The Inquisitor

Chapter 35

The Injustice Gang Part 4

A/N: So some have asked me whether or not Onomatopoeia is an OC. He actually isn't, he's a member of Green Arrow's Rogue's Gallery (but has gone after Batman on occasion). He's basically a serial killer that goes after non-powered superheroes and imitates sound effects.

Also when I was looking up Parasite on DC comics I couldn't find any info on whether or not he could absorb magically given powers, and none of the guys I talked to on the matter knew either. So for right now I'm going with the idea that he can only absorb abilities that are genetically connected to someone. Also I know that Parasite has appeared in Young Justice but I haven't watched those episodes and I was mostly going off his comic counterpart.

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- Gotham City, 111 Kane Avenue, Hallway-

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It only took a few minutes for Aqualad and the other members of the team to take down the remaining blockbuster-venom enhanced thugs. They may have proven to be much stronger than Aqualad but they weren't nearly as intelligent as they thought they were. Not only that but they were severely inferior to the strength and skills of Troia and Superboy.

Eventually the last one fell backwards onto the floor, both completely unconscious, and missing numerous teeth with Superboy standing over him. Superman's clone looked mildly puzzled at how quickly they won but then he, realized that the Inquisitor was no longer among their number. Of course it seemed that Aqualad and Troia had already noticed this, and the former was picking up the Inquisitor's helmet, even as he began to speak into his communicator "Inquisitor, this is Aqualad, are you alright?" he asked.

There was a few moments before the Inquisitor responded to them, "Affirmative, continue on to your objective. The hostages are your only concern here!" His response was just as blunt as the rest of the Team had come to expect from him but they weren't all that willing to just leave him behind.

"But, Inquisitor! Surely Superboy and I can tear down these paltry barriers and-" Troia started but was cut off by the Inquisitor's next words "That would take too much time, continue on to your objective, the mission takes priority."

Aqualad wasn't too keen on leaving their team leader behind either and decided to bring his own two cents into the matter "We don't leave people-"

He wasn't even able to finish his sentence as the Inquisitor all but shouted through the comm. channels "You babbling fool! I'm not telling you to leave me! We will rendezvous on our way to rescue the hostages on the forty-eighth floor after you have secured the ones on the lower levels. Now do your duty!"

Aqualad seemed more than just a little bit reluctant to just leave the Inquisitor on his own but it was obvious that he could take care of himself and the hostages were their bigger priority. Soon though he acquiesced to his orders and reluctantly started to walk away from the metal barriers.

"I can't believe we're just leaving someone behind," Superboy muttered. Troia nodded her head in agreement "It is utterly dishonorable."

The Atlantean turned to face his colleagues and said "We're not leaving the Inquisitor behind, we're going to meet up with him. Besides he's shown time and again that he can't be kept down that easily. Remember?"

Oh, yes, they definitely remembered. Their time in the Bialya/Qurac border zone first popped into their head, and the fight against Amazo and its creator a close second. Then there was his debut where he singlehandedly rescued an entire school from a group of terrorists, all while slaughtering almost the entirety of said group of terrorists in the process.

It was then that all three simultaneously realized that it probably wasn't the Inquisitor they should be worried about. It was whoever thought it was the wellbeing of whoever was dumb enough to try and impede his progress that they should be concerned for.

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-Gotham Rooftops-

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The fight between Silver Swan and Wonder Woman continued and things were only getting more destructive. The rooftops of several buildings had been damaged and it was only a miracle from Zeus that no civilians had been injured or gods-forbid, killed. Still though that luck would eventually run out and someone innocent would get caught in the crossfire. She had to either finish the fight quickly or take it away from the city, so that she wouldn't have to worry any innocents getting caught in the crossfire.

As such Wonder Woman began to try and move the fight away from the city, or at the very least towards the ocean where it was less likely for anyone to get hurt. However Vanessa quickly picked up on this strategy and immediately started to harry her towards the more heavily populated areas. Early the fight Wonder Woman did her best to fly above Vanessa so that any sonic shrieks she emitted would be less likely to harm any civilians.

Unfortunately Silver Swan was far more agile than Wonder Woman had initially thought and she soon found herself slammed into the ground in Robinson Park that was just a short distance away from the building that the Injustice Gang had taken over. The Impact having made a decently sized crater.

While Wonder Woman picked herself up off the ground, Silver Swan was hovering over her with a gloating smirk on her face.

"What's wrong, sister? I thought you and the Amazons were warriors born. So why aren't you putting up more of a fight than this?!" she shouted in a rage even as Wonder Woman got back up. The Amazon struck out again, with blows that were either absorbed by the metallic armor or parried. However one strike managed to get through and impacted Silver Swan directly into the side of her face. The blow was followed up with a swift kick that sent her all but flying backwards several meters away.

Vanessa was barely able to regain her footing, from the blow and during that time she was expecting Wonder Woman to try and follow up but apparently she wasn't willing to do so. She promised that the Amazon's weakness would cost her dearly.

