ya shackled and caged! How the frag did ye get out!" Lobo jumped in surprise.

"Really? You're only thinking to ask that now? You didn't think to ask that question when we aided you against the Green Lantern Honor Guard?" Diana asked incredulously, having come up behind Lobo along with Naruto.

"I thought the crash of my ship might have caused my power suppressors and force field generators to malfunction or something. It seemed like the only logical explanation." Lobo replied in surprise as he struggled to comprehend how in the cosmos these two could have escaped his state of the art holding equipment and facilities.

"Well, that wasn't the case, as you can see. We are simply immune to your….inferior tech." Diana said with a taunting smirk, having been meaning to get one over the foul mouthed bounty hunter for a while now, internally wondering if Nathaniel's mischievous ways were starting to rub off on her already.

"……"

"Celestial Magic and Divine Cosmic Energy. You might want to upgrade your equipment accordingly." Diana deadpanned when she saw the confused look on Lobo's facial features, his eyes widening once again, not in shock or confusion this time, but in realization.

"Yawl were playin the main man the whole time huh? Pieces of trash the both of ye!" Lobo said irritably.

"More importantly, we need to take a bit of a detour. We sensed some disturbing energy signatures on that planet we just passed by. Nathaniel says that it was green lantern energy because it was similar to the one Sinestro and his comrades had, but the other signatures were….well, disturbing….and sinister….to say the least…" Diana trailed off warily.

"The main man should care about this because…?" Lobo asked with genuine confusion, much to Diana's chagrin.

"Thaal Sinestro made it clear that no one was allowed beyond the barrier separating Guardian Space and the Forgotten Zone, and seemed to imply that nobody goes in or out of the Forgotten Zone. And yet, there appears to be a Green Lantern on this side of the barrier. Are you not at least interested in finding out why and how there is a Green Lantern on this side of the Universe? At the very least wouldn't you want to find out about the so called horrors of this side of the Universe considering that this Green Lantern seems to be going up against these so called horrors as we speak?" Naruto asked, hoping to entice Lobo into taking action.

"Nope, not interested at all. The main man is only interested in work that pays. And that work has nothing to do with so called horrors and green fairies." Lobo said stubbornly.

"I see….guess that's why you're only the fourth best bounty hunter in the Universe." Naruto said with a taunting smirk.

"The frag you say to me, you bastich? And what the frag does investigating some stupid horror show have to do with being a bounty hunter?" Lobo asked incredulously.

"Even I know that information gathering is the most important attribute of being a bounty hunter. Knowing everything about everything and everywhere is obviously essential to being a bounty hunting mercenary. Take for instance, apart from Mr Miracle and Big Barda, you have no client base on this side of the Universe, which means that nobody from this side of the universe knows about you. It might boost your ranking if your name and reputation spreads across the Forgotten Zone as well." Diana replied in detail, Lobo giving her a long, scrutinizing stare before finally relenting.

"Frag you both in your buttholes!" Lobo said in resignation, finally relenting as he turned his ship around and headed for the aforementioned planet.

Ten Minutes Later:

"Green Lantern Shyir Rev, you disgraceful piece of filth! Do you have any last words before you die?" Zelius Zox asked with a menacing tone.

He is, well, literally a round ball of flesh with arms and legs sticking out from his gigantic head, which is also the entirety of his face and body. He is wearing an obviously custom made red lantern uniform, which is red and black in colour, and wears his ring on his right hand.

Shyir Rev, the person he was speaking to, is a green lantern who too is wearing his green lantern ring and uniform. He is some kind of brown skinned humanoid creature with two antennae at the top of his head and an elongated mouth with two nostrils at the top of his nose. He is also badly injured with second degree and even some third degree burns on his body, including a broken left arm, and is lying on his back and unable to move due to his injuries.

"Who will get the honor of finishing him off, Zelius? Please say that it is I who will get the honor once again?" Veon asked excitedly.

Veon is also a somewhat humanoid creature, but is purple in skin colour, has a very long and big head and is also a cyclops seeing as he only had one large eye at the center of his head. He is also shaped more like an ape as he seemed to have a crouched posture. He is barefooted and moves similarly with the agility of an ape.

"No Veon, Lord Atrocitus wants to give Razer a chance to prove his loyalty to the cause. Therefore, Razer will do us this honor of killing Green Lantern Shyir Rev." Zelius said with what appeared to be a permanently sinister tone.

"I am obviously down for the cause, but I do not see the point in killing this Green Lantern when all that will happen is that his ring will simply find another host." Razer said condescendingly.

He is the most human-like of the three red lanterns, having the normal human shape and of course, head size, except that he was clearly alien due to the pure white skin color, not pale, but completely white, and the multiple indentations on his skin, even on his face, making him look like he had runes on his body and face. His eyes were also red, his schlera black, and he had dark black hair, a total contrast to his white skin. He was also wearing the standard red lantern uniform, except his was modified to cover even his head, leaving only his face visible for the world to see.

"And we will hunt down the new green lantern all over again and revel in destroying him too!" Zelius said angrily.

"This is pointless, it solves nothing!" Razer said with equal anger and vigor.

"Oh….I see now. You don't have the balls for this do you? Fine, I'll just have to tell Lord Atrocitus that Razer is not fully committed to the cause. I wonder how he will kill you? Quick and fast? Slowly and painfully? Personally I hope it's the latter." Zelius said maliciously.

"I do very much have the testicles for this task thank you." Razer said as he powered up his ring, extending his arm and pointing his ring at Green Lantern Shyir Rev.

"Don't worry kid, I won't hold a grudge against you. I understand that you are in a very difficult position. Do what you have to d…aaargh!" Shyir cried as Zelius blasted him on the chest with red spectrum energy.

"Shush! You imbecile! We do not need your pity or your forgiveness for that matter. Razer, kill him now, mercilessly!" Zelius ordered with hate and malice in both his soul and heart.

"As you wish!" Razer said with resolve, firing a large blast of the red spectrum energy at the green lantern of Colony 12, causing a large explosion to occur as dust and debris went flying everywhere, both Zelius and Veon's eyes widening in surprise as they did not think Razer actually had the stones to go through with it, sinister but proud smiles following soon after from the two aforementioned red lanterns as they were happy that their latest recruit and understudy had finally proved himself a worthy red lantern.

"Well done Razer. You finally proved that everyone was wrong to doubt you. You are finally a true member of the Red Lantern Corps." Zelius said with pride.

"Everyone doubted me? Even Bleez?" Razer asked with a hurt tone.

"Oh Razer, you poor naïve fool. Bleez was the most distrusting of you. She only pretended to have romantic feelings for you in order gain your trust and confidence…so that she can properly assess you." Zelius said with a sinister smirk, Razer's eyes saddening as disappointment settled deep into his soul.

"Cheer up, rookie. Now that you have proven your mettle, perhaps Bleez's feelings for you will change….maybe….big maybe…I mean not that big but still big maybe…" Veon struggled to articulate before Zelius got fed up and consequently, cut his comrade off before he could finish speaking.

"Oh shut the hell up Veon! It doesn't matter what that annoying whore thinks. Razer has much more important things to worry about, like the celebration of his first Green Lantern kill." Zelius said, mercilessly crushing whatever crazy ideas his cycloptic comrade had in mind.

"I'm afraid those celebrations will have to wait a while. Sorry Razer, but you're going to have to find some other Green Lantern to pop your cherry, this one is under our protection." The three Red Lanterns heard a deep and sinister voice from high up above, all three of them snapping their heads in the direction of that voice as they turned to see three individuals floating in the air, one wearing a black and red combat outfit with a demonic looking mask, carrying a technologically advanced large sword on his back, the other a woman with golden combat armor, carrying a shield, lasso, and sword as weapons, the other being a blue skinned man with red eyes, riding on what appeared to be an advanced space interstellar motor cycle.

That wasn't the most surprising thing however, as the most surprising thing was the fact that Shyir Rev was floating right next to the large male individual with the demonic mask, his injuries healing rapidly as what appeared to be golden chains originating from the demon masked individual were wrapped around Shyir Rev and were the sauce of the life force that was regenerating Shyir's injuries.

"Shyir Rev? W-what? How!" Zelius sputtered, rage and madness dancing on the surface of his eyes.

"You…! Who are you? What…are you?" Razer asked as his eyes narrowed dangerously at the masked individual.

"Nathaniel Wilson, otherwise known as Kitsune the Sage God, or Kitsune the Toad Sage, the best Bounty Hunter in the Universe. These are my friends, Goddess of Thunder Diana of Themicyra, also known as Wonder Woman, and Lobo The Bounty Hunter, also known as the Main Man and currently the fourth best Bounty Hunter in the Universe." Naruto introduced himself and his so called friends.

"The frag I am! The main man is no one's friend, and he sure as hell aint no fourth best! I'm number one, Lobo The Best and more importantly, number one bounty hunter in the Universe!" Lobo exclaimed angrily.

"As you can see he is pretty delusional, but his delusions have no bearing on his skills and power. He, along with Diana and I, will absolutely annihilate you three if you do not leave this planet….now." Naruto said as he deactivated his chakra chains, having already finished healing all of Shyir's injuries.

"Thank you for saving my life, and healing my injuries. But, who are you? And why did you save me?" Shyir asked with both gratitude and suspicion.

"I believe Nathaniel already told you who we are, but as for saving you, we were just passing by and sensed that you were a green lantern in danger. We aren't that big a fans of green lanterns after a recent encounter with the honor guard, but there being a green lantern in the forgotten zone made us curious so we came to investigate and saw you about to get killed and we saved you." Diana tried to make the explanation as short but as detailed as possible.

"I see. Thank you for coming then, and for saving my life. As for the green lanterns of the forgotten zone, there are but a few of us. No more than five or six actually. It just so happened that there were some green lanterns on this side of the universe when the guardians put up the barrier. They didn't have time to evacuate everyone I guess." Shyir explained.

"And these Red Lanterns, what are they exactly? I can't recall ever sensing so much hate and rage before in my life. Is it safe to say they are powered by rage?" Naruto asked curiously.

"That is precisely what powers them. It is will for us, rage for them, and love for the Star Saphires." Shyir explained.

"The what?" Lobo asked incredulously.

"They are lantern warriors powered by love, and they are all female. They mostly keep to themselves, they hate the world because they believe people have abandoned love in favor of other less pure emotions. They believe it is the reason the world is so rotten, and consequently the reason the manhunters lost it and began slaughtering everyone." Shyir Rev explained.

