A/N: Just a note, Metropolis and Gotham are neighboring cities in this universe, separated by a river and a bridge.
-DMC-
Batman walked down the lit hallway of a massive space station. This was just what he needed. Whatever this was that Superman called him in about, it was no doubt something that threatened the planet. Not a surprise there. There was a laundry list of things that aimed to either destroy or conquer Earth; on a near monthly basis. The only question was, what was it this time?
He blinked, and a tall, muscular man in a red and yellow suit covering his head and eyes with a lightning bolt emblem on his chest was there walking beside him.
Flash walked at the same stride as the Dark Knight, "Bats, you know what-"
"No idea." Batman said bluntly. His thoughts went back to the man who'd been making moves in his city, the man still something of an enigma to him. Dante may have proved himself, at the very least, non-aggressive, but the last thing Bruce wanted to deal with was an unknown enemy of this enigma coming to Earth in search of him, "I do know... what I hope it's not."
The two heroes rounded a corner, walking across a small bridge that overlooked a massive and highly technological plaza area. Within this plaza sat upwards of three or four dozen heroes, all sitting at tables, standing, or leaned against walls to look at one of the wall mounted screens for the intel they were soon to get.
Batman and Flash knew that many other heroes were gathered at other areas throughout the station; either in the food court, one of the lounges, or their rooms through the monitors.
Bruce could see Dick and his girlfriend, a tall and orange-skinned alien sitting together at one of the Plaza tables through his peripherals.
Batman and Flash walked in through a massive open entranceway, the Main Conference Room now before them. A wide table sat in the center of this room, the table reserved for major players within the organization.
Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Shazam, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter had seats at this table, Batman and Flash taking theirs. Before them stood a man dressed in a blue spandex suit, a red cape flowing down his back. He had black hair, a strong jaw, and dark determined eyes. An 'S' was the insignia he bore on his chest, the symbol of hope… on his home world at least.
"Batman, Flash, just in time." Superman said, the clear glass window behind suddenly showed an image of various running statistics and pictures of planets.
"Who is it this time?" Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern said. Lantern's feet were kicked up on the table, his arms folded. Like the others, he had finished his nightly patrols, and was getting ready to turn in for the night when he'd gotten Superman's transmission. He wasn't happy.
Pressing a button built into the table, Superman spoke in a way to not just address Lantern, and the others at the table, but the rest of the League as well with a broadcast, "It's been five years… but he's come back."
An array of familiar pictures appeared on the screen; a spaceship, robotic drones, and a bald green-skinned alien with odd purple tubes connected to its cranium.
"Brainiac." Batman said.
"And here we were thinking we got the real one last time he'd shown up." Flash said as he leaned back in his chair.
Wonder Woman looked to Superman, "When is he due to arrive?"
Martian Manhunter, a bald and green skinned alien outfitted in a purple cape spoke up for Superman, "The last recorded signal transmission had him at an estimated 7 hours."
"7 hours!" Shazam cried out, the hero expressing the other's thoughts, "We'd need at least 12 to evacuate the major cities!"
"You're right." Batman said, speaking up for the first time, "But when that's impossible, we adapt. Unlike the last time, now we have the advantage of knowing he's coming."
"Absolutely." Superman nodded, "We'd managed to get into contact with the UN, so the military is organizing to handle evacs early. We need everyone active at their base of operations. I want our members who operate on the street level to help with evacuating civilians, our wrecking balls, I want you putting focus on hammering the invaders. If there's one thing I know about Brainiac, it's that his attacks are predictable. Bet on him targeting the largest cities of the world; New York, Tokyo, Shanghai, Los Angeles, Metropolis."
"Brainiac himself will be sure to target Metropolis." Batman said, "Many of the leader's here in the League will be located there, as that's almost certain to be where most of his concentration will be heaviest."
"We'll be looking for volunteers to assist in Metropolis." Wonder Woman said, "That city takes enough damage on a regular basis, we'll wanna minimize it this go around."
"Sounds fair." Superman said, "These situations are not fun. I know. But remember why you joined. The world is counting on us. The world needs us. They world needs you, the Justice League. We won't let them down. Godspeed everyone." he pressed the button on the table, muting the mic.
"Good on the speech." Lantern said as he got up from his chair.
"Yeah." Flash nodded, "That another one of your powers?"
A small smile crossed Clark Kent's face, "Lets get to work."
