NVRmore watched a mugger from the rooftops who had just stolen a pretty sizeable wallet from some poor man. He followed the mugger along the rooftops, the criminal eventually catching on that he was being followed. Eventually, the thug came to a dead end and looked around "I know you're there! Show yourself!" He shouted. NVRmore decided to end the charade and dropped down in front of the thug. "You, huh? They say you're pretty scary. Well, I got something pretty scary here myself!" The mugger snapped, pulling out a syringe and injecting himself in the neck with a dark red liquid.
After a few second, the man seized up and began holding his chest, grunting and shouting in pain as his muscles greatly expanded, to the point the man had as much muscle mass as Bane, albeit a few feet shorter than the criminal luchador. "You don't look so scary anymore, punk. Now you just look like a pipsqueak!" The thug laughed, charging towards the vigilante.
NVRmore simply stood where he was as the transformed thug charged through him and instead crashed into a wall. The monster didn't even seem fazed at this, however. "Oh, yeah. People can't touch you if you don't want them to. That's cheap. But fine! I can think of ways to make you take the hit!" The thug declared, charging back out to the open streets where innocent bystanders were sure to be.
NVRmore quickly rushed towards the thug and jumped on his back, holding him in a chokehold. The brute didn't even seem bothered by this, however. But now that he could feel NVRmore choking him, he knew he was tangible, reaching back and grabbing the vigilante's leg in a brutal grip that felt like he'd shatter the bones, he threw NVRmore into a nearby wall, putting a sizeable crater in it. "Ha! You heroes are so busy saving people, you forget to watch out for yourselves!" The beast taunted.
NVRmore slowly got up and took something out but hid it inside his hand. He ran towards the thug and turned intangible as he leapt through him. As he did so, what he had hiding in the palm of his hand had been placed inside the thug. "Huh?" The thug questioned in confusion, looking back at NVRmore. "What did you just do to me?!" He demanded.
As the transformed thug spoke, light blue smoke began to exit out of his mouth and sent him into a coughing fit as well as forcing him to lose consciousness. NVRmore observed the mutated thug before him before deciding he should inform the League about this, quickly calling up... "Batman, can you and Superman get here? You need to see this. Something strange has happened." NVRmore stated.
"Understood. We'll be there in a few minutes." Batman said.
As the Dark Knight said, a few minutes after the call, Batman and Superman appeared next to NVRmore via the Zeta Tubes. "Not another one. This makes 10 in the last week!" Superman said.
"So you know what's been going on?" NVRmore asked.
"Yes. We've captured a number of thugs that we believed should've been no problem, but before we apprehended them, they injected themselves with a syringe containing a dark red liquid and became this. They became exponentially greater threats. And they haven't changed back yet. We've been keeping them at the Watchtower. They're too dangerous for regular prisons." Batman explained.
"We managed to capture one thug before he could inject himself. We're analyzing the contents, but don't have an answer for what it is yet. In the meantime, we should get him to the Watchtower as well." Superman said, grabbing the thug and the three heroes returning to the satellite.
"Whatever this drug is, it's giving them increased strength, speed, durability and allows them to heal from injuries at a highly accelerated rate. Diana slashed one from shoulder to hip, but the wound sealed within 5 minutes. The abilities seem to be on a much lesser scale, but I think we all know someone with abilities that fit these same parameters." Batman said.
"There are a lot of beings on this planet with enhanced strength, speed, durability, and a good healing factors." NVRmore noted. "Hell, a lot of examples are members of the League."
"He's right. We need more evidence." Superman said.
"And we've got it." Flash said as he and Wonder Woman walked into the room.
"According to the results, it's not a drug they've been injecting themselves with... It's demon blood." Wonder Woman explained.
"Of course it has to be demon-related." NVRmore muttered in annoyance. "We can speak with Etrigan, Constantine, or Dr. Fate about this. They'll have the knowledge needed to put an end to this problem."
"We've already contacted them. They all said this was basically unprecedented. None of them had ever heard of a human injecting themselves with demon blood. Some fanatics have DRANK demon blood in the past, but nothing like this ever came from it." Flash said.
They all sighed at this, thinking they'd hit a roadblock, before Superman raised his head. "Well, there is one other option. I don't like it, but he might be willing to help. In the fight between demons and humans, I guess he is still on our side." He explained.
