Hey Ya'll! I am back again with another chapter! Sorry once again for not updating sooner, but life has got me pulled in a lot of different directions with work and many other personal things so trying to get this update out sooner just wasn't in the cards. I hope that when ya'll read this you are doing well, and staying safe, and healthy. I'm gonna drop a note at the bottom, so without further interruptions let's jump into it.

Chapter 16

GOTHAM CITY—GOTHAM NATIONAL BANK

APRIL 26th, 2008 (1900/7:00 PM) EST

Batman's POV:

Batman had to do his best to fight down the urge to reach up and pinch of the nose of his cowl, as he reflected over all that was going on.

The Bat Wave had lit up with a flurry of activity earlier, and unfortunately, he had been forced to prioritize the hostage situation happening at the Gotham National Bank branch over the other multiple seemingly coordinated shoot outs happening across a quarter of the city.

Funnily enough… said bank being the same exact bank that had been robbed on the day of All Might's debut.

Criminals were a superstitious and cowardly lot, but one thing Batman was reluctant to add to those thoughts was stupid… at least when it came to referencing Roman Sionis.

Batman knew for a fact that the man was pushing hard into this bank for a reason, he simply didn't know yet what exactly could be so vital in the lockboxes that Black Mask was seemingly so desperate to make a play for again.

'And while having caught the perps, that doesn't give me Carte Blanche to just search into private citizen's personal property like the aforementioned lockboxes. Something I'll have to look into at another time. More's the pity.' Batman thought as he watched from the roof of the bank as the members of GCPD loaded up the perpetrators that he and Robin had caught.

It had been a hard decision to bring Robin out with him as the hours slipped ever more towards the later evening with this much activity having picked up. Things had been escalating even faster lately, and while Robin had come a long way this particular level of activity was leaving Batman slightly apprehensive.

Batman could admit that Dick had taken to all of the training and work that he had put him through like a fish to water, and he could also admit that having his partner with him made him feel lighter.

But that never diminished the worry that bubbled in his gut whenever they would be out on patrol, especially now that the level of violence was seemingly on an all-time rise. Thus far their operations had been more small scale, and they had normally never encountered a group as large as the fourteen-man squad that had assaulted the bank.

Having Dick with him for this particular operation had in fact put them in a particularly good place for planning though, and he couldn't deny the tactical advantage his partner brought to the table.

Robin's size combined with his training had allowed him to slip into the bank undetected through a ventilation duct on the roof of the building and doing so let him slip into the server room adjacent from the main bank vault. Robin had quickly and quietly taken down three of the perps on his own, allowing them to move forward with a full on take down.

Batman had used the skylight of the bank and their communicators to maximum effect, allowing him to burst into the bank right as Robin deployed a series of smoke bombs to obscure the hostages from the robbers.

It had been a flurry of terrified screams, gunfire, and the sound of the perpetrators being taken down as Batman and Robin made short work out of the hopeful squad of thieves.

Thankfully none of the hostages had been harmed, as it seemed that while they had come into the bank with superior numbers and the makings of a plan; the perps hadn't pushed for an overly aggressive stance to give themselves a chance at victory.

'Sionis most probably would have had to blackmail each and every one of them to push for a stricter method to ensure their success here. He knows that the last person that was caught using portable bombs on their hostages is still locked in Blackgate, and even with all of his considerable resources he'd be hard pressed to retain his freedom if the truth came forward that he was the one who organized the heist.' Batman thought as he turned his attention to his ward.

They had grappled back up to the roof of the building just as two GCPD cruisers arrived, after having already secured all the infiltrators while making sure that the hostages were safe and sound.

As Batman fully turned to face him, he realized Robin had his sights trained on the perpetrators as they were loaded into the back of the two GCPD vans that had arrived; looking for all the world as though they hadn't just had said perps shooting at them.

"That was great! We really showed those guys whose boss. So, what's our next move?" Robin asked with a level of enthusiasm that almost brought a smile to Batman's face.