"Because I don't want you hurt, I want to help you Vanessa, I don't know who did this to you but I promise that I will set you free."

Vanessa's expression changed, for a moment there was a look not only of conflict but fear, horror and desperation. She looked like she wanted to say something but then she…twitched and the look of hate and rage returned.

"I'll be free when you and everyone you care for are dead!" There wasn't even a moment's hesitation now, Silver Swan took in another deep breath to get ready for another sonic shriek. Wonder Woman knew she had to end this quickly and flew forwards at her best speed. She struck out at Silver Swan with a punch, striking her surrogate sister in the solar-plexus, this time instead of the armor absorbing the impact it bent inwards causing Vanessa to stop inhaling and start coughing and gasping for air.

Wonder Woman hadn't used her most of her strength with that blow, mainly due to the fact that to do so would likely have shattered the girl's ribcage.

Not wanting Silver Swan to try and regain the initiative, Wonder Woman struck at the girl she called her little sister, punching her in the face, and solar plexus repeatedly. The blows were enough to drive Silver Swan to her knees, gasping for air, her head looking at the ground even as Wonder Woman continued.

The Amazon warrior drew her sword and swung it at one of the mechanical wings. The blow all but severed the mechanical contraption from Vanessa's shoulder blades with the only thing keeping it attached were a handful of cables and wires. Vanessa gasped in pain even as Wonder Woman struck her again and again and eventually she fell onto her back.

It was when Vanessa was on her back, breathing heavily and her exposed skin was now covered in bruises. She looked at Wonder Woman, she didn't look enraged anymore, instead she just looked terrified, confused, lost and alone.

A feeling of empathy and compassion took over Wonder Woman and it started to show on her facial features.

"Vanessa please just tell me, why are you doing this? What did I do to make you hate me, what did I do to make you want to harm innocent people."

"You left me to this!" she screamed and tried to strike out with her left arm but the attack was clumsy and one that was easily countered. Wonder Woman grabbed the clawed arm, even as she wrapped Lasso of Truth around herself just so that Vanessa would know for certain that what she said next was no deception.

"I searched for you, the instant that you were abducted I tried to find you. Batman and I searched everywhere and tracked down every possible lead we could think of. I did everything I could to find you."

Vanessa knew what the Lasso of Truth was capable of and what it did to those who had it tied around them but it couldn't be true, could it? No it was true, the Lasso forced those to speak the truth whether they liked it or not. But if that was the case then why was she doing this? Why was she hurting innocent people, what had even driven her to-

"Kill her now!" the voice in her mind spoke again and it was accompanied by a jolt of indescribable pain in her head. The pain seared through her head and throughout her body and she couldn't hold the scream of agony back. She fell onto the ground and was gripping the sides of her head with both hands. "Please stop!" she begged her screams raising in pitch.

Wonder Woman was by her surrogate sister's side in less than a moment "Vanessa what's wrong?!" The concern and compassion on her face was only visible to Silver Swan for a few moments during a small interim between the excruciating pain. She wasn't even able to get out so much as a word before pain shot through her head and down to the rest of her body. In fact Wonder Woman wasn't sure if Vanessa had even heard her.

"M-make it stop! Please make it stop!" she begged.

"Vanessa!"

"It's angry at me, it won't stop screaming in my head! It hurts!" she cried, her hands clutching the side of her head hard enough to draw blood. Wonder Woman's eyes widened even as Vanessa's nose and eyes began to bleed. The girl's head swayed from side to side.

"Please, kill m-" She couldn't even finish her sentence as her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed forwards. Wonder Woman moved quickly to catch her before she could completely fall to the ground. The words that Vanessa had last spoke repeated over and over in Diana's head as she gently picked up the poor girl. Whoever did this to her, they would pay dearly.

Wonder Woman began to fly back to the building, the one she called little sister in hand.

Within just a few minutes the two were back at the building where the hostages were looking at Wonder Woman with looks of awe while sending expressions of disdain, hate and anger towards the unconscious Silver Swan. While Wonder Woman wanted to inform them of the situation, there simply wasn't time, especially when she saw Poison Ivy of all people standing nearby and speaking rather cordially with Batman.

Her immediate thought was that Poison Ivy was there to help the Injustice Gang or was even a part of them given her history but considering that Batman wasn't currently fighting her, that left one of two possibilities. One, was that she had charmed him via the use of her pheromones, which considering that the other hostages were wary around her, seemed relatively unlikely. Two was that she wasn't here to harm them but rather help, though why she would do that, Wonder Woman had no idea. Though she intended on getting some answers.

"Batman, can you explain why I see one of Gotham's premier criminals standing here before us all now?" she asked.

Batman didn't hesitate in answering Wonder Woman's question "Apparently Ivy broke out of Arkham Asylum to help rescue the hostages."

Almost immediately Poison Ivy stepped forwards and held out one of her arms "If you think I'm lying then you can use your lasso on me right now."

