Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics, or anything associated with said franchise.
Accolades/Appreciation: THANKS FOR THE FEEDBACK! I truly appreciate each and every comment, message, and review that I get on each and every one of my stories, and I take each and every comment into account when creating and crafting a new chapter.
Author Announcement(s): Anyways, just for clarification, the following events in the following chapter take place DIRECTLY AFTER the events in the PREVIOUS CHAPTER happened, and the events in the previous chapter happened DIRECTLY AFTER the chapter RIGHT BEFORE it, which happened DIRECTLY AFTER the events in CHAPTER THREE! For instance, when Dick and Commissioner Cain were talking, back IN CHAPTER FOUR, it was MERE MOMENTS, BEFORE "Shade Shifter" confronted the three robbers in CHAPTER FIVE. Look at the times-of-the-day in the chapters, and you'll see that I have set-it-up that way, on-purpose. Another instance, would be the fact that the conversation that Terry and Dana had was MERE MOMENTS AFTER "Shade Shifter" confronted the three crooks, as it was still EARLY MORNING, and/or, LATE NIGHT, when Dana dropped Diana off at Terry's apartment. Also, as it was NIGHT-TIME in Cairo, Egypt, when Rex, AND the two "Schism Siblings," were preparing to confront the P.L.O. (Palestine Liberation Organization) terrorists, it was EARLY NIGHT-TIME in CAIRO and thus, it was LATE NIGHT-TIME, in GOTHAM CITY! Thus, the events in the chapter that you are ABOUT TO READ, happened ONLY A FEW MOMENTS AFTER the events IN CHAPTERS THREE-THROUGH-FIVE. So, in a matter of speaking, the LAST THREE CHAPTERS have JUST happened WITHIN MERE MOMENTS, and/or, MINUTES of EACH-OTHER! Just, please keep that in mind, so as to NOT get confused, because ALL of the chapters in this story are, and/or, WILL BE in CHRONOLOGICAL-ORDER (A.K.A.: "Time-Order"), and ANY/ALL of the characters will eventually tie-in together! Also, the lengths of the chapters will now begin to get progressively shorter, and soon they'll be about 5,000 words, on average. ...Anyways, read on my great fellow readers, and don't forget to R&R!
VI. Rings, Rules, and Reinforcements
John sped through the cold Russian air, and his field of emerald energy that surrounded his body was the bright beacon of willpower that he and many others knew so well. He flew for a seemingly endless distance, and he finally spotted the landmark that he had aiming for: the mountain.
Secretly secluded within the mountain's south face was a balcony, and John knew just where this balcony led: to the interior of the mountain hideaway of the "League of Assassins."
John flew as fast as he could. He passively peeked behind his shoulder only momentarily, and he was relieved to see that he had lost the squad of Emerald Shadow Slayers that had been tailing him all the way from the Watch-Tower. He knew that he had only lost them for a short time, though.
They would be back on his tail again very soon. He had very little time to do what he needed to do. John knew how to lose an enemy though. If there was one thing John could do, it was fly. He had been trained and by Hal Jordan after all.
John quickly descended to the balcony, and he walked to the entrance located there. As soon as he reached the doorway, however, he was greeted by armed men, and they were armed with swords, and steel of any and all kinds. They were dressed in full-body black cloth with slits for their menacing and murderous eyes. They were archetypal assassins—cold killers.
Two of the five armed guards raised his serrated steel katana to John's throat, and the man in green didn't flinch an inch. The eyes of the assassin narrowed, and John copied the action. The guard was soon called off, however, as he lowered his weapons.
"Enough." called a stern, cold voice from beyond the entrance. Soon the owner of the commanding and controlling came into view—Talia Al Ghul.
The dark-haired woman looked curiously at the Green Lantern before her. She smirked and raised an eyebrow.
"Well well, if it isn't John Stewart. It is certainly is nice to see you. Come now gentlemen, this is no way to treat a 'guest.'" she stated, and the assassins obliged her and sheathed their swords.
Two of the black-clad men appeared behind John, ready to 'escort' him to the interior of the hideout. Talia began to walk to the interior of the hideaway, gesturing for the Green Lantern to follow her.
"Won't you join me, John? It is the reason you've come all this way, is it not? To catch up with 'old friends?'" she asked curiously, as she began to—slowly but surely—lead her guards to the interior of the hideaway.
The guards began to follow her, but when the two behind the Green Lantern were forced to stop due John's immobile and inert stature, Talia quickly took note, and she swiftly and silently turned around and addressed the Green Lantern.
"It is very rude to treat a host—especially one as kind and hospitable as myself—this way, John. I insist that you follow me. I do not wish to use force." she spat vehemently.