"Manhunters? What are those? Bounty Hunters?" Diana asked curiously.

"No, they aren't. Manhunters are the predecessors of Green Lanterns. Sentient Machines created by the Guardians in order to police the universe much like the Green Lanterns do now. Apparently there was a great tragedy where the manhunters concluded that all organic life was to be eliminated in order for there to be true peace and order. The guardians decommissioned the manhunters and rebuilt by creating the Green Lantern Corps." Naruto explained for Lobo and Diana's sake.

"Is that the official story that was released in Guardian Space?" Shyir asked, perplexed.

"That is the story I read in the files that my mother left for me, otherwise, the majority of the people living in Guardian Space have no idea that the Manhunters ever existed." Naruto retorted.

"No wonder no one has ever come to our aid. The guardians censored all information regarding the manhunters. The manhunters were not de-commissioned. Their program evolved far beyond simple de-commission. They have been terrorizing the forgotten zone since that tragedy all those hundreds of years ago. Mostly the scarcely populated planets like Colony 12 have survived till this day. The planets with the largest populations have been fighting off the manhunters for hundreds of years, but only a few remain now. Most of them have fallen and only the emergence of the Red Lantern Corps is the reason the forgotten zone has not been completely eradicated." Shyir Rev explained.

"Are you saying that those three evil red monsters are the heroes in all of this?" Diana asked incredulously.

"Three? There are currently six hundred and sixty five active red lanterns. Lord Atrocitus has been patiently gathering his forces from all the fallen colonies. Rage is becoming quite the popular emotion in the forgotten zone. Rage against the manhunters, and hate for the Guardians." Shyir explained.

"So Atrocitus hates the guardians, and the manhunters of course, because…"

"The manhunters destroyed his entire sector, sector 666, killing his wife and son in the process. He is the founder of the Red Lantern Corps and has vowed revenge on the Guardians." Shyir filled in the missing gaps.

"So the so called horrors of the Forgotten Zone are just a pack of Robots and a bunch of emo men and women? Hahaha! This has gotta be the worst joke I ever heard in meh life!" Lobo laughed boisterously, causing aforementioned emo men, the present Red Lanterns, to fume in anger, ironically proving Lobo's point exactly about them.

"Kill them! Kill them all!" Zelius ordered as he, Razer, and Veon charged at the three interlopers, four if one included Shyir too, their power growly significantly stronger due to the extra rage they felt at being humiliated by Lobo.

"Wonder Woman, quickly, take care of them!" Naruto ordered hastily.

"Me? It was Lobo who made them angry. Maybe he deserves a little lesson in manners." Diana argued.

"They were angry go begin with. Lobo will kill them, but if they are the last line of defense against the Manhunters, do you not think that letting them die is the same as aiding the manhunters?" Naruto retorted.

"Then I'll only intercede when it looks like one of them will die." Diana replied.

'Damn! She really doesn't like Lobo does she?' Naruto thought in dismay.

"Okay, fair enough. I just thought that this would have been the perfect chance to test your new powers and get some experience using them against real enemies." Naruto retorted, causing Diana's eyes to widen suddenly as realization dawned on her.

"You know you could have lead with that from the beginning." Diana pouted.

"Perhaps, but I thought you knew what I was thinking." Naruto retorted.

All the while they were having what Shyir thought to be a couple's squabbling, the three red lanterns were giving Lobo an extremely hard time, the three ambassadors of rage proving to have far more teamwork and co-ordination than Lobo could have thought possible given that they appeared to have a large degree of emotional instability.

His energy blasters were rendered practically useless as the Red Lanterns seemed more than agile and fast enough to dodge every single one of his shots, and he considered himself to be a very good shot. They seemed not to be as creative or advanced with their constructs as the green lanterns were but they more than made up for that with their superior physical abilities such as strength, speed, agility, spatial awareness, and reaction time and reflexes. Their battle instincts and ferocity in battle also seemed to give them a significant edge too.

As if that wasn't bad enough, one of them, namely, Razer, seemed to be some kind of scientific genius as he had summoned a number of technologically advanced, red spectrum powered drones, to aid them in battle. In short, Lobo was outnumbered and overpowered, in fact, he would have already died three times were it not for his insane regenerative abilities.

"Lobo is losing, badly. One on one he could have won, he is The Main Man after all, but three on one, and these three in particular? He doesn't seem to stand a chance unless he pulls out a rabbit from a hat. I think this is when you should intercede. Time to test your power, Diana." Naruto suggested.

"Fine, whatever you say." Diana said with a heavy sigh, clearly not a very big fan of Lobo but nevertheless doing as instructed by her mentor and love interest, her eyes turning into glowing, blueish-white energy as the skies blackened, dark clouds forming over the planet known as Colony 12 as Diana summoned her full power and control over lightning storms, Lobo and the Three Red Lanterns all stopping in their tracks as they looked into the skies in confusion.

"Angry warriors of the Forgotten Zone, cease this violence and let us resolve these issues peacefully, maturely, and amicably… or don't, and suffer the consequences of my wrath." Diana said in a dual-like voice, as if two different voices were coming from the same person, as if she wasn't even human, which of course, she wasn't, as she had fully ascended into her Goddesshood, and not only that but appeared to have fully inherited her father's lightning and thunder affinity.

"……"

"Zelius, what should we do?" Veon whispered, unable to hide the fear and concern in his tone of voice.

"Razer! You and your drones take care of Lobo, Veon and I will take care of the witch…!" Zelius snapped, his words however dying in his throat as Diana manifested more than fifty zigzag shaped lightning bolts , the lightning bolts so large and packed with so much voltage and energy that everyone could literally feel the heat and energy emanating from them, not to mention the sound effects from the extremely high vibration frequencies caused by the compressed electrical energy of the lightning bolts.

"Your five drones against my fifty lightning bolts, do you fancy your chances, angry children?" Diana asked in a tone that was both factual and condescending, Zelius for once unsure of himself as he looked at Razer as if to ask if his drones were up to the task.

However, Goddess Diana did not bother to wait for Razer's response, both consciously and instinctively realizing that only a demonstration of her power would yield the result that she wanted, the Thunder Goddess sending exactly five lightning bolts shooting down at lightning speed towards the five drones, and out of the five drones, only one of them, the alpha central drone, able to evade the super fast lightning bolt that came its way, but only briefly, as the lightning bolt instantly changed direction almost like a homing beacon and caught up to the drone, destroying it on impact as a large explosion occurred.

'She wiped out all the drones in an instant! The same drones that were givin the main man hell just a moment ago! Damn! I really do need new and better tech!' Lobo thought in shock and awe, unable to believe just how much stronger than he imagined this Wonder Woman had become.

And it seemed to be a recurring issue he now realized. Yes, earth was still a backwater planet as far as he was concerned, but the potential, willingness, and ability for growth was incredible. He remembered the first time he faced Superman and beat him handily, only to lose a close battle the second time they fought and then proceeded to get obliterated the third, fourth, and the three other times that he fought the man of steel, the guy seemingly getting stronger and stronger after every single time that they fought.

Seeing how much the Wonder Princess had levelled up just made him realize all the more just how much he needed to up his training regimen, and how much he needed to expand his genius intellect in order to develop new, and far more advanced technology. Otherwise he really would never catch up with these backwater punks, and the main man simply could not afford to have that.

"I will ask you one more time, yield now…or bare the consequences of my wrath." Diana said with a deadly tone.

"….."

"Come, Razer, Veon! Let us report this affront to Lord Atrocitus! He will know what to do about these filthy invaders!" Zelius ordered angrily, of course, said anger being only a scapegoat for his true feelings, feelings of pure, unadulterated fear of the unidentified creature that was threatening to strike them down.

"You would have us run with our tails between our legs? That doesn't sound like a very Red Lantern thing to do, Zelius." Razer retorted with a little bit of mirth in his tone, feeling that a little payback was warranted for all of the abuse that Zelius had put him through ever since he joined the Red Lantern Corps.

"Fool! You dare to question me? What do you know? Have you never heard of the term tactical retreat? Huh!" Zelius exclaimed right in front of Razer's face, his power ring flaring as he struggled to hold back the urge to kill Razer right then and there, the soccer ball shaped man clearly not appreciating Razer's jest whatsoever.

"Before you leave, be sure to let this Lord Atrocitus know that we will aid the Red Lantern Efforts against The Manhunters, but will not tolerate the senseless murder of innocent lives, so says Old God Diana of Themicyra, The Goddess of Thunder, widely known as Wonder Woman, and New God Kitsune of Apokolips and Earth, also known as Nathaniel Wilson the God Sage." Diana replied, Naruto figuratively scratching the back of his head as he tried to figure out when exactly he had agreed to such a thing.

'Women…' Naruto thought with a mental face palm, having already figured out that Diana was not going to be taking no for an answer, and even if she did, and she wouldn't, but even if she did, he probably wouldn't be able to bring himself to abandon her after she came all the way here just to support him.

"Blasphemy! How dare you claim to be a God! There is only one God and that is Lord Atrocitu…mmpph!" Veon mumbled in the end as Zelius came from behind and wrapped his hands around Veon's mouth in order to silence him, not appreciating at all the cycloptic Red Lanterns antagonistic behavior towards The Goddess of Thunder.

"Forgive my absolutely stupid and mentally challenged companion, Lady Diana! He is a mere imbecile, unknowing of any warrior etequite whatsoever! We will report your generous offer to Lord Atrocitus, and Lord Atrocitus, and only he, will decide what to do about it!" Zelius said with special emphasis, squeezing harder and harder on Veon as he got angrier and angrier at, well, the entire situation.

"Very well! We have our own business to attend, but as police officers of the Entire Forgotten Zone, I'm sure it will not be too hard for you to find us when you have an answer for us. I bid thee a safe journey back to your base of operations. Farewell, angry warriors." Diana said as pleasantly as she could, although it only just made her sound even more divine and other worldly to the three Red Lanterns.

"We shall see you soon…." Zelius said ominously, he, Razer, and Veon flying away first from the battle scene, and then from the entire planet itself as they headed towards their home base, a place known as Ysmault.

"Am I the only one that thought those last words sounded extremely ominous?" Naruto asked incredulously.

"He's an angry child, I assumed he always sounded like that." Diana replied.