"Please tell me you're not thinking about-" Batman started, but Superman finished his thought.
"Sai." He answered.
"Batman took the words right out of my mouth." NVRmore spoke. "Sai isn't going to help us. Not after everything that happened. Additionally, his family are going to treat us as hostile enemies the moment we come near their island."
"If we believe Sai's father, they've been fighting demons to protect humans before even I was born. And Sai and his siblings have been raised from birth to do the same. If they believe this is a threat, they may help. This could be our only chance." Wonder Woman explained.
"I'd hate to say it, but we do need insight on this demon blood situation. If Dr. Fate and the others don't have that, then Sai's family may be the only ones that do." Flash said.
"And remember, Sai is desperate to reclaim his powers. He needs to do something heroic for that to happen. Helping us save people is the most heroic thing I can think of. He'll accept. I know it." Superman said, sending a video call to my home.
"You all make good points, but that doesn't mean I'm going to trust them." NVRmore said.
"You don't have to trust them, or like them. Hopefully, they'll have a quick and simple solution and we can be done with them as soon as possible." Wonder Woman said.
The call came through and a large screen appeared, allowing the League and I to see each other. "You all have some nerve calling me. This better be good." I warned.
"Sai, I know we aren't on the best terms, but we need help we believe only you may be able to give. Over the past few days, the League has captured several small time criminals. But they all injected themselves with what we've determined to be demon's blood." Superman explained.
"Oh, so you found out about that, did you?" I asked.
"You knew about this?" Batman demanded.
"Well, yeah. It's kind of my job to know when stuff involving demons is going down. Or at least it used to be before I became unfit to do so, thanks to you." I said.
"What? Do you STILL think you didn't deserve that?" Flash asked.
I glared at him after that comment. "I'm being VERY generous not to hang up right now." I said.
"Enough, alright. We need to get to the bottom of who's distributing this blood and putting a stop to it." NVRmore spoke up.
"And, most importantly, finding a cure for these people." Batman said.
"There isn't one." I said.
"That can't be! You're lying!" Wonder Woman snapped.
"Again, I can hang up at any time, I don't have to sit here and take this." I reminded them. "Look, here's how it works. Once injected, the demon blood basically takes over, converting the normal human blood into demon blood, until all the blood in the subject's body is only demon blood, no remaining human blood. So, unless you can manage to completely drain all the demon blood from their body, which is already impossible, due to the regeneration, then fill their bodies back up with human blood, without them dying from blood loss in the meantime, there's nothing you can do. Killing them is the only option. They're more demon than human at this point, anyway." I explained.
"Yeah... we're not going that route." NVRmore stated. "I'm pretty sure Dr. Fate or some of the League's other powerful magic users can create a cure."
"That would almost be admirable if the thugs didn't deserve to die." I said, about to hang up.
"We could still use your help, Sai. Someone must be giving these thugs the demon blood. And I'm sure you could figure out who." Superman said.
"Why should I help you? Besides, aren't all of you certified geniuses or something? I doubt you need my help." I said.
"No, we don't. But we could help you. This could be your best chance to get back the power you want so badly." Batman said.
I closed my eyes and growled at this. "You may be right." I said begrudgingly.
"Good. One of us can come down in a Zeta Tube and bring you back here in a few minutes." Superman said.
"I don't think so. Without my powers, I'm not going anywhere I don't have the advantage." I explained, before alarms began going off. "And apparently, I'm even starting to lose the homefield advantage." I growled, pulling out my Last Regret revolvers and heading off to deal with the threat, the call ending.
"I still think it's a bad idea." NVRmore stated. "And even if he is willing to help us out, he's only going to do so to get his powers back. It wouldn't count as a heroic deed. And therefore, he won't be able to get them back like that."
"But still, working with him may help him see things our way and be a better person, a hero like us instead of what he is now. And besides, he may wind up doing a truly heroic deed along the way and get his powers back. And use them for good this time." Wonder Woman said.
"Well, I guess we'll have to go the Blade's island, then, if we're going to get Sai to work with us at all. Besides, they're under attack. We should still help them." Superman said.
"I'm more concerned about whoever is attacking them." Batman said.