John stared, unflinchingly, right into her furiously fatal eyes. "I did come here to 'catch-up,' with 'old friends,' but I did not come to see you, per se." John replied.
Talia raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Why, John, I'm a little insulted. Well, I presume that you came to converse with my father then?" she inquired.
John shook his head slightly. "No. I came for your son." he responded.
Talia's eyes widened. "What? Why?" was all she could muster in response.
"I have a gift for him." John said, holding out his spare Green Lantern Power Ring. Talia looked at it, and she became even more wide-eyed.
"It chose him?" she asked skeptically.
"Not exactly…" John trailed off.
Talia raised her eyebrow once again. "I do not understand." she replied, a little more wary than before.
"The ring didn't choose him. I did." he replied.
Talia looked at him in slight puzzlement.
"Just take me to him." John said, and she nodded in agreement, escorting John to the interior of the building, and leading him directly to her son's quarters.
"He is inside." she addressed the man in green. John nodded, and she departed.
John knocked on the door, and he was surprised to see that it was unlocked and unblocked. He gently nudged the door open, and the sight beyond it was to be expected.
Damian Wayne stood off to the far side of the room—on the other side of the small but comfortable bed—and behind the small wooden dresser that acted as the only piece of furniture in the room. He was currently in front of the only window in the room, shirtless.
"…John…?..." Damian addressed the odd sight of one of his father's former allies.
John nodded. Damian proceeded to quickly don the back shirt that was in his hands. He pulled the shirt over his head, swiftly and skillfully covering up the many scars—although they were well-healed scars, which added to his intimidating and intriguing nature—and he swiftly concealed his very well-defined physical physique.
John took note of the way the way the scars had healed, and the nature of the injuries. Damian had obviously been through some very intense training, and it showed. His scars had healed nicely though—very nicely. It was probably the after-effects of some water from the "Lazarus Pits."
"It's good to see you, Damian." John addressed the man before him. Damian had been through intense training, but John wondered if it was enough. It would have to be.
"Yeah. Same, John. Is something wrong?" Damian questioned curiously.
John looked perplexed. "…Well, yes and no. …Actually more yes than no." the Green Lantern responded.
Damian raised an eyebrow. "What is it?" he asked cautiously, awaiting an answer that might shock and stun him, but then again, it took something truly terrible to shock Damian Wayne.
John smirked and tossed Damian the spare Green Lantern Power Ring that he had been carrying. Damian caught the ring with expert and ready reflexes, and he looked at the green ring with curiosity and wonder.
Damian looked at the ring, and then back up at John. "…Did it… …Choose me?" he asked the Lantern in front of him.
John shook his head. "Nope. I did." he replied.
Damian looked at the older man with a clearly comical disdain. "Isn't that against the rules?" he asked skeptically.
"Screw the rules." John responded, and Damian went wide-eyed.
Green Lanterns were notorious for their sense of order and control. They almost never broke the rules. John Stewart was the epitome of the lawful, archetypal, rule-following, regulatory, reasoning, Green Lantern. One thing was painfully clear: if something made John Stewart 'screw the rules,' then it was something big —and bad.
"Did you just say 'screw the rules?' Okay, what the hell is going on?" he asked, now more warningly and warily than before.
"Just put the ring on. I'll explain everything as quickly as I can. …And hurry, we don't have much time left." John responded, and Damian looked at the other man with a look of pure puzzlement, but he put the ring on nonetheless. John now had his teammate, but he wondered if even that would be enough. He hoped so.
Damian donned the ring quickly, and once he had the ring on the middle finger of his dominant right hand, he looked at John and waited for the Lantern to speak.
He did not speak, so Damian spoke first. "…Well…" he urged the man in Green to explain himself.
John sighed. "A large group of Shadow Slayers will be here momentarily. I need your help to defeat them." John explained, but the explanation didn't seem to help Damian in the least.
"…'Shadow Slayers?'" Damian questioned.
John sighed again. "They're creations of Vandal Savage. Each of the seven colors of the 'Emotional Support Spectrum,' is a color of the visible light spectrum, and each color represents—and controls—a different, tangible emotion. When a ring-bearer is chosen by a power ring of that color, it was because the potential and prospective owner of the ring has demonstrated an immense use, possession, and control over the emotion that the ring used to wield its power. For instance, Green Lanterns need to have immense control and use of their own willpower in order to chosen by a Green Lantern Power Ring, because that is our emotion. At the far end of the spectrum, is the 'Red Lantern Corps,' whose members are fueled by the emotion of rage, and on the other extreme of the spectrum, are the 'Star Sapphires,' who are fueled by love. In the direct middle of the original emotion spectrum is the color green," John gestured to his own Green Lantern Power Ring, "whose main emotion is willpower, and whose Green Lanterns Corps are supposed to keep the other Lantern Corps in check." John explained, and Damian nodded in understanding. John then continued.