Batman brought up his gauntlet and allowed the holographic interface to flare to life, giving them a relatively detailed map of Gotham at large. Multiple locations were lit up with small red X mark's, showing the locations that were currently listed as an incident in progress. The X's were among two different shades of red, one's that were of a lighter shade designating them as crimes that were reported but were clearly not involved with the mass of gang activity that had flared up.

The darker X's were the incidents that truly worried him.

Every criminal incident in the city stirred the simmering rage in Batman's heart, but the one's marked by the darker X marks all seemed to be connected to the now open field gang war between Black Mask's forces and the vestiges of the Falcone crime family assembly.

'And that's not even counting any 'help' they may have procured.' Batman thought before speaking.

"We're going to work in a descending order from these darker marks to the best of our ability. I'm gonna pull up what available intel we can access, and we'll use it to prioritize our next target. We'll need to move fast, so stay sharp. The night is far from having even begun." Batman said as he shut the original holographic display to change it to that of his radio bandwidth monitor.

He cycled to the second listed wavelength which showed him the hacked GCPD frequency, which from there would allow him to cycle through each of the open channels so that he could hear what was happening real time out in the field for the police force.

Batman saw Robin edged closer to him as he started to sift through the radio channels, doing his best to keep up with not only the shifting points of view as they described what was happening in all of the chaos out in the city at large but also doing his best to hold up his normal impassive mask.

The struggle in maintaining his normally stoic appearance came from the fact that four of the separate incidents had actually already been handled by none other than All Might.

'I need to meet him tonight when this is all over. Hopefully I'll be able to find him and get a tracker on him to facilitate that.'

Batman quickly changed the frequency another four times and wound up stopping as an incoming signal from a squad car calling in for backup crackled on the line, stating that they were under fire from multiple assailants.

Within a matter of seconds though that seemingly changed as after that call had come in moments shortly after the line crackled back on again, and it now no longer had the oppressive level of gunfire that it had been broadcasting over its last playback.

The report came in from the present cruiser that All Might, and a second protector had arrived on scene and dealt with a squad of nine men all of which were armed with automatic rifles.

Upon hearing chatter from another officer at that scene the description of the second protector came up, and once it did the information almost saw Batman's mask crack.

'So now apparently there's Another new young female hero working in my city.' Batman thought as he noted what marking the distress call had come from.

Doing his best to remain calm Batman leveled his gaze at Robin.

"Robin we're going to…"

Batman found himself cut off from proceeding to his next line of thought, as the Batwave came to life on his earpiece with a very particular signal.

The signal used by his fellow members of the Justice League.

"Flash to Batman!"

Batman once again found himself wanting to pinch the bridge of the nose of his cowled mask.

Batman turned slightly to the side facing now towards the skyscraper lined cityscape as the sun started to set, in place of directly facing his young partner and ward.

"Go ahead Flash."

"Batman I've got a serious problem here. I need you to get to Central City ASAP!"

Batman had to use all of his considerable fortitude and focus to pick out what Flash said over the sound of the whipping wind, what sounded like explosions, and loud unidentifiable concussive sounds as it mingled with what sounded like a very large panicking crowd.

"Flash, I couldn't hear you fully. Say Again."

The comm crackled for a moment, and then Flash's voice came back to life on the line.

His words formed a pit in Batman's stomach.

"BATMAN! I Need you to get here to Central ASAP! I brought my new protégé out with me for a patrol and we ran into Captain Cold... the Joker's here with him!"

…

A second passed, and Batman almost openly swore as a quick myriad of images passed through his mind while he mentally recalled the deranged laugh of his most consistent and dangerous rogue.

"We're on our way."

Batman whipped his head towards Dick as he closed the comm line, before he locked gazes with the young man.

"We're going to Central City. The Joker's apparently broken out of Arkham and decided that he wanted to take his petty bag of tricks on the road. We're going to link up with The Flash and his new protégé. The rules for how this will happen remain the same as if we were here. Robin. I expect that when we get there that you'll you explain in detail to Flash's young protégé exactly why neither you nor he should engage the Joker directly. Am I understood?"