For some strange reason, there were delays, taking the League about 10 minutes before they managed to use the Zeta Tubes to reach the Blade's island. They appeared at the very edge of the forest, leading up to the mountain where the Blade's temple lied. They started up the mountain path, but soon a wounded man who looked like an assassin stumbled down the path, looking back and screaming. "This isn't over, demons! We will cleanse the Earth of your scourge!" He yelled back while running, stumbling into Superman.
"Who are you?!" Superman demanded.
The man was shocked, but appeared relieved. "The Justice League?! My prayers have been answered. You can help me! Together, we can eliminate those demonic Blades from the face of the Earth-!" The man started, before a gunshot rang out, a giant hole appearing in the man's back and chest, splattering Superman's own chest with blood. The man fell, revealing me aiming a smoking gun.
I blew the smoke from the gun and put it away. "Thanks for holding him up. Almost thought I wasn't gonna catch up." I said.
"You killed him. You fucking killed him, you demonic psychopath!" NVRmore yelled at me in anger. "There was no need for that with us here."
"He invaded my home. I have the right to protect myself, my family and my property. And until he cleared the next 100 miles of ocean from this island, he'd still be trespassing and I had every right to do whatever I felt was necessary." I explained. "And technically, you all don't have permission to be here, either. You're technically trespassing..." I warned them with a sinister grin, before lightening up. "But, I'll allow it. And besides, the dude shot my daughter! I mean, the bullet only clipped some of her hair, but still. Who does that?" I asked, before shooting the body two more times out of spite.
"You can't tell me we're actually gonna work with this guy." Flash said, equally angered.
"The man was clearly scared out of his wits, outmatched, and unarmed when we arrived here. Anyone of us could have easily knocked him out. And stop shooting the fucking body!" NVRmore stated before turning to Superman and whispering "There is no way he's going to end up doing anything heroic. We're wasting our time here."
Superman growled at this. "I don't like it either, but he has insight and information we need." He said.
"He was screaming and cursing my entire family. Someone scared out of their wits wouldn't think to do that. And unarmed? Check again." I told them.
Batman knelt down next to the body and extracted several weapons: multiple cross-shaped throwing knives, a larger combat knife with Latin inscriptions on the blade, a pistol currently loaded with explosive rounds, along with several clips of different ammo types. "All of these are traditional demon-killing weapons." He confirmed, before pulling out several spherical glass bottles full of a clear liquid. "Is this supposed to be holy water?" He asked.
"Exactly. Each one of those weapons is perfectly capable of taking down any demon, even with powers." I explained, before coughing, some blood coming from my mouth.
This didn't go unnoticed by the League, nor did the blood dripping down my left arm, which I hadn't moved this entire time. "You're bleeding." Wonder Woman said.
Superman then used his X-ray vision to determine my injuries. "Your left humerus is broken, it's even poking out from your skin!" He said.
Batman also used Detective Mode to scan my injuries. "Plus, 4 ribs are broken and so is your right knee. You shouldn't even be standing. You're running on pure adrenaline right now." He said.
"I have to admit, I have not given you enough credit when I hear you dealing with injuries like these." I said, finally slowing down due to the injuries.
"Who was that guy, then?" Flash asked.
"He's part of a group of fanatics waging war against ALL of demon-kind, no matter whose side they're on. If you're a demon, you're their target. Somehow, they found out I lost my powers and decided now was the time to strike." I explained.
"Let's just take him back to his house and get the information we need." NVRmore said.
"I don't need your help." I said, pulling out and eating a senzu bean, fixing all my injuries, shocking the League.
"Unbelievable!" Flash said.
"Is that what you gave Hal on that ship to heal his injuries?" Superman asked.
"Yep. Fixes any non-fatal injury and completely restores your stamina." I explained.
"Great. Even without his powers, he finds a way to make our work useless." Batman grumbled.
"Oh, boo hoo, You don't get to see me limping around in a cast for months, it's not like the damn brand isn't working." I snapped. "Let's go." I said, leading them up to my family's temple. We entered the building and I waved for them to follow me. "Come on. I have the information in the conference room. I'll show you everything there." I explained.
Most of the League followed, but Superman stopped when he suddenly heard a faint voice with his super hearing. "Help..." It pleaded.