"Unfortunately, Savage was able to take this emotion spectrum, and literally, flip it. In this new, destructive, spectrum, these new colors—or abscesses, as Savage called them, as they truly are the absence of any color—had the exact opposite effect as their corresponding original color had in the original emotion spectrum. The most useful—useful to Vandal Savage anyways—of these new abscesses, was the abscess of green, which allowed the user of an emerald abscess ring, to enforce their own willpower, over others desires and demands. Savage's ideal goal is to merge all of the new abscess colors into one, immensely powerful ring, and thus outfit this ring, either on himself, or on his most-trusted and most well-trained Hero Hunter. As far as I know, he has not yet completed this task, and if I have my way, he never will. Savage has created many Hero Hunters, who are now outfitted with green abscess power rings, and as such, they are now his minions. Their first task was test their limits and abilities in battle against us, the Green Lantern Corps. Thus, following Savage's orders, they went to do battle with the Green Lantern Corps. The results were disastrous. The aftermath had the central city of Planet Oa—the main refuge for the Green Lantern Corps—in complete and utter ruins. The Green Lanterns had put up much more of a fight than Savage had ever expected—hey, we are the Green Lantern Corps, after all—and the Green Lanterns had won the battles and fatal fights that ensued, but Savage's new soldiers had been very effective as well. The Green Lanterns had won the ensuing battles in the infamous 'Shadow Slayer Conflicts,' but our cost was grave and dire. Our numbers had been drastically reduced. Savage has named his new 'creations' 'Shadow Slayers,' and now, a group of Emerald Shadow Slayers are on their way here right now." John finished, and Damian now understood everything and he processed it all with amazing speed and sense.
"…So, how am I supposed to help?" the former "Demon Child" adamantly asked the Green Lantern before him.
John smirked. "I'll need some help to fight them off. …And I had a spare ring, since Hal left the Corps—and declared that he was, and I quote, 'Done with any and all rings of any shape and size.' So… …I had to think of someone—and very quickly at that—who would be able to wield the ring without any major drawbacks. …Someone who wasn't Hal." John clarified, looking intently at Damian.
Damian understood now, but he had a semi-serious, semi-sarcastic smirk on his face. "…So, you decided to give one of the most powerful weapons in the universe to a brutal, strong, smart, swift, headstrong, psychotic, well-trained assassin?" Damian asked, looking at John with a look of apt amusement.
"As far as I'm concerned, kid, you just described your father." John said, smirking.
Damian smiled a little, but then his smile faltered as he remembered something: he wasn't his father. "…John, I'm not my father…" Damian responded, sounding slightly sobered and defeated, and ready to hand the ring back. John stopped him with a hand on Damian's ring.
"Trust me, kid. You're close enough." John said, smiling. Damian smirked once again.
"…Alright, so how does this work, exactly? I thought that, as you said, one had to be chosen by the ring, in order to use it." Damian questioned, and John nodded slightly.
"…In a matter of speaking, yes. …However, one can use the ring, whenever, and however he or she wishes, even without being chosen. There are obvious downsides to using the ring in this way, though." John explained.
"Like what?" the blue-eyed man questioned, his intelligent ice-cold eyes looking at John with intent.
"The user of a Power Ring—of any color—who has not been chosen, can only use the ring for one battery charge—or in other words, it's a 'one-time-use' for a non-chosen user." the Lantern explained, and Damian nodded. John continued.
"Also, the power output of the ring is severely limited to a user of the ring, who has not been chosen. In laymen's terms, you can only do half of what a normal Green Lantern can accomplish. On the upside though, this means that, because your power output will be less, your power input will also be less. This means that the immense force and fatigue that a normal Green Lantern has to put on his or her mind and body to control and wield the ring, will not apply to you. You will still have a significant amount of strain put on your body and mind—a very significant amount of strain—but it would not be as demanding as the strain put on the average Green Lantern." John finished, and Damian nodded once again.
The assassin smirked. "John, I'm pretty sure that I can handle the 'strain.' I am well-trained, extremely physically fit assassin, who has been breed, born, and trained since birth to withstand almost anything. I'm pretty sure that this little ring isn't anything I can't handle." he said, smirking in cocky way, and gesturing to the ring on his finger
"I hope so, kid. Just don't be so cocky. All the newbie Lanterns say that, and then after their first time using the ring, they pass out. Even though it is only half of the strain as the average Green Lantern, it will still be very great. Just don't take it so light-heartedly." John warned, and Damian nodded.
