Chapter Fifteen
While Azrael dealt with Myra Pyram's were-beasts, the Sandman dealt with the sorceress directly. He'd been sent back to life by the Endless to accomplish a series of tasks. Ones even Sand hadn't foreseen yet. This was one of them.
Morpheus himself concocted Sandman's new knockout gas so Myra went down with a single dose. Azrael moved to finsih Myra off but Sandman warned him off by aiming his gas gun at the Avenging Angel of the Order of St. Batman.
"This one lives," Sandman declared.
"Don't make us regret that choice," Azrael warned, "Or I'll return you to the dead personally."
Sandman felt that went rather well.
Claire Voyant called out the Green Mummy's movements before she could make them. Even at super speed it was impossible to avoid Katana's SoulTaker when her target already knew where she'd be at any precise moment. She couldn't get at Claire because Katana defended her. Worst of all, Green Mummy couldn't break off her attack until commanded to by Disco Mummy. Wraps, as Aten Khalis was commonly referred to, found himself battered by Black Siren's Sonic Scream. Unlike the Green Mummy, Aten was an independent agent with free will. But he knew Disco Mummy would take that from him if he failed to try to kill Black Siren. So he redoubled his futile efforts and suffered for them.
Hellequin and Red Alice found themselves pitted against Ghazia and her animated objects. Hellequin kept her shotgun across her back and used her baseball bat to hammer her way through the crowding animates. Red Alice ducked and weaved her way through as she flipped open her favorite butterfly knife. Ghazia could see she had evry reason to fear these two yet she feared her mistress even more.
Sand waged a war against Black Pharoah. Having failed to conjure the plagues, he'd switched to mastering the sands, which Arkham Island's shores had in abundance. But Sand was a true geokinetic and controlled all matters earthen and silicate. So they were at a tenuous stalemate. One which endurance would decide.
Scarab fought Anna Fortune. His mystical power ring conjuring magics both of Darkness and of Light, Order and Chaos. Anna found that peculiar but she had no time to waste in idle speculation. But the magic itself felt familiar somehow
she physically touched an essence of it and suddenly knew that Nabu had forged this ring before being elevated to being a Lord of Order. Knowing that changed everything for Anna.
"Well? Do you agree to my terms?" Disco Mummy impatiently demanded to know.
"I'll let you in on a little secret," Plas strecthed to whisper in her ear, "This isn't a negotiation. It's a stalling tactic and we've waited long enough."
"What?" Disco Mummy refused to believe what she'd just heard and then she heard the arrival of her new opponents. She turned to find Nyssa Raatko leading the Injustice League against her.
Prof. Zoom and Zoom worked in tandem to pull Green Mummy off Katana and Claire Voyant. As Claire had predicted the arrival of the Injustice League and the Zooms interceding on their behalf. Captain Cold and Heat Wave combined forces to with Sand to force Black Pharaoh into a retreat. Sandman handed Myra Pyram over to Fury, Scandal Savage, and Knockout for a meting out of later justice. Mirror Master worked along with Mirror Monarch, Prismatik, and the Rainbow Raider to subdue Ghazia.
Bill Dunn, who wished known as the replacement Superman, forced Scarab back away from Anna even as she was preparing to neutralize the local effects of his power ring using Nubu's own magical defense structures. In essence to fool the ring into thinking she was its creator, think Gandalf or Saruman persuading the One Ring they were its true master, Sauron. That left Debi Domaine, as the Injusticers' Cheetah, Mime and Marionette, and Golden Glider persuading the JLers and JSAers to stand down.
Nyssa herself led the Top and Cobalt Blue in confronting Disco Mummy.
"By very careful here, Nyssa Raatko. I am not someone you wish to toy with," Disco Mummy warned her.
"I'm not planning on toying with you at all," Nyssa remarked, "My hypothesis is that Rosa here can distract you long enough for Cobalt Blue to finally destroy you. You do recognize the source of his power, do you not?"
Disco Mummy's eyes narrowed, "The Blue Flame of Chaos."
"And the Lords of Chaos, the Lords of Order, and the Endless each being a class of being that can end your continued existence, correct?"
"But why would they?" Disco Mummy inquired sharply, "My goal is to provide order through the means of chaos."
