226. A Hard Act to Follow part 11
…and my metal arm pulsed numb.
My sword-swing faltered.
I limped forward, Myrkblade at an awkward angle.
My life faded in half a breath.
FWOOOOSH! Red Aviary was upon me.
SLAAAASH! CLANK!
Myrkblade was knocked from my grasp.
Fwoosh!-Fwoosh!-Fwoosh!
I gasped, my head spinning over my left shoulder.
The blade flew out the window and fell onto the alleyway before.
And Red Aviary…
WHUMP!
I was kneed in the chest.
SLAAAASH!
Grazed in the shoulder with the double-edged sword.
SLIIIINK!
Bleeding, I teetered…teetered…teetered back.
CH-CHTUNK!
Another glint of metal.
A boot flying up to my bare face.
SMACK!
I fell backwards.
I rolled.
THWUMP-TWHUMP-THWUMP-THWUMP!
….out the window.
…..onto the metal catwalk.
…..and landed with my back slouched against the rusted railings.
SWOOOOOOSH!
PLANT!
The barrel of a shotgun to my throat.
A shotgun gripped tightly in a red-gloved hand. A gloved hand where black metal fingers showed through. Metal fingers sewed…hacked…and clamped onto pale, rigor mortis skin. And red vapor…red vapor…red vapor seeping out from the folds in the glove like the exhaust of a hallow, metal golem.
"Hccccckkkkk-clik-clik-clik-clik—Hellllllo Noirrrrrr……."
My heart stopped at that voice.
That Voice!
"Finallllly…..Hcckkk……I am strong-clik-clik-clik-enough to consssssume youuuuuu……"
I followed the shotgun up the red glove to a black-sleeved arm. Up the black-sleeved arm to a black right shoulder.
Oh no……
"The chassssse is overrrrr…….clik-clik-clik-clik……y-you pulsssse white likkkke a beacccon….Hccckkk….brighterrrr than even Terrrrrra hersssself……."
A black torso. Quivering. Shaking. Clothed in stretched obsidian. An abdomen covered in red. Black fatigues…stretching down the legs till they branched into red flares surrounding red boots.
Please, God, n-no……
"With your patheticccccc breath out of the way……Hcckkkk…..Terrrrra will not sssstand long…..and the casssscade ssssshall consume the land in full……."
My black eyes washed up.
Moist.
Quivering.
My jaw hung over in an eternal gasp.
The black neck rose to a cowl. A velvety mask stretched skin-type over a skull-like head. Breathings slits were sliced into 'mouth' area and red velvety tails hung off the back, rustling in the wind. The right half of the cowl was solid black. Immaculate. The right half was red. Crimson.
And it sported a single, curved eyeslit where a red-glowing soul shimmered through….
"I rrrrrreally sssssshould thankkkkk you, Noir—clik-clik-clik-clik—For thisssssss immortal epiphanyyyy…," Slade hissed down towards me. He aimed the shotgun squarely into my scarred throat. I sat helpless, scrunched back against the metal fire-escape railing overlooking the cold alleyway floor. Black smoke quivered beneath red vapors.
And it started snowing.
Tiny white flakes settling, shifting around us. Cascading between our heated…shivering contact. Red tearing onto the bleeding earth below.
"You gave me a giftttttt….Hcckkkk…YOU gaveHckkME a rebirrrrth! A hand to the reinssss of death!"
FLASH!
July 5.
The frigate.
SLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIINK!
I drove Myrkblade into Slade…to the hilt.
He leaned towards me……skewered on the blade.
"All the pain Dagger and I put you thrrrrrrough…..Hcckkkk-clik-clik-clik! All the hatred you had pent up insssssidee of yyyyou……"
"Snkkkkkk…..y-you are a ffffffool, Noir. Hckkkk!…O-Only fools tear themselvessssss up for friends. Only f-fools……….," and his breath faded.
"It conssssssumed you…..Hcckkk! The heroiccccc sssssoul cccaved in….the demon wasssss let loossssse…..Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik! You willed me Death….andHcccckkkKKKONLY DEATH!"