That was something that Wonder Woman hadn't been expecting. In fact given that most knew what the Lasso of Truth did –though the name pretty much explained exactly what it was capable of- there were those who thought that they were either clever enough to fool it or they were genuinely willing to show that they were telling the truth.

Immediately Wonder Woman wrapped the golden cord around Poison Ivy's arms and asked "Why are you here?"

The response from Poison Ivy was almost immediate "I came here to rescue Doctor Henry Birch as well as the other hostages that were taken."

Batman made a mental note to look into this 'Doctor Birch' the instant that this mission was over. If he really was able to help reform Poison Ivy, then perhaps there were others that he might be able to help. 'Some of whom may not even be super-criminals.' The image of a young man wearing a skull helmet flashed through the Caped Crusader's mind.

The hostages of course were utterly shocked by this turn of events and they started whispering amongst themselves.

Wonder Woman, who was still carrying the unconscious Silver Swan gently placed on a nearby couch, attempting to make her as comfortable as possible. Batman immediately walked over to the two and asked "How is she?"

Diana sighed, "Someone hurt her, and not just physically, it was strange, throughout the fight, I thought I was about to get through to her but then she'd become enraged again. Eventually I did get through to her but she started screaming about a voice in her head, she seemed to be in so much pain…" she trailed off, grabbing the Caped Crusader by the shoulder pulling him in closer, and said in a hushed, unnerved voice "She was begging me to kill her."

Batman managed to keep his features stoic but it was obvious that he was just as angered by the turn of events as Wonder Woman. Still though despite his feelings on the matter he had to remain as objective as he could. He pulled a scanner off of his belt and started going over the girl with it.

What he saw, was disturbing.

It wasn't just the numerous organs that had been removed and replaced with cybernetics, or the fact that the metallic wings had been all but grafted to her now reinforced shoulder blades –but they were a close second-. Oh no it was that someone had set up not only a transmitter directly into her cerebral cortex but also a series of electrodes that were attached directly to the pain and pleasure centers of the brain.

While Batman wasn't exactly surprised by what he was seeing, given how it was pretty much par for the course in Gotham, he was still utterly disgusted that someone would do this to another person. "How bad is it?" Wonder Woman asked after a moment.

"To be blunt it's about as bad as I suspected when I first saw her, though there is a series of electrodes in her brain that stimulate the pain and pleasure centers of the mind, there's also a transmitter there as well."

"Can you trace-" Wonder Woman was cut off when Batman held up his hand. He was silent for a moment or two, still using the device before he stated "They're at the Gotham Pier, Dock one-thirty-eight, and from what I can tell they seem to be transmitting from a cargo ship there."

There wasn't even a second before Wonder Woman took off again, this time intending on taking Vanessa to the police cordon below for medical care, right before she made sure that her tormentors wouldn't escape.

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-111 Kane Avenue, Security Room-

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"Slash, whoosh, Thwack!" yelled Onomatopoeia as he tried to slice and stab at the three that were trapped in the security room with them. It was unreal in how this guy was able to take on the three of them and come out even, and no matter what they did to try and take him down, he almost always seemed to have something to counter it. The frustration that had been building up in the trio kept growing even as they fought back desperately.

"Oh will you shut up already!" Artemis demanded as she fired off three arrows in rapid succession and, seemingly predicting her attack Onomatopoeia dove behind a nearby console. Two of the arrows she sent out embedded themselves harmlessly into the wall behind the psycho. The third however, managed to impact the bastard's shoulder, but it clearly didn't manage to do any damage considering how easily the bastard was ripping it out of his body armor.

"Riiiiiiip!" he yelled pulling it out of the Kevlar vest he had on him with relative ease. It hadn't even fully penetrated through the vest if the ease in which the psycho pulled it out was anything to go by. He tossed it onto the floor while imitating the clattering noise it made.

Catwoman lashed out with her whip once again, hoping to entangle his legs but just like before it was as though the bastard could see the attack coming and had leapt away from the weapon, managing to avoid it by mere inches. This repeated itself over again with Robin whose shuriken impacted the wall to seemingly no effect but when each burst, emitting a bright flash and a loud banging noise.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" the maniac yelled as he covered his eyes. However, it was more than enough to give everyone an opening.

Immediately the group struck out at the masked fiend only for him to nearly effortlessly parry each of their attacks, apparently he hadn't been as blinded as they had thought. That or the bastard was either wearing some sort of protection underneath that mask or he was a metahuman.

Soon enough though the three attackers were the ones on the defensive when the psycho drew a pair of knives and began counter-attacking each of their blows like they were nothing.

"Slash, whoosh, slash!" Onomatopoeia yelled as he started to lash out at the three, even as they managed to dodge the near lightning-fast blows, they still noticed that each one was coming ever closer to them with each and every strike.

Once again the trio had to fall back, to get some space from the maniac that was coming after them.