"A false assumption that they would willingly allow such a collaborative effort of mixed methodologies," Sandman warned her, "Rather you have an Agent of Order and an Agent of Chaos united in purpose to stop you."
Disco Mummy had to admit that Anna Fortune and Cobalt Blue did look ready to set aside their masters' differences and work together to stop her.
"You imagine a dead universe beholden to you," Cobalt Blue stated, "Yet the Blue Flame envisions the death of a universe to create a new one beholden to Chaos."
"The Lords of Order do not directly contravene in this goal because Order always arises out of Ages of Chaos," Anna stipulated.
"Yet I am not the herald of this reckoning," Cobalt Blue admitted, "I'm merely a tool to lay the path for the one that is to come."
"Or, in other words, me," Saturn Queen descended from the darkened skies above Gotham, "You and I need to have a little chat about your future."
Eve Aries took Erishkigal Narayana aside and they conferred in hushed tones.
"You've seen this moment?" Claire asked the Sandman.
"Yes, haven't you?" he wondered.
"Oddly, no," she confessed.
"Neither did I. Any of this," Sand actually sounded irritated to have been spared the horrors of this night before they occurred.
"How odd, indeed," was all Sandman would say.
"Let it go," Saturn Queen could be heard advising Disco Mummy.
Across Gotham, mummies halted their attacks and simply crumbled to dust.
"We'll revisit this conversation in a thousand years," Disco Mummy promised Saturn Queen.
"I look forward to it," she lied, "Now I do believe that one last matter needs to be attended to."
"Black Mask," Nyssa wore a cruel smile.
Roman Sionis was relaxing in his private nightclub when the Injustice League burst in from every conceivable entrance and even made a few new ones.
"What is the meaning of this?" Roman raged, "Do you know who I am?"
"Yes, and I know who he is," Nyssa pointed out Victor Zsasz and lobbed him his Black Mask headgear, "As well as who you truly are."
"Then you know what a mistake you're making," Roman affixed the mask to become Black Mask.
"Do I? Or do you?" Nyssa pondered it,. "Really, I think it's you who needs to reconsider your personal position in Gotham."
Zsasz went for a gun in his jacket and Nyssa had drawn, nocked, tauted her bowstring, aimed and fired an arrow before he had it clear of its holster. Only the pistol itself saved him from being pierced in the heart. The gun dangled from his sprained trigger finger.
"Now Roman, is that any way to treat royalty?" Knightfall as she sauntered through the club.
With her were the ever faithful Bonebreaker, Plastic Woman, Morgan, Black Siren, Captain Atomic and Emperor Blackgate and the Gang on loan from Intergang.
"It seems you're making all the wring enemies 'Black Mask'," Knightfall chided him, "My dear Ignatius Ogilvy and Brains have been ordered to kill you for interfering in local Intergang operations. Operations dutifully and legally licensed by myself."
"Why is that, I wonder?" Knightfall asked, "Didn't you receive daddy's approval as a child? Is that what makes you overly ambitious? Or is it sheer narcissism?"
"You won't last," Black Mask promised.
"If I believed that I wouldn't here, would I?" Knightfall stated, "I've learned the art of networking. It's a skill you might want to acquire, should you survive this encounter."
"I can't beliebve you're endorsing this," Black Mask snorted at Emperor Blackgate.
"I'm just serving my public due and growing fabulously rich doing so. Maybe you should be incarcerated with me," Emperor Blackgate suggested, "I'd put you through fewer humiliations."
"What are you talking about?" Black Mask demanded to know.
"You have three options: acquiesce to me and my system, sign a full confession regarding your deeds as Black Mask and end up serving a life sentence as Ogilvy's honored guest in Blackgate, or choose resistance and I have you killed here and now," Knightfall informed him, "In full view of all your respected guests and private members who will be too terrified to ever step out of line again. Choose wisely. You have three seconds to declare your intentions."
"I'd need guarantees!" Black Mask triued to buy time to find a loophole.
"My oath is my bond," Knightfall told him, "I gave my oath to Gotham that the streets would be well regulated. You are an issue that needs to be dealt with in order to keep my word. Time's up despite your delaying tactic."
"What about Intergang?" Black Mask asked, "What of our dispute?"