"…Anything else?" Damian questioned.
John nodded with a slight smirk. "Yeah. Only official Green Lanterns get a uniform. Sorry." John said, still smirking.
Damian chuckled slightly. "Don't worry about it. Green's not my color anyways. I'm more into black and red." the man responded, giving the experienced Lantern a cocky grin. John nodded.
"The Guardians won't put you on suspension for this, will they?" Damian questioned, and John shrugged.
"Probably, but hey, it is an emergency." he replied, shrugging slightly.
"Very well then. Alright, so give me a quick run-down of the abilities at the disposal of a Green Lantern." Damian commanded, and John nodded.
"Flight. That's a given." the Lantern explained. Damian nodded.
"Construct creation. If you can imagine it, you can create it. As long as your willpower and the physical and mental limits of your body allow you to sustain your constructs, they should be able to hold-up against almost anything. Now, remember, you have only half of the energy input and output as the average Green Lantern, so this might affect your ability to create and contort constructs." John said, and Damian nodded again.
"…And super strength, correct?" Damian questioned with a deviously demented grin.
John thought for a moment. "Yes. But, not 'super strength' in the traditional sense. A Lantern must surround himself with a field of 'Emerald Energy,' in order to gain enhanced speed, strength, or agility. The force of this field of emerald energy is what you can control, not your actual strength. For instance, if you hit an enemy with a field of emerald energy around your own body, then the force of the hit will be compounded. Thus, the limit of the force of the hit you deliver to an enemy will be the limit of your own willpower—your willpower, and also how much strain and strength your body can withstand, as putting too much force into an attack could leave you winded and out of stamina or energy." he answered Damian.
"That same concept applies to lifting objects as well, correct?" Damian asked, and John nodded.
"How much time do we have?" he asked, and John sighed.
"Not much, kid." was all he responded with.
"We should take action to warn my mother and grandfather. They may be able to assist us. The rings have a weakness towards wood, do they not?" he asked, and John shook his head.
"No. Only Alan Scott's ring had that weakness. His ring was given that weakness by the Guardians because the last owner of Scott's ring was a power-hungry tyrant who had tried to rule the Earth. Thus, because he had tried to rule ancient Earth—and, at the time, most human weapons were made of wood—the Guardians made his ring vulnerable to wood, so that the human armies could stop him." John explained.
Damian looked sour. He was sure that he had a plan in action. The League had a perfect plethora of wooden weapons, but John had just shot down his only attempt at a battle strategy. "There must be some way that they can assist us." Damian said. John looked up at the boy, and he smiled.
"There is." he responded, and before Damian could inquire further, John was off, down the hall, heading towards the main hall of the hideout. Damian rolled his eyes, and he began to follow the Lantern, hoping that his mother, grandfather, or the 'White Ghost,' didn't kill him, before he explained himself. His family wasn't the nicest of people.
Chaos was at the northern entrance to the settlement in no time. The settlement had small buildings littered throughout it, and it had only four points of entry—the four points that the two twins had targeted in their plan of attack.
Each entrance to the sandy little dry desert settlement was between a large archway, and the archways apparently served to be some sort of architectural landmark. Chaos felt somewhat guilty at the thought that he was going to have to destroy those arches, but he quickly shook it off. He stood in front of the small group of armed guards that waited there, and he quickly grabbed their attention. The boy with the red-and-white bulls-eye target painted on his well-defined chest came to a stop in front of the guards, and he called out to them, through his bold blue bandana-mask.
"Hey guys. I thought I heard a little girl screaming over here. I thought you might've, y'know, been torturing her or something. …But, obviously, it was just your silly sex games. My bad, guys. Carry on, 'gentle' men." Chaos said, chuckling in an obvious way.
The men were instantly and adamantly angered, and they opened fire on the boy. Chaos was quicker than the bullets though. The boy left a noticeable blue streak as he sped away from the incoming bullets. He was on the other side of the entrance arch, and he had the terrorists' attentions once again.
"Oh, c'mon! You can do better that! I mean, I have a target painted on my chest! …Or do you guys learn to shoot, like how you learn to fly? Y'know what I mean by that right? Y'know, how you guys learn to fly a plane, but don't learn to land one. Do you learn to shoot a gun, but not to aim one as well?" he asked, the guards' tempers flared, and they opened fire again, as Chaos swiftly and surely dodged the incoming barrage of bullets once again.
