The League and I resurfaced in the Batcave, Alfred quickly walking up to them. "Excellent timing, sir. And might I say all of your new outfits are looking quite impressive. The demonic miscreants are certain to be intimidates. And you've already got the opportunity to put this weaponry to use. Metropolis is under attack." The butler quickly informed them.
"Alright. It'll be fun to actually have the advantage again." Green Arrow said.
"But we still have to hurry. Every second we're not there, someone could die." Superman said, the team quickly exiting the cave, those that could fly grabbing ahold of the ones that couldn't and traveling quickly flying to Superman's city, while I used my demon dragon motorcycle, Dragonsbane [1], to fly after them. Soon enough, we were at the city, watching as the police and Constantine were fighting hard to keep the demons at bay. "Alright, team! Time to save the day." Superman said as they all flew down, dropping the non-flyers once at a safe distance from the ground, before taking on their own demons. I growled a bit at the sight of Constantine, one of the two responsible for taking my powers, but sighed and shook it off, engaging in the battle as well.
Superman flew into a large group of demon thugs and began to knock them down with punches and kicks, the points of impacts steaming looking as if they'd received severe second degree burn. Another thug came up from behind while on fire and tried to crush the man of steel in a bear-hug while burning him with magic fire. But while the fire he created did nothing to him, smoke began to rise off him where the anti-demon metal of Superman's suit, causing him to scream in pain and release the man of steel, who spun around and took the thug to the ground with an overhead smash from both fists locked together.
A couple of particularly tanky-looking demon thugs rushed at Green Arrow, who shot at them with the repeating crossbows on his wrists, hitting them in several joints of the body, greatly slowing them down, but they still managed to reach him. He then leapt against a parked truck, grabbing his bow off his back and pushing off the vehicle, spinning and striking the first thug across the face with his bow, causing him to stagger, before he fired a couple of full-sized arrows into the other demon thug, causing him to catch on red and black fire. The thug cried out in pain, then collapsed. "What?!" He asked in shock, glaring back at me. "Sai, you said these weapons would do more damage, not kill them!" He snapped.
Meanwhile, I was doing a wheelie on Dragonsbane, running the front wheel of circular saw blades over my target's left shoulder/collar bone area. "Take a second look, Robin Hood!" I snapped, trying to get the blades to go deeper, but the thug managed to hold the demon bike back. Luckily, the dragon head on the front bit into his head and took him down.
Green Arrow looked back and discovered while the thug looked to have some nasty second degree burns, he was still breathing. "Well, at least we're on the same page." He said, sweeping the feet of his other target and firing another arrow into him, this time the arrow releasing what looked like a bolt of black lightning, leaving the thug charred and smoking, but once again, still alive.
Wonder Woman was surrounded by another group of thugs, but she was handling herself and her new weapons very well. She smashed one of them in the face with her saw shield and slashed another one with it, slashing another one across the chest with the axe, before burying it in the side of another thug. Another one came at her and tried to rip the shield away, but because of its anti-demonic properties, forcing him to let go, allowing her to unleashed flurry of strikes across his chest with the flamberge sword. She then began moving, slicing, twirling and slashing at these thugs with her sword, as if she was in an incredible dance of death against the demonic thugs, landing deep, but still non-lethal attacks to the enhanced criminals. She continued this, picking up speed as she did so, to the point the sword caught fire as she began slicing her enemies. She stopped and looked around to see several demon thugs struggling with deep wounds that were now aflame. The thugs held these wounds and tried to hold themselves together, holding their burning wounds, which were slowly healing, eventually passing out from the pain, stress and effort of regenerating from these wounds.