Batman had to war within his own mind as he watched his young ward's face play through a predictable cycle of emotions as he took in what he'd just been told.

Confusion, to Dread, to Shock, to Excitement, and then finally it came down and settled upon what he recognized as acceptance combined with staunch decisiveness.

"Understood Batman. Let's go rodeo this clown down." Robin said with a slight grin on his face.

Batman's stare removed the grin after a moment.

"Sorry boss."

"…It's fine. Just remember the rules. Remember your training. But above all once we arrive and are in action stay aware. We're walking into a new city, on top of dealing with the Joker. I know I don't have to explain the gravity of this to you."

Batman watched Robin nod, and as soon as he had Batman tilted his head up and gestured for Robin to follow his lead in pulling out his grapple gun.

The Bat plane had arrived moments earlier, its stealth turbines running and that allowed both the Dark Knight and his young ward the chance to launch their lines up to hook on to the mounting bars of the idle craft without drawing any attention.

Once inside and prepped Batman set the flight plan.

Batman turned on his on-board comms and called the cave after ensuring that he and Robin both were strapped in and moving steadily towards Central city.

"Alfred?"

"Yes, Master Bruce."

"Robin and I have to deploy to Central City to help The Flash deal with Captain Cold and the Joker. We won't be back in time for dinner."

A small silence overtook Alfred's line before Batman heard a small sigh.

"Understood sir. Please, do be careful Master Bruce. You as well Master Dick."

"You know us Al. The clown's going down." Robin said forcing some levity into the situation.

Batman heard the very small chuckle on Alfred's end before he spoke again, signaling that Robin's attitude had in fact at least diverted his oldest friend's worries, even if it would only last for a moment.

"Of course, Master Dick. Please do fly carefully you two."

A duo response of "We will.", ended the call. Batman focused his mind after that, doing his best to not to dwell on the fact that he was leaving the city in the hands of a hero that he still knew so little of and had zero trust in.

'I need to redouble my efforts. It's time for me and All Might to meet face to face.'

GOTHAM CITY – DIAMOND DISTRICT: PLAZA MANOR

APRIL 26th, 2008 (2230/10:30 PM) EST

Tony Falcone's POV:

Tony paced back and forth in the living room of the manor flat, his new charcoal grey suit jacket and pants clinging to his new body tightly framing the light grey shirt underneath. He brought one of his large feet up and set it gingerly on the edge of the coffee table in front of him briefly, giving him the chance to inspect the polished finish.

He closed his eyes and could almost hear his grandfather's voice echo out one of the many lessons that he had tried to impart before he had been sent to prison when he was a teenager.

"Appearance is everything Tony, Everything. Your appearance sets the standard for how people will perceive, and then treat you. Always do all you can to look and move at your very best. In this life, in this business, the most minor thing you can think of can be perceived as weakness. Your enemies won't hesitate to exploit anything and everything they can to get at our Empire, so make sure your always on your guard"

'Thanks Gramps.'

The memory passed, and a sense of calmness settled over Tony's rattled mind, giving him the chance to relax some more for the upcoming meeting that he was about to have.

His aunt Sofe had been indispensable over the past couple hours since his return, between securing him his new outfit, to managing the overall situation with his now deceased father, and then securing him the meeting with the family's new backers.

He already had enough stress on his plate with trying to plan the direct offensive on Sionis, but it seemed that the stress wasn't gonna die down anytime soon.

His people were sending in reports from out on the streets, and the new hero All Might was taking out every gangster he came across out in the city proper whether they worked for Sionis or himself.

His father had orchestrated a literal dozen minor operations to be carried out over the evening with the aim to make a play at going directly for Sionis, and on top of that Tony had also had Vitti coordinate and start up a shakedown campaign of his own.

Thus far it hadn't proved overly successful on either front forcing Tony to bring his right hand up to massage the side of his head.