The blue streak was now traveling fast—very fast—but he was running slow enough for the terrorists to track his potential path-of-travel, and Chaos led their barrage of bullets right to the second entrance that he had been assigned to distract: the east entrance. Chaos slowed down, just as the fatal fire of bullets from the guards at the northern entrance starting whizzing by the guards at the east entrance.
The guards there at the east entrance gathered at their own weapons, and they began to return fire at the source of the bullets heading straight for them. In the darkness, the two groups of guards did not see each other and could not correctly identify the other, and Chaos knew this. His sister's plan had eagerly exploited this fact.
The two groups became very discombobulated, and they were soon confounded and confused. Chaos took advantage of this. He sped forward, and using his serious boost in speed, he launched himself into the air. Just as he was directly between the two groups that were exchanging fire, his blue eyes grew an even darker shade of deep blazing blue, and his fists followed a similar pattern, as they burned with a bold blue aura.
Chaos used his telekinesis, and the two stone arch structures around the two groups that were returning fire collapsed, and the debris trapped and immobilized all of the stupidly shooting terrorists. Chaos landed directly between the two groups, and he smirked, but he was also trying to catch his breath.
Using his telekinesis put a serious physical strain on his body. Likewise, using her own telekinesis put a serious mental strain on Control's mind. They used their telekinesis often, and the more they used their telekinesis, the more apt and adapted they became to the severe strain that accompanied their telekinesis, but it was still a big strain nonetheless.
Just as Chaos had started to catch his breath, the two remaining groups of guards at the other two entrances turned their bodies and attentions to the direction of the previous commotions, and they prepared to open fire.
Just before they could, however, a red steak similar to her brother's own blue trail zoomed to, through, in, and out of the two remaining groups of terrorists, and they promptly found themselves disarmed, knocked out, or otherwise disabled, with a devastating and debilitating bullet wound in their legs, forcing them to remain on the ground. While the men saw only a red streak, Control saw everything in real true-time.
The girl ran, with expert speed, skill, and agility through the two groups of bloodthirsty terrorists, and she made quick work of them. The terrorists seemed to have stopped completely, but she knew better. She had only slowed them down enough for her to accurately accomplish her task. There were bullets in the air—some aimed at her, some aimed at her brother. She found each of the bullets, and quickly and quietly located and redirected each of those bullets. She ran past one bullet, seemingly frozen in the air, and flicked it back in the opposite direction that it had come from; the bullet went flying towards and into the leg of the nearest gunman.
He was crippled, and he would soon fall to the ground, unable to move, but the effects of the wound would not take effect until her flash freeze had worn off. She continued her trek to and through the terrorists, and throughout the two groups of guards—at the western and southern entrances—and she was soon completed with her tasks.
She resumed normal speed, and all of the men that she had injured, incapacitated, or otherwise rendered inert, fell to the ground, unable to move, and barely able to speak. All the men had seen was a red flash too quick for their eyes to perceive, but Control had experienced everything in a slow-moving panorama of attacks.
She stopped in the middle of the two former groups of conscious gunmen, and she was directly across from her brother, who had finally caught his breath. The two twins nodded at each other, and they entered the settlement to deal with the rest of the brutal, bloodthirsty, insurgents.
The two entered the settlement from opposite entrances, and the then they were off. A red and blue storm of speed entered the small village with amazing efficiency, energy, and effort, and they began to distract, assault, and bombard the terrorists located therein.
Rex watched from the rooftop of one of the small buildings in the settlement with amazement at the accuracy and efficiency of the twins. He scanned the settlement below him, intent on taking action himself. He wasn't one to sit out on the action.
Rex quickly identified a group of lone gunmen that the twins had either not seen, or left to deal with at later time. He assumed that it was the latter of the two options. Those two seemed to have their senses, smarts, and schemes set and laid-out in a working manner. It was unlikely that they had missed the group of terrorists that he was now observing, but regardless, he descended the rooftop, and he approached the group form the rear, staying in the shadows.
Rex pulled his hood over his head, and he was gone, racing towards the group silently and stealthily.
The dark green shadow approached the men, and he quickly grabbed and twisted the necks of the two men closest to him. He had performed the action enough times in the past to be very proficient at it. The men fell to the ground, still breathing but unconscious. Rex caught their bodies before they hit the ground, and he gently and gingerly laid their bodies on the sandy settlement floor.
The group of gunmen had not noticed that two of their men had been silently and stealthily taken out, and they continued to walk carefully and cautiously through the streets of the small settlement, always keeping their eyes peeled for these two new speedy enemies that had graced their small camp.
Rex tried his hand at the next two guards, and he successfully took them down, but he failed to rest the second one on the ground quietly, and the others heard and immediately whipped around, guns firing and flaring at the green-clad boy.
