Chapter 58: The End Is Nigh; Part 2
Authors Note: Thank you all once again for your lovely reviews and your P.M for injustice I looked through them but didn't really take my time with them so it will take me a little while to get things sorted and see who is going where. Anyways, here is part two to Red Crosshairs arc. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: Meh
All hell was breaking loose in Gotham and the Police were really unprepared for it. They fought back with what weapons they had, but they weren't enough to suppress the super criminals and trained killers.
Some police squads and riot teams built small sectors and made some buildings like hospitals into strong holds. The best they could do right now was making sure the civilians were safe. Jim Gordon and a few of his men were cornered near the bat signal running low on ammo. There was him and a few others armed with glocks while he aimed his .357 at Two-Face. The disfigured ex-district attorney grinned as he rolled his coin between his fingers.
"Well, well long time no see Jim." Harvey chuckled.
"Dent, are you behind all this?" Jim asked, his shoulders tensing as he aimed his gun at Dent. He only chuckled.
"No, we are just an asset to a greater evil." Two-Face growled. "But this is our crowning achievement. By the end of tonight Gotham will be ours and no one can stop us." He aimed his silver .45 at Gordon. "Not even Batman."
Gordon was about to fire when suddenly out of nowhere three small throwing knives struck Dent's arm. The gun fell from Dent's hand while he let out an ear shattering scream. Some of his men were about to help when small darts pierced their necks knocking them out instantly. Before the rest could do anything a small explosion knocked them all back blinding Gordon temporarily. He looked over at the flood light to see a dark figure holding Two-Face's last man by his throat. Gordon thought it was Batman and so did the crook.
"Oh my god, are you Batman?" The man asked, the figure responded by smashing the crook head first into the flood light destroying the light revealing the figure to be Shadow.
"Shadow?" Gordon asked. The warriors nodded as Reaper and Ronin appeared beside him. "Reaper?" Flynn grinned under his mask.
"Hey Jim how ya doing?" Reaper asked.
"A little better." He said. "What is going on around here?"
"A mercenary by the name of Deathstroke has unleashed hell on Gotham and the rest of the world." Shadow explained. "There isn't going to be any help coming."
"I could call in the national guard." Gordon said.
"No, they cut off the roads and blocked everyone off." Ronin said.
"Don't worry we helped out a few of your boys before getting here." Shadow explained easing some of Gordon's burden. "We armed them and set up blockades around certain points in Gotham. We're trying to keep the criminals in the center of the city."
"Sound's good, but we need a plan." Gordon suggested.
"Our main priority is the super criminals my men are taking care of them right now." Shadow said.
"But what about Slade," A new voice said. Everyone turned to see Batman and Batgirl walk in from the shadows. "We need to make sure he won't get away again."
"I have Thanato's wired into every traffic cam, he spots the bastard and we'll be the first to know." Shadow gloated. "And be sure to thank Reaper. If it wasn't for him narrowing down Thanatos's scans to just pinpoint Slade he wouldn't be able to fly around and help people evacuate right now."
"You're welcome." Reaper chuckled causing Batman to growl as he stomped up to the two.
"There are people dying and all you two can think about is a grudge." Batman snarled.
"If you had helped us from the get go, we wouldn't be in this mess." Shadow snarled.
"Yeah, with your Bat-Computer and Bat-scans we could have found Slade after the whole Hush incident." Reaper grinned earning a chuckle from Shadow. Batman wanted to smack the two for their obnoxious behavior but Batgirl and Ronin stopped them all.
"Boss, please as much as they piss me off we need all the help we can get." Batgirl pleaded.
"And we have enough problems to deal with and your grudges are not our top priorities." Ronin said in a stern voice. Both Reaper and Shadow admitted that they were acting out at the wrong time. So now was the time to put their differences aside.
"Alright, we'll play nice." Shadow said. "Now we armed the cops downstairs and this place is a safe haven for anyone you find."
"They're in your hands Gordon." Reaper said. "We're counting on you to keep the people you have safe and to hold this part of Gotham."
Reaper smiled under his mask as Gordon nodded and Shadow handed his a glock and a few clips. Gordon readied his men and went back inside to hold down the fort. Shadow and his men turned to face Batman.
"Well the city isn't going to save itself." Shadow said in an excited tone. "You ready old man?"
"Always, you little punk." Batman smirked as the two walked ahead of everyone else.
"Just like old times huh?" Shadow asked before leaping off the building.
"Just like old times, Sparrow." Batman said following his old partner.
(!)