Batman was quick to figure out how to best utilize his anti-demon weaponry. He employed a number of grabs and grapples, basically anything that prolonged contact with the demon thugs, resulting in similar burns to what Superman and Wonder Woman had left on their enemies. And he used the blades on the sides of his arms to inflict a number of cuts and lacerations of the thugs, which significantly wore them down as their healing factors went to work repairing the damages. He then pulled out a couple of explosive batarangs, but what he didn't notice before he threw them was that, the entire time his hands were making contact with them, they were being charged with demon energy, creating a greater explosion, leaving the demon thugs charred, but alive.
NVRmore was using his new demonic armor and weaponry effectively in conjunction with his intangibility. Plus, with his opponents having healing factors, he was willing to go a bit further against them. He slashed and cut at them with the blades on the arms of his suit an on occasion, put his fists or weapons through his opponent's body while intangible, turning solid and ripping the weapons out for massive damage. Green Lantern's strategy didn't change too much, still using his ring, but due to its contact with his armor, much like Batman's explosive batarangs, it was charged with demonic energy, making his constructs infinitely more effective against the thugs. And finally, Flash was leaving devastating burns on the thugs, due to the lava the already anti-demon suit was leaving behind, including on them from the strikes he landed on them.
While many of the thugs had turned their attention to the main members of the Justice League, a small number of them still targeted the cops and Constantine. He teleported around a few times and flung mailboxes and other objects at the demons coming at him, but eventually, they surrounded him, forcing him to create a forcefield to keep himself protected. He then used time manipulation to, well, buy himself some time and land a few decent hits on vulnerable areas on the thugs, before getting back to a safe distance, but one thug was somehow immune to the time manipulation and pinned Constantine down, leaving him unable to use his arms and there fore, unable to use his magic.
I then rode in on Dragonsbane, slashing a couple of demons on the way by with the blade-like wings on the sides of the bike, passing Constantine and wrapping the tail of the bike around the leg of the thug on top of him, dragging the demonized criminal along the road, at which point I pulled out and tossed back a specialized incendiary grenade, igniting the thug with Hellfire. It would normally kill a human, but thanks to the demon blood, he would survive, but the trauma and damage the grenade did cause would knock him out. I turned around and did a wheelie, riding back into the group of demons and having the sawblade wheels tear into their chests and faces, pulling back just before the damage became fatal. "You know, I honestly think it takes more effort to not kill these guys. Do you know how hard it is to pull back a damn near 900 pound bike with blade wheels tearing into flesh and pulling themselves deeper?" I complained to no one in particular, but since I had an earpiece in, they all heard me.
Constantine walked up at that point. "Thanks for the save. But I bet that stung a bit, having to help out one of the guys that took your powers." He said.
"The thought crossed my mind to let that demon tear you apart, but I figured that wouldn't go over well with the League." I said.
He nodded. "I also see you've got them nice and dolled up in those new suits. Can't deny, it's an improvement for some of them." He said.
"Well, their normal approach wasn't cutting it as the demons got stronger, so I figured it was time for a change." I explained.
"Nice. You're doing things for someone other than yourself. You're ALMOST starting to seem heroic." He taunted.
"Oh, you're one to talk. You aren't exactly a saint, either." I told him.
"No, but at least I can still do this." He said, creating fire in his hand and throwing a fireball at a demon thug chasing an officer, knocking him out.
"Okay, now you're being an asshole." I snapped, glaring at him a bit.
The situation was starting to cool down, most of the demon thugs being defeated and those that weren't attempting to run away, but Flash and Green Lantern quickly caught up to them and beat them down, knocking them out. Superman then flew high into the sky, scanning the area for any other thugs, when he spotted an entire other gang of at least thirty rushing into the Daily Planet. "Lois..." He said in horror, concerned for his wife, before looking to me. "Sai!" He called.
Meanwhile, I was standing behind another demon thug, who was strangling an office, unaware of the demonic shotgun the same size as me, which I had aimed squarely between his cheeks. And not the one on his face. "Yo, man, what's up?" I asked, pulling the trigger.
"Oh, my ass!" The thug cried out as he was sent flying, the officer falling from his grasp.