I inhaled. A beat. I let my breath go in a hot, soundless breath.
'I hope you fucking burn.'
SLASSSSSSSH!
Smoking, Myrkblade divided Slade's torso in twain.
The despot fell back from a fountain of spurting blood and sailed through the circular window of the frigate.
CRASSSSH!
FLASSSSH!
Beneath the churning metal body of the Frigate, Slade's body plunged…plunged……plunged into the depths of the Bay.
Blood trailed red……
Surging downwards with him.
And the lingering sharpness of smoke and murk flickered in his open, gaping wounds……
"You had killlllled me, Noirrrrr……Hcckkkk! But in ssssso doing, your blurrrrrring blade pulsssssed into me the sssssseed of the Spectrum……"
Slade's mask slides off, trailing blood and murk from the Titan's sword.
The shadowy figure of the villain drifts to the ocean's bottom.
The smoke circles around his dying figure.
Enveloping.
Enveloping……
"Hcccckkkk! The SSSSPECTRUMMMM…..clik-clik-clik-clik! Neverrrrr in all my sssssearch for tipping the Balance of Moralssss did I truly grassssp the SSSpectrum till thennnn…..Hccckkk! It wasssss not a thing of life givinggggg….clik-clik-clik-clik! Butttt a ficccckle angel of DEATH! And death wassssss what I wanted…..it wassss what I sssssserved the City with. The TITANSSSS WITH! HCKKKK! Clik-Clik-Clik-and you had DRIVEN it into ME! AND I TASSSSTED DEATH! Hckkkkkk! And I….BECAME…..DEATHHH! HCKKKKKK!"
The dangling limbs of Slade's body suddenly twitch……tensed……curled……
And the cloud of black smoke surrounding him quivered……warbled……and changed color.
A deep, bleeding red.
The head of the shredded soul shook and rocked and spat out red bubbles. FLASH! A vaporous red cloud emerged from his wounds. And his legs started kicking. And his torso started spinning. And he darted up……up………up………towards the star-lit surface of the bay.
Beneath him, discarded in the muddy floor of the water, the cold steel face mask resided. And suddenly……it started flickering a frigid, flickering red. Empowered with Destruction.
"It allllll made sssssense to me! The wheelsssss that turn thisssss patheticccc world arrrround…Hckkkkk! The nooks and the cranniessss of the Balance of Moralssss! The power of the rrrrred blade….and all my many errrrrorsssss before hand. The errors…clik-clik-clik-clik….of a MORTAL!"
FLASH!
Slade twirled a bo-staff.
Robin, dressed in metal mesh…brown and white……
He whipped out a cracked metal bar and faced off against Slade.
Together, the two dueled and fought across the length of Slade's undercity lair of gears and machinery……
"All I wantttted……in all my terrrorisssssm……in all my asssspirationssss……wassss an apprenticcce……"
FLASH!
Slade stood before a row of monitors in a volcanic hideout.
Wearing a high-powered suit, he lifted his arms, shouted, and flung his arms forward in the naked air.
On the flickering, electric screens……Terra clad in cybernetic white and gray flung her arms in identical fashion.
A quarry of unearthed stone and gravel soared mercilessly at the Titans.
"…….sssssomeone to carry on my legacccccy……to furtherrrrr my name and perfeccccct my powerssssss….."
FLASH!
Terra sat in the corner.
Half naked.
Bruised……bleeding……
Clutching shreds of a uniform over her nether regions.
She shivered and sobbed…outlined by a shadow.
The figure of Slade walking coldly……away……
"…….no matterrrr what I did……how much I ssssstruggled…….RRRRobin and the Titanssss ruined my cccclaim to immortality…….."
FLASH!
Slade's dark body swam towards the surface of the Bay.
