When fighting a being that's way stronger than you, you need to either hope in some divine interventions, or accept your fate.

I chose to believe in divine interventions. However, a wise man once said, "God helps those who help themselves". Thus, I had to act to save my own ass.

And I did.

"You know how the main characters stay alive for so long?" I asked as Doctor Fate's Spirit Bomb (not as big as Goku's, but still bloody terrifying) was nearly completed. Seeing that I wasn't getting an answer, I quickly shot the area of my feet, creating several holes in the floorboards.

"You stay near the doors."

With that, I fell through the emergency trapdoor that was already weakened by my barrage of bullets that I just shot. Then, I immediately dashed towards the emergency exit underground, which was a long tunnel that led to another abandoned warehouse located a few hundred meters away from here. Not the most ideal place to go, considering that Doctor Fate was way faster than me, and probably had a spell that could collapse the tunnel anytime, or blow it completely up, but I didn't have much of a choice.

"Beggars can't be fucking choosers" I growled as I opened the iron door and began to sprint down the tunnel.

Just as I was about to believe that I got a good head start, I felt heat. Extreme heat coming from my back. Then, within a fraction of a second, I realized that Doctor Fate had just dropped his spirit bomb right at where I had escaped. Thankfully, he aimed a couple of feet away from my current position and the spirit bomb was thrown downwards.

However, the force created by the explosion was something that I couldn't evade as I barely had the time to scream as my frail body was flung across the tunnel. But this wasn't bad. Sure, it hurt like hell, but the force of the blast carried my body a considerable amount of distance to the end of the escape tunnel.

I didn't have time to check myself. Hastily getting up, I dashed once again to the end of the door and frantically opened it up.

"IRREGULARITY!" Came the booming voice at the other end of the tunnel. "YOU SHALL BE PERISHED IN THE NAME OF ORDER!"

"Fuck me" I gasped as I ran. "I'm so fucked…"

I had to get out of Hub city. No. Wait. Make sure what my first priorities are. My first priority is to stay alive, since I had no intention of dying. Although I hated to live like this, I was too much of a scaredy cat to face death. What would happen to me if I died? Turned into a ghost and continued to act as a hero? Turned into a zombie and continued to fight against crime? Considering how shit of a person the author is, I can't discard those possibilities.

Now… back to the main point: survival. When a threat arrives our minds immediately jump to two possible choices: fight or flight. At first, my first instinct was to 'fight' as I fired my revolver at Doctor Fate. But when I realized just how powerful the helmet was, I immediately chose 'flight'. I will choose 'flight' for if I choose 'fight', I will probably perish within a minute at most. But… I can't continuously run away forever. Best chance I got was to call Batman or one of the League to take down Doctor Fate. I can worry about the consequences later, I just needed to survive.

…

…

…

Man… I just realized my pants caught on fire after the spirit bomb…

"AHHHHHHHHH!" I howled as I tore off my pants. "Hot, hot, FUCKING, HOT!"

Gladly, my left thigh was the only part that got burned. By the look of it, it was a second-degree burning as welts started to rise. That's when I noticed my ring finger and pinky finger was missing from my left hand.

"... oh…" I spoke, too dumbfounded to say anything anymore. But I didn't hesitate in stripping my hero costume off. Hopefully… hopefully Doctor Fate wouldn't recognize me in civilian outfits. This was the other end of the escape tunnel, and in this particular warehouse, dad and I stockpiled the place with emergency items that included a set of new clothes, just in case.

Thankfully, the wounds of my missing fingers were cauterized by the heat, and although I was starting to feel the scorching pain from where my joint used to be, I was glad that I wouldn't be leaving a trail of blood. The shrapnel from the explosion hadn't gone past my bulletproof armor and although I received a bit of scratches, they weren't that severe.

However, just as I was about to put my trousers on, another explosion took place, and this time, I didn't get off as easily as the first explosion.

Shutting my eyes, I felt myself flying, but more like shoved harshly towards the roof. Ears ringing and head spinning, I blinked the swirls out of my eyes and realized that I was already outside. I was blasted through the wooden roof and landed on top of a three-story building with smutty walls. While I threw up, I realized that the blast had sent me from ground zero to three stories up. Technically it was four stories considering that I was on the roof, but that didn't matter. I was in a bad spot. If Doctor Fate were to come out of that ruined warehouse and fly into the air to survey the area, he would've caught me instantly.