Artemis thought that she had gotten far enough away from the maniac to fire off an arrow at the bastard. Unfortunately, Onomatopoeia was able to act first and threw a knife right at her "Fwoosh!" the psycho yelled. It seemed as though time was slowing down around Artemis as Robin and Catwoman's expressions morphed into ones of pure horror as Onomatopoeia threw the blade at Artemis' face.

It looked as though the knife was about to impact when Artemis heard the door leading into the room slam open and then, mere inches from her face the knife stopped exactly where it was. It took less than a second for Artemis to notice the yellow clad hand clasped around the handle of the weapon.

"Wow, I leave you all alone for fifteen minutes and you all get into a big fight with a psychotic criminal without me?" He gave Artemis a look of mock hurt but his eyes told her just how worried he'd been.

Artemis gave him a serious look and said, "Be careful when you're dealing with that guy, he's tougher than he looks."

Kid Flash looked back at Onomatopoeia "Kinda figured, we going for the one-two punch?" He asked while Artemis grabbed another arrow from her quiver and knocked it as she gave a small nod. This one was seemingly blunted but Kid Flash recognized it as a taser variant.

Artemis let the arrow fly directly at the Onomatopoeia's chest while Kid Flash dashed forwards. With the sheer speed that Kid Flash was able to move at, Onomatopoeia was unable to dodge the fist that slammed into his masked face –and everyone could hear the nutjob making a "smaaack" noise- which seemed to knock him off balance just enough to keep Onomatopoeia from dodging what came next.

The arrow struck its target dead center and arcs of electricity shot out, causing Onomatopoeia to start convulsing as volts arced across his body. What was unnerving about this however wasn't that the psychotic wasn't imitating the sounds of the electricity or something ridiculous like that. It's that despite the pain that was more than likely coursing through his body, he wasn't making a sound. No screams, no shouts, no curses, it was like someone had had finally managed to hit the mute button on the bastard.

Eventually the taser arrow stopped sending electricity through Onomatopoeia and he fell onto his knees. At that Robin gave the bastard a roundhouse kick to the serial killer's face sending Onomatopoeia backwards onto the ground. There was a brief groan before the masked fiend fell silent. Immediately the four of them rushed forwards, restraints in hand and a power suppression collar, just in case.

After attaching the restraints to the bastard, Robin reached down and pulled off Onomatopoeia's mask. Given the mutated or disfigured maniacs that ran around Gotham like Joker, Victor Zsasz, Harvey Dent and Fire Fly they were expecting something for the guy who just tried to kill them all.

It was much more disturbing than that however. Instead of burn scars, a ghastly pale white skin pigmentation or self-inflicted tally marks, there was nothing. It just the face of an ordinary, unremarkable looking man. The same kind of looks that one could find on any normal person that walked the streets in any average city or town. Nothing more and nothing less.

Catwoman of all people was the first to speak "Considering everything we just went through fighting this bastard, I was expecting something a little more impressive, some cybernetics, scars…something. Not…" she trailed off, waving her hand at the unconscious man "…this."

'Then again, maybe I shouldn't be surprised.' She remembered some of the more –ironically enough- normal gangsters and mobsters, before the so-called 'super criminals' took over and how normal the majority of them looked, and at the same time they could be just as monstrous as the other 'super criminals'.

Robin looked at the psycho and said, "Keep an eye on that guy while I try to get back into the system!" Lord knew that with everything they went through to take down the bastard, they couldn't get complacent around Onomatopoeia just because they cuffed him and slipped on a power dampener.

While they kept an eye on their new prisoner, Robin finally got a good look at the nearly trashed computer terminals that were riddled with bullet holes and let out a frustrated groan, "Whatever's left of the system anyways."

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Aqualad, Superboy, Miss Martian and Wonder Girl were nearly to the room where the hostages were at when they finally got a message from Robin "Hey guys, I've got good news and bad news."

The quartet looked at one another for a moment or two before Aqualad respond "What do you have for us?" he asked. "We managed to take down the maniac that Joker sent after us, but he did a number on the computer terminals, most of them are completely trashed. I'm trying to get back into the system but it's unlikely I'll be able to get into much of anything at this point."

Well that was to be expected, the Joker and the rest of the Injustice gang clearly wanted them to lose access to the security systems. And now they had seemingly succeeded in that, which would slow them down significantly as they made their way forwards. "Permission to proceed on mission to the hostages."

"Granted, continue onwards and proceed with extreme caution," Batman stated. Less than a second later he spoke through the communications again "We also appear to have a new ally on this mission. Apparently Poison Ivy has broken out of Arkham to help rescue the hostages."

That was a statement that no one was ready for nor did they even have any inkling of. The one who responded first was predictable, "Have you completely lost your mind or have you succumbed to her pheromones?! That mutant has never shown any empathy or compassion towards anything that wasn't either a plant or her fellow abominations!" The Inquisitor all but shouted through the comm. channels.

Despite the reaction Batman kept his cool "Wonder Woman already used her Lasso of Truth on Ivy, she's telling the truth."