Swam and swam and swam and swam……
"But sssssoon I transsssformed……and I no longerrrr needed to strive for that goal! For I am immortal now, Noirrrr. HcckkkkkkKKKK! I have CONSSSSSUMED the RED! All that was weakkkk inssssside of me had been terrrrminated! And in a crimssssson breath I awoke and sssssaw every puny life that ever oncccce stood in my way! Clik-Clik-Clik! And I sssssaw the fault linessss and the breakssss in my enemiessss! And I ssssswore….with the ssssscream of my firssssst breath that I would seize the one most insssssolent in the face of my powerrrrrr and takkkke hisssss world and bathe it in the blood of all he onccccce held dearrrrr and fought for!"
Slade reached the surface.
A twitching.
A breaking.
SPLASSSSH!
A dark head flew back in the air.
Lips flung open above the waves.
Towards the black sky and wishing it to bleed.
"RRRRRRRRRRREDDDDDDDDD AVIARRRRRRRRRYYYYY!"
FLASH!
A group of thugs inside the warehouse at Pier 7123 turned and gasped.
A limping, bleeding figure leapt towards them, swinging a fishing gaffe.
CRKKK!
One thug's skull caved in.
The others fled.
The figure shivered in place. Flickering red from his wounds. Breathing….bleeding crimson vapors. He cracked his shadowed neck and leapt upon the fleeing numbers, hissing like a panther.
"I had at my dissssposssssal the esssssence of DEATH! Everything I toucccched collapssssed and died. I had become the asssssassin of fate…..the REAPER of thisssss weak-hearted world! Hcccckkkk! And with each death I caused…..I beccccame ssssstrongerrrr……"
FLASH!
Pier 4146.
Thugs screamed as they were hacked to pieces by a two-edged sword. Stained read.
Slade hobbled after them, shredding them to corpses. Draining their bodies of blood. Mixing the crimson juice with vaporous hand and splashing images on the warehouse wall. He then 'wrote' words with the bloodied tip of his sword and carved letters into the flesh of the mangled bodies.
"Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik! And I started the sssssnowball effect of Destruction! With the toolssss at my disssposal……I sssshredded my way up the criminal ladder!"
FLASH!
Lights still flickered in the laboratory hallways of the Lexcorp building.
His blade freshly dripping, Slade sauntered over ripped and dismembered bodies.
He carried a bundle of tools to a laboratory counter.
He activated a robot arm.
Bleeding……but not dying……the dark figure spread out on the tabletops cybernetic parts. Motors and mechanisms. Dirty……rusting gears and machinery……
With the assistance of the robot arm, and without anesthesia, the ripped reaper began riveting replacement fingers and motorized innards to mix with his pale, zombified flesh.
Quivering and billowing red vapors from the inside of his torso like some concealed Dragon.
"I torrrre into Lexcorp…….I ripppped into Dagger…….I carrrved my way into the Gotham City criminal underrrrground. They had no choice but to bow down to the wills and chillssss of a leeching Parasssite……a Parasite that would become—Hcckkkk—a CARNIVORE!"
FLASH!
BOOOOOOOM!
A fiery explosion ripped through the Omega Wing of the City Prison.
Burning plumes rose towards the morning sky.
And across the Plain, situated on a mountain slope with his metal-twitching fingers to a carbonite switch……
Slade stood.
Glaring.
"………"
His shadowed face was aimed at the horizon.
Dressed in red and black with a sword and shotgun sheathed over his back, he lifted a two-tailed cowl of obsidian and crimson over his face. His breath came through the slits in the velvety material. Intermittent and shaking from his 'dead' lungs working to function equally with the motorized cybernetics crammed inside of his hollow chest.
"Hccckkkk……Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik!Hckkkkk!" he wheezed.
CHIIIIIING!
He raised his blade to the sky.
Concentrated……
And summoned red murk without so much as an after thought.
"I am now morrrrre than death itsssssself! I am a pessstilence……I am the Avatar of Destruction! I am a Deathstroke! An angel of fatality if ever there was one!"
FLASH!
'Deathstroke's' slitted eye narrowed down at me as he stood in the red light of the Gotham sky. His shotgun barrel pressed firmer against my throat as I shivered on the floor of the fourth-story fire escape.
Swordless.
Breathless.
Helpless.
Snow falling.