Thus, I began to frantically crawl over to the edge of the apartment, only to now realize I was missing half of my left forearm. This injury, however, wasn't cauterized.

Forcing myself to ignore the copious amount of blood that began to spurt out of my left arm, I continued my way to the edge of the roof. Then, after checking the position of the dumpster, I let my body fall into a pile of trash.

Although it smelled rancid, the trash inside the dumpster managed to lessen the impact as I reached ground zero. Now… since I was probably out of sight, I needed to do something with the spurting blood.

…

Nevermind, I needed pants, which I had left on the roof. Stupid, stupid, stupid Gary! How can you forget about pants, but still have your belt with you?!

Taking my belt, I used it to wrap it around the area below where my arm was missing. The feeling of it was excruciating, but I was more concerned about the trail of blood I was leaving behind. Unfortunately for me, Doctor Fate should notice the bloodstain on the roof, and should he give a close inspection, he would have a trail that would lead right to me. I can't let that happen. I needed to get away as fast as possible and close this wound too.

Already, people started to gather around the exploded warehouse and began to whisper to themselves. Those idiots… were they that curious enough to be so close to a place where there was potential danger? Thankfully, Doctor Fate wasn't a bloodthirsty villain. I mean, subjectively he is a bloodthirsty villain in my eyes, but I knew that he wouldn't cause a massacre just because those people were there.

…

Or… would he?

For all I know, Doctor Fate isn't aware of my wounds or my lack of body parts. All he knows is the shape of Comedian. If there was anybody in the crowd that resembled me, there was a chance he might kill them.

…

On second thought, he wouldn't. This all started when Doctor Fate figured out that I didn't really belong in this world. If he could sense that… that means that there wouldn't be any unnecessary killings, unless he keeps on throwing me those beams of yellow magic that explodes when made contact.

But first things first. I needed to stop the bleeding.

Kicking open the backdoor of another apartment, I briskly walked in the hallways and took myself to the second floor. The second floor had residents, and the sign of residents meant they had a stove. And if they have a stove…

"Moshi, mosh~!" I slurred out as I chose a random door to trespass. Then, I kicked the door open once again. This time, the force sent the door flying off its hinges. "FBI-desu~!"

Unfortunately, there were people inside the apartment, and chaos immediately arose. Considering there was a naked middle-aged woman, covering herself in sheets, and a young-looking guy frantically finding his shirt, it seems like they were both in a state of panic, not because a stranger in boxers came into the house, but because they thought they were caught in the middle of having an affair. But when they realized that wasn't the case, the male tried to fight me, only to get knocked cold by a whip of my gun.

Gods… I looked like a pervert. Had that weird crazy look on my face with my underwear showing to the whole wide world… That was probably why the woman was screaming, but man… what kind of vocal cords must one have to scream that much?

"If you ever scream again" I warned, as I pulled out my revolver, getting annoyed by her constant screaming. "Well… you get the idea."

That seemed to do the trick as the woman fell back onto the bed, too scared to formulate any comprehensible words as she started to jitter hysterical words to herself, and probably pissing on the bed.

Paying her no attention, I found the kitchen and thankfully, there was a stove. Quickly turning on the gas with my right hand, I undid the belt from my left stump. This action made me wince and light-headed as more blood began to spill out of the severed wound, but I had to stay awake. I had to stay awake for the next part that was about to bring a whole lot of inevitable pain that would course throughout my body. After folding the belt into two, and placing it inside my mouth, I shoved the stump into the blazing fire.

I was obviously screaming from the pain as the hissing noise of my blood boiling and flesh burning, but thankfully clenching my teeth around my belt lessened my screams a lot. I can't have myself getting Doctor Fate's attention now, could I?

Blinking out the swirls in my eyes, I woke up from my sitting position.

Did I… black out?

With the loss of blood, and the immense pain I had to go through, I suppose that was a possibility. Although I had recovered some of my stamina during my unconsciousness, I couldn't really afford any more sleep. Speaking of which… what was the time?

Groaning, I stood up and looked around, surprised at where I was.

I was no longer in front of the stove. In fact… I didn't even recognize this place. I was surrounded by bookshelves and the thousands of books that fit into it. Plus, this couch I was tucked into is very comfy. Whoever owned this knew their shit.

"H-how did I get here…?" I voiced out my inner thoughts as I groggily stood up, inspecting the place. Swallowing up the pain, as I did before, I began to stretch my body and stifled a scream as I felt my broken bones shooting immense pain throughout my body.