'She's a little detached from mortal feelings when she is in her Goddess form. She still has yet to assimilate the omniscience of being an actual God. But she will come around with enough training and practice.' Naruto thought with a little concern, just a little, because for as far as he was concerned, it was only a matter of a relatively short time before Diana got the hang of it, such was her talent and will power.

"He doesn't always sound exactly like he did in that last part though…" Naruto replied as he thought that there was just a little too much creepiness and sinister intent in the last words of the ball shaped alien.

"Perhaps so, and perhaps not. It really matters not, whatever plans that they have, if they be sinister, you and I will thwart them. Of that I am certain." Goddess Diana replied plainly and simply.

"Fair enough. I think you can relax now though, they have left the sector already. They are in another part of the Forgotten Zone." Naruto replied clearly and concisely, Diana staring directly at Naruto with her glowing eyes, as if trying to decipher and breakdown his very soul itself, before finally, after what felt like forever, doing as instructed and deactivating her divine power, the 45 remaining lightning bolts fizzing out of existence as the skies also cleared up, her eyes returning to normal and the numerous lightning oscillations that were coursing throughout her body disappearing as if they were never there to begin with.

"You okay?" Naruto asked, also after what felt like forever.

"I'm fine. I just need to get used to it. Being a semi omnipotent being, it is…jarring, and mind altering. I don't know how you constantly have it on and don't lose yourself in it. But I do feel like I understand my father and the other Old Gods much better now, like, why they are the way that they are and why the do the things they do." Diana replied.

"Just remember one thing. Balance is everything. You are fortunate in that you got to first interact with the Amazons and then the humans before you ascended into a God. It gives you something to balance your divine experience with. It grounds you, and gives you a more flexible approach to things as opposed to the other Gods. I suppose I should say we are both fortunate in that way." Naruto said sagely.

"Without the intention to interrupt you or anything like that, but you do realize that our battle with the Red Lanterns isn't over right? When the Red Lanterns fail to win a planet's voluntary surrender and co-operation, they use physical force to conquer and rule it with an iron fist. When that also fails, they destroy the entire planet. When The Red Lanterns return, they will drop the Liberators on Colony 12." Shyir Rev said warily.

"Liberators? That's a bad thing?" Naruto asked confusedly. Wasn't liberation, for the most part, supposed to be a good thing?

"The Liberators are planet destroyers in the form of large red spectrum powered robots. The destruction a single one of them can cause is enough to wipe out entire civilizations. And if they should be defeated, they can turn into a bomb that can destroy an entire planet in an instant." Shyir said fearfully.

"Fear not, Green Lantern comrade. Nathaniel and I will help you to fend off the Red Lantern Armada, and we will deactivate or destroy the Liberators if need be." Diana said confidently.

"Ahem…uh…Shyir, how many people are in this planet exactly? I only ask because I could only sense fifty thousand life signatures on this entire rock, and only around 28 thousand appear to be sentient life forms." Naruto asked curiously, Shyir's eyes widening in surprise at just how advanced and accurate this being's ability to detect life signatures was.

"That is accurate, there are only 28254 sentient life forms on the planet." Shyir replied, shock and awe significantly audible in his tone of voice.

"Then I believe an evacuation would be a more appropriate strategy as opposed to fighting the Red Lantern Armada. I suspect you may not approve, Wonder Woman, but think about it. No lives will be lost if we simply evacuate the planet, all life on this planet will survive, well, with the exception of plant life that is." Naruto explained his reasoning.

"I understand your concerns, and I do appreciate your way of thinking, but I believe that standing against the Red Lanterns is the only way to deal with them. Otherwise, they will just carry on liberating planets until there is nothing left." Diana argued vehemently.

"I get you, but there is much we do not know. Shyir told us that the Red Lanterns are the last line of defense against the Manhunters, and that Atrocitus lost his family and in fact his entire sector. Yet, why go around destroying other sectors? Why would he do something like that?"

"Without the Red Lanterns, the Manhunters would have destroyed the entire Forgotten Zone by now, but with them, the Forgotten Zone is being destroyed anyway, just at a much slower pace. Why is everything happening the way it is? Knowledge is power Diana. We need to know what is happening before we stick our feet in it, otherwise we might just end up making things worse." Naruto explained.

"……"

"Okay, fine." Diana said after thinking it over for a while.

"Shyir? Do you have answers for any of Nathaniel's questions?" Diana asked curiously.

"Atrocitus has gone mad with rage and hatred for the Guardians. He considers his quest to be a noble and just one, which in a way it is, but the problem is that he deems anyone who refuses to aid him or will not do things his way to be a traitor to the cause and therefore an ally of the Guardians, or at least, a potential ally of the Guardians. So his solution to that is to liberate anyone who will not join his cause." Shyir explained in detail.

"That is arguably the most twisted ideology I have ever heard of. This Atrocitus really has gone mad." Diana replied, incensed.

"How does he recruit his Red Lanterns?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Here is the thing. Atrocitus has saved many planets from the wrath of the Manhunters, but he always seems to arrive midway through the destruction. My wife and I have a theory. We believe that Atrocitus allows the Manhunters to partially destroy planets in order to cultivate the emotions of rage, vengeance, and hate. People who have lost loved ones generally feel an insane amount of these emotions." Shyir explained.

"I see now. So he is letting the manhunters cultivate all the rage that he needs in the Forgotten Zone in order to expand and grow his army. I would be impressed if I wasn't so horrified." Naruto replied in awe.

"What I still don't understand is how in the heavens he could stomach using robots to destroy planets when his own galaxy was destroyed by robots. That is just too much of a contradiction." Diana said confusedly.

"They do not call him Atrocitus the Mad God of Rage for nothing, and besides, the Liberators are powered by Red Spectrum energy, energy that he fully controls. There is very little chance that they could be made to turn against him." Shyir retorted.

"You know what I don't understand? How you two ingrates got it into ye thick heads that you are no longer my captives and can go gallivanting around the universe saving meaningless lives!" Lobo said irritably, pointing his universal blaster at the two so called Gods, because he didn't believe in the existence Gods whatsoever. The only thing he believed in was the Main Man getting the job done and getting his money.

"I've just about had enough of you." Diana said dangerously.

"No Lady Diana, he is right." Naruto said, much to Diana's confusion. Wasn't he getting tired of being bossed around by Lobo? Wasn't he getting tired of him interfering in their business?

"We made a deal with him. It would be dishonorable to go back on our word. But do not worry, I'll bring in someone to help these people in our stead." Naruto said as he began chanting what appeared to be a spell, Diana staring at Naruto in shock as she had no idea that he had any affinity for magic whatsoever, an entirely black portal that looked more like a gaping black maw opening in the skies as a beautiful but also terrifying red haired woman came floating out of the portal, eyes glowing green as she revealed herself to the world in all her beauty and voluptuousness.

"The Queen of the Black Abyss is honored to be at the service of her Great God and savior. Tell me, my master, who would you have me kill for you? I will bath in their blood and their screams will reverberate all across the underworld." The beautiful red head said elatedly, clearly happy and excited about being summoned by her master.

"Great Queen of the Black Abyss, Enchantress, I would like you to meet my friends. The blue guy is Lobo the Main Man, this man next to me is Green Lantern Shyir Rev of sector 517, and this lovely lady is Diana the Goddess of Thunder." Naruto said, casually introducing the Enchantress as if she was just an ordinary friend from high school.

"It is…not unpleasant to meet you all. You must all be somewhat special for the master to show you any form of consideration, certainly if he deems you worthy of standing in our presence." Enchantress said with her version of being polite.

"Nathaniel, who is this woman?" Diana asked with some noticeable discomfort in her tone.

"A valued and honored comrade in training. She lacks nothing in the way of skill and power, her only weakness is her lack of understanding of the intricacies and complexities of mortal life. In that respect, I have taken to mentoring and grooming her in order for her to fit and blend into the mortal plain. Saving Colony 12 from the Liberators will be her next task, and a test of her character and development. If she passes this test, she'll be very close to graduating so to speak." Naruto explained in detail.

"Did you just admit to gambling with people's lives as a way to test your protégé?" Diana asked with a disappointed tone.

"I wouldn't have summoned her if I didn't believe in her one hundred percent. Trust me, Enchantress is more than capable of handling herself, and she will protect Colony 12 from both the Red Lanterns and the Manhunters , of that I have no doubt." Naruto said with unwavering faith, Diana looking between Naruto and Enchantress with a scrutinizing stare before finally relenting.

"Okay, if you really believe in her that much, then so will I. At the very least, I believe in you." Diana said with a genuine smile, Naruto smiling back in appreciation, and although Diana couldn't see it behind the mask, she still knew that he was smiling back at her just as fondly as she was at him.

"I think I'm gonna puke!" Lobo said with disgust.

"Oh shush! Just be glad that Nathaniel is an honorable God…" Diana retorted, leaving the rest of the threat unsaid as it didn't need to be said, because it was known, by everyone present that Lobo would likely be dead or otherwise dealt with already were it not for Kitsune keeping his word to him.

"I was…hoping….that we would be working together, side by side." Enchantress said, not pleased at all by the interaction that she had just seen between Diana and her master.

"We will be working side by side once you have graduated. In case you haven't noticed, I am grooming you to be my second in Command in Akatsuki." Naruto replied much to Enchantress's delight, her eyes widening in surprise as she hadn't expected that level of trust and faith from her master.

"What's Akatsuki?" Diana asked curiously.

"A story for another time." Naruto replied cryptically.

"Lady Enchantress, I'm going to transfer to you memories of everything that has transpired up to this point. It should give you an idea of what you should do, and what I want you to do. If you find yourself in a position where you do not know what to do, then look to Shyir for guidance. He is a good man with a good moral compass. I vouch for him." Naruto ordered.

"As you wish, master. Fear not, these Colony 12 mongrels will be safe and sound upon your return. I will annihilate both the Manhunters and the Red Lanterns." Enchantress promised.

"Actually we were going for a more evasive strategy. War is not the desired requirement, but rather escape and survival for the people of Colony Twelve." Naruto said as he made his memories available to Enchantress, who swept them up greedily, taking great pleasure to be able to share something as intimate as the memories of her master.

Meanwhile, Naruto was wondering whether he should bring back up for Enchantress or not. Yes, she was extremely powerful, but at the same time, he had no idea just how powerful these Liberators were nor how many Red Lanterns Atrocitus would bring to Colony 12 for retaliation.