Falling softly….
"Hckkkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik! But I cccccannot be death…..no….I cannot be dddeath asssss long assss there issss a Balance to UPSSSSET my power! And you are that balance, Noirrrrr. Not Terrrrra. You. And it is becausssse of you that the sssssky did not turn red, even if the earth bled! The Aviarrrrry was not painted red! The firsssst apprentice laughssss at me. And to root him out……I musssst dig into the thickesssst meat of all!"
As he hissed thusly, a cloud of red and crimson murked out of his limbs and orifices. Ice cold. Ghostlike.
His one eye flashed RED beneath the cowl.
"I musssst dig you outttt of the mortal coil! HERE! IN GOTHAM! Where the birrrrd's first blood was RUN!"
I panted.
My whole body went numb.
But for another reason….
The sky……d-didn't 'turn red'?
The Aviary……untouched.
Slade……Deathstroke……what he says………
My lips quivered.
Dry mouth. Dry tongue.
Swallowing.
Robin……i-is alive?
"Embrrrrace imbalanccccce, Noirrrrrrr….clik-clik-clik-CLIK!" Deathstroke's twitching metal finger curled at the trigger. "Your so-called 'experiment' of a life endsssss today……"
I clench my jaw and tense my body. Because….
Because all of this time, I've been gently meditating and concentrating a field of murk out from my right hand. And I had extended a carpet of near-invisible murk along the metal surface of the fire escape, beneath Deathstroke's feet, and bubbling up behind him.
"Hcckkkkk-KKKKK!" His finger pulled.
I gritted my teeth.
I pulsed murk, shooting a burst up and out of the splotch of smoke at his heels.
POW!
"AAAUGH!" He lurched forward.
BL-BLAM! The shotgun fired.
I yanked my dark head aside.
CLAK! A section of metal railing broke away.
Deathstroke swirled. Deathstroke snarled. Deathstroke swung the butt of his blade down at me.
Murking, I rolled out of the way towards the bloodied apartment.
CL-CLANK! The shotgun rifle strikes bare platform.
I jump up, shivering.
Deathstroke wheels about. A strobe of his one eye. He pumps his shotgun. Ch-Chtunk!
"!" swordless, I let out a mute scream and charge at him.
He aims. He fires.
SWOOOSH! I dive.
BL-BLAM!
WHUMP! I plow my body into him.
"OOF!"
Nnnnghh!
The two of us topple…topple…and crash through the railing of the fire escape.
CRACK!
Our bodies fell down the cold, snow-littered alleyway.
We flailed.
A red blur and a black blur.
In four flurrying stories, we slapped and snapped through a pair of tattered clotheslines.
CRPP!
SNPPP!
We jolted, bounced, twirled, and collided with each other.
The blood and white world spun.
November freezing laughter.
I entangled with him and he entangled with me.
And we both slammed into a garbage dumpster, Slade first.
WHAAA-AAAANG!
I rolled off.
Deathstroke rolled off.
I twitched and writhed on the ground. Panting. Wincing. Snow-stabbed.
Quivering with red pulses, Deathstroke stood up. CHIIIIII-IIII-IIING! His two-edged sword rang icily into the claustrophobic air.
I gasped and looked all over the cold alleyway floor.
There!
Myrkblade rested a foot away.
I slapped a metal arm towards it. Grasping snow and gravel. Plodding…plodding…
Gripping!
I clenched my metal fists around Myrkblade's hilt.
"HCKKKK-RAAAAUGH!" Deathstroke's sword came down at me.
I held my breath. I pulsed murk through my limbs.
FWOOOSH!
I rolled out of the way.
CLACK!
Sparks flew off a fresh scratch in the concrete.
I rolled.
I jumped up to my feet.
I spun to face him with Myrkblade in my left palm—
SWOOOOOOSH!
Slade's sword swam at me and sank into the wrist.
A burst of red smoke—
SHATTTTTTTERRRRR!
My metal forearm broke into a thousand pieces.
Myrkblade went flying, embedding into a wall somewhere. Cl-Clank!