The other League members stood up from their seats, exiting the room. Superman turned to the window behind, the man peering out at the Earth.
"It's not your fault." Wonder Woman said, Clark noticing her reflection from the window. She walked up next to him.
Clark looked to her, before his eyes went back to the Earth below, "I remember something Luthor told me in our last encounter." he said, "Your presence attracts these terrorists. Zod… Brainiac… Metallo… sometimes you have to wonder-"
"Your presence makes no difference."
Superman and Wonder Woman turned to Batman, the Dark Knight speaking out. "The Earth is home to precious resources and some of the most powerful beings in the universe. It will always be a target." Batman stepped up to the other side of Supes, "This is your home, Clark. You've fought with everything to defend it. You haven't let us down. We won't let you down."
Wonder Woman put a hand to Clark's back, the beauty looking over to Batman, "Everything okay, Bruce? You seem… more troubled than usual."
The billionaire looked out the window, his two friends in costume looking to him in concern. Despite his stoic and secretive demeanor, they were of a small minority that could read him like a book.
"Something's come up in Gotham. Something I've been dealing with the last few days." Batman said with a fold of his arms.
"What is it?" Clark asked.
XXX
*"Steal a soul for a second chance, But you will never become a man, My chosen torture makes me stronger, In a life that craves the hunger~"*
*Knock knock!*
*"A Freedom, and a quest for life, Until the end of Judgment Night,"
*Knock knock knock!*
Dante rolled over in his bed, one of his earbuds falling out.
*Knock knock knock knock knock knock!*
An irritated blue eye popped open, "Uggh, stop knockin' on my door!" Dante groaned out.
"Mr Redgrave, wake up! Right now! We're evacuating the building!" A woman's voice shouted from behind the door.
Groaning, Dante sat up in his bed, the sounds of sirens, worried chatter, and wheels on asphalt from the outside filling his ears. He took a glance through the blinds of his window, noticing cars zipping past and people running down the street in a hurry, "Whoo, where's the fire?" he said as he got up, stretching the muscles in his back before pocketing his mp3 player.
He grabbed a toothbrush and toothpaste that he left sitting on the windowsill, and a few other toiletries he kept lazily on the floor. He walked up to the door, grabbing a towel that was left hanging on a hook. Shirtless and dressed only in his red jeans, chaps left behind, Dante opened the door to people rushing by in the hall.
Squeezing past, Dante made his way down the hall towards the communal showers. A woman who served as an administrator for the shelter noticed him walking down the hall, opposite the direction of the exit,
"Mr Redgrave, what are you doing?!" the young woman shouted at him.
Rubbing his ear, Dante replied irritably, "I gotta shower and brush my teeth. What kinda slob do you take me for?"
"Are you insane?!" the woman asked him, "Metropolis is under attack! Gotham needs to be evacuated before the conflict reaches here!"
"Cool." Dante said, continuing on towards the showers, "If its that big a deal then you should get to evacuating while I clean myself up."
The woman looked to Dante, and then looked to the other homeless fleeing the building. She could either stay behind and convince this lunatic to get out, or she could continue helping other homeless and get herself out.
Common sense told her the latter, and she did.
XXX
Thirty minutes later, and Dante was walking a now empty hallway, white towel wrapped around his lower half. He stepped back into his room, tossing his toiletries onto the bed before he got dressed in his typical outfit. With Rebellion strapped to his back, he walked out of the room, through the hall, down the stairs, and outside into the Gotham streets.
He was greeted to the sight of busses filled with civilians driving on past. The Gotham police force was helping guide lines of pedestrians to busses that were quickly filling up, some pedestrians getting into verbal and physical altercations with each other over who got to the bus first and who deserved to get on.
Dante walked down the street opposite the direction of where the buses were headed, the man jumping up to the top of a building to get a better look at things. He looked past one of Gotham's bridges, seeing a city off in the horizon in the middle of a war with the many space-ships hovering over it.
It was odd, Gotham was perpetually gray and disgusting, while the city in the distance was bright and sunny… even in spite of said city getting gangbanged by an alien armada.
Grinning, Dante rolled his shoulders, "Let's pick a fight." he said before he leaped off the building, landing gracefully in the streets. He made his way over to the convenience store, picking up his red Harley. He started and revved the roaring engine before kicking back the stand. He sped through the Gotham traffic, the man getting odd looks from citizens as he headed in the direction toward Metropolis.