"What is that?" He asked, following the voice, NVRmore seeing him walk off from the corner of his eye.
"Something wrong?" NVRmore asked, walking towards Superman.
"I heard someone calling for help." He explained. They passed through a long hallway filled with pictures and statues of the Blades, as well as several display cases containing what looked like ostrich eggs in all different colors. Walking up to one that was black, appearing to be made of brimstone with lava running through the cracks in, it, NVRmore looked at the label in shock, seeing that it read: "Sai".
Finally, Superman entered the next room, discovering another statue of a woman with a sad expression on her face. However, he was positive the voice was coming from the statue and he could feel something different inside of it. Looking with his enhanced vision, he was positive he saw a soul within the statue. "It's here." He said, walking up to it. "What happened to you?" He asked.
"That horrible demon Sai trapped me in here. I've been stuck for years. Please, let me out!" She pleaded.
"Okay. I will." Superman said, raising a fist.
"No!" I shouted, now standing in the doorway.
However, Superman punched the statue and the spirit of a woman flew from the rubble with her eyes closed, looking calm and serene... Until she opened her eyes, which were piercing red, laughing loudly to reveal a mouthful of sharp teeth. "Free again! At last!" She shouted.
"You idiot! She was a spirit of revenge, trying to kill the poor man who left her. I couldn't kill her, so I sealed her in that statue! But you ruined it!" I snapped.
"How do we defeat her?!" Superman asked.
"She'll only go to the afterlife when she gets what she desires most." I explained.
Superman turned back to her. "And what do you want most?" He asked.
"The head of Sai Blade!" She snapped, flying at me, her hands turning to claws, which she slashed at me with.
I dodged her attacks, glaring at Superman "Not even an hour of working together and you're already almost getting me killed!" I snapped.
"Calm the fuck down," NVRmore muttered, finding the statue of me and decapitating its head with his katana. "Hey lady, here's your head!" The masked vigilante threw the head at her, forcing her to catch it.
She looked at the statue in shock, then annoyance. "I should've been more specific!" She cried as she faded into the afterlife.
I was shocked at this, but shook it off. "Well, uh... Nice work. Thanks." I said, starting to reach my hand out to shake his, but couldn't bring myself to do so. "Come on. Batman and the others are in the conference room already. And don't touch anything from now on." I said, leading them back.
NVRmore wasn't gonna shake my hand anyway as he headed to the conference room.
They entered the room and I walked up to the whiteboard, where I had several pictures of demons set up. "Alright. First off, I feel like we should talk about the demon's blood. First off, obviously, there are different levels of demons, some far superior to others. Depending on what level of demon the blood comes from depends on how strong the person injected with it will become." I explained.
"Very well. Tell us about them." Wonder Woman said.
"First off, there are low-tier demons, which I believe the demon blood is coming ese are low superhuman creatures, roughly as powerful as Bane when he's not on Venom, but they're still very frail, even regular humans can defeat them. Mid-tier demons are tough, capable of destroying a city block and can take a lot more punishment before going down. high-tier demons could wipe out entire cities and could take several missile runs from a fighter jet before going down. Master-tier demons are basically what me and my family are. And finally, god-tier demons are nearly unstoppable. Only the absolute strongest members of the League should even think about trying to take them on." I told them.
"Okay, but was there a point to all this?" Flash asked.
"If someone has and is pumping demons for their blood to give to people, they can probably find a way to get the stronger demons, so we need to stop them before they can do so and too much blood gets out. anything up to high-tier should be manageable, but if they get their hands on Master or God-tier demon blood and people start dosing with it and become as strong as those demons... I honestly don't want to think of what will happen." I said.
"I can imagine that it won't be good for anyone. So far, we encountered the low-tier demons. We can interrogate one of them of where they received the blood, find the one who's distributing them, and cure the people who injected themselves," NVRmore stated.
"Luckily, not many people know about demons at all, so narrowing down the list to those that do saves us a huge amount of time. And I happen to someone who's practically guaranteed to know about it." I said, putting up a picture of a man with dark green eyes, with long hair and an equally long beard (think Samurai Jack after the timeskip). "Carter Smith. He's got connections with just about everyone in the underground crime network as an information broker and arms dealer, but he also knows about demons. So whoever is behind this, then he's our best bet of finding them." I explained.