Speaking of Atrocitus, with a name like the Mad God of Rage, and the fact that he was the founder of the Red Lantern Corps itself, he had to be quite the heavy hitter himself, perhaps even more powerful than the Liberators if Naruto had to guess.

Would Enchantress, alone, be able to triumph against those odds? Okay, maybe she wasn't alone, after all, Shyir Rev was there, but at the same time, Shyir didn't seem to be all that experienced at using the Green Lantern ring, nor did he seem to have much, if any combat training prior to obtaining the ring.

Maybe that should be one of his goals before his business was done with the Forgotten Zone, to give some combat training to the Green Lantern of Colony 12. Right now however he had to go. He would have liked to leave a shadow clone behind to start Shyir's training and to help them battle the Red Lanterns if the escape plan didn't go as planned, but as it is he was already wary about splitting his power any further.

He had to leave a very strong shadow clone behind when he left earth in case something bad happened in his absence. Now normally that wouldn't be an issue. But given the fact that he was going to potentially be fighting the genius son of a Sky Father and the General of the Furies of Apokolips, well, who could blame him for wanting to conserve some of his strength.

Back on Earth: Nanda Parbat

"I am told that you called for me. To what do I owe the pleasure of being summoned by the great one? Do I finally get to go on my first mission?" Slade asked in a tone that was neither respectful or disrespectful, which in a way was its own form of disrespect, just a very difficult form of disrespect to prove. He was wearing his full Deathstroke gear, just without the mask, always staying ready it seemed, especially now that he was constantly surrounded by assassins.

"The boy in this picture? Who is he?" The Great One, also known as Ra's Al Ghul, asked with a calm and serene tone of voice.

He is a tall and daunting man with green eyes and black hair with gray streaks, and also has a long black mustache and wild, black eyebrows. He is dressed in a regal manner, with the majority of his clothes covered by a high-collared green cloak with large gold buttons. Underneath, he is wearing a black vest with gold hems, a white undershirt, and a golden sash, and is also wearing black pants and knee-high black boots.

"Oh for heaven's sake! This shit again?" Slade asked incredulously.

"You will monitor your tone, and you will think carefully before you address the great one, or you will suffer the consequences." Sensei said with a grave undertone.

Sensei is Ra's Al Ghul's most loyal acolyte and equally the highest ranked. He is also, as his name suggests, the trainer and teacher of practically every member of the League of Shadows and is a close friend and confidant of Ra's Al Ghul.

He is an old, light-skinned man with white hair and dark brown eyes. He is completely bald on the top of his head, and the rest of his hair extends near his shoulders. His white mustache extends to his cheeks and under his chin. He has a large scar across his chest, and a smaller scar extending from his forehead to just under his left milky eye.

"Consequences my foot! We had an agreement, I would join the shadows and serve the shadows loyally and diligently, and in exchange, you would stay out of my personal life, more importantly, you would leave my past be. I thought you were a man of honor, but you have broken your oath to me from the moment I stepped foot on Nanda Parbart!" Slade said angrily

"You are right, father did make a pact with you, but I did not. So I ask you, who is the boy in this picture? What happened to him, and where is he now?" Talia al Ghul, daughter of the demon, asked, or rather, demanded.

She is a beautiful woman with shoulder length red hair and green eyes, spotting a form fitting black combat suit that only accentuated her voluptuous and sexy figure. She also has a tanto on her back and two pistols on each side of her waist and overall, has the look of an absolutely gorgeous femme fatale.

"What does it fucking matter? He's dead!" Slade replied in frustration.

Of course, the aforementioned boy was none other than Nathaniel Wilson, Slade's biological son and first born child, also known as Uzumaki Naruto. The picture was of Deathstroke and Kitsune, in just their second year of working and training together, when Naruto was only twelve years old. Naruto's face, thankfully, could not be seen behind his Kitsune mask, and Slade couldn't be any happier about making sure that his son knew the importance of protecting his identity.

"You have told me what happened to him, and therefore answered one of my questions, but there were two other questions that I asked you were there not?" Talia asked rhetorically, Slade asking himself for the billionth time why the hell he was tolerating all of this disrespect, what he was even doing in this cult in the first place.

'Oh yeah, I wanted my own army in order to help my children take over the world, and to fight off the forces of Darkseid when he potentially invades the earth.' Slade thought sarcastically, wondering who's bright idea this was to begin with, until he remembered it was his bright little idea.

"Why is this shit even important? What part of he is dead didn't you understand?" Slade asked incredulously.

"The part where you somehow got it into your small little mind that death is of any consequence to the great one." Talia said condescendingly.

"I would suggest you start co-operating with her, Terminator, this isn't an argument you can win, nor is it a fight you can win if that is what is on your mind. Your reputation precedes you, but you are treading dangerous waters, even for you." Bane said with an accent and tone that made him sound like he was both a creep and a wise sage.

Bane is very big and muscular individual with a bald head and a respirator mask that covers his mouth and the top of his head like a mowhawk. Underneath the respirator is a black wrestling mask and he is dressed in a black form fitting top with body armor over it, wearing brown combat pants along with black boots.

He has a number of weapons all over his body but most importantly, has what appears to be fuel injection system on his upper body, said fuel being of course, his venom, a substance that, when injected directly into his system, significantly boosts his physical abilities.

"……."

"He was my illegitimate son, a genius prodigy that had the potential to surpass me by miles. But he died, along with the Uzumaki ninja clan, and unfortunately, along with his mother. I had his body cremated because I didn't want anyone experimenting on his body." Slade said with a forlorn expression, a genuine one too, but only because he was mourning the loss of the Uzumaki clan and not his son, who was alive and well.

"……"

"You have my sincerest condolences, Deathstroke, and my apologies as well. But you see, prior to this boy, you have never taken on an apprentice before, nor did you take on one after the boy passed away. I had to know what was so special about this boy that you of all people would take him under your wing when you didn't even take your own legitimate son under your wing. Speaking of which, where is the little rascal again? I only ask because I heard he disappeared from his boarding school and has not been seen since." Ra's asked suspiciously.

Slade supposed he should have known better. Ra's wasn't an idiot, if anything, he was the idiot for thinking that Ra's would let him join his organization without doing his due diligence, especially when Ra's had expressed a desire to groom him into his successor.

He himself would have left no stone unturned before trusting a mercenary, in fact, he wouldn't trust a mercenary even after doing his due diligence, so what the hell was he thinking assuming that Ra's would be so foolish? What on earth had he been smoking when he came up with this plan?

"He is safe and sound, I can assure you of that. Joseph has made it clear that he doesn't want anything to do with me, in fact, he came very close to killing me. I don't think I have ever been that close to death in my life. However I survived, and I have to find a way to move on without him, he seems to be doing just fine without me, which is all a father can truly hope for. Deathstroke didn't raise no punk, let's just leave it at that." Slade replied as honestly as he could without giving away any vital information.

"You allowed a child to dictate terms to you? And you want to be my successor?" Ra's asked incredulously.

"Last time I checked, it was you who wanted me to be your successor, I had and still have no such desire. What I do desire is for this meaningless conversation to end and for you to give me a mission to complete. If not, then I wasted my time joining the league in the first place." Slade said irritably.

"……"

"What do you think? Damian? What would you do in the face of this insolence if you were the demon head?" Ra's asked his thirteen year old grandson.

Damian is, well, a thirteen year old kid, sporting short dark hair and is wearing black and gold combat armor befitting of Royalty complete with a black and gold cloak on his back and around his neck. He is also wearing black pants and black steal toed ninja combat boots and has a sword sheathed on his left hip.

"Nothing. Deathstroke is more of an ally than an acolyte and a leader as opposed to a follower. Use him accordingly, and treat him as he treats us. If he has secrets he wants to keep from the league, then the league will keep secrets from him. No seat at the big boys table for him." Damian replied much to Slade's chagrin.

However, an idea was in fact brewing in Slade's mind thanks to something Damian said, or rather implied. The kid seemed to imply that because he was already established, that he had too much of a reputation and an ego for Ra's to completely convert him.

So Slade was thinking that maybe he needed to do his own recruiting for the league. Recruit young up and coming talents, groom them and mold them into a team loyal and dedicated to him, and then use them to take over the league when they come of age.

It would be a lot of hard and tedious work, and it would take longer than he wanted, but it could be done, and he was going to be the one to do it, in fact, he had no choice now that he had gotten himself so neck deep in all this league bull shit.

"Your response is tolerable, at best, but not without its merits. You have much to learn young one, but you are on the right path. As for you, Deathstroke, you will begin training with Sensei at 06:00am sharp in the morning. I know you have your skills, I know you have your strengths and your accomplishments, but the second you believe you have nothing more to learn is the moment that you begin to decline. Take this from someone who has been alive for over seven hundred years." Ra's said sagely.

"Six o clock in the morning it is then." Slade said as he turned and left the room, not even so much as waiting for the great one to dismiss him.

"Why do you tolerate his insolence, father? He is powerful, yes, but he is only one man, and we are the League of Shadows." Talia asked angrily.

"Patience my dear daughter. Slade is not the kind of man you run through with your sword, but rather, he is the kind you allow to fall on his own sword." Ra's replied cryptically.

"I know that look. Father, what have you done?" Talia asked warily.

"Me? Nothing, of course. Slade Wilson and I had an agreement. Neither I or any league members get to touch his family and close associates." Ra's said with a sinister glint in his eyes.

"But nothing was said about knowingly having someone else touch his family." Talia said in shock, eyes wide in realization.

"What have you done, grandfather?" Damian asked curiously.

"Nothing that didn't need to be done, young Damian. If Slade Deathstroke Wilson thinks that he is above my reproach, then let him learn, the hard way, what it means to be under the iron fist of Ra's Al Ghul…" Ra's trailed off with a malicious grin, sending a tiny shiver down his grandson's spine, although he did well to conceal his emotions as not even his grandfather was any wiser to his discomfort.

"So are you actually going to tell us your plan or not?" Talia asked impatiently, having long grown tired of her father's roundabout way of answering questions.

"I would rather show you, and I will, as soon as…" Ra's trailed off as a device in his left pocket began beeping.

"As soon as I get the signal, which I just did. Come, all of you, follow me." Ra's said as he headed straight for his personal library, everyone following behind him, everyone being his second in command and personal bodyguard, Sensei, his daughter Talia, her son Damian, and Talia's personal bodyguard and second in command, Bane.