"You handle the rest of the demons out here. Justice League! The Daily Planet's being attacked by a whole other gang. Let's go." Superman said as they all rushed in.
I pretty quickly understood the situation at that point. "Oh, yeah. Leave the guy WITHOUT POWERS to save the civilians while you take all the powered guys to save your girlfriend. Real heroic!" I shouted after him, shaking my head and aiming over my shoulder with the shotgun to shoot another thug running up on me. "Oh, well. At least it's only a couple stragglers. Hell, I bet even Perun could handle this." I chuckled while taking a jab at my cousin, chasing after the few stragglers I saw.
The League quickly split up, Green Lantern having scanned the building to find out where the thugs were on what floors and the League. But Superman, of course, quickly headed to the top level of the building, where all his closest companions worked, such as Jimmy, Perry and of course, Lois. The Man of Steel quickly went to work once again, using his super breath to draw in the thugs, before slamming one to the floor with an overhead smash. A couple of thugs tried firing their magic at Superman (fire, lightning and darkness respectively), but the Kryptonian blocked the magical attacks and fired back with his heat vision. Meanwhile, the last two went back to their original targets, one going for Jimmy's cubicle and went for the young photographer, but Superman caught the thug first in a bear hug from behind, the anti-demon armor burning the demonic miscreant and draining his energy and with a headbutt, the thug fell unconscious, allowing Superman to rush ahead and catch the last thug from behind as he ripped open the door to Perry's office, picking him up and slamming him to the ground in a suplex for a knockout.
On the floor below them, Wonder Woman and Flash knocked all the thugs into the middle of the room, allowing Diana to catch them all with the lasso of truth, which then allowed the speedster to quickly and easily pummel them, sometimes even jumping on the or leaping over them and landing some kicks to inflict extra damage, as he had to go slower here to ensure he didn't melt the floors this time. However, a pair of demon thugs were on the ceiling, unseen by the two, as they had invisibility powers. They leapt onto the two heroes, but got a nasty surprise in the form of their anti-demon armor burning the two sneak attackers and allowing the heroes to get right back up and beat them down before they could cause too much more trouble.
Green Lantern and NVRmore were on the lower floor, the ring-wielder pinning a couple thugs to the ground with a giant hand construct and burning them with the anti-demon properties of his costume, before NVRmore landed on top of the giant hand and used his intangibility to slip one of his explosive disks through the construct and blast the thugs beneath into unconsciousness. Green Lantern then restrained several more thugs as NVRmore pummeled and slashed them with his fists and weapons while fazing through the constructs once again, the weapons preventing their healing factors from taking full effect so the thugs passed out from blood loss before their wounds fully healed. One more large thug charged towards them, but NVRmore slowed him down with explosive disks until Hal could hit him with his ultimate from Injustice 2 to bring him down.
And finally on the floor below them, Batman, Green Arrow and Constantine encountered perhaps the largest group of thugs out of all of them. However, this didn't seem to be a problem as Constantine used a spell to immobilize their enemies, allowing Batman and Green Arrow to take out the closer ones with their batarangs and arm-mounted mini-crossbows respectively. At this moment, the spell faded and the number of thugs was greatly reduced, allowing the heroes to rush in and attack with their normal methods, Constantine engaging them with his fists and feet on fire, Batman relying a lot more on his arm blades and Green Arrow whacking thugs in the head and knocking them around with his bow, the three each knocking down their final opponent to their knees and finishing them with a Batarang, trick arrow and fireball to the face.
"So, how you guys liking going all out against these demons? Must be nice to cut loose." Constantine asked.
"I don't know. They're still technically humans, so it feels like we're putting them through a bit much." Green Arrow said.
"We'll do what we have to in order to stop them. I'm more concerned that if we keep going all out like this for too much longer, we'll forget how to hold back." Batman told them.
"Neeeeeeeerd!" I yelled over my earpiece.
