Hello Everyone! It is I, Zdala and I've come bringing good news.
As promised here is Chapter 9 of Fang Chronicles. I was going to wait to post it but I figured now is a good time, you guys will see why at the end. Also I just want to point out before we begin that I've been receiving nothing but an outpouring of positive reviews and kudos.
That is so great for my self esteem as a writer and helps me when I'm creating new chapters. Keep it up guys, the more feedback that I receive the more content I can keep bringing you!
But enough of my babbling, here is the 1st part of my birthday present to you. Without further ado here is Chapter 9.
Chapter 9: Rising Moon Fang Part 2
Power
It has always been about that.
To the meta-human community the Apokolips war was the single most grotesque thing to ever happen to the earth. Why the death toll alone was enough to make you not even want to speak of it. Ironically however not all considered the war a travesty, some considered the war to be a blessing in disguise. No one conveyed this sentiment more than the two rival crime bosses Sal Maroni & Carmine Falcone.
The heavens had been good to them, they and their cohorts had managed to survive the bloodshed that had been brought upon Gotham City. Although their operations as well as the city had been reduced to ashes, it opened up a brand new realization for them.
No more Batman.
With the Dark Knight essentially removed from the playing field, it opened up a world of opportunities for them. With no one threatening their very existence anymore, it meant the crime families were able to do as they pleased. Settling in New Metropolis the Maroni & Falcone factions once again began their longtime war with one another to see who would reign supreme.
Their continued rivalry would soon be halted by the appearance of a mysterious note laid upon their doorstep, signed by the CEO of Janus Cosmetics AKA one Roman Sionis.
While the invitation was very vague it promised both sides of a business opportunity unlike anything they have ever seen before. While they couldn't be sure it was anything promising, both Maroni & Falcone decided to follow up on the offer in order to make sure the other did not get whatever was promised.
Setting in at a conference office at Janus Cosmetics headquarters, both teams sat in a tension situation. On one side, Carmine, Alberto & Sophia falcone sat next to a slew of their bodyguards while on the other side, Salvatore, & Luigi Maroni did the same.
Needless to say, the room was very quiet. Both criminal organizations kept their weapons at the ready incase a firefight broke out. Carime & Sal never broke eye contact as their hatred filled gazes burned into one another. Whatever this opportunity was that MR Sionis had it better have been worth it, if they kept going at this rate soon a fight would erupt just from sheer pettiness.
"Daddy, where is he?" The youngest and only daughter of Carmine Falcone questioned her father.
"Not sure sweetie!" He answered before taking another puff of cigar, his sight never leaving Sal.
"I for one hope he shows up soon, we're wasting a lot of time and money by being here!" Alberto commented.
Hearing both of the kids speak to their father triggered something in Sal Maroni. The obese Italian man couldn't help but snicker and suck his teeth as he fixed a grin toward Carmine.
"What's so funny Maroni?" Carmine inquired
"I never knew your kids were such whiners!" He laughed. "You sure you should have them in the business, they might not last long after you're gone!"
"Is that a threat Maroni?" Alberto asked
"Just a promise!" He replied. "After all your o'l man is getting up there in years, once he's croaked who's going to take over?"
"Shut your mouth Maroni!" Carmine sneered. "My kids won't have to worry about much after I put a bullet in your skull!"
"I'd like to see you try old bastard!"
"That's enough gentleman!" Before the situation could even escalate beyond name calling the doors to the conference room opened up. Stepping into the room was Romanis Sionis and beside him was the woman in the floppy hat and dark coat, the same woman who had just previously taken Kate Kane from Highfather's tower.
Carrying a single briefcase in his hand, Roman Sionis greeted the crime families with cheerful waves before sitting down at the table they were at. The disguised woman who was accompanying Roman opted to lean against the door until she was needed by her boss.
"Good Evening Ladies & Gents, I thank you all for joining me on such a momentous day!" He said.
"What's the meaning of this Sionis?" Alberto inquired. "You invite us here only to have us sit with that trash!"
"Watch your mouth you little bitch!" A soldier in Maroni's army shot back in anger before being restrained by a few of his comrades.
"Now, gentleman, let's not quarrel!" Roman interjected with a calm and diplomatic voice. :"After all we're going to be working together from now on, it's best we learn to get along!"