Upon reaching the Library, Ra's went on to pull a book out of the shelves, a book titled 'Mysteries of The Demon', and then proceeded to open the book to a specific page which had a red button at the center of the page, pressing the button which resulted in a section of the library to shift to the side, revealing a hidden room behind the book shelves.

The Demon Head, Ra's, placed the book back in its shelf and proceeded to go inside the room, beckoning the others to once again follow him, not that they needed any beckoning as their feet were already subconsciously compelling them to go inside, curiosity taking full control of their motor functions.

"This is quite the anti climax, grandfather" Damian said as he looked around the very basic and normal looking hidden room, bar except for the extremely large, cinematic screen on the wall on the other side.

"Is it?" Ra's asked as he picked up the remote controller and switched on the screen, the screen revealing what appeared to be some sort of military organization's hide out, different sections of the facility appearing on screen as the screen was split into exactly fifteen different images.

"What is this? Who is that woman on the center screen? The one that is beat up and tied up?" Talia asked curiously.

"That, my dear daughter, is Adeline Wilson, Slade Wilson's wife and mother of his mysteriously missing son." Ra's replied.

"You kidnapped his wife?" Damian asked, both surprised and confused by Ra's behavior because as far as he was concerned, this was most dishonorable and went against everything Ra's taught him.

"Pay a little attention won't you Damian. Have I not taught you better? Does that look like the league of assassins to you?" Ra's asked incredulously.

"No, it looks like…." Damian trailed off as he squinted his eyes in concentration.

"It looks like the Kobra Organization. You hired them to do your dirty work?" Damian asked, still confused as he didn't really see the difference.

"I did not. I merely told a colleague and friend of mine about the situation, and he told an ally of his, who took it upon himself to take action. No orders were given to anyone." Ra's replied.

"Do I have to ask who this colleague is?" Damian asked with a small frown.

"You do not. This is the moment that I reveal to you our….position in the world stage. I have joined an organization of like minded people, the name of the organization is…The Light." Ra's explained.

"The Light?" Talia asked curiously.

"Yes, The Light. All of the members of the Light are equal partners dedicated to a mutual and common goal, that being the evolution, the elevation, and the advancement of human potential, or rather, earth's potential."

"The Light, to that end, will use science, magic, meta physics, technology, bio engineering, or whatever means necessary to achieve our goal, the goal of making earth the strongest and most powerful planet in the Universe, so that we may take our place at the top of the Universe." Ra's explained calmly and patiently, everyone's eyes wide in surprise at the sheer scope and magnitude of Ra's ambitions.

"W-who are these other members?" Talia stuttered, because it had to be some crazy powerful people involved in this scheme if it was ever going to work.

"The structure is as follows, and listen carefully because I will not repeat myself. Ra's Al Ghul the Demon Head as master of the Underworld and leader of the League of Shadows. Vandal Savage as Primus Inter Pares, and as leader of the Immortal Legion." Ra's explained only to be cut off by Talia.

"Immortal Legion? I have never heard of such an organization. And why are you not Primus Inter Pares?" Talia asked with a deep frown.

"The Legion of Immortals is Vandal Savage's secret organization. It consists of himself, Black Adam, who as you all know, is an immortal God, a woman known as Knockout, who is a New God of planet Apokolips, Kobra, otherwise known as Lord Naga, who has attained immortality through ancient mystical sacrificial rituals, and General Immortus, a pseudo immortal who uses a scientific formula to extend his life, with an army of followers and a large arsenal of military weapons."

"Vandal also has The Shade and Cheetah as members of the organization, and both are immortal, Shade through powers he has access to due to his connection to the Shadow Realm and Cheetah because she is the herald of a feline Goddess. Vandal's personal body guards, assistants, and confidants are his two daughters, Cassandra Savage and Scandal Savage, neither of which are as of yet confirmed to be immortal." Ra's explained in detail as he pressed another button on the controller, revealing images of all of the members of the Immortal Legion.

"Commit these names and faces to your memory. As we get closer to our mutual goal, members of the different factions of the Light will inevitably have to work closely together." Ra's instructed his subordinates, who all very carefully and deliberately committed every single detail to memory.

"Impressive. One of his subordinates, Black Adam, has an entire country behind him, another, Kobra, has an international military syndicate behind him, and one other, General Immortus, has his own personal military army. This Vandal must be special to have won the loyalty of these great men, especially if he is Primus Inter Pares of The Light." Damian said thoughtfully.

"He is a person I respect, and dare I say, admire. Vandal is many, many times older than me. Everyone else in the world is a child to me, and yet, I am nothing but a child to him. Having spoken on numerous occasions with him, I can say without hesitation that he is even wiser than I am. He is worthy of our respect, and working with him is both a privilege and an honor." Ra's said much to the shock of his subordinates, none of them ever having heard him speak with such high regard for someone else.

"….."

"So…who else is a member of the Light that we should know about, my lord?" Sensei asked curiously, also trying to get rid of the awkward silence.

"The Brain, Master of Science and Technology, and leader of The Brotherhood of Evil. His acolytes are, for lack of a better term, a talking ape known as Monsieur Mallah, who is also his right hand man and confidant, and another talking ape known as The Ulta Humanite, who used to be human but was a genius with a body ailment and decided to transplant his brain into an albino gorilla. There is also Laura De Mille aka Madame Rogue, a skilled meta human assassin who is so good she would fit right in with the League of Shadows." Ra's explained, taking a momentary pause to allow the others to digest the information before carrying on from where he left off.

"The other members are Garguax the Decimater, a green alien with advanced weapons technology, Emile Lasalle aka Warp, a meta human with teleportation abilities, and finally, Angela Hawkins aka Phobia, a telepathic super villain loyal to the Brotherhood of Evil." Ra's ended a very long explanation with another press of the remote controller, revealing images with pictures and names of all the aforementioned members of the Brain's organization, the present league members committing all the names and faces to memory just as Ra's instructed.

"Next is The Brotherhood of Magic, with their leader being Klarion The Lord of Chaos, aka Witch Boy. He is literally a Lord of Chaos, the opposite of Doctor Fate, who is a Lord of Order. His brotherhood consists of Abbra Kadabra, Wotan, Destiny, Felix Faust, The Hat, The Wizard, and Blackbriar Thorn, and all of them are extremely powerful magicians. Even Kadabra, who uses futuristic technology that mimics magic, is still a powerful foe in his own right." Ra's explained as he once again pressed a button on his remote controller, revealing on screen images of the aforementioned magicians.

"We also have a master of the business world, Lex Luthor, who owns a multitude of multi billion dollar businesses. His funds and business facilities have served the Light well and so has his research facilities and even his political influence. His noteworthy subordinates are Mercy Graves, a cybernetically enhanced assassin worthy of the League of Shadows, Eve Teschmacher, another cybernetically enhanced assassin and scientist who would fit right in with us, Pamela Ferrer aka Managerie, who is a human woman bonded to and in control of a powerful alien parasite that lives within her, and Dr Mark Desmond aka Blockbuster, a former Cadmus scientist who mutated himself through genetic splicing experimentation with alien dna." Ra's concluded his explanation as he once again showed images of the people he was referring to.

"I was under the impression that Lex Luthor hated aliens or their influence over the human population?" Damian asked confusedly.

"Lex Luthor is a complicated man, but Vandal and I have been able to open his eyes to the grey area. He is still a work in progress but suffice to say, he has learned not to see things in only black and white only. He is adopting a more flexible approach for the greater good of humanity. Besides, Dr Desmond and Pamela Ferrera are in fact human, they just happen to have alien sources of power, no different to Lex Luthor reverse engineering alien technology for his own means. They just happen to have reverse engineered alien genetics instead of alien technology." Ra's replied sagely.

"I guess that makes sense. So, who's next?" Damian asked, getting the sense that there was even more to this Light organization than was already mentioned.

"Next up is Count Werner Vertigo of Vlatava, also known simply as Count Vertigo. He is master of meta humans, and consequently, commands an organization of such meta humans, namely, a meta human who controls electro magnetic fields known as Neal Emerson aka Doctor Polaris, a photokinetic meta human known as Arthur Light aka Doctor Light, Atomic Skull the human nuclear reactor, a British meta human with telepathic and telekinetic powers known as Manchester Black, Hunter Zolomon aka Zoom, who, like The Flash, is a speedster connected to the speed force, and Mark Mardon aka The Weather Wizard, a metahuman with the power to control the weather." Ra's said, taking a moment to let it all sink in before continuing with his explanation of Count Vertigo's organization.

"Last but not least is Sam Scudder, otherwise known as Mirror Master, and the name of Count Vertigo's organization is 'The High Evolutionary'." Ra's completed his explanation with another image show for his subordinates to memorize.

"Ocean Master aka Prince Orm of Atlantis is also, as master of the sea, a member of the Light. His army of Rogue Atlantians is known as The Rift and plans are in motion to dethrone Aquaman and place the Ocean Master on the Atlantian Throne. To that end, he has formed a shaky partnership with Black Manta and his Manta Core. Should Orm betray us or fail us, we are considering having Black Manta replace him as Master of the Ocean." Ra's said for the sake of his generals, wanting them to fully understand the dynamics of the organization so that they can not only follow orders effectively, but also without hesitation.

"Just how big is this organization? How many more members do we have to commit to memory?" Damian asked impatiently.

"Just one more, master of politics and supreme ruler of Bialya, Queen Bee. She has the military might of an entire country and her meta human power is that of pheromone control. She can enthrall any man and even women to become her slaves and do her bidding. The name of her organization is Onslaught, and it consists of Mammoth, Shimmer, Icycle Junior, Psimon, Devastation, Holocaust, Tommy Terror, and Tuppence Terror. As you all should know already, these are all powerful metahumans in their own right." Ra's concluded his explanation, also showing his subordinates images of the aforementioned Light Operatives.

"I feel so much smaller and less important now that I know that the League is just cog in a bigger wheel. But perhaps that is a good thing, it gives me a good idea of just how much I still need to grow and improve, and how much I still need to gain and achieve in this world." Damian said contemplatively.

"With such a wise and mature introspective, and the amount of raw talent that you have, you are well on your way to achieving all that you desire, my beloved son." Talia said with a proud smile.

"Indeed he will. You and I will make sure of it, and so will…"Ra's trailed off as the giant screen fizzled before revealing the face of Jeffrey Burr aka Kobra, who is commonly known in his organization as Lord Naga.