Rex swiftly sprinted away, and the quickly retreating shadow was in the dark alley beside him with terrific timing, narrowly avoiding injury from the gunfire. The three gunmen started to approach the alley where the boy had disappeared into, only to be confronted by their two new enemies.
Chaos and Control appeared behind the insurgents and the gunmen slowly but surely turned around—all of the gunmen, except one gunman, who swiftly and stealthily slipped in the dark alley that Rex had just disappeared into. Neither Chaos, nor Control noticed this.
The two gunmen started shaking and they promptly dropped their Ak-47s. They raised their hands in the air, but they were far too afraid to speak.
Both of the twins smirked, and although no one could see their facial expressions, both of the siblings knew that the other was smirking.
"Sorry. We're not taking prisoners today." they both said in unison, and the blue-eyed boy and pink-haired girl proceeded to decisively drop the corresponding insurgent that each of them had targeted.
Chaos was about to utter some snide and sarcastic statement when the last gunmen—the one who had escaped their sights—came out of the shadows, and he attacked Control.
He sprayed her with bullets, and she had no time so use her flash freeze, so she tried her best to dodge the incoming projectiles as best she could at her normal speed. She readily rolled along the desert floor, and although she was quick, one of the bullets went right through her left leg.
The pain was excruciating, but she didn't make a sound as she fell to the ground. The girl was on the ground, and she was sure that bullet had not only bore a hole in her leg, but had also broken her leg as well, as it had passed right through her bone. The man approached the wounded girl on the ground—the girl who was on all four of her limbs—and before he could even raise his weapon, Control spun up and around, swinging her other undamaged leg at her attackers face, and the kick was a strong one.
This all happened in a matter of moments, not enough time for even Chaos to react. It sent the man flying back into the alley, but before her brother could finish him off—and just as the man was aiming his weapon at Control—the gunman was snatched deeper into the dark alleyway by a pair of green-clad arms.
The sounds of the man being assaulted and losing consciousness were heard from the alleyway. Chaos was at his sister's side in an instant. She refused his help, though, as she usually did.
Her eyes and hands glowed a deep pink, and she used her telekinesis to repair her wounded leg, as she painfully snapped the bones and vessels back into place. It was always painful when she healed herself.
Her brother had a much less painful way of tending to injuries. He simply sped up his own metabolisms, thus speeding up the rate at which new cells, tissues, and organs formed, which healed almost any injury very quickly, effectively, and efficiently—so long as he had the energy, effort, and ability to withstand the serious physical strain that it put on his body, which was not always the case.
Control couldn't speed up her own metabolisms, so she relied on her telekinesis to heal her. Her brother often offered to help her, by using his own abilities to speed up her metabolisms like his own, but she always refused. She preferred to do things herself, even if it hurt beyond belief—which it always did.
Chaos cringed slightly as his sister's bones could be heard painfully cracking back into place, and her wounds closed up. Control slowly rose from the ground, and her only release of the intense pain that she felt was a deep sigh.
She was feeling a little lightheaded—either from the slight loss of blood, or from the immense mental strain that using her telekinesis had put on her mind. Soon her mind cleared though, and she refocused.
"You okay?" Chaos asked his sister, and she nodded, but she never looked at him. She kept her eyes focused on the alleyway where the lone gunman had "disappeared."
She zoomed towards the alley, and her red streak was gone in a second. Her brother was behind her in the next second.
He entered the alley, and he found his sister with her hands around the throat of the green-clad teenager. She had a crazed, vicious, violent look in her pink eyes. She looked like she might just kill him.
"Start talking." she ordered the teen whom she had never met in a fiery fierce voice, but the boy did not flinch. He was either too stupid—or too stunned and shocked—to know when he should be afraid, or he was very good at controlling his expressions and emotions. It looked like it was the latter option.
His emerald eyes stared deep into her pink ones, and he noticed something odd—something very odd. The girl that was about to kill him was…pretty.
The men held their hostages in the center of the of the floor, the Hong Kong Police Department fifty stories below them, ordering them to surrender and give-up their hostages. The group of twenty men in total were about to have their party crashed by a bat and an alien.
Two batarangs came flying in to view, and they knocked the guns out of two of the men's hands. The next moment, a durable, strong, solid, and serrated whip caught the feet of three men who were lined up perfectly, and they were promptly and perfectly taken to the ground—and their legs were sliced so they could not stand back up.
Then, the owner of the batarangs and the whip appeared onto the floor with the hostages. The next second a slender shadowy figure dressed in an armored black Batsuit dropped into view, as she dropped from the floor above, effectively crushing the jawbone of the two armed men closest to her, using her two feet as blatant blunt-force weapons.
