"Camouflage mode activated, sir. We're practically there."

Dick roused himself from his thoughts and emitted a murmur of acknowledgement to the helicopter pilot. He cast a glance in front of them and noted their approach toward Santa Prisca Island.

It had only been a day since Slade had accomplished his sabotage mission to the Light -and man, the idea of blowing up the helicopter and pretending to be sabotaged was really brilliant, even if the acrobat was paralyzed on the spot the first time his father told him about it- and the Talon decided it was time to start the rescue mission for Bane and eliminate the Cult of Kobra permanently.

Dick had asked both Lady Shiva and Cheshire if one of them -or both- were free that day so they could spend some time together and bond further while they cleared out Kobra and his men but unfortunately both were busy on a mission for the League of Assassins prepared by Talia herself.

What a shame. Whatever, there will be plenty of other opportunities to make up for it.

On a positive note, Talia lent him an advanced League helicopter equipped with camouflage mode so that no one would notice or hear him.

Dick was really looking forward to giving Kobra and his men a piece of his mind. Not only did they have the audacity to conquer Santa Prisca but they are also using his friend Bane as a punching bag!

The assassin was going to enjoy eliminating the cult completely and if that would be a further mockery against the Light, well, it was a double victory according to his refined tastes.

Dick put on his Renegade mask, donned a parachute and opened the door of the helicopter, smiling as he felt the wind ruffle his hair. Before jumping he turned to the League's assassin ninja who was serving as pilot at that moment. "I shouldn't be long but in any case I hope you will be patient."

"Take as much time as you need, sir."

With a smile Renegade shot him a thumbs-up and then jumped from the helicopter. He enjoyed every single moment of the fall and the feeling of the wind whipping against him, the adrenaline coursing through his veins (somehow scientifically impossible for him but this happened nonetheless. Both Dick and Slade agreed that the electrum coursing through his veins performed some of his blood's functions, including adrenaline, and prevented the primary function of blood, which is to pump the heart, thus depriving him of a heartbeat, but this was only a theory). Only a few hundred meters from crashing to the ground -not that it would lead to his death but still- he opened his parachute, slowing his fall considerably. He eventually landed safely and, having already noticed that there was no one around, he dropped the parachute to the ground.

Renegade raised his holographic glove, moved his fingers extremely fast on it for a few seconds and finally the screen showed him the direction to take to get to the Peña Duro prison where Bane and his men were probably being held. The young man followed the direction pointed out to him by his little jewel, mentally frowning when he did not encounter any of Kobra's henchmen.

Could it be that they are all enjoying watching Bane being badly beaten by this Mammoth?

A few minutes passed and Dick stopped when he caught a glimpse of the prison. He blended perfectly into the forest trees and noticed that were only two armed men guarding the entrance to Peña Duro. No men visible on the roof of the prison either. He chuckled to himself.

Man, this is basically an invitation for me to have fun and create as much chaos as possible.

Dick contemplated how to proceed from this point on. It would have been a piece of cake for him to grab a gun and kill the two men, despite the distance of about thirty meters.

Come on, this was barely going to be training for him!

Since he hated easy things, he decided instead to make the rounds off the forest as well as the prison. He looked around and, confirmed once again that there was no one else there, he ran with his superhuman speed and within seconds became one with the prison wall. He thus advanced with his back attached to the wall of the building and stopped when he reached the corner to turn. With a mad smile on his face the 17-year-old turned the corner and launched himself into the midst of the two men, making them jump in fright.

They did not even have time to see who was in front of them as Renegade broke their necks with respectively a punch and a kick at the same time. The two guards fell lifeless at the feet of the assassin who looked at them contemplatively, an idea slowly forming in his head.

The mercenary grabbed the dark red uniform from one of the two dead men, wincing when he noticed the man was wearing nothing but pants, and put it on. The uniform hid virtually all of his armor, and the hood hid most of his face. He gave a mental smirk and walked easily into the prison as the entrance was open.

Idiots.

Thanks to his disguise no one in the cult gave him a second glance, allowing him to pass unnoticed from room to room. Eventually in less than five minutes he reached a particular room crowded with Kobra's henchmen. The acrobat turned toward the direction in which they were all looking and was briefly breathless at what he saw.

It was some kind of combat area and in it were Bane and what must have been Mammoth.

Damn. Slade was not lying when he said that Mammoth was really big.

Dick looked at Bane's condition: he was full of bruises, recent cuts and scars, and blood was flowing like a river from his broken nose and lip. He had ugly dark bruises all over his chest and face and had heavy dark circles under his eyes. He was bleeding from a bad head wound and Dick was betting that the man had a bad concussion. Finally from the way he stood, the assassin was certain that Bane had some broken ribs and he also noticed how the big man favored his right leg over his left.