Kobra is very tall, towering over many people. His eyes are red, with black rings around them. He has high cheek bones. Coupled with his muscular build, he is an intimidating figure. His skin is very pale, almost grayish. His head is also completely bald, though it is only revealed when he takes off his red cape, which features a snake-like hood, with two fangs and sharp, orange eyes. He has black pants with a yellow belt that features a snake symbol on the buckle. He is also wearing long red greaves.

He has padded red gloves that cover most of his forearm. The gloves are primarily red, but has a yellow streak encircling each end. On the back of his hand, the gloves have small yellow eyes and yellow fangs at the ends of each ggloe, very much like the fangs of his hood.

"Kobra, has there been any developments?" Ra's asked eagerly.

"We are under attack by a meta human hit squad. There is one who isn't a meta human though, but might as well be given her skill and combat prowess, I believe you know her as Sandra Wu San, who also goes by name Lady Shiva. Based on body language and dialogue, it appears that she is the sub commander of this unit of metas." Kobra explained in detail.

"Only the sub commander? Lady Shiva? Who is the commander then?" Ra's asked warily.

"Joseph Wilson, Slade Wilson's son. He has adopted the name Jericho as his alias as that is what his subordinates have been calling him. He is a very powerful meta human, the most powerful psychic I have laid eyes on, possibly even more powerful than Manchester Black." Kobra explained with a very serious tone.

"And you are sure he is in charge of this unit? Any idea who they are?" Ra's asked hastily.

"My men have taken to calling them the Royal Flush Unit, their members, apart from Jericho himself and Shiva, are wearing gold and black uniforms that resemble a pack of cards. Ace is a girl who also has psychic powers similar but lesser to Jericho, Ten has super human durability and super strength, Jack has elasticity and shape shifting, Queen has what appears to be control over metals, and King controls fire and plasma energy. They are decimating my men, even with their genetic mutations." Kobra said gravely.

"Do you know what organization they belong to?" Ra's pressed.

"There was an organization one of my spies got a lead on, if I'm not mistaken, it was known as Hive. He had reported to me about its potential existence, but got eliminated soon after along with all traces of the organization. We haven't been able to get a lead since then. I think Jericho belongs to that organization, and by the looks of things, and based on a hunch I have, I think he is a high ranking official. He is also well trained. His father must have taught him well." Kobra replied.

"I see…." Ra's trailed off thoughtfully.

"Tell me, Kobra, is there another boy there? He would be about 20 years old about now, wearing a demonic looking mask, like a demon fox?" Ra's asked curiously.

"No, no such person has arrived here." Kobra replied.

"Slade said that guy was his illegitimate child, which means Adeline isn't his mother. If we want him to show, we'll need to kidnap his mother, who of course is allegedly dead, so that makes things difficult." Damian said analytically, and in doing so revealing that he too didn't believe Deathstroke's claim that his first born was dead.

"My grandson makes a valid point. However, you have done well, Kobra. This Jericho sounds most impressive himself. It is vital information. Slade said he had a recent encounter with his son and almost died, which means that Slade knows about Hive and his son's position in this organization. He knows about a rival organization and didn't say anything about it. He has broken his oath to me, and all bets are now off." Ra's said with barely contained anger.

"They are almost upon me. I must go before I too am caught in the crossfires. The video of the invasion of my secret base has been recorded and sent to you. Watch it at your own leisure. Kobra out!" Kobra said as he turned off his communicator, took out a mother box, and boom tubed out of there.

"What now?" Damian asked warily.

"Now we watch. Take your seats and be silent until we are done watching." Ra's instructed.

"I'll get the popcorn." Damian said cheekily, Ra's however completely ignoring his grandson's childish retort as he focused solely on the task at hand, obtaining critical information about Deathstroke's children.

45 minutes earlier: Kerguelan Islands

"Wake up! Meet me at the training center, now!" Joseph ordered, using his psychic powers to project his thoughts to every single member of both the Ultimen and the Royal Flush Unit, including of course sub commander Lady Shiva and Hive Queen Rose Wilson.

Despite the fact that all of the aforementioned people were already asleep in their pajamas, it took less than five minutes for them all to assemble at the training center, fully geared and ready for action, as they could all feel the urgency in Joseph's psychic communication and also because they were trained to respond like that.

"Lord Jericho, what seems to be the matter? Tell me, so that I may soothe your anxiety as quickly and efficiently as possible." Lady Shiva asked worriedly.

Lady Shiva is a tall yet slender women who appears to be rather young. She has short raven colored hair, black lipstick and brown eyes. She also has a notable large bust and a pale complexion. She is wearing a skin-tight bodysuit with long sleeves, shoulder pads, a Mandarin collar and a diamond-shaped hole on her sternum.

The bodysuit is Gold in colour with black stripes looped around her shoulders and forearms and matching patches on her elbow pits. This pattern is also seen on the hems of her collar and the diamond-shaped hole, whose lower corner hem runs down to the waist, meeting her belt which is adjoined by a golden ring with a sash hanging from it. Her black skin-tight pants are adorned with dark gray knee pads and stripes coiled around her thighs and shins. She is also carrying a dao broadsword, normally sheathed on her belt.

"Soothing his anxiety is my job, not yours. Do not forget your place, Shiva." Rose spat venomously.

Rose is a beautiful young woman in her late teens of Cambodian-Caucasian descent with tan skin, brown eyes, arched black eyebrows, and pale white hair tied back in a ponytail with two thick strands framing either side of her face.

She has a petite yet athletically fit build. Her wardrobe as the H.I.V.E. Queen consists of a tactical gold and black bodysuit with armour around her chest and pelvis, heeled boots, and a black hood that retracts into a cloak. Her bodysuit also has the H.I.V.E insignia on either bicep.

"We are all on the same side here. I am loyal to Lord Jericho, I am loyal to the Hive." Lady Shiva retorted calmly.

"Loyal my foot..."

"Enough!" Joseph exclaimed psychically, instantly ending the quarrel between the two powerful women.

"….."

"Thank you. I'm going to get straight to the point. My mother has been kidnapped. I, Lady Shiva, and the Royal Flush Unit will be leaving immediately in order to rescue her. HIVE Queen, sister, you and the Ultimen must stand guard of the facility and monitor all of our other outposts to ensure that this is not some sort of scheme to distract us from an imminent attack." Joseph said uncompromisingly.

"You can't go without me. I'm coming with you!" Rose retorted anxiously.

"No you're not. You must make sure our organization, and therefore our interests, are protected. The most effective way for us to look out for each other is for us to handle different tasks at the same time. You know this, Rose." Joseph stressed, a lot more comfortable talking out loud now that he didn't have artificial vocal cords but was actually using his own vocal cords after Naruto regenerated them for him.

"….."

"Don't be like that. You know what Nathaniel said to be true. So that we can become stronger together, we must first learn how to be strong on our own. Distance is meaningless, so long as our hearts and our minds are one." Joseph tried to persuade and soothe his sister at the same time.

"I know. It just, isn't easy that's all. It feels like a part of me is being ripped out every time I am separated from you." Rose said sadly.

"The feeling is mutual, but in case we are one day forcefully separated for one reason or another, we must learn to overcome that feeling." Joseph retorted.

"Okay, I get it. Just…just go already. Go get your mother back. The more you stay here the more she suffers." Rose said as she walked over to her brother and gave him a strong and warm hug.

"Thank you, sister. I love you." Joseph said as he returned the hug.

"I love you too…"

One Hour Later:

"Is it me or did that guy just turn into a freaking humanoid puff adder?" Ten asked incredulously, as he watched a kobra soldier turn into a literal snake-human hybrid, the guy growing to three times his original size, growing snake scales all over his body, and elongated poisonous teeth. He also seemed to have grown a long tail on his back that was whipping around and smashing walls to smithereens.

Ten is a big, muscular guy himself of African American lineage, spotting a sleeveless black and gold hive combat uniform with a number ten play card insignia. He does not appear to have any form of weaponry on him, even though, as a Hive official, he was being trained and groomed in all forms of combat, including but not limited to weapons combat.

He was also of course being trained in the use of hand to hand combat, which was his greatest strength and asset as someone with invulnerability and super strength for super powers.

"It's not just you. I see it too. But I believe we got this covered." Queen replied.

She is a beautiful Caucasian late teen with silver white hair, spotting a fit and voluptuous figure and beautiful facial features. She too was wearing a gold and silver Hive uniform but hers was long sleeved and had the insignia for the queen of a pack of play cards.

Unlike Ten, she actually was carrying her own weapons in the form of compressed spheres of metal that were floating around her, some spheres made of platinum, some of gold, others silver, tungsten, carbon steel, stainless steel, and titanium. She even had her own body completely covered in platinum in order to enhance both her durability and her impact strength.

Needless to say, the Kobra soldiers stood no chance as all of them were taken out in seconds by the two Hive agents, Ten using his durability to simply tank the bullets and knives thrown his way and his super strength to instantly kill all of his opponents whilst Queen used her platinum armor as a shield against throwing knives and bullets, and used her compressed metal spheres as her own deathly projectiles, the fact that she could make her projectiles change direction mid air making it impossible for the Kobra agents to evade her attacks.

"Do you now?" The humanoid adder asked as the steel door behind him opened up to reveal another group of mutated soldiers, all varying types of snakes from poisonous snakes to constrictors.

"Okay, one snake man is a coincidence, two is an anomaly, but ten? Nah, this Kobra Organization has definitely been up to some illegal human experimentation, and I hate illegal human experimentation." Ten said darkly.

"Me too." Queen agreed, understanding perfectly the sentiment of her comrade as they both had been subject to illegal experimentation since childhood.

"Let's get em!" Ten exclaimed as he began charging at the adder, who, as far as Ten could tell, appeared to be the squad leader of this mutated unit.

One of the soldiers, a green mamba hybrid, tried to get between Ten and her squad leader, elongating her neck to ridiculous portions and trying to take a bite on Ten's neck, but Ten didn't even pay her any attention at all as he continued charging forward, a gold sphere from Queen hitting the female serpent dead center of the forehead and flying right through to the other side, leaving a rather large hole at center of the green mamba hybrid's head.

"Fiona!" The squad leader exclaimed, shock and concern permeable on his snake-like features as he mourned his beloved comrade.

"You're next, Black Adder!" Ten said as he reached his target, no one else getting in the way of the two warriors as the other eight serpents were trying their best to stay alive as Queen's spheres came flying rapidly at them.