With all the thugs taken care of, the heroes regrouped on the top floor as Superman looked around for Lois, but was unable to find her. Fearing the worse, he turned to his trusted friend. "Jimmy, do you know where Lois is?" He asked.
"Sh-she's out reporting on the situation. We told her to stay here, but you know how she is. She's out there somewhere." He told her.
Superman was shocked at this, looking out at the chaos happening in his own city and that his wife was in it somewhere." No." He said.
One of the stragglers ran at a civilian and grabbed him, holding him out in front of him like a human shield. "Ha! What are you gonna do now, punk?! You ain't gonna get me while I have a hostage, are you!?" The demonized thug asked.
Unfortunately for him, he seemed to have forgotten that he and all the other thugs juicing on Demon Blood had grown to at least the same size as Bane, practically double the size of a normal human, so I simply shrugged, raised my demon shotgun and blasted the thug in the leg, causing him to double over and release his hostage before I shot him in the face, knocking him out. I then walked over to the guy he held captive. "You alright?" I asked him.
He nodded shakily. "Yeah. Thanks." He said, clearly still nervous.
"Good." I said, slapping him upside the head, Gibbs style. "Then get out of here!" I told him, the guy running off to, hopefully, somewhere safe. I then turned to the rest of you. "Seriously, what's wrong with you people?! Your city is being wrecked and your standing around watching like idiots! The only reason I'm still here is because I have all kinds of demonic weaponry to tip the scale in my favor! You guys don't! Get the hell out of here!" I yelled at them.
Thankfully, they seemed to get the message and began to evacuate... Or so I thought. "This is Lois Lane, reporting to you live from Metropolis-" Superman's girlfriend began.
I smacked my head against the building wall I happened to be standing next to. "Oh, my gods, you have got to be kidding me." I groaned.
Despite the danger and my warning everyone else clearly heard, the reporter either didn't care or assumed she's as invincible as her boyfriend and kept reporting. "-where a gang of thugs altered by the new street drug, rumored to be the blood of actual demons. Are currently on a rampage. The Justice League have arrived to quell the situation, but the outcome at this time still seems to be uncertain." She announced.
This got the stragglers' attentions, all of them locking onto the reporter. "Hey! That's Superman's lady friend! If we get her, Superman will do whatever we say! Get her!" One of them yelled.
I just stood there watching. "Honestly, at this point, this is natural selection taking its course." I said to myself, before sighing. "No, I'll never hear the end of Superman's super bitching if I don't save her." I told myself, pulling out my Permafrost staff and freezing the road in front of Lois, so the thugs slipped on it and slid all the way into and through the wall of another building, Lois and her cameraman barely having gotten out of the way.
Lois was shocked at this, turning and seeing me as I ran down the road towards her. "You're-" She said, having heard of me a few times from Superman.
"Alright, you get one. But I never want to see you in trouble again, got it?" I asked, to which she nodded. "Good. Now, I'm holding you to that. NEVER AGAIN." I told her, waving for her and her cameraman to clear out as the thugs reemerged from the building. They rushed in at me, but I froze the front foot of the one in the lead, breaking his stride and allowing me to freeze the knee of the other leg, the shatter it, before swinging my staff upwards for an uppercut, dazing him. The one behind him grew impatient and forced him out of the way, flinging him into a car. He then threw a haymaker at me, but I impaled him through the stomach, turning and swinging him forward to get him off my staff, then froze him where he stopped. I then looked back behind me and jabbed backward, impaling the next thug in a similar fashion and freezing him mid-section, before ripping the staff out and causing him to fall into two pieces. "Man, it's a good thing these guys are on high-tier demon blood, or there'd be a body count by now." I said.