The massive bridge that separated Gotham and Metropolis was closed off and guarded by the military. The three grunts in front of the bridge holding assault rifles noticed a motorcycle coming right at them.
"Stop!" one of them ordered, the three men aiming their rifles at the bike that continued at them at breakneck speed. "Hey stop!" before they could fire, the motorcycle, denying the laws of physics, leaped over the grunts and continued down the bridge.
Being the only vehicle on the road, Dante was able to go full speed unperturbed.
The sounds of explosions, gunfire, and screaming civilians grew louder as Dante neared Metropolis. His motorcycle leaped a barricade, the wheels skidding the asphalt as he braked to a halt at the edge of the massive city.
He took a good look at his surroundings; eyeing wrecked cars, damaged buildings, and scattered along the ground bits and pieces of some type of robotic organisms. The bots were in various amounts of waste, having been blasted to pieces, crushed, burned, or just straight shot up.
Upon closer inspection, Dante saw that these robots were humanoid in appearance, formed from organic bones and muscle with metallic exoskeletons. They even had skulls for heads, the eyes blue and cybernetic. He looked up, noticing a flurry of small alien space crafts zipping over the massive city like a herd of locusts.
Far off in the distance, Dante noticed a caped blonde flying through the skies, the woman herding many of the aircrafts after her before she fried them with some sort of red lasers from her eyes.
Huffing, Dante revved his bike, and continued further into the city, turning streets as he followed the sounds to the closest activity.
As he rounded a corner, he saw a trio of robots pursuing a fleeing family of four, the machine's holding their arms up as they prepared to spear the family with harpoons. Looking back, the father of that family stopped and held up his arms to shield his wife and kids.
"Robert!" the wife screamed, the children stopping as they looked back at their dad.
The man looked to his wife and kids, "Just go, Vanessa! Take the boys and get out of here!"
The approaching sounds of wheels on asphalt drew the Brainiac-bots attention. The three of them turned to see a rapidly approaching motorcycle, Dante flipping off of the vehicle to let it ram one of the closest robots. Whipping his guns the second his feet touched the ground, Dante rapid fired a volley of bullets that shredded the remaining two robots to pieces.
The family looked to Dante, the demon-slayer walking past them to pick up his motorcycle. The brainiac-bot underneath it was still alive, its lower-half mangled. Dante put a round into its head.
"Th-Thank you!" Robert said, his wife nodding.
"Don't thank me." Dante said, the sounds of a policeman blowing his whistle to gather nearby civilians drawing near, "Better get a move on." he revved his motorcycle and continued on.
XXX
Batman stood atop a skyscraper with Cyborg and Green Arrow, the latter two taking on the aircrafts hovering over the city. The Dark Knight was dressed in a more heavy-armored variant to his usual suit.
"Cyborg," Batman ordered, the man looking at a holographic map of the city from his wrist computer, "We have two aircrafts serving as enemy transports closing in on Hero's Park, there's a heavy concentration of civilians there."
"I'm on it." Cyborg said, knowing exactly where to put his focus. He held his arm cannon to the east, his cybernetics telling him exactly where to aim to hit his targets.
Green Arrow fired the explosive tipped projectiles of his namesake, one of them catching the air and sailing into the turbine of an air-ship. A firework-like explosion filled the air following the ship's destruction, debris and bots falling to street level.
Wonder Woman flew onto the building with Batman and the others.
"Wonder Woman," Arrow quickly asked, "How's Dinah holding up?"
"She's assisting in evac." Diana said, "Thank you for the assistance here in Metropolis."
"Don't sweat it." Arrow said as he blind-fired another explosion laced projectile at a ship, bringing it down, "Star City wasn't targeted thank God, and I was on a business trip in Gotham with Dinah already. This saves me from an 8 hour flight."
Wonder Woman turned to Batman, "Me and Clark haven't had any luck spotting the mothership. Are you sure it will come to Metropolis?"
"I'm certain." Batman said, "If Brainiac were to leave with nothing else he'd leave with Superman's city. He won't be making his move until he thinks we're weakened enough to not put up a fight. We keep hammering his fleet, he'll show himself."
"Alright." Diana said, "I'll sweep the city. Make sure there's no one else in danger." She leaped off the building and flew through the streets .
XXX
Rebellion cleaved a brainiac bot in half, Dante weaving one of the harpoons shot at him from behind. He snatched the wire and pulled the bot in towards him, stabbing the robot through the chest.