"What the hell do you mean by that?" Carmine asked with a bewildered look on his face. Roman couldn't be serious, there was no way in hell he would ever work with Sal no matter what the circumstances were.
"If you'll just give me a little bit more of your time I'm sure you'll learn to see things my way!" He said. "Now with that being said, let's get down to business!"
-New Metropolis, Power Plant-
"Enjoy Oblivion Garfield!" Paragon Sparrow shouted with ferocity as he loaded in one of his golden cogs. His Phoenix wings attached themselves to the back of his armor and before he even knew it, the wings began flapping at a fast rate while expelling his golden dust attack.
Moon Fang crouched like the tiger he was before he began to dash. With help of the suits quick jumping abilities he was able to contort his body so that the golden dust would not even hit him. Instead the dust hit the side of the power plant building causing it to explode on contact and leave a big gaping hole in it.
Once the golden dust attack subsided, Sparrow's phoenix wings vanished giving Moon Fang a clean opening. Without warning Moon Fang tackled him to the ground before grabbing him by the scruff of his armor and hurdling him toward a set of power lines. Paragon Sparrow was caught off by the attack and couldn't retaliate in time, before he knew it his entire body crashed directly into the powerlines, not only entrapping him with the wires but exposing his armor to thousands of volts of electricity.
"What happened Sparrow, I thought you said this was the big leagues?" Moon Fang taunted.
"Um Gar, I don't think that's a good idea!" Lunar advised
"Why not little buddy?"
On asking the question Sparrow suddenly fought through the electrical surge and ripped through the wires freeing himself once more to do battle.
"That's why?"
"Oh crap!" Moon Fang sweat dropped.
"Lucky shot!" Sparrow begrudgingly admitted. "But I can do this all day!" Going for another golden cog in his utility belt, Sparrow loaded it quickly inside and was shrouded by solar energy. Moon Fang and Lunar both gulped in fright as soon Sparrow was duplicated into two more identical clones.
"You didn't tell me he could do that Lunar?" Moon Fang cried.
"It's been years, I forgot he could do that!" Lunar sweat dropped.
"This time I got you!" Wasting no time the Sparrow clones surrounded Moon Fang, cutting off any means of his escape. Before he could even fight back, Sparrow struck him within the chest. Knocking Moon Fang off balance, he was helpless as the second clone attacked him with a solar blast to the chest and the third kicked him across the face.
Much like a child at the hands of schoolyard bullies, Moon Fang was helpless as the three Sparrows continued to strike him repeatedly for several minutes.
"Gar we have to fight back, damage is almost at maximum!" Lunar hollered.
After landing a fiftieth strike on Moon Fang, the Sparrow clones fused back into one. Now with his prey totally helpless, Sparrow went for a third of his golden cogs. This time as he loaded it in his bracelet he was greeted by the sights of his hook swords in both hands.
"Game over chump!" Sparrow laughed maniacally as he delivered a devastating slash across Moon Fang's chest.
Moon Fang watched in horror as his armor screen hit up with one hundred percent maximum damage. Unexpectedly his entire armor lit up with cosmic energy before ejecting itself from his body and back into the bracelet. Now Garfield Logan once more, the teen also watched as Lunar was flung from the bracelet via energy and back to piparoid form once more.
"That was easier than I thought!" Sparrow commented with a single twirl of his hook swords. "You may have destroyed my plans, but you saved me the trouble of hunting you down!"
"Lunar you ok buddy?" Garfield questioned
"A little banged up but A ok!" He chirped
"Now how about we take a little stroll back to Apokolips, I'm sure master Darkseid will be pleased to see the both of you!"
As Sparrow inched closer and closer to the duo, all Garfield could do was activate his flight response. He had tried to put up a good fight but Sparrow was ultimately more powerful than him. With the armor needing time to heal, Garfield only had one solution to do, run.
Scooping up Lunar from the ground, Garfield ran like a speeding bullet deeper into the powerplant to avoid being captured
"Go ahead and run like a coward!" Sparrow laughed. "There;s nowhere for you to hide from me!"
-Janus Cosmetics-
"Snakebite you say?" Sophia falcone's eyes peaked beyond their normal functions as she looked at the object before her. From Romans briefcase came a small glass vial containing a slimy green watery substance.