The next one came at me, but I jumped back and froze the ground in front of the thug, causing him to fall once again, before I stabbed him in the back and froze him to the ground like I did the second thug of the group. And finally, the last one came and threw a left haymaker, but I deflected it and froze the hand with one end of the staff, spinning it around and shattering the ice on his hand with the other end, severely breaking the bones inside, which I continued to do with the elbow and shoulder of that arm, as well as mid-back and left knee, bringing him down to that knee, allowing me to take him out by smacking and freezing him chin, then breaking it. I then sighed in exhaustion and created a block of ice to sit on with the staff. "Seriously, how the hell do Batman and Green Arrow do this without powers? They MUST be juicing." I theorized.
As this happened, the League finally came out from the Daily Planet. "Superman!" Lois called, running into his open arms and holding him tightly.
"Lois! I'm glad you're okay." He said, returning her embrace. "But how did you get away?" He asked.
"IT was because of him." Lois said, pointing to me.
Superman followed her gaze and was shocked, but smiled gratefully. He then gasped in shock as he saw something. "Sai! Look out!" He yelled.
"Huh?!" I asked, looking back, before seeing thug who was smacked away into a car get back up. But before I could do anything, he smacked Permafrost out of my hand. I rolled off the ice block from this and reached for another weapon, but the thug kicked me in the chest and knocked me back into a car before I could.
"We've gotta help him!" Flash said, starting to run in.
I recovered from being hit into the car just in time to see the thug rushing in, about to end me with a right haymaker, lit on fire. Oh, the irony was almost more painful than being knocked into the car. "No!" I shouted, holding my hands out. Suddenly, a massive wave of orange energy shot out from my hands, launching the thug back singed, but alive. I was shocked at this, looking back at my hands. "What?" I asked.
The speedsters of the League soon reached me as the others weren't far behind. "What was that?" Wonder Woman asked.
"That was Evil Explosion. One of the Ki techniques I know." I said.
"You can use Ki again? Does that mean your seal is gone?" Superman asked, sounding less than thrilled about that prospect.
I tried lighting fire in my hands, but still nothing came out. "No. I still can't use my fire." I said, making a Ki ball in my hand. "But then... why can I use my Ki?" I asked.
"Ki's your life energy, mate. Can't exactly seal that without killing you. And that'd be a bit hypocritical of us, wouldn't it?" Constantine explained.
I was left in shock and disbelief at this, looking down at my hands. "All this time... I still had my Ki all this time... But I never knew it... And I never used it, even in the times it would have saved me..." I said, dispersing the Ki blast and clenching my fist.
"What's wrong? I thought you'd be over the moon about this. Aren't you happy?" Green Arrow asked.
"How can I be happy. I still had power all this time and I didn't use it. If I had, then my aunt... And Hookfang... My loyal dragon... my greatest friend... they'd still be here!" I shouted, shooting a Ki blast as a group of totaled cars all crashed into each other, making them all explode. I then dropped to my knees and held my head, realizing that there was one more reason that I was the reason two members of my family were gone. "They'd still be alive... But they're not... Because of me. Because I was worthless and wasn't strong enough to save myself! So they had to save me! But in the end, they didn't have to! I could've done it myself! But I didn't, because I was too stupid to even think of checking all my powers!" I snapped, repeatedly slamming my fists into the concrete, the ground and my fists breaking more with each hit.
"These things happen, Sai. It's not yours or anyone else's fault." Superman told me.
"Yes, it is! These things don't need to happen! Because I could've stopped it, but I failed to do so! So if I can't do my job and keep those closest to me safe, what am I good for!?" I demanded.
Suddenly, a familiar voice rang out from nowhere. "That's a lot of anger, Sai. A lot of misplaced anger. You're mad at yourself. But you should be mad at the ones standing with you. They're the reason you lost your powers. They're the reason you lost your aunt and your dragon." The person said. Looking up, I saw a familiar figure I'm usually pleased to see. But seeing the black and orange armored suit, along with the half-black, half-orange mask with only one eye hole, amongst this attack that's been orchestrated by several different villains, the one behind it being someone this person has worked with several times before, I had my suspicions.