"Don't move too much kid…" An old, gruffy voice came from somebody who happened to be behind me. "You were in a really bad condition when I found you. No need to go ahead and make it worse."

Turning my head slowly, in order to stop more pain from jolting down my body, I got a good look at the person who probably carried me all the way to his home.

He was a middle-aged man, with a strange haircut that resembled that of Kim Jong-Un, except that this old man had an M-shaped hairline. Besides, his hair was white from his old age, and his face was all grumpy. It would be wise not to poke a grumpy middle-aged man who I'm indebted to.

…

…

…

Okay, who was this guy? He didn't seem like a hero or a retired hero considering his posture. This was either a good pretender or just a normal person who had nothing to do with the world of capes. But… if that was so, why did he bring me here to his house?

"Well, considering your confused face I guess I'm obliged to introduce myself." Spoke the man as he took another sofa as his hands carried a mug of something sweet and steaming. "Sit. You've earned several flesh wounds to your calves, not to mention the second-degree burning… I wouldn't say that it's a good idea for you to start standing up right away."

"R-right, thank you." I spoke. It was important to mind my manners in front of somebody I didn't know, and especially for strangers that had the upper hand. Thus, I sat back down, and snuggled back into the soft cushions.

"My name is Aristotle Rodor, and well… I work with your father."

"... oh." I exclaimed, my mind whirring back to when I had a father-son discussion with Vic Sage. "You're Tot!"

"Glad to know Vic talks about me with you." Spoke the man as he gave me a warm smile. "So, you're Vic's son, eh?"

"Adopted." I unintentionally added as I winced. "I mean… pretty obvious, isn't it."

"It doesn't change the fact that you're his son, and he cares very much for you."

"... okay, enough with the small talk. How did you find me?!" I exclaimed because I was very curious. Although Hub City wasn't grand or big like New York or Metropolis, it was still a city with a considerable amount of people residing in it. Plus, considering I blacked out in a random apartment… Anyways, my point is that it was bizarre to see that my dad's most trusted friend found me first than Doctor Fate who would most obviously have better and more various methods to find me.

"Well, your father asked me to take care of you while he went off on a long-term mission." Spoke Tot, as he scratched his cheek with a deep frown. "It's been a while since I've seen him become that serious. He softened up and became more human since he's had you, but to see him back to what he once was… Anyways, to answer your question, I simply tracked you with this tracking device."

"... excuse me, what?"

"A tracking device. On that yellow smiley badge." Spoke Tot as if he expected me to know. "... you didn't know?"

"I didn't…" I groaned as I sank back into the chair as I massaged my face.

…

…

…

Only to be reminded of the fact that half of my left arm was missing. In fact… there seemed to be a few more parts missing… and… huh. There happened to be no signs of burned wounds or scabs that were supposed to be covering all around my body.

…

Did… did Tot manage to complete his original project of creating artificial skin? The one that my dad uses are effective but only effective over undamaged skin. But since my skin was heavily damaged… the only explanation was that Tot managed to create artificial skin that also works on damaged skin tissues and boy did they look great on me.

"I finally found the right formula for the artificial skin project of mine." Spoke Tot with pride in his voice after he noticed my interest at the clean stump of mine. "Took me forever, but at least I perfected it. But uh… it can't come off like it does with your father's mask."

"Wouldn't it be more of a failure if it comes off?" I deadpanned, as I winced from poking too deep into my stump. "Oh… by the way, what happened with Doctor Fate? And uh… how long was I out?"

"... to answer your latter question, it's surprisingly only been three hours. Judging by your wounds and the shock from cauterization, I expected you to be out cold for today at the least."

"... Tot…? What did Doctor Fate do…?" I asked, suddenly feeling a sense of dread in my stomach. The way he wasn't trying to even hide his disdain of answering my first question sent me into full alert. Something was clearly off. Unfortunately, this place seemed to be a basement judging by the unventilated air and lack of windows, which made it impossible to get an assessment of what was going on outside. But when looking at Tot's body language and—

The whole room trembled as a tremor passed through and for a split second, I saw Tot's panic-stricken face.

Then I realized that the old man was terrified beyond comprehension. He was just doing his best job to hide it from me.

"Tot." I said again, this time with more force but with slight fear in my voice. "What's going out there?"

Wordlessly, the man picked up the remote controller and turned on the television only to show me that… Hub city was burning.