Dante stood in the middle of a massive intersection in Metropolis, taking on a horde of the invading robots. His goal was to serve as a distraction so that civilians and police officers could have safe passage through this section of city.
A police officer let off several rounds from his glock, his bullets simply bouncing off the Brainiac-drone's exoskeleton. He stood mouth agape as Dante's bullets tore right through the machine. The cop looked to Dante, watching as the man cut and shot through the horde, "Holy shit, are you another one? Another super?!" the cop called out to him.
"You see me playin dress up?" Dante asked as he jumped up high, before bringing Rebellion down on a drone to bisect it, "I'm just lending a hand. Do your job blue."
The officer nodded, the man running up to a panicking woman to guide her out.
Two more of the bots shot their harpoon's at the swordsman from either side of him, Dante twisting to dodge, allowing the bots to impale each other. Grabbing the cable's, Dante swung the two bots around in a wide circle, knocking back and destroying several others.
He tossed the bots up in the air just as an alien aircraft zipped through the downtown street overhead. The bots crashed headlong into the aircraft in a fiery explosion. The ruined husk of the craft went careening down into an abandoned news van.
Dante grinned, "Black Hawk Down." He turned to his right, seeing a quartet of bots running right for him. He held Rebellion at the ready, before throwing the blade in a spinning round trip that clipped two of the bots in half.
Using a sort of telekinesis, Dante summoned Rebellion back to him, the sword spinning and clipping the legs of the remaining two robots. They still crawled along the street after him.
Waiting for them to get near, Dante pulled his guns, and put a round in each of the automaton's heads.
Dante let out a breath. He looked around, seeing ruined buildings and miles of trashed streets. The two long stretches of road connecting the massive four way intersection he stood in were empty, though he could make out some activity about 20 blocks down the road east.
As he walked up to his motorcycle, Dante felt something tightly grab his ankle. He looked down at the brainiac-bot that had been reduced to simply a head, torso, and left arm. The machine was making one last attempt on its enemy.
"Hands off." Dante scoffed as he stomped down on the machine's skull.
Reaching his motorcycle, Dante prepared to sit down on it and drive off. Just as he revved the engine, he could make out the sounds of sniffles coming from somewhere nearby. Getting off the chopper, he followed the sounds to an overturned car. He peered behind it to see a young girl curled up, wiping the tears streaming down her face. She had blonde hair that was held back with a purple headband. She wore a pink shirt that had a princess tiara picture etched into it and a white skirt that reached down to her scuffed knees.
This kid reminded him of little Patty, "Hey, kiddo," Dante said, getting the girl's attention. She looked at him with puffy blue eyes, her lip trembling, "lose your parents?" he asked her.
She nodded, Dante offering her a hand and a genuinely warm smile, "Well, can't leave you out here all alone. Let's get you outta here."
She smiled at him, taking his hand. Dante lifted her up to her feet.
An itch flared on the back of his neck, something that seemed to be happening more frequently. Maybe he was getting a rash or something? He ignored it.
He took her hand and began guiding her back in the direction of his motorcycle. He ignored the sounds of chaos and destruction that had become ambience by this point. He looked down to her, "You know, we could probably move faster if you hitched a ride on my shoulders. What do you say?"
The girl smiled at him and nodded, Dante lifting her up and putting her up on his shoulders. She held onto his hair as extra balance.
"Things are bad right now, kid." Dante said, "But you'll be safe. You have my word."
The girl responded, a slight shake to her voice, "Th-that's good, Mr. But… are you gonna be safe when the ravager comes for you? You fucking half-breed rat?!"
Dante immediately grabbed the "little girl" by the shin, throwing her off him.
The "child" flipped and landed on the asphalt on all fours, her fingertips braking her fall. Her white skin around her face was quickly turning gray and tumor coated as her hair fell out of her head. The sclera in her eyes turned green and iris's slitted and predatory. Her teeth sharpened and her human fingernails gruesomely fell out as black talons pushed their way through her fingers.
The demon charged Dante, leaping at him with the intent of shredding him to pieces. Dante grabbed it by the throat, squeezing tightly as the demon struggled in its grip.
"Fucking traitor spawn piece of shit! Trigon's gonna fucking kill you! He's gonna kill every fucking thing you love! Burn it all to the ground!" The demon screeched and thrashed.
"Guess the news and press in hell's fallen behind." Dante said to the demon, "Headline reads I already handled Trigon." Dante shoved the barrel of Ebony into the 'little girl's' mouth, "Next time, I hope they send one less foul mouthed."