Two more men fell to the ground, unconscious, and the rest of the men turned their attention to their new adversary, seemingly forgetting about their hostages or the police below them.
"Sorry for the rude entrance, boys. But, if you had invited me, then I wouldn't have to crash this party, now would I?" she asked the stunned, silenced, and angered men before her.
The men opened fire on her, and in that second, she was gone, disappearing in a shadowy blink.
Using the shadows, she remained silent and stealthy, until she reappeared behind a group of three men, and with one swift and strong swing, she knocked them all unconscious. The remaining men opened fire on her again, and again she was gone.
"Gāisǐ de hēi biānfú! (Damn Black Bat!) Tā huì huǐle yīqiè! (She will ruin everything!)" one of the men, who was still standing, yelled out. He appeared to be the leader of the group, as the next words out of his mouth were orders, and his men followed them without hesitation.
"Shìfàng dúyè xīdú zhě! (Release the Venom addicts!)" he ordered, and his men unlocked and opened three cages that had been sitting in the shadows of the damp floor of the building.
Three creatures—all of immense size and shape, with bulging massive muscles, and a lividly lethal look in their eyes—charged out of their cages, and just as the Black Bat reappeared behind two more men and knocked them unconscious, the three creatures found their new target. The three creatures charged at the hero, and she sighed—very deeply
"…Sometimes, I really hate my job." she complained, charging the three beasts, and performing an aerial flip, flawlessly, over the mighty mutated creatures.
She avoided the brunt of their attack, but she did not avoid all of it, as one of the creatures reached up and slashed at her with one of its three metallic and steely, sharpened claws on its right hand. One of the claws caught Black Bat on the lower left side of her lowest leg—her left leg—and it ripped away some of her costume's fabric, and created a somewhat shallow gash in her skin.
Black Bat landed on the other side of her enemies, and they were somewhat disoriented as they took a very long time to turn around. Black Bat took this brief break in the battle to inspect her injury. It wasn't very serious, or very deep.
She was thankful for the Kevlar padding that Cain had installed in the suit. She might have lost her leg, if not for the added armor. The three beasts finally turned around, and Black Bat finally took notice of just how severely mutated these poor creatures were.
They each had three deformed—albeit very strong and sturdy—claws on their dominant right hand, and they had a slightly enlarged left had for swatting down enemies. They all still looked very human, and it was possible that, through procedures, they could be normal again.
Stephanie silently hoped that she was right about that and these creatures could be saved, but she did not have any time to worry about that right now. She had to worry about surviving and stopping these men, even if that meant hurting these poor creatures. She sighed. She wasn't even sure that she could hurt them. She would have to try though.
Black Bat popped her suit's integrated unbreakable Kryptonite claws, and she was preparing to charge her superhuman foes, when her saving grace arrived just in time.
Sam hurtled through the east wall of the floor, and she swept all three of the creatures away with her, taking them down to the street below to finish the fight. Stephanie's mask concealed it, but she was smirking. She silently stated that she would have to thank her little Kryptonian friend later.
Black Bat turned her attention back to the stunned and shocked armed men before her and she charged them. The men quickly regained their composure and they opened fire on her, but she just continued to sprint at them.
One of the creatures landed—hard—and he broke the fall of the others. Unfortunately for him, though, the fifty story drop crushed and crippled him, regardless of the fact that he was a super strong metahuman mutant.
This left only two creatures for Sam to battle with. The other two creatures quickly got to their feet, and they looked up at their attacker—who was currently airborne—and they growled and gnawed at the air ferociously. Their snarls shattered some glass and concrete around them, but Sam seemed unnerved and unmoved. She quickly took note of their claws. She would have to avoid them. Her human half affected her more than most human-hybrid Kryptonians.
Unlike her brother, sharp objects—only if they were sharp enough—could actually penetrate her skin. Although her human half made her a little less durable, she could still sustain the heaviest of blows and get right back up, if they were blunt force blows.
A full-force hit from Darkseid was something that she could probably potentially shake-and-shrug-off—albeit not easily—but it was the sharpened, serrated, and slender weapons and blades—especially the very sharp and unbreakable ones—that she had to worry about.
Although the enemy that had the blade still had to have enough fury and force to be able to deliver any damage to her with a blade. That was a difficult task in itself. Kryptonians took a lot of damage before anything injured them, and Sam's vulnerability to blades was no exception to this rule.
Still though, those two creatures looked like they had enough strength to deal her damage, and their claws only made that worse, so she took note of it. It was one disadvantage of being half-human. Her human half did give her one serious advantage, though.