Down below the Shadow Warriors teamed up with the Dark Knights were battling the super criminals and anyone else that came their way. The police fought off some of the thugs and crazies but when monsters like Bane and Clayface showed up that's when things started getting ugly.
Bane charged at Dusk who had his Adonis strength activated and brought his fist down onto him. Dusk quickly dodged his fist and wrapped both arms around his massive wrist and threw him over his shoulder and onto the ground creating a small crater in the process.
"The bigger they are." Dusk said as he climbed on top of Bane and sent a few punches in his face. He was about to deliver a final punch when Bane's hand shot up out of nowhere and grabbed his fist tight. In a matter of seconds Dusk was now hanging four feet in the air by his neck struggling with each breath.
"The harder they fall." Bane snarled as he sent a fist as hard as diamonds into the young warrior's ribs. Dusk came close to passing out from the pain when a whip wrapped around Bane's wrist and pulled him back. He looked behind him to see Star with a murderous glare in her eyes.
"Don't touch my boyfriend." She snarled. Bane grinned ready to grab the whip and see how far he could throw her when he saw her reach for a button on her whip. She pressed it sending volts of electricity through his body weakening his hold on Dusk.
Dusk's veins glowed amber and he quickly wrapped his arms around Bane's throat and applied as much pressure as he could bringing the giant to his knees and eventually knocking him out cold.
Dusk quickly got to his feet and looked over at his girlfriend who was swinging the handle of her whip around playfully.
"Thanks for the help." He grinned. "But if anyone asks I saved you deal?"
"Deal." Start said.
Just as the two were about to kiss Killer Croc had smashed through a building and onto Bane. He was covered in cuts and burns as the two looked over to see Hitgirl with her small sword in her left hand and her silverballer in her right. Reaper stood next to her looking a little more beat up then her as Start waved at the two.
"Hey guys, I just saved Dusk's butt from Bane." She said playfully earning a glare from Dusk.
"Star!" Dusk whined as Hitgirl and Reaper grinned.
"That's cute, because I just saved Reaper's butt from getting eaten by Croc." Hitgirl teased while Reaper's face dropped under his mask.
"Hitgirl!"
(!)
Breeze, Whisper and Apollo where shooting down any crooks that got in their way or tried to get in their way. Apollo aimed her wrist-machine gun and shot out the tires of a car that was speeding away while using her shotgun to blast another crook in his leg.
Breeze struck her staff into one thugs stomach and upside his head and delivered a haymaker to three other crazies. Whisper was using a mixture of her gun and knife for attacks. She fired at one thug's leg while stabbing her knife into another's arm and swiping the blade across his leg. She wanted to kill the bastards but someone was holding her back.
"You know we could be getting the job done a lot faster if we had a bigger gun." Whisper grunted inside her head.
"Shadow said to keep the killing to a low." Sarah grunted back. "I may not be a fighter like you but this is my body and I won't let you use me to kill just because you view the world differently."
"Whatever." Whisper grunted as she fired a few more rounds into some crooks.
(!)
Sure aimed his hands out towards some criminals and fired ten bolts of electricity out of his fingers and stunned each one of them. Zoom whipped through each thug he came across and knocked each and every one of them at the speed of light.
He was ready to knock out another one when something wrapped around his foot and held him upside down. He looked up at his feet to see a big green vine wrapped around his ankles. Surge was about to help when something big broke through the ground and knocked him back. Surge looked up and saw a giant red flower that opened up to reveal poison Ivy inside.
"Ivy, you really should have stayed locked up." Surge said. Ivy let out a chuckle.
"You fools think I would miss out on a chance to take over Gotham?" She said as more plants ripped through the ground. "When I'm through with you everyone else is next."
"Not if I can help it." Surge growled as he arms lit up blue.
Ivy grinned as she waved her arm down to the plants on the ground. They were little flower petals that were aiming poisonous thorns at the ex-soldier. They all fired at Surge who was about to get hit when a whip wrapped around his legs and pulled him out of the way. Surge looked up to see who saved him and smiled.
"Need a hand?" Catwoman grinned helping her little brother up.
"Yeah, I think I chipped a nail." Surge chuckled.
"Selina, you really shouldn't have interfered you would have lived lon-Ah!"
Ivy was interrupted when something cut through the vine holding Zoom. He landed on his feet next to another dark figure who picked up the scaler he just threw.
"Great timing Ronin." Surge panted. "Not gonna lie I was a little nervous."
"I got your back kid." Ronin grunted holding both blades across his chest.
"You bastard!" Ivy shouted. "You all will pay!"
Ivy sent seven vines covered in thorns in their direction. The four quickly got out of the way and attacked Ivy. Zoom used a machete Shadow had gotten him to cut through some vines and distracted the poison shooters from the rest of the team.