He pulled the trigger.
XXX
Wonder Woman soared through the ruined streets of Metropolis, eyes scanning for any sign of left behind civilians or anyone in danger.
She caught sight of something red off in the distance, a man in a duster coat standing alone along a street covered in smoking wreckage.
Obviously a civilian, and one she needed to escort.
She flew in close, landing some yards away from the man.
"Excuse me, sir. You need… to…" the heroine's eyes widened in horror at the sight before her.
Dante, noticing Wonder Woman landing in, turned to the woman who eyed him in disbelief and shock. He noticed the impression he left; his hand around the throat of a child whose head he just blown off.
He groaned, "No way my luck is this bad..." he pulled Ebony out of what remained of the girl's head, before he tossed her body to the side. He held up a hand as he holstered his gun, an attempt to buy time to explain himself, "Now hold on lady... I know what this looks like… but believe me when I say that kid had it comi-"
Diana silenced Dante with a right hook to the jaw, sending the man into a sandwich shop that collapsed around him.
Wonder Woman, unable to contain her fury, lowered her fist with gritted teeth. Killing wasn't what the League did, but at that moment she didn't even care if she'd just killed that man. The force in her punch was causing most of the building to fall down, a wave of dust sweeping out at her.
She stood unfazed. Just as she started to walk away, to see to the child's corpse, she heard movement coming from the destroyed shop. She turned around, pulling her sword.
The white-haired man stepped out of the destroyed shop, a haze of dust flowing behind him. He set his broken jaw with an audible 'crack', Dante letting out a calm, "Ow." before he put his focus on Wonder Woman. He smirked, pulling Rebellion from his back, "Well hello danger." he drawled as he leaned on his sword. He raised an eyebrow as he tilted his head, "Hey, I remember you. You're the babe I saw on TV." Dante snapped his fingers as he tried jogging his memory, "Wonder Bread, right?"
"How dare you." Diana said, "I am Wonder Woman, princess of the Amazon's."
"Heh, a warrior princess, eh." Dante said as he leveled his sword at her, "Sounds like a good time."
In the second it took to blink, the two met in a clash of blades, the impact of their strike sending a shockwave that blew out the windows of nearby buildings and sending cars and rubble away.
Diana pushed against Dante's sword, hoping to push him back with what should've been her superior strength. She couldn't. Dante's strength was capable of stalemating her own.
Grunting, Diana pulled back, her and Dante entering a dance of sword strikes and clashes, the two swordmaster's moving at a pace that the human eye could hardly track, and exchanging strikes at a force that shattered concrete and cracked asphalt.
Dante swung his sword in a wide arc that Diana parried, the Amazon attempting a follow up with a forward thrust that Dante weaved, the son of Sparda retaliating with a shoulder barge that sent Diana back several feet.
Quickly recovering, Wonder Woman had her guard back up, blocking a downswing of Dante's Rebellion, the woman retaliating with a kick to his abs to send him back. Dante had to swing his sword to block a swing from Diana aimed for his neck, the attacks from the woman now getting more aggressive.
Dante's blood started pumping from the battle, the man whooping, "Hell yeah, now this is what I'm talking about!"
"Is this all a game to you?!" Diana said as her blade met Dante's, the two stalemating again as they pushed against each other, "Murderer!"
"It's not nice to call people names." Dante said before he flipped back, Diana stumbling forward from the sudden shift in weight. Dante landed atop an overturned car, the man's arrogant smirk pushing Diana's button's.
She shot forward, cleaving the car clean in half as Dante flipped again at the last second, landing on the ground to continue his dance with Wonder Woman. The cleaved car exploded in a shower of fire and metal.
XXX
Batman activated his cowl's detective vision, the built-in gadget helping the Dark Knight keep up with events around the city. The device allowed him to see through building's to locate vehicles and people, and drown out the chaos from the city around him.
The tech signalled the sound of an explosion from over 30 blocks away to the east. Batman's head turned to the right, the man's tech showing him a red and flashing exclamation point at a street thirty-eight blocks down. He had the tech scan the point, before a picture of Diana and Dante appeared…
"Damn!" Batman cursed as he quickly realised what was going on. He leaped off the rooftop, leaving a confused Green Arrow and Cyborg behind.