AAAAAAAUGH!
I throbbed all over with iciness.
Clutching the shattered metal stub where my prosthetic once existed and hobbling back.
RRRRREDDDD AVIARRRRRY!—FLASH!
A gasp.
A pant.
My black eyes quivered at glinting metal singing at me.
SLIIIIINK!
A cut across my left knee cap.
SLIIIIIIINK!
A graze across my right.
I hung my mouth open in a helpless, empty howl.
TH-THWUMP! I landed on my knees. Quivering. One-armed.
Deathstroke stood before me. A gentle starfall of white flakes shrouding his red and black figure. Red murk billowed and he raised his sword above my skull to cleave me in two.
"Give me alllllll the RRRRRED!"
I merely quivered. Breath vapors. Black eyes thin.
I failed, Ana.
Deathstroke swung his sword down.
SLAAAAASH----
Thwoosh-Thwoosh-Thwoosh-Thwoosh-THWOOSH-THWOOSH-THWOOSH-THWOOSH-CLANK!
A batarang thundered its way into the fray and knocked the sword out of Deathstroke's grasp.
"AAAUGH!" the red smoking reaper clutched his half-metal hand and hobbled back. "Clik-Clik-Clik!" He looked up.
So did I.
Three dark shadows were perched on the fire escape.
The largest one…the centermost leapt down. A billowing of a leathery black cape. Singing winds like a dark choir forever lost in the shadows and crevices of Gotham.
SWOOOOSH-SMACK! Batman landed with a gloved fist across Deathstroke's face.
The reaper stumbled back, blood and red smoke flying loosely from his cowl.
I gasped, breathless.
Batman marched past me. Darkness incarnate. Two ivory eyeslits narrowed and a voice that would chill the layers of Hell echoed forth: "Hello, Death. Remember me?"
"Hccckkkk….Batmannnnn," Deathstroke leaned his vaporous head to the side. "How'sssss the kidddd?"
Batman cracked his knuckles. "I'll tell you later when you're six feet under." FWOOOSH! Before any of us knew it, the Dark Knight crossed ten feet and was pummeling two fists across Deathstroke's face.
THWACK!
WHAM!
POW!
Deathstroke lingered back.
Batman snarled and raised a final fist to cave Red Aviary's face in.
But then Deathstroke's foot touched his dislodged sword. He flexed his upper torso and summoned a wave of murk in the fashion that only I was taught.
"RAAAAAAAAUGHHKKKKKKK!"
FWOOOOSH!
A bubble of red energy forced Batman back.
"Unnngh!"
Now in the clear, Deathstroke kicked his sword up into his grasp, twirled it—TH-THWISSH!—and charged at us.
Instead of engaging the reaper, Batman suddenly grabbed me by the shoulders and hoisted me up to my feet. He backed up….just in time for two more figures to leap down from above.
Dizzily….I gasped again.
Nightwing.
Batgirl.
"Nnnngh!"
"Hiyaa!"
A nightarang and a batarang were tossed simultaneously at Red Aviary.
THW-THW-THW-THW-THWOOOSH!
Deathstroke snarled and slashed his sword at the projectiles on the charge.
CLACK! CRKKK! He raised his blade and came at the two.
Batgirl and Nightwing dashed to opposite sides in time for Batman beside me to aim forward with a grappling hook and…
POW!
The cord surged forward and wrapped around Deathstroke's body. Constricting him. TH-THWPP!
"Nnngghhh! Clik-Clik-HCKKK!"
"We got him!" Nightwing shouted, grinning.
"Now's the time!" Batgirl panted. "Batman! Finish him off—"
"You ssssshall finisssh nothing…..," Slade hissed red vapors. "I am already DEAD! NRRRAAAAUGHKKK!" SNAP! He ripped the bindings apart with a pulse of murk and suddenly leapt high.
The three vigilantes gasped and looked up.
My black eyes weakly trailed.
Deathstroke flipped two and a half stories up and over us. As he sailed thusly, he let loose three carbonite grenades like a bomber.
CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!