Dante all but scoffed, the idea that they should trust such a heretical artefact was ludicrous. Though this was not the place nor the time for it, they had more important things to worry about but he would make sure that the other members of the Team at least had some protection for when the flora obsessed psychotic turned on them.

He opened up a private communications line to the rest of the team though he was positive that Batman would be listening in on their conversation "I want everyone to keep their gasmasks on their person at all times, if it even looks like you will have any possible contact with that mutant you are to equip your gasmasks at once! Am I understood?"

There was a chorus of affirmatives. "Remember, Eternal Vigilance."

Eternal Vigilance was one of several code phrases that the Inquisitor had relentlessly drilled into the heads of everyone on the Team. It meant that one or more members of the Justice League were potentially compromised, maybe even acting under the control of the enemy.

This time the affirmatives were somewhat more subdued and if anyone was being honest, more than a little nervous about the idea that Wonder Woman and Batman might be under the influence of Poison Ivy. If that were the case, then things were about to get that much harder. Still though it was possible that the Inquisitor was wrong, after all he had shown more than a few signs of paranoia.

They wanted to believe what Batman and Wonder Woman claimed but at the same time they all knew what Poison Ivy was capable of, especially when she used her pheromones. Sure, they were more than likely able to resist said pheromones but there had been times when Ivy was able to use them to control even Batman on occasion. Granted those times were few and far between, so much so that the only time that it ever truly worked was when he had been caught almost completely off-guard.

Then there was Wonder Woman. She had never encountered Ivy before and given her powers, though given Wonder Woman's blessings from her deities it was possible that she could fight them off. Of course, that didn't mean that they should take such a risk by assuming that Wonder Woman was immune.

Nor could they assume that any of them were immune to Ivy's pheromones either.

The four of them continued onwards to the next group hostages as they had been told. Keeping as quiet as possible the group continued onwards. Strangely enough they didn't encounter any enemy patrols or resistance. With the abilities of Miss Martian and Superboy the four were easily able to evade enemy patrols or when necessary, take them down through an ambush.

Of course, despite everything it felt as though things were going too well. Maybe it was the training the Inquisitor was putting them through, but something was starting to feel…'off' for lack of better word about the whole mission. It almost felt as though things were going too well and given what they had learned about the Joker, that was never a good thing.

The group eventually made their way to the door where the room beyond contained the next batch of hostages. They gathered at the door and M'gann began to focus her senses outwards. After a few seconds of doing this she looked over at her three teammates and said, "The hostages are all behind that door but there are two members of the Injustice Gang in there with them, Parasite and Metallo."

Well, that was just great. Those two bastards were heavy hitters to say the least. Still, they did have a few tricks up their sleeves. They had a couple of pulse grenades on them, which could interfere with electronic components, not enough to kill obviously but they were more than enough to cause some serious headaches.

Still though they did have a plan in place for this kind of thing or at the very at least some general tactics. The idea for dealing with Parasite was that the guy would need to be dealt with via one of two different ways. The first was to strike at him from a distance as he needed to make direct contact with the person whose powers he wanted to steal. Granted it wasn't a permanent fix for the monster, he could only have said powers for twenty-four hours at the maximum which required prolonged contact.

The second way could only be done after Parasite had taken the powers of one of their allies. Though in this case it would either have to be Miss Martian or Superboy, as they were the only real powers that Parasite could truly take. The only powers that Parasite could take from the others were from Aqualad, and even then, he'd only be able to breathe underwater, while Troia had her powers given to her by her gods, they weren't linked to her genetic structure.

Therefore, it was obvious that the best way to deal with Parasite was by preventing him from getting anyone's powers in the first place.

Then there was Metallo, a former military officer that was outfitted in enough cybernetics that one could easily mistake the guy for a robot. In fact, the only thing that was still organic that was left in his body was his brain. This made him much stronger and more durable than any normal human but was still pretty vulnerable to superpowered heroes, especially those with super strength.

Unfortunately, though his primary weapon was more than enough to depower, incapacitate and kill a kryptonian so everyone knew that Superboy would have to be extremely cautious when fighting him. Though this time they weren't nearly as concerned as they would have been before what happened in the Qurac-Bialyan border region. Ever since they're…experiences in that nightmare, they'd all gotten a pretty heavy dose of reality, especially Superboy given his previous arrogance regarding his powers.

Though the same could be said for all of them in a way.

So now, they had full confidence in Superboy or Troia to not do something so idiotic.

Aqualad pulled out a small camera that had a lens mounted on a long, thin mechanical cord and began to maneuver it underneath the door slightly so that they could get a better look. It was about what he expected if he were honest. Metallo was pretty close to the hostages along with seven of Joker's goons, most of whom were using close combat weapons; mostly knives, machetes and even a few stun batons. Though more than just a couple had their hands on some submachine guns.

The Atlantean looked back at the rest of the group "Metallo and Parasite are in the room all right. Parasite's a good distance away from the hostages but Metallo's pretty close and so are several of the Joker's men and they're all armed, most are carrying blades or a couple of stun batons, but a few have firearms. Miss Martian when we enter do you think you can disarm them?"