Being in the new body was still an experience as there was feeling and reaction much from like when he'd first been alive, but all of the old feelings were far different from before. His basic sense of touch being the biggest as it was muted in a strange way that he couldn't explain, and he was still having a hard time adjusting to his now much greater height and bulk.

Tony was cut off from anymore musings when his cousin Vitti who had been standing only a few feet away answered his buzzing cell phone.

"Yeah. I gotcha. Understood Sofe. We're good to go." Vitti said before he turned to face him.

"They're on their way up cuz. You want me to have the refreshments brought in?"

Tony stopped inspecting his appearance and rose back to his full height, trying his best to fight against the minor hunch that Grundy's body seemed to just naturally have.

"Yeah. Go ahead and get it all together, and then be ready. I'm willing to bet this old codger is gonna be a problem, and that's not counting his bootlicking partner." Tony said as he crossed his heavy arms over his chest and turned to look out the broken window that he had thrown his father through only a little earlier.

Tony listened as Vitti's footsteps departed to get the refreshments for the coming meeting and as he closed his eyes, he felt it again in his mind. Again he felt what he could only describe as an inner ear itch but on his brain.

That's when he heard the voice again.

'Born on a Monday.'

After he heard it, Tony quickly shook his head a bit and then followed it up by cracking his neck.

'Beginning to wish I hadn't killed her. Why is this happening to me?' Tony thought as he reflected on why he had another presence in his head. A presence that could only be Solomon Grundy, or at the very least a shadow of him.

When he had been just waiting for his chance to return, Sara had explicitly said that there wouldn't be any issue's.

Yet here he was, intermittently hearing what was most probably Solomon Grundy's voice now in his head.

'Go back to whatever hell you belong in you undead son of a bitch! This body's Mine now and I don't care how attached you are, I'm calling the shots.' Tony thought with as much venom as he could produce.

…

The moment passed and he didn't hear anything again, so he did his best to once again quiet his own thoughts in preparation for the meeting.

He did his best not to react and to appear as at ease as possible when he heard the elevator down the hall ding, signaling that his guests had arrived.

He listened as a group of footsteps approached, but he determinedly kept his back to them, using his position and stance to give off an air of authority while also leaving it to his guests to have to vie for his attention.

The living room remained quiet outside of a small bit of rasping breathing for a moment, before his aunt broke the silence.

"Tony? This is Sal Valestra, and Chuckie Sol."

Tony kept his face impassive as he turned to finally face the two men and his aunt, and after taking a moment to take the men's appearance in he raised his right hand up and out of his closed armed posture he gestured at the assorted couches and loveseats around the coffee table.

"Gentleman, take a seat. Let's talk business."

Sal had been standing by the corner of one of the loveseats, and quickly set himself down into it keeping his portable oxygen machine on the outside next to his seat. The man who Tony could only assume was Chuckie Sol, took a seat at the singular plush chair directly in front of Tony's sightline.

As his aunt was setting herself into the loveseat opposite of Sal, his cousin Vitti returned with one of their cooks pushing a gleaming stainless-steel cart with assorted drinks and minor finger foods.

Tony once again used his right hand to gesture at the now waiting cook, as his cousin took a standing position behind his aunt's seat.

"Either of you want something to drink? Something to eat?"

Tony was planning on listing the options before breaking into the business for the evening but was cut off by Sal's caustic and impatient voice.

"No. We don't want any refreshments. What we want is what we came here for in the first place. We came to meet your father, so that we could gain an understanding of the way things were gonna be going forward. Yet here I find that when your lovely aunt greets us, she claims that we're doing business with you now. In the spirit of cooperation because I'm sure we both hate Black Mask as much as the other, let's just get this over with. What more do you want from us?"

Tony felt a massive spike of irritation, and the desire to grab the decrepit old man and break him was extremely tempting. Unbidden though, another lesson came to mind.