"Thanks to this wonderful lady behind me and my lab geeks downstairs, snakebite is already on its way to becoming the drug of the future!" Roman commented with a pleasing tone in his voice.
"What's this stuff made of?" Maroni couldn't help but question as he took a sniff of the substance which smelled of foul rotten eggs.
"Ooh not much, just the world's best psychedelic mushrooms, a little bit of Bane's venom and the Scarecrow's fear toxin!" He replied. "But it's not what it's made off, it's what it does that counts!"
"Which is?"
This time Roman didn't respond to the question, instead he gestured to the disguised woman who had been accompanying him. Up until now she stayed silent and like the obedient servant she was, she followed his orders to speak to the crowd.
"Snakebite attacks the hippocampus, where the brain stores memories and emotions. It targets memories most associated with regret and remorse, which in result allows the user to alter the circumstances of those memories."
"What the hell does that even mean?" Alberto sneered in dissatisfaction at the explanation.
"In simpler terms it's a do-over drug!" She spat back. "It puts the user in a dreamlike state where they can change the outcome of whatever memory they have. Imagine it, what could be more addicting than the chance to right your worst mistakes, to erase our gravest sins even for a moment!"
There were murmurs around the room between both criminal factions as they tried to wrap their head around the explanation at hand. Some agreed that they would love a chance to try the drug out in order to see if its addictive as it seems while others quickly disavowed the explanation claiming such effects were only in fantasy movies.
"You expect me to believe that this stuff can change all your memories?" Maroni questioned
"Not only change your memories, but give you the happy ending you've always wanted!" The woman spoke once again.
"Speaking of happy endings gentleman, this leads me to my next point!" Roman said as he reassumed control of the conversation. "With my snakebite operation comes a one hundred percent guarantee that you won't get caught!"
"Come again?" Sophia wondered
"As you all know that brute Darkseid did us all a favor by getting rid of the Bat and the other heroes." He began. "As long as this war goes on we risk being shut down, either by the league or Darkseid himself. To such an end I'm creating full proof weapons to keep our people safe!"
"We've got all the guns and weapons we could possibly want Roman, what could you possibly have that we don't have."
A cocky smirk danced upon Romans face as he gestured toward his female companion once more. Following suit on her master's plans the woman slowly but surely removed the floppy hat and the robe revealing her true identity.
"Meet DR Mary Hamilton, but for work purposes we call her Poison Mary!" Poison Mary was a woman of Chinese descent with a skinny body, beautiful hazel eyes, a small nose and fiery crimson hair that went down her back. Poison Mary was dressed in a total grass green outfit that consisted of, half jacket with pointed shoulder pads and a corset. The outfit also came with dark green gloves, shorts, sheer tights and a sharp pair of go-go boots.
Upon her reveal the men in the room cooed with lustful light as they began undressing her with her eyes.
"What the hell is she supposed to be?" Sophia inquired as she shot the beautiful woman a nasty look.
"One of my best enforcers!" Roman shrugged. "Little miss Mary here wanted to be all that she could be in this new world and thanks to an infection from one of Poison Ivy's vines she's gonna do exactly that!"
"Give me a break!" One of Maroni's soldiers called out as he started to take steps toward both Roman and Poison Mary. "You expect me to believe this wannabee is an enforcer, yeah right!"
As the man got within a close distance of Poison Mary, Roman gave her a subtle nod to allow her take over the situation. Without warning the woman pulled the man closer for a quick kiss before pushing him away from her. The man clutched his lips in response as he tried to process why the world she would have dared to kiss him.
The truth became all too clear as his lips started to turn green in color. The man held his throat in response as air became increasingly impossible to find. He felt his lungs burn on the inside of his chest while the veins all over his body began to pop out with a dark greenish color. Maroni, Carmine Falcone and the rest of the group began to watch in horror as the man started to convulse violently where he stood. Falling to the ground he cried out in pain before his eyes rolled back into his head as his body ceased movement forever more.
"Holy shit!" One of Falcone's' men exclaimed as tried to wrap his mind around the sight. The toxic kiss was one of Poison Ivy's most dangerous weapons, but now it was in Poison Mary's hands signaling that she was indeed the real deal.