He saw a cult member pass Bane's signature weapon through the bars and the big man took it without question, as if it were a normal thing to do. Soon the Venom glanced over the supervillain's veins and became bigger and more muscular and then turned to Mammoth with a snarl between his lips.

The confrontation that followed was rather one-sided and in the end predictably Bane was defeated and knocked down violently. Dick almost winced at every hard blow Bane received but did not, merely observing Mammoth throwing Bane left and right as if he were a rag doll and not one of Batman's most dangerous opponents.

Deathstroke's former apprentice gritted his teeth as he saw Mammoth fling his opponent away and then launch himself into the air and hit him with a violent punch to the face, creating a hole in the floor. A pool of blood began to form around Bane's head, which remained on the ground knocked down.

Soon a chorus of "Hail, Kobra!" began to echo throughout the room, chanted by cult members. Renegade caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye and looked up, staring directly at the figure of Kobra who had his arms crossed and a smirk between his lips as his eyes were focused on the fighting arena.

It was obvious that he had enjoyed his most powerful henchman beating Bane mercilessly.

Dick clenched his fist.

It was time to wipe that smirk from his lips.

Permanently.

The mercenary quietly slipped away and hid in the shadows of the room. He noticed how the henchmen of the cult -more than twenty- were crowded mainly on both sides of the arena and an idea formed in his mind. He grabbed two small grenades from his utility belt and threw them to the sides of the ring.

Immediately two small explosions burst out that not only killed Kobra's men but also created two holes, respectively, on the sides of the arena. Immediately a heavy cloud of smoke rose and Dick almost winced at the sound of panicked screams. He drew two pistols and shot the few remaining henchmen alive, killing them, only to turn away when he heard in the distance sounds of footsteps rushing to see what was happening. The acrobat did not give them time to realize what was happening as he killed them instantly as soon as they stepped into the room.

"Traitor!" at Kobra's furious snarl the young mercenary merely tilted his head, his attention on the men he was shooting and killing one after another with flawless and perfect aim. "How dare you sin in such a way before your god?"

The assassin rolled his eyes at such pride shown by Kobra and snorted. "If you are a god then I have never killed anyone." he drawled sarcastically, smiling when the advance of Kobra's henchmen stopped and he put his guns back in place.

Dick did not know whether Kobra's men were finished or not but in any case at most there would be a few left, in which case he would deal with them later.

Renegade heard a series of heavy but quick footsteps approaching him and he performed several backflips. He gave a smirk when he saw Mammoth growling annoyed that he had avoided his blow.

"Mammoth, stop for a moment." the Talon's attention shifted half to Kobra, distractedly noticing that Shimmer had flanked him during the moment of confusion and chaos, and the other half to Mammoth who snarled at the leader's order but followed it anyway. "Show your face, traitor. I want to see who has such courage as to dare to defy their God."

Smiling, the young man took off the typical uniform of the Cult of Kobra and threw it away, revealing his distinctive armor that everyone knew and feared. Kobra recognized him immediately and opened his eyes wide, genuine surprise crossing his eyes before it quickly disappeared. The man with the divine complex narrowed his eyes. "Renegade. I admit I was not expecting a visit from you."

"That's because I didn't receive an invitation. Rude."

The man ignored his joke and continued in the same cold, impassive tone of voice. "I am curious to know the reason for your visit before Mammoth crushes you to death."

The mercenary tightened the white slits in his mask. "This place does not belong to you, Kobra. The time has come for Saint Prisca to return to its rightful owner and for your stupid cult to cease to exist forever."

"Your master will not be happy."

An inhuman snarl escaped Renegade's lips. "Deathstroke is not my master." he spat the last word as if it were poison. "And for the record, he will be very happy when I show him your severed head. And you stop trying to contact the Light or anyone else: I have personally made sure that I have momentarily isolated St. Prisca's from the rest of the world." he addressed the last part directly to Shimmer who was typing on a phone but it was clear from her deep frown that all her attempts proved futile.

Comprehension and slight horror flashed briefly in Kobra's eyes. "Deathstroke is a mole infiltrated within the Light."

"Bingo." the Talon confirmed with a sharkish grin. "But you won't get any chance to be able to tell anyone."

Kobra growled and angrily slammed a fist into the wall at his side. "Mammoth! Kill him without mercy!"

Mammoth emitted a sonorous animalistic roar and with superhuman speed darted toward the mercenary. Renegade jumped over the fist and used the monster's arm as a trampoline to launch himself forward by performing mid-air somersaults. As he was upside down in the air while performing the midair somersault, he drew one of the two swords attached to his back and snapped it horizontally toward the monster's neck with all his strength.