Her human half allowed her to persevere, practice, or progress to any level she so desired, so long as she was willing to push herself to do so, and she was always willing to push herself.
Sam snapped back to the showdown at hand.
She descended to the ground, and the two creatures instinctively charged at her. She ducked under their incoming attacks, and she delivered a powerful punch to the stomach of one of the two, making him fall to the ground in surprise and shock.
The other creature, however, took advantage of her momentary lack-of-movement, and he swatted at her with his enlarged left hand, sending her flying backwards. She caught herself in the air, though, and just as she stopped herself her eyes found their target, she lit the creature up with a spectacular and stunning display of fireworks.
Her laser vision burned the creature's very human skin and it whined as his flesh singed and stung, while Sam flew in and delivered the final blow to the creature, rendering him unconscious.
Sam smirked as she looked at her three defeated enemies. She looked up just in time to see a screaming oriental man flying off the fiftieth floor of the building.
Sam flew up and caught the man, and he then proceeded to pass out from his extreme excitement and adrenaline rush. She flew the man back up to the fiftieth floor of the building in front of her, and she was somewhat surprised to see the remainder of the Chinese mafia subdued, and otherwise unconscious, and the hostages untied and rushing down the stairs—while Black Bat simply stood there, waiting for her Kryptonian friend to land on the floor.
"…Well, you certainly work fast…" Sam trailed off, impressed at Stephanie's work.
"So do you." the Bat responded, indicating the unconscious man in Sam's arms.
Sam smirked. "He could have died, you know." she retorted.
"Nah. I knew you'd catch him." Black Bat responded.
Sam chuckled slightly. "What do I do with him?" Sam asked, gesturing to the unconscious man in her arms.
"Leave him. The cops will be here in a second, and I'm tired. Let's head home." Black Bat responded, and Sam nodded.
"I don't suppose you have a cool ride with you, do you?" Sam asked hopefully.
"Nope. Cain let me take the suit, not the batmobile, or for that matter, the 'Bat-Bike' either." the Bat responded.
Sam frowned. "So, then, how did you get here?" she questioned the masked superhero, gesturing to the large unfinished building that they were currently standing in.
Black Bat shrugged. "I walked." she replied.
Sam sighed. "So, I guess I'm flying you home?" she asked, and the Bat nodded.
Sam sighed, but she knew there was no arguing it. The flying girl with the domino mask carried the hero Black Bat back to their apartment on the upper west side of Hong Kong, all the while, the two were trying to avoid suspicious eyes, and surprisingly, they succeeded.
Sam and Steph crawled through their apartment's second-story window, laughing the entire time. The two quickly rushed to their rooms, and changed into their civilian clothes, before heading downstairs to join Jon.
"…And then I just see this guy falling out of the sky, out of nowhere! …And, Steph is just like: 'Nah, I knew you'd catch him.'" Sam finished telling her story between bursts of short lively laughter. Jon had to chuckle at that one.
"…What are you looking at with such 'focus?'" Steph teased, asking Jon who was currently engrossed in his laptop's computer screen. He sighed.
"Take a look." he responded, smirking.
He then turned his laptop around, and he showed his two roommates what had been occupying his attention for the past few minutes. Sam scanned the screen intently, and Steph had to lay a hand on Jon's hand to get a better view, and this slight and silent physical contact made Jon blush slightly.
At the sight of this, Stephanie quickly removed her hand and turned away, slightly whipping her blonde hair across Sam's face as she did so. Steph was now focusing intensely on the computer screen, but there was also a noticeable amount blush creeping onto her cheeks as well.
Sam saw this transpire, and she just rolled her eyes. 'Grown adults, and they're still acting like teenagers.' Sam thought to herself, smiling at the slight redness in both of their cheeks.
Sam scanned the screen, and she found what her brother was looking at. It was video that had just been posted, and the title read: "Black Bat and Steel Savior Save the Night in Downtown Hong Kong." While Steph and Jon were watching the video of two females' heroic deeds, Sam just stared at the title of the video.
Sam smirked. She liked the title. Her father used to be the "Man of Steel." Her smirk soon turned into a smile. She liked the name "Steel Savior." It had a ring to it. Samantha Lane was Steel Savior.
A/N: Oh, Wally West. You live on even through death. Haha. But, then again, I plan to, and/or, WILL make ANY/ALL of the heroes who have died, and/or, WILL die (*DON DON DON*) be remembered VERY WELL, and they WILL LIVE-ON! Trust me! …Anyways, what did you guys think? Chapters are going to get WAAAAY SHORTER, AND, WAAAAY MORE READABLE, from this point on. Promise. Anyways, please R&R. Stay tuned for next update.