'Never let your enemies see your frustration, Tony. Let it stew for when it's proper. There's nothing more dangerous than assumption, and when you don't lash out in the face of insulting behavior it throws most people off. Its basic psychology, and it's one of the better ways to maintain control of a conversation.'

Tony allowed the memory of the lesson to pass and used it to focus his response while simply staring the old man down. After a moment Sal's irritated visage remained but toned down significantly, and he was forced to reach for his mask to take a deep breath as he waited for Tony to respond.

That instantly changed the atmosphere, and with that Tony took control of the conversation.

"Firstly, and most Importantly, your thoughts on us both hating Black Mask are exactly right. However, don't you ever think that you could possibly hate that son of bitch as much as I do. Secondly. You asked what more could I want? Well lets first take a moment to examine just what it is you've already brought to the table, shall we? You were supposed to be getting my family more guns, so that we could have a real force to throw at that charcoaled bastard. But where are my munitions huh? Oh, that's right, the cops got em when they picked your boys up after this All Might character took it into their teeth. You were supposed to get my family extra men, and yet you've only given me an extra two dozen. All of that is a far cry from what you promised my father…at least if his journal is to be believed. So far it's looking like your incapable of living up to your commitments Mr. Valestra. What am I meant to think of this hmm?" Tony said while glancing between the two gangsters sitting in front of him.

Sal's face puckered into an even more sour expression then the one he'd been wearing a second ago, and Chuckie visibly gulped while his face lost a shade of complexion.

Surprisingly though, it was Chuckie himself who rallied and responded to Tony's remarks.

"I understand that things haven't gone exactly as planned, but we can hardly be held responsible for that new costumed freak. The loss of the weapons cache on top of not being able to provide more numbers is a problem, and we know that. But in place of that Sal and I spoke, and we brought in another of our old partners. We've pooled our resources. We got a hold of a guy. He's a problem. A real problem. Trust me when I say you won't be disappointed. He'll help tip the scales for ya and that whole charcoaled remark will be even more prevalent then, trust me." Chuckie said with both of his hand's up palms out, though the left corner of his mouth was upturned slightly.

Tony was processing all the man had said and was getting ready for a retort but was beaten by an outburst from his aunt, and said outburst clarified just what Chuckie meant while playing his weird little word riddle.

"Firefly?! You hired Firefly?! Are you out of your minds?! That asshole is as likely to kill our forces as he is Mask's! The man's certifiable! How the hell did you even get him? Last I heard he was still locked up in Arkham!"

Chuckie didn't leave them in suspense for long.

"There's plenty of people who work at Arkham Ma'am. Guards aren't the only ones that can be bribed or blackmailed. As to the how of it? Well let's just say that most anyone who knew he was there is most assuredly under the belief that the man died via suicide in his cell... tragic stuff really." Chuckie said with a smarmy tone.

'I'll give it to em, that's pretty ingenious for getting yourself a resource. But best to cover our bases.' Tony thought before taking lead of the conversation.

"My aunt raises a wonderful point. I've never met the man, but I've heard that his proclivities often lead to massive collateral damage. This is a raid. Death and destruction are a guarantee…but what I don't need is my resources gettin barbequed before they can be of any real use. What guarantee's do we have that this pyromaniac will be on leash for this?" Tony asked as his jaundiced looking eyes locked with Chuckie's.

Chuckie made an ambivalent gesture with his hands right before he spoke again.

"The nut balls got a sister believe it or not, and the sister has a daughter. We've got those two as our leverage. He'll play ball. He's not only getting paid, but he gets to light some shit on fire. Once Black Mask is dead and you're ready to absorb his empire, I'm a sure a little extra cash and an offer of private contract work wouldn't go remiss in smoothing over any possible raised hackles he might have in the 'How' we got him to cooperate."

Tony turned to face the broken window again as he considered this new information, and he'd be lying if he said that the idea didn't have its merit.

He had never met Garfield Lynns, but his reputation most definitely proceeded him.