"Fine. We'll do that then." NVRmore replied.
"Alright." I said.
Later that night, I arrived at the docks, watching from the rooftops as Carter arrived. We prepared to move in, when Batman and NVRmore came up beside us. "What the hell?! What are you doing here?!" I demanded.
"Making sure you don't kill anyone else." Batman said with a glare.
"That and I'll be able to make sure your informant won't be providing any false information." NVRmore added.
I sighed at this. "Fine. Let's just get this over with." I said, maneuvering my way down and dropping the ground below. "Hey, Carter." I said with a vicious smirk.
"Oh, shit!" He shouted, turning and trying to run, only to bump into Batman, who grabbed him. "Tell us about the demon's blood. Now!" He shouted.
"What?!" Carter asked in disbelief. "Y-you're the Batman... And you're working with him!?" He asked in shock, pointing back at me.
"Yeah, we're not exactly thrilled about it, either." I said.
As Carter was being held, NVRmore started reading his mind, his mask covering his glowing eyes. As he delved through Carter's mind, he saw the image of a weak, but alive Harley Quinn, shackled to what looked like a surgery table, being drained of blood as Penguin looked on, before exchanging several vials of blood to Carter, who had given it to several other thugs, including the one NVRmore faced last night.
NVRmore walked over to Carter and immediately punched him in the gut before holding his head up.
"Where's Harley Quinn?" the vigilante demanded, still reading the informant's mind for the location.
Carter simply glared at him. "You don't scare me, punk! After what HE put me through, nothing you do can compete!" He snapped, pointing at me.
"You're lucky they're here or I'd be doing it right now." I said.
He then looked back to Batman and NVRmore. "Speaking of which, I can't even believe you're working with him! He's choked me to death before!" He snapped.
"Until his heart stopped, I always resuscitated him like, right after." I corrected.
"He even ripped out my pancreas and ate it in front of me!" Carter added.
"Yeah, joke's on me, though. He had pancreatic cancer, so by ripping it out, I actually saved his life." I chuckled. "Good times."
Despite Carter's refusal to answer, NVRmore managed to find out the location where Harley was being kept with his continued use of mind reading.
"I don't have to scare you to talk." NVRmore told the informant. "In fact, you don't even have to talk. I know where she is now."
"Wow. This went a lot different than I was expecting. Although, better than I was expecting, so good job." I said.
"I know Harley technically has the heart of a demon now and her blood has become demon blood, but I never expected something like this to happen." Batman said.
"But who figured out it could be used like that?" I wondered.
"Penguin is overlooking the operation. He has her blood being drain and has been giving it to Carter here for him to distribute to thugs." NVRmore explained.
"And you figured out where Penguin is?" Batman asked.
"I found out where she's being kept." NVRmore answered.
"Alright, let's go bust some skulls." I said.
"No killing." Batman snapped.
"It's an expression. Besides, I'm close to positive you've literally put a few cracks in some skulls over the years." I said.
"But first, we have to drop this guy off at the police station." NVRmore replied, gesturing to Carter Smith.
"No, come on, man! I haven't even done anything yet!" Carter complained.
"You were just about to get a shit-load of guns to give to a bunch of criminals who, best case scenario, would use them to rob a bank, worst case scenario, kill someone." I said. "Besides, we both know you'll wiggle your way out of jail somehow and go right back to gun running until I kick your ass AGAIN." I said.
"Plus, once we retrieve the evidence that directly links you to this operation as well as the confessions from the thugs you distributed the blood to, you probably won't be able to wiggle yourself out of jail." NVRmore stated.
"Aww, dammit!" Carter snapped. "This ain't the end! I'm gonna get out! I'm never staying in jail! You hear me?!" He shouted.
"Oh, shut up." I said, shooting him in the neck with a dart gun.
Batman turned to me furiously. "Sai, I thought-" He started.
I held up my hands defensively, as well as the gun, revealing it to be a tranquilizer gun. "Chill out, it's only a dart gun. He'll be fine. It just shuts him up so he doesn't complain all the way to the station. I already told you: I don't kill EVERYBODY." I said.
"It would be preferable that you don't kill anyone at all." NVRmore muttered. "Come one, let's go."