Selina used some new mechanical claws Breeze had gotten for her, against Shadow's wishes, and cut through just as many vines. Ronin's target was Ivy, he dashed and dodged many vines, but he couldn't get close enough to Ivy. She was too high for him to reach and the buildings were covered in her vines which would trap him if he got close.
"Fight all you want, Mother Nature never dies!" She screamed. "Hell, I am Mother Nature!"
Just then more vines ripped through the ground and were about to attack when suddenly a few bolts of electricity and fire struck them down. Ivy let out a shriek as everyone looked over to see Phoenix and Surge.
"She's clear, now Surge!" Phoenix shouted.
Surge nodded and placed his left hand on a light pole and absorbed the electricity into his body and fired a massive bolt into the flower petal as Phoenix summoned enough power to do the same. Blue sparks and red flames engulfed the flower letting out a shriek as it finally exploded and fell into the earth from which it came. Ivy would have fallen in too if Catwoman didn't grab her in time.
"Damn you Selina, damn you Shadow Warriors." Ivy panted before passing out.
"And that's called kicking your ass." Zoom shouted as he and Phoenix high fived.
(!)
Lastly, was Clayface was squaring off with the remaining Shadow warriors and Batman. Clayface fired muddy spikes at Shadow and Artemis, but Mystico jumped in and used her magic to lift up a section of the ground and use it as a shield against his attack. Shadow quickly jumped out of the way as he and Artemis attacked. He threw an ice bomb and she fired an ice arrow freeing the mud man temporarily.
Gauntlet and Robin leaped in and they both attacked with an explosive batarang and a fire ball blowing him into mush. He quickly reformed and turned his fist into spiked balls and tried to crush the two. Batman and Nightwing threw more ice bombs at him as Artemis and Shadow did the same.
Clayface froze while Msytico trapped him in a dome of energy. She smiled smugly when the team regrouped.
"That will hold him." She said.
"Great work Mystico." Shadow said.
"Shadow," Reaper said as the rest of the team followed. "Bane, Croc and Ivy are down."
"Great," Shadow said as he activated his communicator." Thanatos, how's everything looking up there?"
"Aside from all the smoke, fire and anarchy it's looking like shit." The mech joked from the Raven. "But all the fighting is taking place in the center of the city, just like we planned."
"Great, Reaper call in the crows." Shadow grinned. Reaper typing in a few codes on his wrist computer until Batman grabbed him.
"No, we are not going to send a fleet of drones to wipe them all out!" Batman shouted before Shadow landed a kick to the side of his mentors head. His three companions were about to assist when they were restrained as well.
"Look, we aren't going to kill them alright." Shadow grunted as he lifted his mentor up and pushed him away. "I loaded them all up with training rounds and tear gas. When the night is over these criminals are going to have bruises and itchy eyes. That's it!"
Batman was actually amassed by Shadow's planning ahead. He didn't think he would ever plan ahead like this.
"Shadow I didn't,"
"No you didn't." Shadow snapped. "Reaper now."
"Shadow something's wrong." Reaper panicked rapidly pressing buttons on his computer. "The drones are being overwritten I can't control them."
"That's not our only problem, look." Surge said as each street that circled around them was now filled with an army of Slade's robot drones.
"Oh shit, we just trapped ourselves." Shadow gasped.
"Dammit, he knew what we were planning and he lured us right in!" Hitgirl said grabbing a rifle from their munitions boxes. The cops armed themselves as well but they didn't have much ammo left.
"Well, any last words guys?" Dusk said grabbing a couple of Uzis.
"Yeah get ready." Shadow said aiming his Berettas at the crows who were coming in hot. "Here they come."
Just as the Crows were about to fire green bolts rained down from the sky and destroyed a majority of them as they flew back to a safe distance. Everyone looked up to see a light orange skinned girl with red hair and glowing green eyes cladded in a revealing purple one piece.
"Hello Shadow, long times no see." She grinned.
"Starfire?" Shadow said in confusion.
"Not just her." Arsenal said walking out along with Red Hood and Leonae. The former solder grinned when he saw Gauntlet.
"Well Sam Jackson and his girlfriend." He grinned. "Nice outfit very tight in some places."
"Leonae!" They both shouted aiming their weapons at him. Shadow quickly pushed them away.
"Jason, what are you doing?" Shadow asked.
"Well, after our last get together I decided to form a team of my own." He grinned under his helmet. "And since you were taking in blacklisted members I thought I'd do the same."
"You do know Leonae is a killer don't you?" Gauntlet snapped. "He slaughtered all of our friends."