"Will be forgiven should you compensate Intergang for the 1.3 billion dollars lost when Hellequin and Red Alice robbed our banks," Brains explained, "Plus a 10% markup for inspiring her to torch the money rather than negotiate its return in services rendered."
"You're insane," Black Mask retorted.
'You'd be insane to turn the deal down," Emperor Blackgate countered, "You see, even if you choose prison, you'll sign away Sionis Industries to Intergang as payment rendered for your continued safe existence inside."
"As a younger man, your father chose to become Black Mask in defiance of the Five Families. They inspired the Joker to kill him and place a billion dollar bounty on the Batman's head while impersonating him," Knightfall recapped the history, "Now, as his successor to his grand ambitions, you've managed to poke the bear of the entity replacing the Five Families. And Intergang is being quite reasonable about it. I bought you that much with my position in the 100. The Director and the Big Boss wanted a penance in blood. But Emperor Blackgate here, the Gang, and I were able to negotiate these vastly more flexible terms."
"What does she get out of it?" Black Mask inquired of Nyssa.
"A warm fuzzy feeling," Knightfall replied, "It doesn't matter to your case. It just happens that your fine to be paid to Intergang corresponds with exactly the amount of liquid assets that you hold. Afterwards you'll still hold your stocks and dividends as well as the proceeds from this and other establishments. We won't mention your unlicensed drug trade because you will be coming under compliance and buying a license for it and pay the requisite taxation on all profits."
"Anything else?" Black Mask grated.
"You'll be handing me Zsasz's leash from now on," Knightfall told him, "He'll go to work for Empress Penguin as my chief licensing enforcer."
"Okay," Zsasz agreed.
"Victor?" Black Mask sounded worried.
Zsasz held a holdout piece to Black Mask's temple and jacked the hammer back, "Take the deal."
"Whatever happened to loyalty?" Black Mask asked.
"Oh, I've always worked for Knightfall," Zsasz confessed, "I eliminated all my competitors for being your right hand on her orders and paycheck."
"But why?" Black Mask had to wonder.
"Scarecrow, the new one, released me from Arkham. Declared me 'rehabilitated', whatever that means. She owns Scarecrow so I owed her a favor. It just turned out I like working for her. I get to kill and get away with it this way. My tally is nearly up."
"I'll see you dead for this," Black Mask vowed.
"Why send people to die when it just hastens my retirement?" Zsasz wondered, "A true artist should be appreciated in his lifetime. And I am. By her."
"I paid you well," Black Mask argued.
"It was never about money but about artistry," Zsasz explained, "Knightfall knows how to reward a true genius like myself and you don't."
"We're stretching into double overtime here," Emperor Blackgate complained, "Do you accept either condition or does Zsasz pull the trigger?"
"Of course I accept the deal!" Black Mask snapped.
"Which one?" Emperor Blackgate inquired more sharply now.
"I'll make the repayment and acquire the licenses," Black Mask grated.
"Too bad," Emperor Blackgate pouted, "We could've been such friends."
"Empress Penguin and City Hall will handle your licensing requirements. Zsasz here was able to persuade your official and unofficial accountants into giving us clear pictures of your books. So all of your illicit business ventures are known and cataloged. Zsasz here will accompany you to City Gall where the Dept. of Licensing and Empress Penguin are currently awaiting you. Fail to register a single venture and Zsasz will kill you on the spot."
"I have special place for your mark to be placed at," Zsasz rubbed hsi groin.
"You truly are repulsive," Black Mask grunted.
"This is the lack of appreciation I was talking about. Now c'mon Romie. We have placed to be and licenses to buy," Zsasz shepherded him, "And no worries I'll bring him back here for your turn, Brains."
"Turn?" Black Mask sputtered.
"Signing away all your cash reserves to Intergang. Duh," Zsasz reminded him, "Another deal breaker that'll get you dead and then we'll just forge your signature on the company's transfer of ownership."
A dark sullen cloud hung over Black Mask's body language as he departed under very armed escort.
"Drinks are on the house until the owner returns," Knightfall declared to cheers.
"Now, for our little chats," Knightfall led the Injustice League and the Intergang leadership out of the public sphere. Meanwhile, the Injusticers themselves enjoyed their notoriety and took selfies for cash with the club's patrons.