XXX
Diana swung a high kick that sent Dante up the side of a building at several dozen stories. Pressing his feet against the wall, Dante's boots tore two long gouge's into the building's side, the man stopping his momentum. He stuck to the building wall, looking down at Wonder Woman who looked up at him from street level.
She suddenly leaped up, running up the building wall with her sword drawn. Dante, sword held at his side, ran down the side of the building to meet Wonder Woman half way. The clash impact shattered every window in the building, and a few others nearby, sending shards to the empty streets below.
Dante leaped off the building, allowing himself to freefall. He holstered Rebellion before pulling Ebony and Ivory, rapid-firing his guns at Diana. The princess gasped before she used her wrist gauntlets to try and block the bullets, the rapid impacts of metal on metal forming a shower of sparks. A bullet from Ivory grazed her cheek, and a bullet from Ebony grazed her shoulder, drawing blood. Wonder Woman grunted as a bullet nailed her right in her silver tiara, hitting a bullseye on the red star. Her vision became dazed as her head pushed back.
Despite her sight, she pulled her lasso of truth, slinging it at Dante.
A lucky grab, as she was able to snag him with the rope. She yanked him up towards her as she ran down to him, punching him in the gut and sending him back towards ground at mach speed.
Dante smashed down into an abandoned car, caving it in and bursting the wheels. He smiled and chuckled as he shook his head. He jumped out of the car as Diana's knee smashed down into it a literal half a second after.
"Ya' know, my old man told me a few stories about the Amazon's when I was kid." Dante said, the man casually walking, almost dismissing Wonder Woman, "Badass warrior babes from Olympus and all that." he looked to Rebellion, "He really hyped you gals… but so far, I'm not impressed."
Diana's eyes widened, "What?!"
Dante scoffed, "You're strong as hell, easily one of the toughest chicks I ever fought... but you're predictable, lady. You're an open book in a fight. I stay on the defensive because I don't have to go on offense. I can counter every move you make."
Diana leaped up in the air, flipping over Dante. Just as Dante turned, ready to counter a swing to the midsection from Wonder Woman as she landed. The princess faked him out. She acted as if she were going for a swing to Dante's chest, before switching it up and going low, knocking Dante's sword up into the air.
The son of Sparda nodded in satisfaction as he watched his sword climb several hundred feet into the air. He saw the tip of Diana's sword now pointed just inches from his face, the man smiling and putting up his arms,
"How's that for predictable?" Wonder Woman said, believing this was checkmate.
Giving the woman a cocky smirk, he challenged her, "Give it your best shot."
Even after all of that, this man still held his cavalier attitude? Diana was no murderer, and certainly no sadist, but this man was making her want to do some things against her better nature.
She swung her sword, Dante throwing up his forearm to stop the blade cold. Diana's eyes widened, the woman now growing frustrated as she swung again and again, Dante's forearm blocking each of the strikes.
Little did Diana know, the force of her strikes were building up Dante's adrenaline, something she'd quickly regret.
When she went in for another swing, Dante quickly threw his palm into her gut, sending a powerful torrent of energy through her body that sent her flying back for almost three blocks. She crashed into an abandoned oil tanker truck, a truck that, by the grace of her Gods didn't explode. Though the metal practically folded in half.
Whistling, Dante brushed the sleeve of his forearm, "Sorry, but there's no breaking the Royal Guard babe." he casually held up his right hand, allowing Rebellion to fall back into his palm.
The Amazon struggled to get back to her feet, but get back to her feet she did. Dante truly admired this woman's fire, watching her slip back into a fighting stance.
They charged each other once more, crossing miles of street in seconds. Before they could connect, they both stopped cold, Batman standing in between the two of them. Their swords were just inches from him.
"Damn!" Dante laughed, taking a step back from the man he damn near cleaved into pieces, "I heard of playing chicken, but you're suicidal man!"
"Batman…" Wonder Woman looked to the man in confusion, "what are you doing?"
"He is not your enemy, Diana." Batman said, back to Dante and facing his teammate.
"Not the enemy?" Wonder Woman said in disbelief, "Batman… he just murdered a child." It was at this point that a few other league members started showing up, drawn to the commotion here at this point in the city.
Dante looked around, seeing a familiar looking blonde woman driving in on a motorcycle. Actually, he remembered her. That was the chick he bumped into at the rec center. She was dressed in a leather jacket, fishnet, and a black corset.
A man donning red tights with gold accents landed down behind him. Dante noticed the white cape with hood attached, the hood covering the man's head. A thick white lightning bolt symbol was emblazoned into the man's chest part of his suit.