"You bastard!" Maroni cried out as he attempted to go for his gun.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you Maroni!" Roman suggested. "I can guarantee you Poison Mary can kill all of you before you even have a chance to shoot me!"
"You think you can punk me Roman!" Maroni shouted. "You don't know who you're messing with!"
"I guess this means you won't be taking my generous offer then!"
"I don't do business with freaks, and you best watch your back!" He warned. "Nobody gets away with killing my men!"
Having been steamed up enough at the loss of one of his men, Sal Maroni decided to end the event right then and there. Giving both Roman, Poison Mary and the Falcone's daggers, the crime boss cautiously led his group out of the conference room before things could possibly escalate.
"You killed one of my enemies, I guess I owe you one Roman!" Carmine Falcone snickered as he enjoyed watching Sal Maroni's temper tantrum.
"Does this mean you'll give my offer a chance?" Roman questioned. "As I told you before Poison Mary is the first of many enforcers that is to come, with them alongside my snakebite operation we will control this city!"
"I hate to break this to you Roman but the Falcone's don't deal with the meta's!" He began. "I'm sure you mean well but this operation isn't my speed."
"Plus we've got a tight grip on the New Metropolis drug trade, we don't need any help!" Sophia added snobbishly.
"But-."
"Father, we've wasted enough time with this meeting, we have work to do back home!" Alberto alerted
"I suppose you're right my son!" Falcone declared. As the crime boss signaled the end of this meeting his followers left by the dozens, all still whispering about the spectacle that just took place. As the room filtered out and left Carmine Falcone behind he made sure to hand the snakebite vial back to Roman before looking him straight in the eye. "A little friendly piece of advice Roman, I would end this snakebite operation while you still have time, we wouldn't want any unfortunate accidents to befall you!"
With that final threat still looming in the air Carmine Falcone exited the conference room leaving Roman with Poison Mary.
"I'm sorry sir, I take full responsibility for that meeting going awry!" Poison Mary said with a humble bow.
"It's not your fault Mary that jackass had it coming." He sighed. "You try to be generous with people, but no, they want to do things the hard way!"
"What shall we do now sir?"
"Follow Falcone and do what you need to do, I'll send Liam to deal with Maroni!"
"Yes sir!" She said as she turned to leave.
"Oh and Mary."
"Yes sir?"
"Make sure he suffers!"
"I was hoping you'd say that!"
Left alone in the conference room, Roman once again went for the briefcase that he brought in with him. After securing the vial of snakebite he brought forth another item. This time the object that was selected was a creepy skull mask entirely black in color. After admiring the mask as if it were an old friend, Roman covered his identity once more. Now in the guise of his alter ego Black Mask, the crime lord left the conference room to continue the secret work he had been doing. If Maroni and Falcone weren't going to aid him, then they would bow before him six feet under. Nobody defies the will of Black Mask, this is a lesson that soon all of New Metropolis would learn.
-New Metropolis Power Plant-
"Garfield, Lunar, come out, come out wherever you are!" One could hear the joy echoing through Sparrow's voice as he walked through the inner grounds of the power plant. Having followed Garfield and Lunar on the inside, the paragon was greeted to the sight of a spacious warehouse filled with machinery, control pads, forklifts and all the excess equipment that is needed to make a power plant work.
With his hook swords still in both his hands, Sparrow kept them close to the ground so that they could be heard scraping against the bare metal floor. Much like the slasher in a low budget horror flick, Sparrow stepped cautiously trying to pick up any sounds of talking or breathing. Even though both Garfield and Lunar hid away from him, it wouldn't be long before he found them he had to just be patient and bide his time.
"Why you gotta make this difficult Garfield?" He questioned after kicking over a nearby trash can. "Just surrender, you of all people know that Darkseid can't be stopped!"
Despite his monologuing he was still greeted to nothing but empty silence.
"Look at it this way man, once you serve Darkseid we can finally be on the same team again, wouldn't that be nice?"
Still the armor picked up no trace of any talking, breathing or oddity of sounds.
"Think about it man, you can even be with Siren again!"
After checking behind another set of control panels, Sparrow's senses went on full blast as he suddenly heard a faint sound coming from the west side of the warehouse. A sound that almost resembled that of a human sneeze.