The man had over six dozen confirmed deaths to his name from a massive firebombing incident he'd pulled back in 2004, and before that he had apparently been for hire in the line of corporate sabotage. Tony knew academically that having the man on his side would be a massive boon, but he also knew that bringing him into the spotlight beside him might be a massive problem.

Tony did his best to keep his countenance controlled and considered the options before him.

His aunt had gotten him the numbers of their standing accounts, along with how much muscle they had at their disposal, and just what firepower he could bring to bear. As it stood right now, they had in excess of $25,000,00 liquid, and overall he only had 48 men when you counted the men in the building on top of the forces Chuck and Sal said were ready. The men would have a mix between M16's and shotguns, on top of miscellaneous side arms.

His father's plan was simplistic. He had wanted to amass an attack force to attack and take Mask where he lived in the Upper West Side, but the building the man had was much like theirs and was considered by most a veritable fortress.

'But that was only a problem before I could tank bullets and had a psycho like Lynn's to call on for support.'

Tony turned back to the assembled group and crossed his arms over his chest again before speaking.

"Call your people and tell em to get ready. Get Lynn's on standby, were going ahead with the attack tonight." Tony said.

His aunt quickly stood up in face of his declaration.

"Tony wait! We should take our time with this now. We can get some more resources together, get some more men, and then we can rout the bastard out. If we go at him right now, we have no idea what he's got at his disposal. We can't mess this up."

Tony turned his gaze on his aunt before turning it back to his two visitors.

"Do it. When all's said and done, I'll be calling you back here so that we can talk about territory. Now... get the fuck out."

Both men, even with Sal's O2 tank to account for quickly got up and moved from the room leaving Tony with his family.

"Vitti get that shit outta here. I need a moment alone with Aunt Sofe." Tony said, his eyes holding said woman's gaze.

His cousin only hesitated for a moment, before he ushered the cook and the wasted welcoming favors out of the room.

Tony allowed the silence to build for a moment as he locked eyes with his aunt.

"…I'm only trying to-"

Tony cut her off by raising one hand up.

"I know what you were trying to do but make no mistake that's not what you did. You just questioned my authority in front of two men who are meant to be my partners. Make no mistake, they'll take what just happened as a sign of weakness. Regardless of my current physical circumstances."

By the end of his build up his aunt was no longer looking him in the eyes, her visage pointed towards the ground with a frown on her face.

"I love you Aunt Sofe, I really do. But…That will Never happen again. You just undermined and embarrassed me, and the singular reason you haven't joined dear old Dad is because I'm sure you did what you did from a place of love. Next time you do that…well, I'm sure you can figure it out."

The ending parts of his speech brought his aunt's eyes back up to his, a look of horror on her face.

"You…You're really threatening me?"

"Your god damn right I am. Never again, Aunt Sofe. Never."

His aunt's eyes glistened slightly before she blinked, and her defiance completely fled her.

"I understand."

Tony nodded before he crossed his arms and turned just enough so he could look at her while looking out the window, considering his very next move.

"Aunt Sofe, I'm sure your tired. It's been a trying night, and it's only about to get longer. Do me a favor? Pack a bag. Get outta the city for a bit. Vitti will take care of Pops arrangements in your stead. Go wherever you want; hell take a trip to Italy and poke in on our investments out there. I'm not gonna risk anyone I'm close to when I don't have to."

His aunts faced passed through incredulity, offense, and then settled on acceptance before she nodded and turned around and started to walk from the room.

She passed the threshold before she called out over her shoulder.

"I love ya Kiddo. I'll see ya soon. Do the family proud."

Tony waited until she was well down the hallway and walking into the elevator before he responded, though he did so under his breath.

"I intend to."

GOTHAM CITY – UPPER WEST SIDE: BLACK MASKS PENTHOUSE BUILDING

APRIL 27th, 2008 (0030/1230 AM) EST

Tony's POV:

The sound of the gunfire mixed with the wailing of the police sirens and the cacophony of different shouting voices; as dozens of bodies moved around, in between, and behind the dozen or so vehicles that were now crowding the four-way intersection where the large high rise building of his target sat.