"... holy fuck…" I whispered as I finally grasped the situation around me by watching the news as the Hub City reporter broke down into tears as another building fell apart. Shortly after, the television fuzzed out as it lost signal as the machine started to make that wretched noise as the black and white noise buzzed on the screen.

Honestly, I couldn't blame the reporter for losing her cool and throwing away her professionalism as a reporter. By the looks of it, every living being in Hub City was fucked, all thanks to Doctor Fate. And even when the heroes from the Justice League came for our rescue, they were all unable to enter the giant golden transparent dome that was created by Doctor Fate.

In fact… they were all unable to even make a scratch on the surface.

I don't exactly know how it works, but I think that Doctor Fate created another dimension inside this dimension, causing Hub City to be physically non-existent to the real world. Thus, when Hawkman swung his mace, it only hit air, and when he tried to bodyslam the dome he was immediately sent out to the other side of the dome.

Maybe the dome is just a large portal where every coordinate is rearranged to appear on the other side of the dome, but knowing Raven's portals, I believe that my first assumption is more correct.

Either way, brute force would be impossible to solve this problem. We needed a magician, rich nerds that use high-tech, or brute force that goes beyond the laws of physics to break this barrier.

…

…

…

Speaking of those who are capable of such feats, where the hell is Superman…?

…

…

…
Eh, he's a big man with big responsibilities who has sensitive ears that torment him by every second. I'm sure he has something more important than the fact that I'm going to die along with everybody in Hub City.

"You are awfully calm about this." I said to Tot who was sipping on his cup of tea.

"Eh. Although this scale is much larger than what I've seen and went through with your father, it's nothing I can't handle."

"You sure about that? Doctor Fate is pretty adamant on destroying Hub City and everybody who lives in it."

"Well, you do have a good point, but do you think there's anything we can do to stop him?"

"That's an even better point than what I made…" I groaned as I let myself be sunken into the comfy armchair.

In silence the two of us drank our mugs of tea and hot chocolate, but I sure as hell needed to do something.

"Have I told you what Doctor Fate is after…?" I asked cautiously to Tot.

"What? You know why he's doing this suddenly?" Exclaimed Tot as his eyes widened up.

"Well… He's trying to kill me you see… Personally."

"... well, that complicates things." Spoke Tot as he started to furiously massage his temples. "Let me go through Vic's contingency files. Hopefully he'll have something against magic users or Doctor Fate himself…"

"... wait, contingency files? Dad has them? Wait, when… I mean, he hasn't told me any of these!"

"He… he hasn't…? That's strange. I thought he would be the one to tell you considering he let you tag along on his dangerous missions. Eh, must've slipped out of his mind."

"... I hate the fact that that's the likely possibility… or it's just lazy writing after the author took a yearlong fucking break." I grumbled as I followed Tot as he sat in front of a computer.

"All the information is in the hard-drive. Shouldn't be much of a problem for us to print out some stuff that might be useful to us. Now the only problem is that we're dealing with magic… something that your father and I know barely little about…"

"Hasn't dad dealt with at least a couple of magicians in his lifetime? It would be strange if he didn't…"

"Well, yes. Your father did come across a few, but according to our colleagues they all claimed that they were, pardon my language, 'shit-magicians.'"

"That ain't no 'shit-magician' Tot." I deadpanned, as the files popped up from the computer as Tot and I began to skim through the pages of my father's contingency plans against magic users. "That's the lord of order himself, and he's dead set on finding my ass."

Then, something caught my eye.

"Wait. Scroll back up. I want to read section 5 again."

As I began to read the content of section 5, a little grain of hope was given to me.

"Just because Doctor Fate is all big and mighty doesn't make him a magician with an infinite source of magical energy. Sure, the helmet has its uses, but… it doesn't give the wearer unlimited supply. If it did, he'd already burnt Hub City by now."

"That means that he's depleting his resources faster than any magician." Said Tot, adding his two cents. "He has already created this golden dome that's preventing even the strongest heroes from breaking it, and at the same time he's destroying the downtown avenue as we speak."

"How do you know that?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow. Thanks to Doctor Fate, who blew up the TV station along with most of the radio stations, I was curious to know how the hell this old man knew where Doctor Fate was apeshitting.

"It's just an estimation." Spoke Tot as he never took his eyes off the screen, reading the contents for more information.

"Considering how fast he was demolishing the 21st street 30… no 34 minutes ago, and if he still managed to maintain that level of destruction up to now, then naturally downtown avenue must be in flames."