"Deathstroke." Batman said as the League members all readied themselves to attack.
Yes, before us stood Slade Joseph Wilson, or Deathstroke the Terminator. Oh, also funny thing about that suit of his I mentioned. It was made of Bladenium, the nearly indestructible, regenerating metal my genius brother invented, a reward for training me so many years ago. "Slade..." I said, looking at him and the very state-of-the-art looking weapons he was armed with. "How you doing, buddy? You look... prepared." I told him.
"So, what are you up to this time, Slade? Hunting down more teenagers? Or did Luthor write you a check to go demon hunting?" Green Arrow asked.
"Now, now, now!" I said, standing up. "Just because you guys don't like him doesn't mean we all don't like him. Him and me go back a bit, so let's not go throwing around accusations, or words like 'betrayal' or 'cucked', let's let Deathstroke explain himself." I suggested.
"I'm betraying you." He explained.
"Aww, you cuck!" I snapped.
"So, I'm guessing Luthor paid you to take us out? Good luck with that. You may be pretty dangerous one-on-one, but against all of us, plus Sai, especially with our upgrades, I don't see you doing too much." Green Lantern challenged.
"Luthor's got plans for the rest of you. In fact, he expects you all to die fighting these demons. I'm just here for Sai." He told us.
"Ordinarily, I might be up for a few more training sessions, but since you JUST said you're betraying me... Hard pass." I told him.
"Don't make this difficult, Sai. You know what I can do to you. To your family. Make this easy on all of us and come with me." The mercenary demanded.
"What do you want with him, anyway?" Wonder Woman demanded.
"We've got our hands on high-tier demon blood now, but securing blood from a Master-tier demon is proving to be impossible. But, even if his powers are sealed, the blood running in Sai's veins is still demon blood. Master-tier demon blood. If you just come with me, we'll get your blood and then we'll be able to finish this plan of Luthor's and the League will be gone. And I promise, if you come with me, your family will be safe. Your children will never come to harm. What do you say?" Deathstroke asked me.
"Well, that was real tempting, but you ruined it as soon as you threatened my family that first time. Now you did it a second time, so now I'm gonna test out just how much that healing factor of yours can take." I declared, putting on a Bladenium mask and putting up my hood to protect my head, drawing Ardat and flying in, locking blades with my former mentor. However, before we could get very far, a number of Batarangs and crossbow bolts shot past me and almost hit Deathstroke, forcing him to jump back and deflect all the incoming projectile, before Superman rushed in and threw a punch Deathstroke blocked with his sword, shattering the blade and sending him back a ways.
"I gave you a choice, Sai. Remember that." Deathstroke said, before pulling out a flashbang, which released a blinding green explosion, forcing us all to shield our eyes and Superman to drop to one knee.
"One of his super bombs... They have traces of Kryptonite." He explained.
I growled at this. "Dammit, Slade. We gave him more than enough money to retire for training me, along with that suit he's wearing, now he's using it to stab me in the back." I said angrily.
"It's okay. We'll stop him. Together." NVRmore said.
I took a few deep breaths and nodded at this. "Yeah. Fine. My clan and I will look into these events, see if we can learn anything new. I'll let you know if we find anything." I said.
"We'll do the same." Batman agreed.
I prepared to fly with Ki in what felt like the first time in ages, which it was, but then Superman piped up. "And Sai." He said, at which point I stopped to look at him. "Thank you for saving Lois. I don't know what I'd do without her. By saving her, you've helped me more than I could ever express. So thank you." He said.
I shrugged at this. "Yeah, well apparently that's still not a good enough excuse for this stupid seal." I grumbled, glaring at my back as much as I could, before looking back to him. "But sure, you're welcome. Take care of her." I said, to which he nodded, then I finally flew away.
[1] See the newest chapter of The Armory With Sai Blade if you're unfamiliar with Dragonsbane, or any of Sai's weaponry.