Chapter 10
Batcave
As the Heretic lay dead at Talia's feet, the Daughter of Ra now finds herself cornered from all sides, by Batman, Nightwing, Batwing and Robin, while the rest of the League lay unconscious
"Give up mother, you've lost." Damian, AKA Robin said, while pointing his sword at his mother
"I'm done." Talia announced. "I know when I'm beaten." She raised her hands in surrender. "You got me."
But before anyone could do anything, a sudden beeping from Talia's gauntlet caught her attention.
Talia's eyes narrowed as she stood amidst the Bat family, her gaze fixed on the messenge on her gauntlet.
"I'm sorry my love, but I have to leave." Talia suddenly said
Batman watched with concern as Talia's expression changed. Damian, knowing his mother decided to ask the unspoken question. "Did something happen?"
After a brief silence, she answered. "It's your grandfather Damian. He's dead."
Damian looked broken by the news, as the grip on his sword tighten's
"I'm sorry for your loss." Batman said solemnly
"Who killed him?" Damian asked
"Scorpion."
Earlier, Shirai Ryu Territory
With the sun shining on his face, Scorpion is blinded temporarily as he raised his arms to shield his pale eyes.
Soon, the light disappeared and Scorpion could see again. He gazed at his surroundings, noticing the wooden cabins, the small hills, and the countless trees.
Scorpion then noticed something else… the people that surrounded him. They were all dressed in simple black and yellow ninja garb.
He realized where he was then… the village of the Shirai Ryu… and the people gazing at him were his clan…
"Papa!" a young voice suddenly called out.
Scorpion turned to the voice…as he felt pure joy as his young son ran to him, clearly excited to see his father. Immediately, Scorpion got down on one knee to greet his son. The young boy soon reached him and immediately threw his little arms around the spectre's shoulders. Scorpion returned the embrace.
"Satoshi…" Scorpion whispered as he held his son close to him. "How is this possible…"
He then heard footsteps nearby, and Scorpion gazed up to see who approached them. He then froze as he recognized the woman dressed in a simple brown kimono with a black sash around her waist. Her long black hair was left down to fall to her hips, and a smile graced her porcelain face. What stood out more was the single red rose that decorated her hair, the flower resting on the right side of her head.
Scorpion slowly stood up before he began to approach the woman… his wife. "Harumi…"
She smiled more in reply. "Hanzo…"
Scorpion was about to caress her cheek, when suddenly he stopped. Pulling his hand back, he began to slowly back away from his son
"Hanzo?" Harumi asked in confusion
"This is not real." Scorpion whispered to himself, as he gripped his head
"Papa?" Satoshi called. "Why do you think I'm not real?"
"My family died eons ago." Scorpion said, as he faced Harumi, or better still, an imposter
"Hanzo, I'm-"
"Enough!" Scorpion yelled, as the world around him began to slowly melt away, while being engulfed by Hellfire. "None of this is real."
"Ahhhhh!" The Imposter disguised as Harumi, started to burn as well. Screaming, she desperately tried to put off the fire on her body
As Harumi continued to burn, her form began to slowly change to Psimon. Seeing this, Scorpion walked towards the telepath before ripping off his mask, revealing a flaming skull, causing Psimon to stare in horror as his entire body became completely engulfed in Hellfire…
League of Assassin's Base
Having freed himself of Psimon's influence, Scorpion stared down at the group of villains Infront of him.
"It was foolish of you to enter my mind." Scorpion growled, causing the group to turn to him
Freeze looked stricken, looking to Psimon's fallen form before pointing his freeze gun at Scorpion, who looked very pissed. Before Freeze could pull the trigger of his gun, Scorpion suddenly blur Infront of Freeze, before delivering a kick to Freeze's head, which sent him out of the room they were in, shattering his helmet in the process
After witnessing this, Ra's al Ghul was about to make a run for it, but a chained kunai suddenly impales Ra through the
chest, faster than he could react
"GET OVER HERE!"
The league leader is dragged towards Scorpion, who immediately punches a hole through his chest, before ripping his heart. Tossing Ra to the ground, Scorpion was about to attack Savage, when suddenly Grundy slammed into him. They crashed through the room and then into another building, before Grundy grabbed Scorpion by his head and jumped outside, before slamming Scorpion against the ground.
Ignoring the pain that shot through his body, Scorpion managed to blast Grundy through another League building, causing the entire structure to collapse.
Scorpion moved to continue his attack on Grundy, but he was interrupted by Morgan peppering him with magic-blasts.
While Morgan kept Scorpion distracted, Grundy rose to his feet, shaking off the pain in his head, he started moving towards Morgan.
The Sorceress had Scorpion wrapped in dark magic. As he struggled against his bounds, Morgan thought she now had him. She were proven wrong, however, when Scorpion somehow floated into the air; a pulse of Hellfire flew from him, shattering his bonds. Morgan was sent flying into the building she came from, right next to the still unconscious Psimon
The sudden change in air pressure had knocked Morgan unconscious. As Savage approached his unconscious allies, he suddenly heard footsteps behind him. He turned to see Scorpion approach them.
Just as Scorpion was about to attack him, Grundy smashed into the Spectre, sending him flying.
"Deal with him, while I wake Morgan!" ordered Savage, as Scorpion began approaching them
"Grundy Smash!" The Zombie roared before charging forward and smashing his fists into the ground; he would have struck the Spectre, had he not leaped into the air. Grundy rushed towards him, hoping to finish this quickly; instead, Scorpion caught Grundy's fist in his palm.
