Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter. Hope you like this one. This will be a bit shorter.
So, this will feature the last Cabal battle. I decided to go ahead and do it the way I did to give Johanna time to shine. Really, I don't think we get enough of Johanna, so I wanted to give her a chapter just dedicated to her.
Let's get to it.
Chapter 21- Breaking the Cabal
Johanna makes her way down the street, a squad of elite soldiers from District 13 following close behind. They've been looking for Crossbones and Grim Reaper for a few hours by now. They haven't found the two yet, but nothing yet.
Johanna felt torn about Katniss' decision to send her after Grim Reaper and Crossbones. Part of her is angry that Katniss didn't send her any help. But part of her is also grateful that she has a chance to prove just how dangerous she is. She and the rest of the team consider Grim Reaper and Crossbones the least dangerous members of the Cabal. With her powers, she should be more than a match for both of them.
"Ugh. Where are these two?" one of the soldiers behind her says.
Right then, there's an explosion up ahead. Johanna and the soldiers stop short. Then, there's gunfire, and two of the soldier drop dead to the ground.
"Take cover!" Johanna orders. The soldiers scatter as Johanna advances slowly down the street.
Johanna scans the street ahead. Then, almost out of nowhere, Grim Reaper and Crossbones appear from behind two large piles of rubble.
Johanna narrows her eyes as the two advance towards her. "Leave them to me," she says loud enough for the soldiers to hear her before she advances down the street towards Grim Reaper and Crossbones.
As she gets closer, Crossbones yells mockingly, "Well, well. She-Hulk. Where's the rest of your merry band?"
"They're conducting business elsewhere. I don't need them to beat you. I can beat you all on my own," Johanna says viciously.
Grim Reaper laughs. "Really? Because there's only one of you, and two of us," he says.
"I like those odds," Johanna says before she charges towards them.
Grim Reaper charges towards Johanna as Crossbones fires an assault rifle at her. However, the bullets simply bounce right off of her skin.
Grim Reaper slashes at Johanna's head. Johanna easily ducks under the blow and grabs Reaper's arm, throwing him into the side of a building.
Crossbones then pulls out and fires a grenade launcher. The grenade hits Johanna in the chest, and the explosion knocks her flying through a concrete wall, temporarily dazing her. However, Johanna quickly recovers and charges to re-engage her enemies, charging right through the wall she just flew through.
Grim Reaper runs to engage her again. He slashes at Johanna's head several times, but Johanna dodges every blow. Then, he slashes at her stomach. Thinking to prove to Grim Reaper just how little he threatens her, she lets his scythe hit her. However, as it does, the scythe suddenly crackles with electricity, sending electricity coursing through Johanna's body. Johanna yells in pain and collapses to the ground, both from the shock and pain of old memories of her torture in The Capitol.
Crossbones storms over, grabbing her by the head and slamming her into the ground before throwing her into a wall. Grim Reaper then raises his scythe and fires several noxious gas pellets towards her, hoping the gas will knock her out.
As the gas bursts out of the pellets and surrounds Johanna, Johanna feels the anger rising again. Anger that they've managed to gain the upper hand on her. She lunges into the air, jumping as high as she can. She lands on the other side of the wall she was just thrown into. She waits for a moment, then leaps over the wall, flying over the gas cloud and crashing into Crossbones.
Crossbones kicks her off, then deploys metal attachments around his fists to make them more dangerous. He throws several punches at Johanna, but she easily deflects them. Then, Crossbones throws a slightly more wild punch with his right fist, and Johanna dodges it, grabs his arm, and then rips the attachment off his arm before breaking his wrist for good measure.
Crossbones throws another wild punch as Grim Reaper charges in. Johanna jumps back and waits for Grim Reaper, then ducks aside and throws him behind her as he reaches her. She then charges towards Crossbones again.
Crossbones tries to punch her with his left fist, but Johanna dodges it and shoves him to the ground. She then pounces on Crossbones, grabs his head, and with one sharp movement, snaps his neck.
Immediately, Johanna drops Crossbones' body and turns back to Grim Reaper, who is charging towards her. She dodges several quick slashes of the scythe before Grim Reaper discharges an energy blast from the wrist portion of the scythe. The blast hits Johanna in the chest and knocks her back into a pile of rubble.
Grim Reaper leaps through the air towards Johanna, swinging the scythe at her head. However, at the last second, she ducks, the scythe burying itself in the rubble over her head. She then reaches off, and in one motion, breaks the scythe off at Grim Reaper's wrist.
She kicks Grim Reaper in the chest, knocking him flying back. She then charges at him, holding the scythe. She leaps at him, screaming her war cry, and swings the scythe down, burying it in his chest. She stares down at his body before pulling the scythe out and then breaking it over her knee.
Johanna stands over Grim Reaper's body, staring down at it. Then, she hears cheers. She turns around and sees the soldiers from 13, applauding. She allows herself a cocky grin.
The soldiers helps her collect the bodies and transport them back to base. Johanna heads back with them. With Grim Reaper and Crossbones defeated, she wants to rejoin the team.
Once she escorts the bodies back to the airstrip so they can be flown back to 13, she heads for pavilion Robert is using as his headquarters.
The moment Johanna enters the pavilion, she knows that something is wrong. She can see it on Robert and Vision's faces.
"What is it?" she asks the two.
Robert looks at her solemnly. "Katniss and the rest of the team got cornered by Peacekeepers. The Capitol aired footage of Peacekeepers blowing up a building that Katniss and the others were trapped in, and we have no confirmation any survived," he says.
Johanna stands there for a second, rage causing She-Hulk to come back out. She looks at Robert and says, "No. They couldn't be beaten that easily."
Robert smiles a bit. "Good to see Vision and I aren't the only ones who believe that. But, we have no evidence they survived. For now, we'll help us we can and follow the orders from Coin and the commanders in the field. And, we'll keep looking for Taskmaster. We have confirmation that Katniss and the others haven't encountered him yet," Robert says.
Johanna nods, hoping that The Capitol is wrong, and she, Vision, and Haymitch aren't the only Avengers left.
And, I'll end there. Hope you liked that one.
So, yeah. Johanna beat Grim Reaper and Crossbones single-handedly. I thought it would be nice to really let her shine.
Next chapter will be up soon. Until then, leave a review, and stay tuned!