Miss Martian gave a reassuring look, "Of course." The Atlantean then continued "Superboy you take down the Joker's men after they've gotten their weapons removed. Once that's done you two can help deal with Metallo and Parasite, but keep your distance, you know full well just what would happen if Parasite got his hands on you, or if Metallo hit you with a kryptonite powered energy blast." The clone of Superman gave an understanding nod.

"Troia, you have to keep Parasite busy; he shouldn't be able to absorb your powers given that their origins aren't tied to your genetics but be very careful and don't let him make any direct physical contact with you, he can still drain the energy out of anything organic. He's used it to kill people before."

"I hear you." She stated as she drew her sword and shield.

The four readied themselves for a fight and got into position. Aqualad looked to Superboy and said, "Kick it down."

Superboy smiled, cracked his knuckles and obliged.

With one mighty strike the massive wooden doors slammed onto the ground and the four sped into the room.

The gang members flinched for a second or two, apparently not having expected the sidekicks to have gotten so far so quickly. They were so taken aback that the ones using firearms weren't able to truly react in time. Miss Martian used this to her advantage.

The guns that the thugs were carrying flew out of their hands and up into the air; their magazines ejecting out as they did. Of course, that wasn't the only thing that she did, instead each firearm disassembled themselves in the span of a few seconds. Being able to disassemble a weapon or at the very least removing the ammunition quickly in close combat was one of the tricks that the Inquisitor had taught them when fighting those who had guns on them.

M'gann just decided to take it to the next level and tried to use her telekinesis on such a small and precise scale whenever she could. At first it was just an idea that if she could be that precise, then that meant that she could, in theory do other things with her telekinesis rather than just use it to slam heavy objects onto an enemy.

And sure enough this skill she had been developing made it that much more efficient to disarm an enemy, making them less of a threat not only to her teammates but also to any civilians that might be around them.

It was then that one of the Inquisitor's lessons flashed into her mind 'an unarmed foe is still a threat, just a more desperate one, and those can be just as deadly.' However she didn't need to worry about them as much, given how Superboy was already rushing in and taking them down piecemeal. Fortunately for the thugs it was clear that Superboy had taken some of those lessons about restraint regarding his powers to heart. He was knocking them out but wasn't giving them any permanent damage.

M'gann wasn't sure that they deserved that kind of gentle treatment given all the things that she had heard of the Joker's gang and everything they had done. No, given what those animals had done they deserved no mercy. Less than a second after she thought that the Martian wondered where that troubling thought had come from. Still though there was no time to dwell on it, she had work to do.

She then focused on Metallo who was trying to open the hatches to his chest compartment where his kryptonite power source was stored. If that opened then the cyborg could use it as an energy weapon against Superboy and given how it had nearly killed Superman that way on more than one occasion it was extremely dangerous.

M'gann reached out with her telekinesis again and was doing everything she could to keep the chest hatch completely closed. Whatever that metal was made of however was ridiculously durable, so much so that she couldn't jam it shut by twisting up the metal. And even then, slowing him down let alone stopping him with her telekinesis was a difficult task. He was probably one of the more resilient individuals that she had ever faced before.

Just a few meters away Parasite was desperately trying to reach out at the amazon only for her to back away before he could get too close.

"Aww what's wrong, afraid of a little love tap?" He asked with a dark chuckle. If a foe had taunted her in such a way before her ordeal in the border region, she probably would have fallen for it thanks to her own pride, but now she simply smiled and said "No, I simply don't wish to sully my hands with such a weak opponent."

At that Parasite snarled in anger, just as she'd hoped "Weak? Who are you calling weak?!" he demanded trying to reach out again with his hand in an attempt to grab her, or failing that brush his skin up against Troia's. After all, even the slightest touch could allow him to drain not only the life force but also the powers of those he fought. "When you rely on the powers you've stolen to fight, what else could you be but weak?" she asked.

Parasite just roared "I'll show you who's weak! I'll rip you to shreds after draining you until you're a shriveled up prune of a corpse!" in a rage, and lunged out at her again, only for his assault to be batted away by her sword in an almost casual fashion. As she did Troia gave the most aggravating smirk she could manage at the villain "Are you certain about that? Even a child could counter those clumsy attacks."

Once again Parasite attempted to reach out and grasp at Troia again who once again outmaneuvered the attack and sighed "The second I get the chance I'm going to ask Superman how he had so much trouble with you. The lack of skill here is embarrassing, and honestly I think that the only way you ever had any chance of defeating him is because he pitied you."

This back and forth continued even as Aqualad joined the fray and used his water bearers to send a torrent of water into the monster, forcing him back.

It was a fairly primitive form of Atlantean sorcery, but it served its purpose for the moment, as they tried to keep their distance from the bastard while trying to take him down as quickly as they could.

Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be as there was a bright green flash behind them and Superboy shouting in pain. The Amazon turned to look at the disturbance, only to find that Superboy was being tossed directly at her by the cyborg. Troia had only a second and a half to widen her eyes before Superboy's impact. The Amazon was sent onto the ground her sword clattering away from her as Superman's Clone rolled off of her and a few feet away from her.

Parasite ran towards the fallen kryptonian, his arms in front of him to grasp at the fallen sidekick's face before anyone could move to stop him. Superboy was about to try and get away but before he could Parasite's hands grasped the sides of his head and with a smirk he shouted, "Your powers are mine now bitch!"

Parasite didn't have very long to drain Superboy's power as in an instant, Aqualad let loose a torrent of magically enhanced water, while Troia slammed her shield into the mutated human's face, sending Parasite stumbling back. He looked on the pair with shock "How?!" He demanded to know "How are you able to hurt me? I'm almost as strong as Superman!"

At that Aqualad and Troia shared a smile "Superman may be tough, but he doesn't have any defense against magic."

Parasite snarled "Than I'll just have to take yours!" And lunged at them with frightening speed. The two were forced to use their magic to hold him back but they couldn't do that forever. If they wanted to do some damage to the bastard then Troia would have to get up close and take him in close combat, which wasn't an option that was all that appealing given how strong Parasite had become. Before he was manageable with a normal human's strength but now after getting significant power boost after taking some of Superboy's powers.

Just a few meters away Metallo was giving a sickening laugh at the Martian who was standing a few feet away glaring hatefully at him as she picked herself off of the ground "What?" he asked snidely "Did you really think that you would have any real chance at keeping me from tearing apart that pathetic little knock-off? I go up against the real Superman all the time and I can hold my own!"

Miss Martian nearly snarled at the cyborg that was more machine than man and knew that the only real way to stop Parasite now was for them to either kill him using that magic imbued sword of Troia's, or for them to depower him using kryptonite, which they didn't have, unless…

The Martian's thoughts trailed off as she remembered that Metallo had a kryptonite power source. She also remembered that Metallo could survive unpowered for several hours. And that would be more than enough time to get him hooked up to a non-kryptonite-based power supply in Strykers Prison. 'Though considering what he and Parasite have done to people in the past, maybe the best place for them would be the grave.'

A few weeks ago and the thought of something like that would have turned her stomach. Now though, after what she had gone through in the Bialya/Qurac border region as well as the nightmares/memories she had been put through, it didn't bother her nearly as much. M'gann wasn't sure whether or not that was a good thing or a bad thing. Either way though she had an idea on what to do now. "Aqualad, Troia, keep Parasite occupied, I have an idea. Just hold him off for a few seconds!" She sent telepathically.

She didn't wait for a reply from the rest of the Team and instead focused her attention on Metallo who was raising his arms and powering up his wrist mounted lasers. M'gann was in luck. From the files the Inquisitor had them review before the mission she knew that those weapons took several seconds to fully charge and once started it was nearly impossible to get them to stop.

She used her telekinesis to force the cyborg to aim his own weapons directly at himself. With the way that the weapons were aimed, it wouldn't endanger the hostages or the team but it certainly would do a lot of damage to Metallo. The metallic criminal's head looked down and his glowing green eyes almost seemed to widen when he realized what was about to happen. "Wait, y-you're one of those hero types, you can't do this!" he yelled.

M'gann just looked at him with a hardened expression "Don't worry, you'll survive." Metallo's mouth dropped in shock and looked like he was about to utter some plea for clemency. He didn't receive any as barely less than a second later the energy beams from the wrist cannons fired, not only blasting his upper and lower torso apart.

The cyborg looked down at his ruined body before back up at the Martian as she used her telekinesis to slowly pry open the chest plates where the Kryptonite heart rested. "Wait! What the hell are you doing?!" Metallo shouted even as the metal groaned and strained underneath her renewed efforts. With the damage that the cyborg had sustained, it was much easier to get the chest panel open now, than it was earlier.

When the chest panel was open and the glowing green of the kryptonite was exposed M'gann felt more than just a little bit of satisfaction at seeing that piece of rock, especially when she grabbed it and began to pull it out of the exposed metallic chest cavity "That's mine! I need that!" Metallo all but shrieked but M'gann ignored him. Instead she started pulling at the glowing rock, ignoring the protests of the criminal.

As she pulled on the kryptonite inside Metallo, she used her telekinesis to assist and as she did the cyborg let out a hideous scream that was only made more horrific by the sounds of electronic distortion. M'gann didn't seem to notice or care about the noise though. Even as the kryptonite came out of the cyborg's chest cavity and the wires that connected to the thing continued to snap off, "Please stop! That hurts! Please don't!" The begging from Metallo continued but M'gann seemed content to simply ignore him.

Eventually the Martian pulled out the Kryptonite power source and watched as the cyborg's glowing green eyes dimmed and then turned off. M'gann ignored it though and instead turned her attention to Parasite who was starting to gain the upper hand with the rest of the team. Immediately she moved towards Parasite who had just broken through the torrent of water from the Atlantean and looked as though he was about to start bashing through everyone. Miss Martian threw the piece of kryptonite directly at Parasite's face, using her own telekinesis to help guide the shot.