"Oh can't we forgive and forget." He sighed.
"Enough," Batman growled. "We'll deal with them later right now we have Slade to deal with."
Red Hood and Shadow stood side by side together aiming their duel pistols at the horde of drones.
"Ready, Sparrow." Hood grinned.
"Ready, Robin."
(Meanwhile)
Slade's personal men were slowly moving in on Marcas who was still snoring away on his bed. Each on of Slade's men could take down a grizzly bear with their hands and five of them were closing in on Marcas armed with M4 assault rifles.
One man slowly reached over to the sheets and ripped the covers off to reveal a small recorder strapped to a small bomb that was triggered to go off when the sheet was pulled off. The five t=of them panicked and tried to get out but the bomb went off killing them instantly.
Slade down below felt the explosion and knew this was going to be harder than he thought. He was broken from those thoughts when the blast shields on the doors and windows slammed down. Now there was no way in and no way out.
"Trapped like a rat." Red's voice said darkly. "Now you're the one who will know what it's like to be at ones mercy Slade."
"Red Crosshairs, my sources said you consumed an entire bottle of Vodka." Slade said amused. "How are you sober enough to arm a bomb?" Marcas responded with a scoff.
"You forget I am Russian," He scoffed. "Vodka is our breast milk."
"Cute, but just so you know you and your friends are going to die tonight." Slade sneered.
"You're like the eighth person to say something like that." Marcas chuckled. "And each one fell before us dead. Shadow and his men will protect Gotham but who is going to protect you?"
"I don't need protection." Slade dead panned.
"You will soon enough."
The line went dead as one of Slade's men let out a horrific scream somewhere in the house before going silent. Slade maneuvered his men.
"Spread out and kill him." Slade ordered.
The rest of his men nodded and slowly moved throughout the mansion. One crept around the corner and met his end with a sickle through his heart then another with a bullet to the head. One by one they all fell before regrouping with Slade. They were starting to panic when they saw something move and started firing blindly.
Slade saw figures of Red with each burst of gunfire and pulled out his Beretta and fired at him missing a few times. He quickly loaded a clip into his gun as Red jumped off a nearby balcony and emptied his desert eagles into each merc. When they all hit the floor Red who's eyes were glowing red landed on his feet in front of Slade and aimed both pistols at his head. At the same time Slade had also turned aiming his Beretta in between Red's guns and to the center of his head.
"Red Crosshairs." Slade mused.
"Deathstroke." Red growled.
The two were tensed as every second they waited for the other to fire. They were both trained in blades, fist and guns making them equally matched. All it would take is a sudden facial twitch to set off one another.
"How about dying with a little dignity Marcas?" Slade sneered.
"No." Red said as he fired both guns.
Slade quickly ducked down and tackled Red in the stomach knocking his guns out of his hands. Slade went to fire back, but Red knocked his gun out of his hand and sent a fist to Slade's face knocking him back a bit.
Before Red could charge at Slade again, something crashed through the wall and tackled Red to the ground. Red looked up and snarled at what he saw.
"Hello Andrei." Red snarled.
"Marcas, it's Rage by the way." His former friend chuckled. Andrei's brown bangs were blocking his eyes but Marcas could see his eyes were glowing Red. This was his power super strength and invulnerability. Whenever he got angry he got strong and the more angry he got the stronger he got.
Red quickly activated his power and sent his fist into Rage's face and then kicked him in the chest knocking him off. Red quickly went to grab his hammer, until something grabbed his wrist. He looked behind him and saw a dark clone of Tasha. It smiled evilly at him, but Red quickly pulled out his sickle and stabbed it through its chest turning it into a puff of smoke.
"Impressive, you were always the better one Marcas." Slade mused as the two flunkies stood at his side. Red grimaced at the sight of his friends working for this mad man.
"Come on out and fight me yourself Slade!" Red shouted. He charged straight towards Slade, but Tasha sent a few shadow clones to block his path. He cut through them easily but when they died the smoke blocked his vision and blinded him from Rage's punch. Red was again sent flying back as Tasha absorbed a nearby light source and fired a concentrated beam of energy at Red.
When the smoke cleared Red was nowhere to be seen.
"Find him and kill him." Slade ordered.
"Yes boss." The two said.
"Yes boss, since when did you two completely sell out?" Red asked over the intercom. "You two never gave into Slade and would always stand true to your beliefs. Or have you two just lost your balls and were too stupid to make your own decisions?"
"Shut up Red!" Rage shouted. "We don't need you anymore!"