Renegade landed crouched on the ground and watched in satisfaction as Mammoth's decapitated body fell to the ground, the monster's head rolling a few feet away from the rest of his body.

"NO!"

The mercenary turned sharply at the female scream full of agony, shock and pain and he watched in surprise as tears ran down Shimmer's face. His gaze landed on Kobra who predictably was still composed but he noticed a slight shock in the cult leader's eyes.

"You killed Shimmer's brother." Kobra explained in an indifferent voice.

The Talon blinked, not expecting that revelation, as he stowed the sword at his back. He felt no remorse in his killing -not after what Mammoth had done to Bane in the last few days- but he still felt slightly bad toward Shimmer, even though he had a thought on his mind.

What sister in her right mind would agree with permanently turning her brother into a mindless monster?

The acrobat saw Shimmer growling furiously from the small balcony on which she and Kobra stood and he saw her throw herself down to the ground, landing in a crouch. Shimmer ran toward the mercenary, tears streaming down her face and her eyes glowing, and threw a punch at him.

Renegade easily blocked the punch and retaliated in turn with a punch that pierced her windpipe. Shimmer's eyes went wide and she staggered backward, bringing both hands to her own neck, which now had a bleeding hole in it, and she made choking, suffering noises. She fell backward to the ground, the light slowly fading from her eyes, and within seconds Dick felt her heart stop beating.

At least she will be able to be reunited with her brother, if there is life after death.

The former apprentice returned his gaze to Kobra and noticed smugly that the man's red eyes glowed furiously. With a snarl Kobra jumped from the balcony and landed crouched on the ground. He rose to his full height, threw his uniform to the ground, exposing his enormous musculature and pale skin, and advanced slowly toward the mercenary who stood still. The man walked past Shimmer's corpse covered in a pool of blood without even giving her a glance and stopped at a proper distance from Renegade.

"I don't think a god should intervene in human affairs, you know?" the Talon taunted him with a teasing smirk.

"Sometimes a god has to lower himself to the level of others and get his hands dirty." Kobra replied impassively and he snapped forward with a fist.

Renegade easily dodged it and blocked the next kick aimed at his chest. He grabbed his leg and violently flipped Kobra to the ground. The man let out a slight groan of pain but quickly got back to his feet, narrowing his eyes when he saw the mercenary signaling for him to try again.

The next minute was spent with the Talon dodging or blocking every single blow from Kobra who was becoming increasingly irritated. Dick mentally admitted that Kobra was a very good fighter but, unfortunately for the man, Renegade was completely from another planet and was, in Deathstroke's expert opinion, in the top 3 in terms of hand-to-hand combat worldwide.

Literally Kobra was barely a warm up for Dick.

Renegade deflected a punch from Kobra with his left arm and hit the man with a fierce uppercut that sent him backward. Kobra rose to his feet with a grunt and touched his clearly dislocated jaw, wincing slightly.

Dick gave him no time to do anything else.

One moment Renegade was a few feet away from Kobra and the next second he had zeroed the distance. Kobra's eyes widened, not expecting such speed from the mercenary, and he began to make choking noises when with his left arm Renegade abruptly grabbed him by the throat and lifted him more than half a meter off the ground.

Probably to an outside viewer the scene would have been a bit comical seeing a 17-year-old boy of about six feet lift a stout, massive man of almost two meters by the throat without any physical effort.

Kobra tried desperately to break Renegade's grip in any way he could but each of his attempts proved futile and the grip around his neck only increased slightly. He was aware of how Renegade could crush his windpipe with his bare hands if only he wanted to and this further increased his panic.

Renegade tilted his head to the side, an innocent smirk between his lips that made him more frightening and terrifying in the man's eyes. "I thought a god didn't feel an ounce of fear. What a disappointment." he shook his head disappointed. He lost the smirk and narrowed his gaze. "I will teach you a good lesson in humility. I hope it will prove useful to you once you are dead." the assassin fully enjoyed the look of pure terror and fear in Kobra's eyes. "This is for what you did to Bane." he gave a final smirk. "Hail, Kobra."

Kobra opened his eyes wide in shock when he felt an indescribable pain in his chest. His mouth opened wide for an agonized scream of pain but barely a whisper came out and instead a large amount of blood flowed out.

Kobra's death resulted faster than Dick wished but it did not matter. Renegade pulled back the arm that had gone past the man's chest, ignoring the sickening sound of his arm making its way through the flesh, bone and limbs of Kobra's body and the acrobat watched impassively as the heart of the former cult leader he held in his hand, absentmindedly noticed the body falling lifelessly to the ground.

