David tightly gripped the grapple gun in his right hand. His legs and other hand were pressed against the side of the cargo ship. He holds that position for a moment longer, then swings up onto the deck. The filament retracts into the gun, making noise as it breaks out of the hole it pierced. David slips into the shadows behind a shipping container as a guard comes over to investigate the sound. The guard approaches the container with their P90 drawn and David waits for just the right moment to strike. He whirls around the corner of the blue rusted metal box and uses both hands to thrust the guard's gun up into their face. The sudden blow causes the guard to let go of their gun. David grips it and uses the butt of the gun to strike the guard in the forehead. With deft movement, he grabs the guard before the hired gun can hit the ground. David drags the guard and his gun into the shadows. He disassembles the gun, and then starts to make his way into the ship.
David methodically made his way to the aft end of the boat, avoiding the guard patrols. He paused between two containers and rolls out after a guard passes. David moves swiftly to a thick metal door. To the side of the door is a small keypad. To open the door, one would have to enter a six digit code. There were one million possible combinations, but David had no intention of trying them all. He takes out a circular gadget from his belt and clamps it over the keypad. The device makes a soft whirring sound as it hacks the keypad and a moment later a click can be heard as the door unlocks. David heads inside, closing the door behind him and putting the device back in his belt as he does.
Before him is a metal staircase leading down. David moves quickly and quietly. He had only seconds before a guard passed by this area. He heads through another door which leads to a catwalk that he makes his way across. Below him, several guards patrol the cargo holding, but the vigilante had another target. A few moments of stealth later, David stands in the engine room of the ship. With no other guards in this room, he could put his plan into action.
David reaches into his belt and pulls out a small but powerful explosive. He crouches down to set it up, then stops as if he's heard something. He puts the explosive back and stands. He takes out his eskrima sticks instead, gripping them tightly.
"I know you've been following me since I got on board," David says. He turns his head, looking over his shoulder. "Show yourself, so we can get your beating over with,"
A man steps out of the shadows of the engine room behind David. He wears blue and black paramilitary armour with a grey arm plate, matching the grey hockey mask on his face. "You really think that's how this is gonna go down?" The mercenary says as he smirks and casually twirls a hockey stick in his hand. "We won't even have time for introductions,"
"I know who you are…Sportsmaster," David replies as he turns to face his opponent.
"The one an' only," Sportmaster said. "Now I gotta escort you off my employer's boat. Are we doing this the easy way, or the hard way?" Sportsmaster holds the hockey stick with both hands.
"The hard way," David responds and prepares for a fight as Sportsmaster charges.
Back at the warehouse in Tinasha used by Blood Tiger, Anansi swings his staff into the face of the last thug standing. As they fall, the illusionist twirls his staff and the copies disappear.
"Hm," Anansi mused. "There were only twenty six,"
At that moment, Vixen returns. "Anansi, are you…" she sees the many stunned bandits. "Oh. Never mind.
Anansi simply smirked. "I am doing much better than they are. Did you learn anything from Blood Tiger?"
"I did. He told me about his buyers and about another storage place north of here. Did you find out anything here?"
Anansi shrugs. "I learned Blood Tiger can't count, but that's nothing new. Let's get to this other building."
Anansi and Vixen exited through a side door. Before them, several ATVs were parked. Anansi attached his staff to his waist and hopped on a bright red one. "Shall we ride then?"
Vixen smirked. "No thanks. A hawk doesn't need to ride."
She channelled the flight of a hawk and soared up before Anansi could ask her how she could do that without wings. He revved the ATV and followed her, deciding to add that to his list of things to wonder about.