"Really, because you said we would always count on one another." Red quipped. "And what's this 'we' Tasha would never just abandoned me. I mean her power to bend light and shadows are great but she would never turn her back on me."
"No, I never loved you!" Tasha screamed as the two blasted and tore down any walls in their way, desperately trying to find their former friend.
"We said we'd be together Tasha, or did Andrei's dumbass convince you too work for Slade like he did." Red joked. He knew how to beat these two. Normally he wouldn't resolve to mind games but in Rage's case he'd make an exception. "Remember Rage, you told me how great it was to join Slade and how you could be your own boss and look where that got you. I kicked your ass!"
"Gah, you little shit!" Rage shouted as his veins glowed red and his muscles increased in size. "You're dead!"
Rage crashed through another wall only to trigger some trip mines and blow him three floors down. He landed on his back as Red leaned down and looked him in his eyes.
"Looks like you found me Donky now where's Diddy?" Red asked.
"Here!"
Red looked up to see eight shadow clones leap into the air and pin him to the ground. They restrained Red long enough for Tasha to charge up another beam. Red quickly saw this and with all his strength pushed off all the clones and dodged out of the way of the beam. Rage was still disoriented from the explosion and was struck by the beam and flew through the walls and outside the mansion.
Thanks to his strength the beam only left a scorched mark in the center of his chest so he was alive, but now he was incredibly pissed off. When Tasha tried to help him, he instantly grabbed her by the throat and applied pressure to her windpipe.
"A-Andrei!" She choked.
Andrei's mind was so scrambled from his anger and his powers that he couldn't even comprehend that she was his friend or even for a coherent sentence.
"Andrei!" Red shouted as the brute looked up and grinned at his former friend. He quickly threw Tasha away and stomped up to Red, he raised his fist and brought it down but Red dodged and sent his fist into his face.
Red felt like he just shattered every bone in his hand as he quickly pulled back. Rage chuckled as he ran towards Red, who now had both eagles drawn and fired both clips into his face. Red watched in horror as every one of his bullets bounced off his head and onto the ground. Rage let out a roar and sent his fist into Red's chest sending him through the wall of the mansion.
"Dammit." Red coughed as he tried to get to his feet. "His heart should have given in already to the stress. Maybe he strengthened his heart to avoid going into shock or having a heart attack."
Red didn't know what to think he just knew he had to act. That's when he realized he was in the armory of H.Q. There had to be something here he could use. That when he saw them. The exploding rounds from earlier today.
He quickly loaded them into his gun as Rage stepped into the mansion ready to kill. He let out another feral growl as he stormed inside of the building.
Red quickly aimed his guns at Rage and rained down a barrage of exploding bullets onto Rage. Each shot made Rage fall back until he was back outside. When the last round struck Rage, he was broken, burned and exhausted from the attack. His eyes went from red to blue as he fell to his knees.
Red looked down at his two friends in pity and dropped his guns, which were now smoking, on the ground and walked over and held Tasha in his arms as he shook his head.
"Why, Andrei why would you ever work for Slade?" He asked his friend who had crawled over to the two. "We were friend's hell we were family." Andrei looked down at the ground ashamed as he looked into Marcas's eyes.
"Marcas I-agh!" Andrei shrieked as he clenched his chest. Tasha awoke as well, screaming before clenching her chest.
"Guys, what wrong?" Red asked as he held his girlfriend tighter.
"They've served their purpose," Slade said holding a switch with a red button. "Too bad they failed, they might have lived longer."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Red snarled.
His question was answered when Tasha and Andrei both went stiff and started to burn as a blue flame engulfed their bodies.
"No leaving evidence, they were built with a failsafe to keep their bodies from falling into the wrong hands." Slade mused as the two turned into ash. "They never were your friends, just simple clones of the originals. After all we've spent a fortune turning you into weapons it'd be ashamed to just let it go to waste."
Marcas was still silent as his friends were now nothing but ashes in the wind. Soon rain started falling from the sky soaking the two in a matter of seconds. Slade chuckled as he watched his former experiment sulk in the mud.
"What's wrong my boy, nothing else to say?" Slade joked.
"I have nothing more to say." Red said in a monotone voice. "Deep down I knew those two weren't my real friends. I just wanted to confirm that." Red looked up at Slade as his eyes were now glowing crosshairs again. "And now that you just destroyed the last obstacle in my way there is nothing stopping me from tearing you apart nice and slow." This didn't shock Slade but only amused him.
"I want nothing else my boy." Slade grinned taking off his mask revealing his silver hair and his right eye missing. He drew his katana and grinned. "I've got nothing to lose." This caused Red to laugh as he drew his hammer and his sickle.
"We've always got something to lose."