Gripping his hook swords tighter he flew in that direction where sets of more control panels awaited him. With his weapons poised to kill the paragon began hacking his way through the machinery in an attempt to find his targets. Sparrow was confident that he heard something but found himself disappointed as he finished attacking only to find no trace of Garfield or that mangy tiger cub.
"You can't hide from me forever!" He bellowed before walking away in the opposite direction to begin another search.
Despite his stellar senses and quick reflexes, Sparrow lacked the patience to carry out the rest of his mission. If he had only been a little more diligent he would have noticed that the duo was hiding behind another control panel that he neglected to destroy.
"That was a close one friend." Lunar replied while trying to keep his voice down as low as possible.
"You can say that again, little buddy." He replied. "How long before the armor is repaired?"
Upon being poised the question Lunar's gemstone glowed with cosmic energy before his eyes became filled with coded numbers. "The armors currently at sixty percent healed, if we can just last a little bit longer we should be able to transform again!"
"I'm not sure if we'll be able to last that long, not with him tearing the warehouse away like that." Then it suddenly hit Garfield. He remembered back too two similar incidents that he had with Sparrow. One being when Ryan hit him with the batmobile and the other being when he knocked him into the power lines. While Sparrow was powerful with his armor, he wasn't invincible. If Garfield and Lunar could just get the upper hand on him perhaps they could buy themselves more time.
"Whatever you're thinking I want in!" Lunar grinned.
"How much damage do you think Sparrow took during the battle?"
"If I had to guess I'd say his armor is at fifty maybe sixty percent why?"
With some information bestowed upon him Garfield lifted the cub and began to whisper a plan in his ears. Lunar's face lit up with glee as he instantly loved what deviousness his partner was planning.
"I'm tired of this, where are you fools!" Sparrow sneered before he hacked a few pillars down to stubs. He was getting extremely tired of playing hide and seek with these two. Why wouldn't they just give up already? Were they really that foolish to the point where they couldn't see he was superior?
"Hey Sparrow, I'm over here!"
The Paragon's eyes suddenly lit up with urgency as he heard the voice call out to him. Could it be?
"Whatcha waiting for aren't you coming to get me?"
Indeed his hearing did not fail him. Those happy little annoyances of tones were coming from that Piparoid Lunar who was now sitting peacefully in the middle of the warehouse. The tiger cub kept a smile on his face and wagged his tail rapidly as he awaited his pursuer to notice him.
"I have you now!" Now that Lunar was in his optics, Sparrow wasn't going to let him out of his sight once more. With the quickness of his speed that he could manage he started to fly toward Lunar at an unsafe speed. Once he got within a few feet of the piparoid, Sparrow stopped flying and twirled his weapon in a fancy fashion. "End of the line kitty cat!"
"Not really!" He squealed. "Don't you know bait when you see it?"
"Bait what the hell do you mean by-." Before Sparrow could even finish the question, he felt a massive weight crash against his armor which sent him flying toward the warehouse wall. Before he came crashing down, the paragon got a good look of what hit him AKA Garfield driving one of the warehouse forklifts.
"Nice driving Gar!" Lunar cooed with amazement.
"Hop aboard Lunar, let's show this nut job we mean business!"
Lunar happily jumped into the warehouse vehicle now before him and once inside the duo floored the forklift once more.
"Ohh fuck!" Sparrow had been so much in haste to catch them that he barely noticed Garfield had set him up once more. Before he could even try to defend himself he was hit again by the forklift coming at him full speed. This time instead of being thrown across the warehouse he was pinned against the wall and rendered unable to move.
"You little bastard, wait until I get my hands on you!" Sparrow growled.
"That'll be the day dude!"
"I'll make you regret striking me!" Enraged once more the paragon started to fight against the forklift's metal trying to bend it and free himself.
"Hey Gar look what I found!" Lunar called out. While Garfield was busy with Sparrow he failed to notice that his piparoid friend was noisily going through the controls down below. In a twist of fate for the duo, Lunar had successfully found an old dingy flare gun. "Maybe this can help us!"
"Good call, little buddy!" Grabbing Lunar and the flare gun Garfield leapt out of the forklift before Sparrow had the chance to escape his confinement.