"Carbonite!" Batgirl shouted.
"MOVE!" Nightwing added.
Batman was already flinging me across the alleyway with a muscular arm as he himself leapt…
PPPPOWWWW!
The alleyway filled and ruptured with red, billowing plasma.
Fire escapes groaned, snapped, and fell crashingly into the inferno below.
I rested on the ground. Sputtering. Blacking out. I looked up. Panting.
Batgirl and Nightwing were sprawled out behind me.
And Batman….
I gasped.
The Dark Knight lingered on his knees, bruised heavily. He groaned…positioned closest to the fire.
And out of that same fire, the burning 'corpse' of Deathstroke dove through.
FWOOOOSH!
"HCKKKKKKKK!"
CHIIIIIING!
Trailing embers and crimson vapor, he streaked towards the Dark Knight on red blurring feet. Blade raised. Aiming at the Gotham Avenger's cowled skull.
"Prepare to enter into legend, Batman!"
Batman shook his skull and looked up. His eyeslits widened.
FWOOOOSH! I teleported before him with a right hand outstretched towards Deathstroke.
"Noir!" Nightwing shouted.
I gritted my teeth. Deathstroke's blade came down on me. In a single breath, my right arm shook and exploded a black pulse while my eyes flickered a white-as-snow WHITE!
FLASH!
"AAAAUGH!" Deathstroke reeled and flailed backwards in surprise. His body soared airborne from the Equalizer's resistance.
In slow motion he seemed to linger there. Above the flames. A demon in his own right.
Skkt! Batman whipped out an explosive batarang. "NOW!" He shouted.
Nightwing and Batgirl whipped out explosive projectiles of their own.
"Noir! Get down!" the heroine panted.
I dove to the cold alleyway floor just in time.
THWOOSH!
THWISSSH!
THWOOOOOOSH!
All three birdarangs weaved and arced through the burning alleyway till they converged masterfully as one on Deathstroke's airborne body.
THWISH-THWISH-THWISH-THWISH-THWISH-BEEP-BEEP-BEEEEEEP-BOOOOOOOOM!
The alleyway billowed with flame once more.
I was knocked back with a mute grunt, landing between Batgirl and Nightwing on the cold concrete.
Batman shaded himself with his cape. He stood up…a dark leathery silhouette against the amber nightmare. He tilted his masked face up, craning his neck, looking.
"…….."
He gazed upward.
As did Nightwing and Batgirl.
Slade's supernatural shadow stood on a melting fire-escape above the blaze. He glared down. One red eye pulsing like a distant lighthouse beam. The two tails of his cowl dancing in the wind. A puff of red vapor escaped his form. He sheathed his sword, slowly turned around, and blurred off in a vaporous streak towards the distant chaos of the night.
Death had taken a holiday…..
For now….
"He's gone!" Nightwing gasped. Catching his breath and hobbling across the heated alleyway. The sparse snow was starting to melt into slosh in the corners from the flames. "I don't believe it! And we almost had him too!"
"………," Batman stared into the fiery oblivion.
"It didn't work, Batman! Noir here merely got Red Aviary out into the open! But he's still alive! And Triangular's using his threat to do whatever the Hell they want!"
"……..," Batman turned around with a swirl of his cape. "We're going home…," he droned.
Nightwing frowned. "But Batma—"
"Now!" Batman growled. He stared down at me. "How is he doing?"
"……"
His eyeslits narrowed. "Noir?"
I was fading out.
The cold and numbness had gone away with the shattered remains of the metal prosthetic Simon Stone had given me. But with it, the night and the lights of the flame went away too. My black eyes tilted back and I slept….slept….slept…
"N-Noir!" Batgirl gasped. She knelt down, looked over me, and shook my shoulders. "Noir! Stay with us! Stay with us, Noir!"
Slept….slept….slept….
"N-Noir!"
"Take him back……he…..needs…..assistance……"
"Right……..Bat………man…………..call…………..Thompkins……."
"N…..o…..i…r…..!"
I survived him.
I survived him, Ana.
Slept.