"Damn that's cool." I muttered, reading on as I took control of the mouse as I scooched a bit closer. "Mathematical modeling. I should learn how to use that more often."

"It's not even modeling." Spoke Tot as he, for the first time, took his eyes off the screen to give me a quick glance. "Just a simple math equation. Gary, where in the hell are you going?"

"To stop that thing that's wrecking up the city." I said naturally, as if today was a normal Wednesday. "Don't tell me now that you're going to stop me from killing myself."

"Are you going to listen if I plead with you?"

"Nope. You need something better than that."

"... then is there any way for me to help you…?" Asked Tot with such tired and sad eyes I've ever seen before. "I know I can't stop you with persuasion. Once you set your mind to it, you do it. Vic said so and judging by the look of your eyes he doesn't seem wrong."

Although he wasn't wrong, it wasn't like I was the one making decisions. Fully knowing that I couldn't fight back against the one who had taken my free-will away I complied and kept walking on the path they paved. This time, they paved a path where I would have a conflict with Doctor Fate, and when putting my missing dad in the equation…

Sooner or later, I'll be searching for him and find myself wading in shit.

"..."

"Gary…? You know you don't have to do this…"

"I have to." I spoke trembling as I urged myself not to look at my left stump. "Because it has to always be me. Because even if I run away, I'll be running away from fate itself, and when it catches up with you… well, it becomes a lot uglier."

Ransacking the whole place for a good, I was done preparing for the inevitable.

"Besides." I added before leaving Tot's home. "You did the opposite of stopping me and actually helped me. What was that for?"

"... since I kind of knew that you were going to go out there no matter what I say, the best I could do was to help you not get killed out there. I do not acquire the… physicality to stop you. You're younger, bigger, stronger. The best I could do is try and trick you, but you're far too clever for that. Additionally, you're likely to punch me in my solar plexus and push me out of the way if I try to do anything."

"Damn. Did dad tell you about my fighting patterns or am I too obvious with the solar plexus thing?"

"Oh, I think it's quite an efficient move, but I knew it because Vic and I talked about it. He talks about you all the time when we're together, Gary. How you fight, what grades you've got from school, how you won your gold medal from swimming and so on."

"... do you have any idea where he could be?"

"... I have only a few leads, but that's all I got."

"Let me guess. Cadmus?"

"Oh even better. I can narrow it down to, which Cadmus building."

I simply let out a short bark of laughter as I pinned my yellow smiley badge.

"Of course… You were also looking for him. But no spoilers for now. Tell me all about it after I come back."

"... please do, Gary." Spoke the old man softly. "I… I have no idea how to face your father if you don't… So please… please be safe."

Safe? Sorry Tot. But as long as I exist and as long as I remain as the main target for whoever's pulling the strings, I can never be safe.

Only the end of this cruel story shall set me free, but I have no idea when it would end.

Another building exploded, and another few hundred people's lives were extinguished.

However, this wasn't chaotic. Not in Doctor Fate's eyes at least.

Sure. For the first few minutes, it was considered to be chaos.

People were screaming, firearms were fired towards Doctor Fate, houses and buildings were demolished. However, as minutes turned into hours, there wasn't chaos.

There was just rubble and burnt flesh that would surely go back to dirt.

It was all part of nature's plan, it was all part of Order's plan. There was nothing wrong with this. It was for the better good. It was for cleansing this beautiful universe. It was for getting rid of the filth of chaos that managed to step into this plane.

It was to kill the Comedian, to kill and burn Gary Sage's soul. He was going to kill that boy and destroy his soul so that there would be no place for him on Earth, on Heaven, on Hell.

He was—

"Hey jackass!"

What?

"This is my city, and if anybody's going to burn this place to the ground, it's going to be me!"

"Irregularity. You have finally—"

With those, rather unfitting words for a hero, I shot a pellet towards Doctor Fate not letting him finish his sentence. As the pellet dropped near Doctor Fate's feet, smoke and gas started to pour out of it causing the magician to cough from the unexpected turn of events.

"Round two, bitch."

So... yeah.

Long time no see I guess?

University was... a thing that happened, and unfortunately, I couldn't find the time to keep on writing. However, I finally got the time as I took most of the hardest courses off my back. However, that might change in the future, but I can promise to you readers that it's not bad to have hope.

One way or another, I like to finish my stories.

Oh, and torture my OCs.

So with no apologies and a banging return, here I am!

West Door out.

PS. You really should watch Puss in Boots. That movie went so hard that I was speechless at the end.