Thanks to their snake-like senses, agility, and speed, the serpents were all able to avoid the spheres, although just barely, relying on their ability to twist, coil, and stretch their bodies at awkward angles and lengths in order to throw off Queen's aim.

Still, the strain and pressure of Queen's relentless attack was enough to put them at such a constant and massive disadvantage that they couldn't do much else except try to survive, unable to mount any attack or counter attacks, especially given the distance that Queen was keeping from them.

Meanwhile, Ten was utterly dominating his opponent as he had already dislocated his opponent's jaw, shoulder, hip, and knee. The problem however was that the guy was able to easily relocate his dislocated joints and continue to fight as if nothing had happened at all.

Ten had even tried to grab and literally squeeze the life out of the Black Adder, but the guy had simply stretched his body all around Ten's body and ended up squeezing the life out of Ten, although that hadn't exactly worked as Ten proved to be too strong and too durable to be killed like that, at least not by someone of Adder's super human strength.

Ten had managed to eventually remove Black Adder from his body and attempted to swing him by the tail and smash him on the ground head first, but Black Adder had managed to grab onto a metal pillar as he elongated himself enough to not only reach it but to coil his upper body around it, the shock of the unexpected maneuver enough to cause Ten to loosen his grip slightly, which was enough for Black Adder to take advantage as he slipped out of Ten's hands.

"Okay, okay, I see you got some slick moves you slippery bastard, so why don't we try something a little different. Queen, now!" Ten ordered, Queen, without wasting any time, transforming her silver sphere into an extremely sharp sword and hurling it at the big guy.

Ten grabbed the sword by the hilt and once again charged at Black Adder, but this time at a much, much greater speed, so much so that Black Adder was unable to completely evade the attack despite his speed and reflexes as Ten bisected him from the waist, Adder's upper body flying a different direction as his lower body went the other way.

"I-impossible? How did you move that fast? I thought you only had super strength. Y-you have super speed too?" Black Adder managed to say despite the excruciating pain he was going through.

"Super speed? Super strength? Ha! As if! My power isn't super strength or super speed, my power is super athleticism. Speed and strength just happen to be components of athleticism." Ten said, Black Adder's eyes widening in both shock and fear, shock at Ten's words, and fear at the fact that Ten was about to kill him, which is exactly what Ten did as he quickly stabbed Black Adder through the heart and then proceeded to remove the head just to make certain.

"So that's how you kill them? Speed, invulnerability, strength, and an extremely sharp object? I can do that." Queen said as she morphed the metal around her arms into long and sharp blades, preparing herself to finally enter close quarters combat, although she had no intention of abandoning the long range approach as her spheres were still even now attacking the serpents and keeping them on their toes.

"Yeah that's what I'm talking about! Let's do this yaw!" Ten exclaimed as he moved at incredible speeds again, Queen surprisingly doing the same as she also moved at a ridiculous speed and began bisecting and stabbing the distracted and overwhelmed serpents, killing a total of five of the remaining eight whilst Ten killed the other three, their teamwork and co-ordination far superior than anything the serpents had ever encountered, not to mention their incredible abilities.

For Queen, the source of her super speed and super strength was entirely different. In fact, she didn't have any such physical abilities beyond her peak human physical conditioning. However, because her entire body was coated in platinum, she had a high degree of durability as she was practically invulnerable. She could move extremely fast because she wasn't physically moving her body parts but was controlling the metal that was tightly attached to every part of her body in order to mimic human movements, in fact she could even fly if she wanted by simply moving the metal that she had attached to her skin with her mind.

As for the super strength, well, if power is equal to mass multiplied by velocity, then given her weight when she was coated in metal, and the speed with which she could move, then it was easy to tell why she could generate that much power. Plus the hardness of the metal also helped in increasing the impact of her punches and kicks, although this time she had strictly been using slicing attacks.

"Phew! We're done, at last. That took longer than expected, but once we figured them out, it was easy as pie." Queen said contently.

"Girl I feel you. You are one badass woman, and we make a mean team. Remind me never to get on your bad side." Ten said with both pride in his teammate and love interest and also a little bit of wariness.

"Don't worry my love, I won't hurt you….so long as you behave." Queen said with a playful tone, running her index finger on her boyfriend's chest as she sauntered around him and headed for the inner base, leaving Ten slightly behind as he tried to put his thoughts together, trying to avoid getting an erection in the middle of a military base invasion.

"God damn you woman! Wait for me!" Ten said as he ran after his partner.

West Gate:

"You all are about to die now, and I won't even have to lift a finger." Jack said after he and Ace confidently revealed themselves to the enemy, although some might say foolishly.

Jack is a tall and slightly lanky blonde haired nineteen year old with a goat beard and hazel eyes. He is wearing a form fitting outfit that is gold and black and has the insignia for the jack of spades on his outfit. He has a lean and muscled figure and his outfit is specifically designed to compliment his elasticity powers.

Ace on the other hand is a sixteen year old teen with black hair and black eyes, sporting a slim figure and is on the short side in terms if height. She is also wearing a gold and black combat outfit, except hers was ace themed as opposed to Jack's outfit, which of course, was jack themed.

"Intruders! Kill them! Kill them now!" The leader of the Kobra squad guarding the west gate ordered, his men firing rapid rounds of fire at the two interlopers.

However, much to all of their surprise, the bullets never reached the targets, Ace holding up her right hand as she activated her telekinesis, stopping all two hundred rounds in mid air, disbelief and fear the only possible reaction of the guards as they realized that they were royally fucked, no pun intended.

The only person who didn't have a look of fear on his face was the leader of the squad, who discreetly ordered his hidden sniper to fire on the telekinetic girl's blind spot, but to no avail as even that bullet was stopped in mid air long before it reached its target, only to rapidly reverse its trajectory until it hit the hidden sniper right between the eyes.

"She doesn't just have telekinesis you idiots, she has telepathy too. You cannot surprise us, or rather, you cannot surprise her." Jack said jovially, sending the guards into an even darker pit of despair.

"What do you think I should do, Jack? Kill them slowly and painfully, or end it fast?" Ace asked with a sinister undertone.

"Fast and efficient. Lord Jericho's mom is our target, we cannot afford to mess around, unfortunately." Jack retorted.

"Quick and painless it is then." Ace said as she hurled the bullets back at the guards, all two hundred of them, but only managing to kill eighty percent of the guards as the others managed to find cover, including the leader of the squad.

"Wow, these guys are good. I can't believe some of them actually survived. I guess its my turn now." Jack said as he started walking forward in a slow and deliberate pace, hearing his voice and foot steps, two of the guards deciding that now was the chance to take out the easier target as they came out and opened fire, one targeting Ace in order to keep her distracted while the other targeted Jack.

However, the easier target turned out to not be so easy after all as Jack activated his elasticity just as the guards began opening fire, the bullets failing to penetrate his body as he instead used his elasticity to catch the bullets with his belly, and then send the bullets rattling back at the guards at velocities that exceeded the fire power of the guns that were originally used to fire them, killing both the guards almost instantly as their bodies were torn asunder by the rapid fire.

"Eight down, and one more to go." Jack said with a bored tone.

"Just do us all a favor and stop wasting our time. You're going to die here, there is nothing you can do about it." Jack said as a matter of fact.

"We'll see about that!" The squad leader said as he transformed into a large serpent creature, however, before he could even do anything, he was already dead as a volley of bullets came down at him, directly on his head, from above, Jack looking up to see that Ace had discreetly sent all the guns of the deceased into the air and had them pointing down at the squad leader without him even realizing the eminent danger.

"I didn't even get the chance to be surprised by his transformation and you already killed him. You're no fun." Jack whined petulantly.

"I seem to recall you being the one who said we shouldn't play around when the mission involved Lord Jericho's mom." Ace retorted.

"Whatever! Lets just go and get Lord Jericho's mom and then get out of here." Jack said dismissively, Ace responding only with a shrug of the shoulders as she followed her partner into the west gate.

North Gate:

Watching King and Lady Shiva do their thing was something Joseph didn't think he could ever get enough of. They were like a perfectly synchronized orchestra, moving in perfect alignment to one another despite the fact that they hadn't ever been on a mission together before.

Lady Shiva was most impressive, as despite not having any super powers, she might as well have had them considering how fast, agile, precise, mobile, and efficient she was, to the point that she was even blocking and dodging bullets.

Of course, she wasn't actually faster than bullets, but what she was doing was analyzing the trajectory and aim of the bullets and moving accordingly just before the shots were fired, and the fact that she was doing this against multiple people all firing at her just went to show that her talent and training almost equated her to a meta human.

Her sword was a special design from Hive, hard enough and sharp enough to cut through even bullets. She was also able to close the distance between herself and her enemies at an extremely rapid speed, enabling her to cut them down in spades.

King was also impressive. He was actually a high level meta human as he could literally turn himself into a human torch. The only reason he hadn't liked using that form in battle before was because it always destroyed his clothes and left him naked.

It was why he had decided to develop his hand to hand combat skills and weapons combat skills to the extent that, like Shiva, his skills and training almost made you doubt that he wasn't in fact using some type of super power.

He had adopted to using his metal cane as a conduit to transfer and shoot his fire and plasma energy, while also using the cane as a close combat weapon. The cane was also fitted with retractable swords and knives that he could use to stab and slice his opponents.

Right now, King did not have to worry about destroying his clothes as Hive, similar to what they did for Jack, had developed a special suit that served as a conductor of his powers. However, he seemed to still prefer to fight this way and Jericho allowed him to do so as long as he knew to never let his pride and ego interfere with a mission. In other words, as long as he used his full power without hesitation if it became necessary.

'At this rate I won't even have to lift a finger to save my mom.' Jericho thought.

He was still wary of course, as he was sure that multiple alarms had already been rang in the Kobra Secret Base. This meant that the Kobra leader already knew that he was here and could in fact just kill his mom before they got to her if he wanted to.

However, on the other hand, why kidnap her in the first place if they were just going to kill her? Obviously whoever kidnapped her wanted to use her as leverage. Leverage for what, and against whom? Joseph could honestly say he did not know yet, despite spending this whole infiltration turned invasion scanning all the minds of the Kobra soldiers that they encountered.

Whoever the leader was had to be keeping his cards close to the chest. Joseph doubted that he or she was after him, it was more likely that they were after his dad, or at the very least, his dad had something to do with his mom getting kidnapped. However, it didn't matter right now because all Joseph wanted to do was to ensure his mother's safety, and if that couldn't be achieved for one reason or another, then he would settle for brutally killing every single soldier in this base.