Another man that Dante saw on TV once suddenly flashed into existence. The man wore red full body tights, his mouth exposed, and like the hooded man, had a lightning bolt symbol adorning the chest of his outfit. Only this man's bolt was yellow on a white circle.
Dante saw a man clad in a green and black bodysuit hovering in the air, lowering himself towards street level to make his appearance known. The man had short brown hair and a green domino mask on his face. He donned the symbol of a lantern, a ring on his appropriate finger.
At hearing Wonder Woman mention that Dante murdered a kid, the other newcomers looked ready to jump him. Batman turned to the half-devil, asking "Is that true?"
Dante was ready to jump it to Devil Trigger if he needed to defend himself, but he kept his cool, "Forgive me if I don't value the lives of hell's juvenile delinquents as much as the next guy."
Batman nodded, "Figures." he looked to the others, "Stand down." he ordered. He looked to Wonder Woman, "This is him."
Diana remembered what Batman told her and Superman last night, "This is him?" she glared at the white haired man, Dante folding his arms, "You could have given us a better description. White hair would've been a give away."
"Wasn't anticipating him showing up in Metropolis." Batman said as he looked to Dante, the half-devil having all attention put on him, "Guess I should have."
The other league members looked to one another; Lantern, Flash, and Shazam completely lost as they weren't put up to speed on this information. Dinah, AKA Black Canary simply looked to Dante in astonishment. She knew he could fight, but from the looks of things, he could go head to head with Wonder Woman of all people, and draw blood.
Wonder Woman's brow furrowed in annoyance, the woman snapping at Dante, "If that girl was a demon, why didn't you just say that?!" This entire confrontation could've been avoided...
Dante held up his hands, "I tried, but you were really eager to let me know what your fist tasted like." he folded his arms again, "And I don't back down from a fight."
Green Lantern had to ask, so he did, "Who the hell are you?"
Dante looked to him, "Who the hell are you? Thought it was rude to ask someone their name without giving yours first, or was I just raised differently?"
Green Lantern was about to step up to the man, before a new voice spoke up,
"Not the time nor the place, Lantern."
All eyes went up, Dante noticing a man in blue spandex and a red cape hovering over them. The new arrival was what looked like an all-american gentlemen, his presence demanding attention. The man looked right at Dante, having overheard much of the conversation on the way over.
"You're no enemy." Superman said as he lowered himself in front of Dante, "I imagine you came here to help us quell this invasion."
"I guess reading minds is one of your powers." Dante said, holstering Rebellion, "Yeah, that's the goal."
Nodding, Superman looked to the others, "We can deal with formalities later. Right now, we have to take down Brainiac's mothership."
"It arrived?" Wonder Woman asked.
"Yes." Superman said as he hovered again, "We take it down, we take'em all down."
Batman put in a command to summon his Batwing aircraft, Wonder Woman hovering up next to Superman and Green Lantern. The Batwing appeared within seconds, landing down in the streets next to Batman.
"Ah, you guys seem organized." Dante said, "Nice to see the boys in tights can team up when shit hits the fan."
"We're called the Justice League." Superman said.
Dante scoffed, "Justice League? That's it? That's the best you got? No one told you that was lame?" he stood on the wing of Batman's air vehicle as the Dark Knight got inside.
"Heh, what would you have called us?" Shazam asked, hovering up next to Supes and Wonder Woman.
Dante shrugged as he folded his arms, "I dunno, something with a little more edge… like the Avengers, maybe?"
Flash cut his eyes at him, "Screw… you…"
XXX
A/N: I think it's a running gag that Dante gets himself into shit just out of miscommunication. Fought Lady due to a misunderstanding, fought Nero due to a misunderstanding, and most tragically, almost all of his issues with Vergil stem from a misunderstanding of events from childhood.
And sorry, but not sorry about that ending line. I love DC and Marvel but the name 'Avengers' is superior to 'Justice League'.
How was the fight between Dante and Wonder Woman? Not gonna lie, Insieme per la vittoria's fic helped me with the logic surrounding it. As far as writing fight scenes, I prefer to be cinematic while not having things be too drawn out. I may be a huge DBZ fan, but overly long fight scenes that span an entire or numerous chapters aren't fun for me to write (or read for that matter).
Do let me know your thoughts; what you liked, hated, or think I could improve, on in a review!
Till next time!