In the engine room of 'The Storm of Mjolnir II', Sportsmaster swung and jabbed rapidly, using the hockey stick as a bo staff. David deflected the attacks, trying to defend himself against his opponent's advantage in reach. Sportsmaster made a low sweep at his legs and David hopped over it. Just as David touched the ground again, Sportsmaster had brought the stick up for a high attack and David smacked it away with the eskrima in his left hand. The vigilante stepped back, and then came towards the mercenary with a strike using the eskrima in his right hand. Sportsmaster sidestepped and raised his stick to catch the blow. Sportsmaster then turned his staff to the right as he moved to the left, using David's own momentum to his advantage. David went farther forward than he anticipated but before he could recover, Sportsmaster struck him in the back, sending him falling forwards. David barely rolled out of the way in time to escape the hockey stick being slammed into the ground right where his head was.
Just as David recovered, Sportsmaster swung downwards. David crossed his eskrima as he stood, catching the blow, and pushing Sportsmaster's hands up. The mercenary was exposed for a moment and David landed a couple quick blows before Sportsmaster brought his stick down again. Sportsmaster was on the defensive and now forced back from a flurry of eskrima strikes. David brought both his sticks down at the same time in a powerful attack that Sportsmaster blocked by holding the hockey stick horizontally. Sportsmaster pushed David back, creating space between them and the two skilled fighters started circling each other warily.
"Not bad. You've got some moves," Sportsmaster said, smirking under his mask.
David stayed silent, his eyes narrowed as he waited for an opportunity to strike.
"I can see why Marksbury hired me," Sportsmaster continued. "You're a real threat to his business and his children,"
"Children?" David repeated. For a split second he was surprised at the use of the plural, having thought that Marksbury only had a son. Sportsmaster took that opportunity to swing. David leaned back and his own attacks in response forced Sportsmaster to retreat, leaving them both to circle again.
"Yeah. He tends to keep his daughter a secret. Probably cause her mother is a woman he had an affair with. You know how these rich businessmen are. Especially the ones who travel,"
David wasn't sure if Sportsmaster was trying to distract him again, or just rambling, but he didn't time to figure out. The longer he stayed, the more chance there was of guards showing up. "You can gossip later," David said.
Sportsmaster shrugged, seeing his distraction tactic wasn't going to work twice and charged again. Sportsmaster swung from the left and David raised both his sticks to block. Sportsmaster then shifted his grip and stance to swing from the right and hooked David's eskrima in the curved part of the hockey stick. The thrust continued down, forcing the sticks out of David's hands and on to the ground. As they clattered on the metal floor, Sportsmaster swung for a third time. David ducked under it and reached up, putting his left hand on the hockey stick and punching Sportmaster's stomach with his right fist.
David then grabbed the hockey stick with both hands and tried to pull it out of Sportmaster's grasp as the mercenary pulled back. They tugged back and forth, glaring at each other. Without warning, David suddenly did a backwards roll. As Sportsmaster was brought forwards, David put both legs on his opponent's chest and used the momentum of the roll and a thrust from his legs to flip Sportsmaster over. Sportsmaster was sent flying upside down and backwards into metal railing where he struck his head and was knocked unconscious. David stood and broke the hockey stick over his knee.
David was about to drop the pieces when he paused. He looked at the sharp, pointed piece of broken wood in his hand and at the dangerous killer, lying in a heap before him. It would be easy to land the final blow now. David gripped the wood tightly then threw it away in disgust at the thoughts he was having. David wasn't a killer and he had sworn he never would be again. He picked up his own eskrima sticks and went back to work. He set the explosive, along with a few others. As he made his way out, David dragged Sportsmaster out of the engine room. He then triggered the explosives, irreparably damaging the engines and blasting a hole in the hull. The sound and heat woke Sportsmaster up, but by then David was already gone.
Escape had been easy amid the chaos as the guards tried to figure out what happened and evacuate the boat. David sat in his own speedboat, far away from the cargo ship. He watched with a pair of binoculars, to make sure that every single crew member got off safely, even Sportsmaster. Once the crew had evacuated, David turned on his boat and sped off. He had some research to do. As he cut through the dark waters, David silently hoped that Marksbury's daughter was nothing like her father and brother. His hopes weren't very high.