Courtesy of the Court of Owls, Dick was now completely impervious to any form of violence, even the most extreme, and despite the brutality of the situation this often gave him a great advantage.

He dropped Kobra's heart to the ground and headed toward Bane who was still unconscious.

"Gracias chico for everything you did."

Renegade smiled and shot Bane a thumbs-up. "No hay problema, mi amigo. No one gets away with hurting the people I care about."

Bane returned the smile and ruffled the young assassin's hair. "Don't be modest with me. I owe you a big favor for exterminating that bastard's cult and saving my men." his men at his side nodded. "By the way, there are none left alive?"

"None." confirmed the Talon with a nod. "Rather, ¿estás bien?"

Bane good-naturedly rolled over at the question Renegade had already asked numerous times. "Estoy bien, no te preocupes. I suffered much worse injuries while growing up at Peña Duro. You won't get rid of me so easily, chico."

Renegade chuckled and hugged the super-villain, mindful of his wounds. Bane returned the hug, a little uncomfortable even though he was getting better with feelings and demonstrations of affection precisely thanks to the young mercenary.

Not that he would ever admit this to anyone, of course.

"¿Cuales son tus planes?" asked the acrobat, breaking away from the embrace and staring curiously at the big man.

"Right now I plan to focus on the organización of Santa Prisca. Increasing my men and supplying them adequately, the security of the prisión and taking care of the island after all the trouble Kobra has caused. Once that is done, I can get back into the business. And yes, the Venom will not end up in the hands of the first person interested in buying it but I will continue to pretend to sell it and then kill those interested in buying it." added Bane with a roll of his eyes after the young man's meaningful look.

"Bien." Renegade nodded in satisfaction and firmly shook Bane's hand. "Take care, mi amigo. And when you return to Gotham, don't let Batman kick your ass too much."

Bane snorted, easily reading between the lines the true message of the mercenary's words. "Yeah. See you soon, Ren." he greeted him with a final pat on the shoulder.

The assassin gave him a mock military salute and after briefly greeting Bane's men turned, starting to head toward the helicopter that had recently landed on the island.

And this mission was also successfully completed.

Bane watched from above as his men cleaned and tidied up the interior of the prison, immersed in his thoughts concerning a young mercenary.

Even now he could not give himself an explanation about how the hell Renegade had managed to make his way not only into his heart, leading him to genuinely care about the chico, but into that of a good portion of the Gotham Rogues and the supervillain community in general.

Not only did they have tremendous respect for Renegade's abilities but they truly loved him to the point that they would do anything for him.

And woe betide anyone who would hurt their Ren!

Not that that has happened yet, to anyone's surprise, but still.

When Bane had awakened from his unconscious state and saw Renegade's masked but visibly concerned face, he immediately felt safe with the chico beside him. This was because it was common knowledge in the criminal world how skilled Renegade was: he already was when he was barely double digits of age, let alone now!

After all, there was a reason that neither Bane nor any of Gotham's other villains -Joker excluded- gave Batman a single clue about Renegade: they could never betray Renegade and, in the case of people like Two Face, Scarecrow and others who did not like the young assassin too much, they were genuinely more afraid of Renegade than of the Dark Knight to the point that they would rather take a brutal beating from the vigilante than run the risk of being targeted by the mercenary.

Of course, none of the Gotham Rogues knew Renegade's civilian identity but still.

A shiver ran down the big man's spine at a particular memory concerning Renegade who had given an important talk with the Gotham Rogues but he chased it away.

By the way, Bane was impressed when he learned all that Renegade had done for him: he had eliminated an entire cult, its two most important members -Bane was absolutely delighted when he had seen Mammoth's head and mentally vowed to put it in plain sight in some prison office- and the leader completely alone.

It was really no easy feat to accomplish and still Renegade had made it look like a walk in the park.

Bane was abruptly roused from his thoughts when he heard noises and screams coming from the prison entrance. He jumped down landing crouching on the ground and ran toward the source of the chaos, a snarl between his lips.

If it's some of Kobra's henchmen, I swear I'll kill them!

Bane honestly didn't think there were any members of the now former cult left alive, given Renegade's efficiency and flawlessness, but never say never.

He stopped in his steps when he reached the entrance and swallowed an annoyed groan that almost escaped his throat.

Are you fucking kidding me?

In front of him were the seven founding members of the Justice League who looked at him with a frown and at their feet his downed men groaning in pain.

With an irritated sigh Bane peacefully raised his hands in the air, knowing he had zero chance against the heroes. "I didn't do anything illegal this time."