'I got a fuckin rat on my ship, and when I find em they're beyond dead.' Tony thought as he climbed out of the large transport van that had been procured to move him and his ace for this operation.

Someone had tipped off the cops, or Sionis, or maybe even both he couldn't be sure. The semantics of just who had been tipped off though, had no bearing. The fact of the matter was that Tony had an absolute swath of cops pulling up to the building almost at the same time as him and his assembled crew, and the firefight that was currently still raging kicked off almost instantly.

One cop car had been hit bad enough and turned into a slow-moving flaming projectile as it caught alight and blew up.

As Tony rounded the van with Firefly on his left, he bellowed out to his crew.

"Get me five guys and get in line behind me. We're takin this fucking building!"

At his word Tony watched as five of the men, three of which had shotguns, lined up behind him as he started to walk towards the front entrance of the building.

Bullet fire started to pepper his body, leaving the impression of what he imagined it felt like to have someone throw a very small rock at you. Tony couldn't clearly see from the distance he was at, but he was willing to guess that none of the present officers had anything much greater that a 12 gauge.

'Shouldn't have brought the new suit to this.'

Tony stopped his advance next to a bright red mini coupe that had had a woman in it, but upon having seen the armed men had quickly bolted back inside the high rise right off the left from it at the curb.

Tony bent down and with a small grunt of effort turned the car on its side, giving him, Lynn's, and his five-man advance team some extra cover.

'Not only does it provide cover, but now the pigs have to figure out a work around because they don't want another car blowing up.' Tony thought before he turned and looked at Lynn's, who had yet to actually do anything.

"Get up in the air and come down on them. Blanket em and chase em back so me and the boys can make our move."

Firefly's gray helmet turned minutely up to lock its dark red lenses with Tony's eyes, and then after a moment the pyromaniac brought his left arm up and hit a button. A series of loud metallic clacks sounded out, as a pair of wings unfolded and then set themselves into a fixed position. Lynn's right hand then reached down to his side, causing Tony's men to level their guns at him. He stopped and turned his head to pan his helmets lenses across the five men.

"You want literal cover fire, or not?" Lynn's questioned with a gruff synthesized voice.

Tony could hear tons of shouting, and the gunfire was still going on but at a much more sedate pace. He nearly rounded on his men to yell at them, but they all lowered their weapons which let Firefly pull what looked like a very small pistol with a hose port on it into his grasp.

'He brings a fuckin pee-shooter to something like this?!'

Tony was ready to lose it on the man, but quickly had his opinion changed as the man pulled two more parts that were collapsed and condensed and wound up being hooked to the pistol before he hooked a large metallic line to his backpack.

'Okay. An actual flamethrower. Not so disappointed now.'

Tony was pulled from his thoughts when Lynn's spoke again.

"Mind the jets."

Tony barely processed what the pyro said before the man was literally roaring into the air and towards the cops, the large burst of heat washing over him and his men.

What followed next wasn't the least bit shocking, as now instead of shouting and gunfire the shouts turned to screams of fear and most probably agony if Tony's hearing was anything to go by as he heard Lynn's flamethrower light off.

Putting any real worries of being harried in his intent to the wayside, Tony dug his hands into the bottom of the mini coupe and lifted it two feet off the ground to dangle in his grasp as he marched his advance team towards the front door of Sionis's building.

All kinds of gunfire was still being traded back and forth when he was halfway across the four-way intersection, and he could feel the anticipation building in his mind.

'Soon Sionis. You're a dead man.'

Tony's thoughts were pulled from his own pleasant reverie though, because a sound joined all the other noise that had been raging on the street and he didn't recognize it at all.

He was made intimately aware of what it was though when a blast of cold washed over him and the area, and he realized that the roaring sound of a motorcycle was quickly approaching him and his men from behind.

Tony dropped the coupe and spun around to face the noise and caught a solid blow to the side of the face for his trouble.