After positioning himself at a reasonable distance, Garfield aimed the flare gun at the forklift's control panel and pulled the trigger. What was to follow was the gun emitting a single solitary flare which shot out from the tip and onto the machinery. On contact with the forklift's control panel, the fire quickly spread throughout each piece of electrical equipment.
Sparrow struggled to get free as he could easily see the situation had turned against him. As the fire from the flare gun started to seep down into the machinery's engine, what followed was a combustion of epic proportions.
Garfield & Lunar took cover as the explosion reached its peak. Sparrow could not get himself to safety in time and found himself becoming entrapped in the explosion as it started to ripple throughout the rest of the warehouse. Before one could even blink the normal warehouse was trapped within hellish flames.
Luckily for Garfield and Lunar the warehouse had procedures to take care of combustibles. As soon as the flames hit a certain level, the warehouse's sprinkler system sprung to life and began coating the entire area in a graceful but wet downpour.
Once most of the fire was set out by the containment system, Garfield and Lunar noticed there was no sign of Sparrow. The wall that he had been trapped against was completely blown wide open, exposing the outdoors once more.
"Did we win?" Lunar questioned
Garfield shrugged. "Only one way to find out!"
While still being careful toward the situation at hand, Garfield & Lunar tiptoed toward the whole they created from the explosion. Peaking their heads into the outdoors the duo could see Sparrow lying on the ground completely pinned by a landfill of machine parts from the forklift. While the paragon was still equipped with his armor, they could see him groan with displeasure as he couldn't find the strength to stand.
"Alright!" Garfield & Lunar both cheered together before they each celebrated with random victory dances. Garfield found himself doing the running man-like moves while Lunar bopped his body from side to side catching a musical beat that wasn't even there.
"I'll g-g-g-et y-y-you f-f-for t-t-this!" Sparrow struggled to speak as he met the gaze of his foes.
"Maybe one more flare outta do it, whaddya think Lunar?" Garfield quizzed.
"I'm all for it, give that meanie one more shot!"
With the flare gun still within his hand Garfield prepared himself to fire another shot at Sparrow. Hopefully this second shot would be enough to do some serious damage to him and possibly de-transform him. Only then would they be able to claim victory for this battle.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you Garfield!"
Garfield and Lunar both froze in place as they heard Black Siren's voice address them. Stepping into plain view they were greeted to the Paragon alongside a captive Ryan who was being restrained by a set of metahuman cuffs.
"Ryan!" Garfield shouted
"Gar, Lunar you guys are ok!" Despite her captive state Ryan's face was elated to see both her friends hadn't a scratch on them.
Black Siren couldn't help but roll her eyes with disgust as she saw Sparrow in his predicament. How pathetic was he, being practically beaten by this imbecile and a tiger.
"Let her go Raven!"
"The name's Black Siren honey, now how about you two surrender before I give Missy here the swan song of a lifetime!"
"Don't listen to her Gar, I'm fine!" Ryan reassured
"You won't be fine once I make those ears bleed!" Black Siren shot back at her victim, "So what's it going to be Garfield are you going to surrender or do I have to sacrifice your friend?"
Once again fate had pulled the rug from under Garfield, here he was thinking that he was going to achieve victory only to be blocked by this new obstacle. What made it even worse was the obstacle was wearing the face of someone he loved with all his heart. Even if he could figure out how to save his surrogate sister he didn't want to go up against Raven in fears of hurting her.
As Black Siren smirked evilly with triumph, Garfield, Lunar & Ryan all exchanged worried glances.
How in the world were they going to make it out of this one?
End of Chapter 9.
Once again I bring you another good cliffhanger to lead us out. Fortunately for you guys Chapter 10 will be posted on my 29th birthday which is Sunday May 29th! Isn't that exciting you guys won't have to wait long to see the paragons in action once more!
The Chapter is already written but It just needs a few editing details here and there, to make sure everything is good!
If you have any comments, kudos or bookmarks you'd like to leave on this chapter please go right ahead. Also fyi Chapter 10 is going to be longer than this chapter, it will not only serve as a conclusion to what's going on but will set up some new storylines involving the rest of the paragons as well as Black Masks plans.
I look forward to seeing your reactions after you guys have finished Chapter 10.
Until then peace out and love ya!
See you guys on my birthday!
Arigato
Z