"We have discovered that a new drug is circulating in Santa Prisca, supposedly three times stronger than your Venom." Batman growled and took a step forward, his menacing eyes aimed directly at the big man. "Speak, Bane."

Lowering his arms, Bane annoyedly narrowed his eyes but reluctantly agreed to speak. "It is true that a new drug was circulating. It is Kobra-Venom which is three times stronger than Venom and is permanent. However, I have nothing to do with that stuff."

Batman stared at him for a few seconds and then nodded to Wonder Woman. Bane hurled expletives in Spanish as the Amazon's lasso of truth shrunk annoyingly around him. "I'm telling the truth!"

"If you had nothing to do with it then why is Kobra-Venom circulating in your place?" Superman asked.

Bane clenched his teeth tightly but was forced to answer. "The Cult of Kobra had taken over Santa Prisca and put me and my men out of business. My men were locked up in jail while they used me as a punching bag." Bane emitted an angry snarl and ignored the surprised looks of the heroes. "They were the ones who put Kobra-Venom into circulation, not me."

The heroes exchanged a surprised look before returning it to their suspect. "So, you really had nothing to do with this new drug?" Green Lantern asked, still skeptical.

"That's what I'm telling you, estúpido."

Green Lantern scowled, recognizing that the last word was an insult even though he did not speak Spanish, or at least not without the ring.

"Actually, judging by your appearance you don't look very well." Martian Manhunter stated, carefully observing Bane's physical state as he frowned.

"What happened to this Cult of Kobra? Where are they right now?"

Bane stared at the King of Atlantis and gave a sharkish grin. "Están todos muertos."

"All dead?" Flash repeated surprised and the big man nodded. "How did you get rid of them?"

The criminal lost his smirk and tightened his lips, determined not to answer the speedster. He emitted a grimace as the lasso tightened further on him. Although his already injured ribs were protesting, he did his best to keep his mouth shut, no matter how painful and annoying it would be.

"It is useless to resist. It will only cause you more pain." Wonder Woman warned him.

Bane held out for about ten seconds before finally the feeling became unbearable for him. "I didn't free myself. It was Renegade who saved me."

The heroes eyes widened in shock. "Renegade, Deathstroke's former apprentice?"

Bane stared at Flash, unimpressed. "How many Renegades do you know, amigos?"

Soon Bane's view was obscured and he blinked, surprised when his field of vision was completely occupied by the menacing figure of the Dark Knight. "What is your relationship with Renegade?"

"Good friends. I respect him a lot."

"Do you know his civilian identity?"

"No."

And fortunately for that, otherwise I would have been forced to reveal it to these idiotas.

Batman growled annoyed at his answer and Bane sent him a smirk. "Did Renegade single-handedly eliminate the entire Cult of Kobra?"

"That's right. Further ahead there are still their remains."

Without ever looking back the Caped Crusader nodded and the next second Flash sped away. The speedster returned almost two seconds later, his face a little paler than usual. "There are lots of charred bodies, there is a decapitated monster and I found brutally murdered the one I suspect was the cult leader. There is so much blood and so much slaughter."

The heroes looked at each other worriedly but the Gotham vigilante's gaze remained fixed on the big man. "Who is the monster Flash is talking about?"

"A guy who injected himself with Kobra-Venom. The same guy who has been using me as a punching bag for the past few days. I'm glad how Renegade took him down."

Batman frowned. "Where is the Kobra-Venom contained?"

"All I know is that there's none left."

"Did Renegade tell you that?" asked Green Lantern.

Bane nodded and the Caped Crusader continued his questioning. "Was the cult working for someone else?"

"I'm not sure. I heard that about a day or two ago Kobra, the cult leader, was supposed to meet someone for an exchange but I don't know who with."

Batman grunted disgruntled. "Do you know anything about the Light?"

"I've heard rumors but don't know anything concrete about it. However, I am quite sure that it exists."

"Then the Light really exists." Superman muttered a little worriedly.

"That's not a good thing." Aquaman frowned and absentmindedly stroked his beard.

"Can you release me now?"

Everyone's attention shifted first to a disgruntled and annoyed Bane and then to Batman who carefully scrutinized the criminal and then nodded abruptly. Bane released a contented sigh as the lasso was removed from his body and he stretched, cracking some joints. "Finally. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an island and a prison to rearrange."

Batman scowled, knowing he had no evidence to imprison Bane and Bane knew this. The vigilante turned back to his teammates. "We're done here. We can leave."

Bane watched the hero figures leave and let out a sigh, as he could not help but notice that Batman's obsession with Renegade had not diminished at all but rather seemed to have increased.

I hope you know what you're doing, chico.