Tony staggered back from the blow and found himself half bent over with his hands on the now right-side up coupe, quickly bringing his right hand up to reset his dislocated jaw.

'What the fuck?'

The noise had torn past him and his men, who were now all five of them on the ground looking as though they'd had a run in with Mr. Freeze. Tony brought his gaze to his far left and saw what he could only describe as a flurry of movement, as a body wreathed in green looking lightning darted between vehicles and people alike.

Some of the people he saw were from his crew and had tried to advance on the cops in the wake of Firfly's attack, and every time the lightning coated figure would wind up near one of them Tony would either see them sent in a short ark as they were sent airborne over the assembled cars; or they'd just wind up kissing the pavement in a heap.

'So…this must be All Might.'

Gunfire was still going off around them, only now the police were taking on a more orderly defense than before. His men on the far-right side were starting to huddle behind cover and open fire in bursts from the safety of the vans they had come here in, doing their damn sight best to keep the cops down and out of the fight though they themselves were just as harried.

Tony looked and saw that a couple more cars had joined the already destroyed cop car, some of them still burning from Lynn's assault while others were coated in a frosty white and bluish looking ice.

Tony could see someone further behind the police line, shooting a blue beam of some kind directly against Firefly's flamethrower, and upon seeing that he felt his temper flair.

'These fuckin freaks are ruining my plan.'

Tony grabbed ahold of the downed coupe in front of him and heaved with all he had, sending it careening towards the person in the deadlock with Lynn's flamethrower causing a bunch of distressed voices to call out in dismay.

What Tony didn't and couldn't have expected was for the car to only travel a good ten feet or so on its ark through the air before it was met midair in a collision by All Might.

The little bastard had seen it and booked it straight towards the flying vehicle with his shield raised, and after leaping up slammed directly into the trunk taking all the momentum out of Tony's impromptu missile as he knocked it off course and to the pavement in a loud crash.

Tony watched as the super fell into a three-point stance only a few feet in front of the vehicle he'd knocked from the air, his shield coming down into the pavement with a loud crack that was then followed by a loud scraping sound as All Might then pulled the damn thing from the concrete with contemptuous ease.

"We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Either way you're finished."

Tony heard the words and had to give himself a solid moment to process it.

The way the guy was standing, the tone of his voice, the words that he'd said and exactly the way he'd said them.

It ignited the first small spark of fear that Tony had felt since his resurrection.

'The bastard carries himself like...like pops.'

His own Father had always really been the only person that could make Tony afraid. Afraid to fail, afraid of what consequences were coming, afraid of his disapproval.

Just... afraid.

Felling it now in this moment and remembering what he'd done earlier that night immediately shifted it into something else.

And because of that all the lessons went out the window.

Anger. It was all he felt. Anger at his father, and now that same anger was all he could feel for All Might. Both of them always standing in his way. Stopping him from getting what he wanted and rightly deserved.

'This cocky little bastard thinks he can take me?!'

Tony took one large step forward, the pressure from said step causing minor cracks to appear on the pavement. Tony bared his teeth and thrust his right hand out to point at the meta freak, right before he yelled back his own words of defiance.

"I ain't Goin back! I'm gonna kill you ya little Freak! Just like I did my pops!"

Annnnd That's it everyone. I know it probably feels a little transitional, but that's necessary for this chapter. I also know it's my shortest chapter for this story thus far, but it just felt right to end it as I did. Next one and it's time. So, I've gotta do it and I know it''s cheesy but imma do it anyway. LLLEEEEEEEEETS GET READY TO RUMMMMBLE! Next Chapter Jack is gonna have his first knock down drag out fight, and with someone like Grundy no less. I'm very excited to get it together and put if here for ya'll to enjoy. Remember if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please leave them and I will do my best to address them in due course. Keep an eye out because while I'm very inexperienced with this program and everything about it overall, there will hopefully be a poll or two coming soon. That and hopefully some artwork, but more on that another time. I hope everyone is staying safe, happy, and healthy, and I'll see you at the next one. Stay Golden!