Her aim was true and the impact struck Parasite directly in the face with the kryptonite with a mighty crack, signaling that the blow had broken Parasite's nose. He stopped fighting and his hands immediately went to his nose, blood pouring down the orifice.

"Damn you! What the hell was that?!" He screamed, seconds before he saw a mass of water shaped like an oversized fist heading straight for his face.

Parasite only had enough time to utter a whiny "Damn it." Before he was struck and everything went black.

The instant he was down though the rest of the Team turned to look at the Martian and saw what she had done to Metallo. They each had looks of shock and concern on their faces. Aqualad looked right at her and was the first one to speak "Miss Martian, what exactly did you just do?"

.

-Gotham Pier, Docked Cargo Ship-

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Sebastian Ballesteros liked to think of himself as a patient man, after all one had to be patient in his line of work. If one acted too quickly then not only would a mistake be made but it would ruin things for everyone else. He had learned that lesson the hard way back during his time running a mercenary band in South America and Africa. But of course after he learned it, he quickly became a very, very wealthy man indeed. Especially after he expanded his business into both legal and less than legal areas.

Now however he was becoming more than just a little irritated as they had lost contact with Silver Swan, she was right in the middle of combat with the amazon and apparently started having rebellious thoughts. They had attempted to regain control over her but something had happened. They still had vital signs on her of course but they had been unable to properly send any messages into her mind via the implants.

Ballesteros looked at technicians who were going over the readouts and Ballesteros demanded "Well, what's wrong?!"

One of the techs looked up from her console and said "I'm sorry sir but it looks like she passed out. We must have used too much of a charge in her brain when we attempted to use the negative reinforcement system. She's out cold and the-" the technician was cut off by a series of blaring alarms.

Ballesteros didn't have to ask what the alarm was for; it was a proximity alert. Something was flying towards them at high speeds and if the sensors were any indication the one heading to them would be there within a matter of moments at best. He cursed, that meant that Batman must have tracked the signal to them and sent Wonder Woman. They only had minutes at most until Wonder Woman arrived. One of the other three techs looked at their boss and asked "Sir what should we do?"

At first Ballesteros didn't answer. He knew the protocol for being captured and while he wouldn't break and give up anything he knew that the technicians didn't have the spine necessary to keep from talking. They would likely fold from a good interrogator from the federal government and certainly wouldn't stand a chance against Batman or Wonder Woman especially with the latter's abilities. Sure they didn't know anything of any real value, it was best not to take any chances.

The business man pulled out a Taurus PT92F, a weapon he had used since his early career as a mercenary. The techs' eyes nearly bugged out as they knew what was about to happen next. They looked like they were about to beg their boss for mercy but before any could utter a single word, Ballesteros had put a bullet in each of their heads and all were dead before they hit the floor. It was a pity really, they had done well but any possible chance of a leak had to be dealt with before it could happen.

Less than a second later the metal door that lead into the room where Ballesteros exploded outwards. Then again he hadn't expected it to stand up against the amazon's enhanced strength and abilities. While many would have been intimidated by the woman that was now stepping through the doorway Sebastian was not one of them. He had nothing to fear from her after all. While she was of a different breed but she still had that same predictable sense of honor that prevented her from killing someone who couldn't fight back and belonged to the Justice League. She didn't have the stomach to take another person's life.

Almost immediately Wonder Woman spotted him and had a look of unparalleled fury on her face. Sebastian cocked an eyebrow and placed his pistol on the terminal and stepped away from it, with his hands above his head. As she began to approach him he spoke with a calm and relaxed tone "Wonder Woman I surrender myself into your custody but I warn you, if you use that Lasso of Truth on me, I will die. The runes placed on my soul will ensure this, and while I have no doubt you would not mourn my passing, you doubtlessly want answers."

Sebastian tilted his head to the side and allowed Wonder Woman to see said Runes. She still advanced on him but Ballesteros didn't fear her. Instead she punched him directly in the solar plexus, forcing him to double over in pain and nearly making him throw up.

He hadn't been punched at full strength –her fist would be through his gut if she did- but by god was that painful. As she looked down on him the amazon spoke, her voice laced with anger and contempt "Under any other circumstances you would be suffering far worse than that, but you're right. I do want answers, and I know people that will get them out of you."

With that Wonder Woman dragged her prisoner out of the cargo ship and towards the police all the while, Ballesteros knew that he had nothing to fear from Wonder Woman. She was as pathetically predictable as the rest of the Justice League.

.

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To be continued.

A/N: So yeah, this chapter was a tricky one for me, I had more than just a little bit of trouble when I was writing the fight with Parasite and Metallo. I ended up rewriting the damn thing a couple of times and while I wanted to finish this arc on this chapter I felt that if I did it would be too rushed.