"It is done, my Lord. Now we can proceed beyond the North Gate." King said obediently, having just now vaporized the liver, heart, and lung area of the last remaining Kobra operative.

King is a tall young man with a golden helmet on his head. He seems to have black hair under his helmet, that is if the hair on his head matches the color of his short, trimmed beard. He is wearing a gold and black hive uniform with the insignia for the King of Spades, and carries a golden metal staff which he uses to supplement his meta human powers and as a versatile melee combat weapon.

"It is not quite done yet my friend." Jericho said as he sensed someone behind the gate, and just as he finished saying that, the North Gate was vicious blown away by a powerful force as the gigantic gate came flying rapidly towards the three of them, all 30 tons of it.

However, Jericho was not leader of the Royal Flush Unit only because of his brilliant tactical mind, but also because of his raw power, as he was able to stop the thirty ton gate, flying at them at over 150 miles per hour, in an instant, using his telekinetic powers as his eyes began glowing a bright blue color.

Not wanting to remain blind sided to the enemy, Jericho quickly moved the metal door upwards so that he could see exactly what he was dealing with, slightly surprised when he saw a gigantic humanoid serpent that looked like a cobra if Jericho had to guess.

"I think that is a little out of my league unfortunately." Lady Shiva said calmly but factually, realizing that being the most skilled female martial artist in the world meant nothing against a creature of this size and strength, after all, her sword would likely be nothing more threatening than a toothpick against something the likes of this creature.

"I'll handle it!" King said as his staff retracted into a much smaller size, turning into a small baton before he put it away into his utility belt.

"Flame on!" King exclaimed theatrically as his entire body was illuminated by a burning inferno, so much so that even his skin and clothing turned completely red, as if he himself was a being composed entirely of heat energy.

"This will be over in a second, master." King said as he jetted off in the gigantic serpent's direction, moving at a ridiculous speed that was well above mach 3 as he shot himself right though the serpent's chest, to be more specific, right through the serpent's heart, coming out the other side as his plasma energy burned right through the beast's flesh.

"I-impossible!" The creature exclaimed as it looked down on it's chest in disbelief, surprising both King and Lady Shiva by it's ability to talk as they had killed all the other agents so quickly that none of them even got the chance to transform into their serpent forms.

Joseph was the only one who wasn't surprised as he already knew that the creature was sentient because he had sensed its mind before it revealed itself. Still, actually hearing it talk out loud was somewhat shocking even if he knew the creature had sentient intellect.

"I'll kill you all!" The creature snapped angrily as it prepared to bring its giant fists down on Joseph and Lady Shiva, however, much to its surprise, finding itself unable to move as Joseph used his telepathy to take away the creature's control over its body, its eyes glowing blue as Joseph's power took hold over its mind.

"You're overmatched." Joseph said while also reading the creature's mind to find out exactly how it came to be.

"The cobra mutagen responsible for creating you is not a failure. You are no doubt stronger than you ever were as a normal human. You are an outstanding biological weapon, but we of Hive are much too superior to be defeated by the likes of you. Hive is the future, and as a result, Cobra has only two choices, to be assimilated, or to become eliminated. Your superiors will have to pick their poison." Joseph said with menace, dropping the 30 ton gate he had levitated at the beginning of the battle on the humanoid cobra's head, effectively killing the creature, who really was about to bleed out and die anyway.

"King, get rid of the body." Joseph ordered as the creature's body hit the ground hard, causing the earth to shake due to the sheer size of the creature, because after all, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

"With pleasure." King said as he fired a large wave of fire at the creature, burning it into ash in a matter of seconds, such was the sheer level of heat energy that he was able to generate.

King didn't wait for his master to give the order this time as he flew around the battle area and incinerated the rest of the corpses, after all, one of his main roles in the Hive was the role of the organization's cleaner as he was responsible for making sure that no evidence was left behind after a mission.

"How many more of those creatures do you think we will encounter?" Lady Shiva asked warily, not liking the feeling of uselessness she felt when faced with a situation that she could do practically nothing about.

"I do not know that, although I do know what troubles you." Joseph said, referring to how useless Lady Shiva felt because she couldn't be of use at all against a monster of that size, strength, and durability.

"Do not worry, I have asked Nathaniel to design a weapons upgrade for you. You won't have to feel like this again, I promise." Joseph said with a kind smile, Lady Shiva, the very symbol of emotional control, unable to help herself as she found herself returning the warm smile from her master with an even warmer one.

"Thank you, Lord Jericho. Your kindness is a beacon of light that pierces right through the darkness of the world. I shall use whatever power that you and Lord Nathaniel impart to me strictly for your protection and the fulfillment of your ambitions." Lady Shiva said with a small bow of the head.

"I know. That is why I chose you as my confidant and second in command." Joseph retorted.

"I am done, Lord Jericho. Shall we proceed to the inner base?" King asked eagerly.

"We shall." Joseph replied simply, floating towards the inner parts of the Kobra base along with King, who was flying too, and Lady Shiva, who was walking just below the two of them.

Back at Nanda Parbat:

"I'm going to go on a Limb and assume that Kobra sent a copy of the footage to you, and that you have also watched it along with your closest confidants?" Ra's asked the man on the big screen in his hidden communications center.

"You assume correctly." The man on the screen replied.

He is a tall and muscular man, appearing to be at the absolute peak of human physical condition, in fact, quite significantly beyond peak human condition, who has black hair that reaches up to the neckline, three scares across his face that make it look like he was clawed across the face by some wild animal, and an equally black trimmed beard.

He is wearing a blue thigh length jacket that is held by a black utility belt at the waistline, and has on black pants and black combat boots. Next to him are his two daughters, who are also his closest confidants, Cassandra Savage and Scandal Savage.

"I owe you a debt for exposing the treachery of one of my own, someone I took into my home and into my circle and adopted as my very own son. He has betrayed me, and so must pay. You have my gratitude." Ra's replied.

"As do you. Had you not asked this favor of me, The Light would not know of the existence of this Hive, nor especially the existence of Nathaniel Wilson. The only question I have is what it is you intend to do exactly about Deathstoke? I ask not with the intention to interfere with the operations of your organization, but only because of the larger ramifications of alienating or killing such a man, especially in light of recent revelations." Vandal said articulately.

"You are worried that it might cause Hive to come after the Shadows?" Ra's asked curiously.

"Not just the shadows, but the Light itself. Why go to war when you can make peace? Why burn bridges when you can build them?" Savage asked cryptically.

"You intend to offer membership of the Light to Hive? To Nathaniel Wilson?" Ra's asked, shocked.

"Why not? I know you intended for him to be your successor, and I do not mean to step on your toes, but as you saw for yourself, he already has a very powerful organization of his own, what are the chances that he would leave the organization he built himself to join yours? Could you….could we not mentor him as an equal member of the Light, dedicated to the same goal of pushing humanity towards its full potential?" Savage asked rhetorically.

"That presupposes that he actually is the leader and founder of Hive. There is still the possibility that Deathstoke himself is the one leading this organization, and thus, has infiltrated the League in order to take us down from within." Ra's argued.

"To what end? Why would he go that far to get rid of the shadows? Isn't it more likely that he wanted to take over the shadows in order to assimilate the shadows and its resources into Hive?" Savage asked sagely.

"……"

"I guess there really is only one course of action to take. I have to excommunicate him. The actions that he takes after he is excommunicated will lead us to the truth." Ra's replied strategically.

"It seems like the best course of action I agree. As for Nathaniel Wilson, the good thing is that we now know that he is alive and is associated to Hive. To reveal his identity, we must focus our attentions on Hive itself, and there are two ways to do that, to plant a mole in their midst, or to follow closely their activities and the money trail. Keeping an eye on his father as you already suggested might also yield positive results to that end." Savage retorted.

"We have our work cut out for us then." Ra's retorted.

"Indeed. May your shadows conceal your movements, and may our light shine through to the truth. L1 out." Savage said as he switched off the communicator from his side.

"L2 out." Ra's replied as he too switched off his communicator.

"Are you serious father? You're just going to excommunicate him? That's like a slap on the wrist, less than that even." Talia asked incredulously.

"In the past I would have agreed with you and would have already eliminated Slade Wilson for his insolence and treachery. However, my new found wisdom as a founding member of the Light has made me see things differently." Ra's said sagely.

"I demand an explanation." Talia said tensely.

"You have the authority to demand absolutely nothing of me, but you shall get one nonetheless." Ra's said with a threatening under tone, subtly reminding Talia not to forget her place, and it worked as she quickly collected herself and remembered to only speak when she is spoken to, and within the confines of her authority.

"You see, as I explained earlier, our goal is to put earth at the very top of the universe, as is its rightful place as the center of the universe. To that end, it is essential that people with the skill and talent of Slade Wilson survive long enough to defend earth from its enemies when it becomes necessary. We cannot allow that gene pool to be eliminated. He has already bred two exceptional young boys, you just saw one of them only a few minutes ago. Why would we want earth to lose such a precious resource?" Ra's asked rhetorically.

"There has already been multiple attacks from alien beings on our planet. As The Light moves closer to its goal of earth supremacy in the universe, more and more threats will become revealed, and we will need people like Slade Wilson, and his children, to fight on our side. Even if they inevitably start acting against us, they will have no choice but to join us when it comes to the protection of the planet that we all share. Ego and pride clouds Deathstroke's mind right now, and his small mindedness is acting as a hindrance to his acceptance of us, but we believe that there will come a time when he will see things our way." Ra's completed his explanation.

"What if he becomes too much of a nuisance? What if he ends up threatening the very existence and secrecy of the League of Shadows?" Bane asked warily.

"You need not worry, for if such a time ever comes, then I will personally deal with him." Ra's said with confidence.

"Say we do find Nathaniel and we try to bring the Hive into the Light, what if they refuse us? What do we do then?" Damian asked curiously.

"That is a matter The Light has yet to fully discuss, but our way is the belief that there is nothing and no one on earth that cannot be used for the purposes of the Light. The Light has even used the Justice League to serve its own ends on multiple occasions." Ra's replied much to everyone's surprise, The Demon Head going on to order that everyone go and get some rest, and to allow their minds to process everything that transpired today, reminding everyone of the importance of a rested and calm mind.

End Chapter