Grundy seemed slightly surprised, that someone this puny could match his strength. Before Scorpion could attack though, Grundy delivered an uppercut that sent Scorpion flying a dozen blocks away. Jumping to pursue his opponent, Grundy tried to attack again, but was kicked into one of the Leagues Temples. Busting out of the temple, Grundy charged towards his opponent to continue their fight…
Shirai Ryu Forest
Noticing their current predicament, Sportsmaster, Cain and Cheshire stood back to back, as they got ready to face the Shirai Ryu.
"Surrender Sportsmaster." Bo said. "You're can't win this fight."
"I'll have you know that surrender, isn't in my dictionary." Sportsmaster said
"Then you better start updating it." Raven said
But right before the Shirai Ryus could engage them, explosions suddenly rock the forest around them, throwing them into disarray. Two trees fall down, crushing several Shirai Ryus beneath them. As more trees kept falling, Sportsmaster, Cain and Cheshire, chose this moment to make a run for it.
Seeing this, Jason tried to go after them, but he was suddenly knocked unconscious by a blast to the head, courtesy of Deathstroke Pulse staff.
"Slade." Bo said, as she approached the Mercenary. "You're now in league with Ra I see."
"Don't get the wrong idea." Deathstroke said. "I'm only helping them because I'm being paid." he said before focusing fire from his rifle on Bo, but she deflects the bullets with her sword effortlessly as she charges forward before swinging her swords, forcing Deathstroke to dodge to the side.
As he backpedals from Bo, Deathstroke tosses his rifle away, before slamming his staff into the ground, missing Bo by inches. As Bo steps backward, Deathstroke throws
the staff into the air, catches it and swings, knocking Bo's sword's from her hands.
Right before Deathstroke can continue his assault, dark substances suddenly retrained him, trapping him in place. As Raven floated towards Deathstroke, she looked somewhat confused as she could not sense any emotion from Deathstroke
"You're not human." Raven noted
"I'm what you could call, a Slade Bot." Deathstroke confirmed. " Now let me reward you for being such a good detective." Slade said as his eye pupil change into the number three, as a count down began.
Before Raven could react, an explosions consumed her, which knocked her into a tree, as the Slade Bot self destructed.
League of Assassin's Base
After what felt like an eternity of studying Fox's body language, Cassandra slowly pulled her sword away from Fox's neck.
"You spared me." Fox said, as he stood to his feet. "Why?"
Cass merely gestured behind Fox. Following her gaze, Fox took notice of the door he broke. Studying the door, Fox then realized something
"You're a prisoner." Fox deduced, causing Cass to nod slightly. Having confirmed his suspicions, Fox couldn't help but stare at Cass, as he was now fully taking notice of all the scares on her body
"What did they do to you?" Fox asked, but was met with only silence. Taking a wild guess that the girl Infront of him couldn't talk, Fox then stretched his hand towards Cass. "Let's get you out of here."
Watching his hand suspiciously, Cass was trying to take note of any form of deception from his body language, but after a few seconds of sensing no deception, she slowly handed him his swords.
"I'm afraid I can't let you leave with her." Shiva suddenly spoke from the entrance. "Plannimg to abandon the League Cassandra Cain? As your mother I'm very disappointed in you."
"You're her mother?" Fox asked, as he suddenly became angry. "Yet you did this to her." He said, gesturing to Cass scars
"It was all part of her training." Shiva said
"To hell with training." Fox said. "How could you do this to your child?"
"I don't owe you an explanation child." Shiva said, before adopting a fighting stance
Seeing this, Fox instantly created multiple clones of himself, who all charge at Shiva. Cass was slightly caught off guard by Fox's ability, before turning to the fight Infront of her
Two clones tried to attack Shiva, but the assassin was able to parry their strikes and throw them to the ground, dissipating them in the process. Another two clones attack, but Shiva fells one with a flurry of quick strikes and a spinning back kick
to the chest.
Another shadow rushes Shiva, but she blocks its blows, ducks a strike and lands a counter punch, before she follows through with a jumping spinkick that turns it into vapour.
With his clones defeated, Fox decided to engage Shiva with a flying kick, but she evades it, blocks several more blows from Fox and catches him on the chin with a palm strike.
Fox comes in again with a right hook. Shiva once again blocks the blow
and several more that follow, landing a jump kick that catches Fox in the chest and staggers him backwards. Fox takes a moment to get back into a fighting stance, and Shiva follows suit.
Fox tries landing a strike to the kidney this time, but Shiva intercepts it. Again, Shiva fends off multiple punches from Fox before
grabbing his leg off a failed kick, sweeping the other out from under him, he was sent crashing to the ground, but Fox was able to use his fall to roll back to his feet.
Just then, a loud rumbling occurs from above, and pieces of rock fall from the ceiling. Seeing this, Shiva, Fox and Cass were forced to evade the falling debris, why simultaneously rushing out the cave…
Meanwhile, on the surface, the fight between Scorpion and Grundy had left destruction in it's wake, as a good portion of Leagues lair was either on fire, or completely obliterated.
From the sky, the Batjet can be seen flying towards the decimated League Lair, with it's residents, being Batman and Talia, who were both taking in the destruction
"This is bad." Batman said, as he saw Grundy crash into Scorpion; the shockwave from the impact knocking the Batjet off course.
"What did your father do and why is Grundy here?" Batman asked, but before Talia could answer, a burst of Hellfire caught their attention, as Scorpion sprinted towards Grundy, before bashing the Zombie in the jaw with a fire enhanced punch. Grundy was able to stand straight on his feet but Scorpion pressed his advance.
He landed hard blows to Grundy's face and chest, including a third shot to the jaw and one to the shoulder and another to the chest, with each blow coming faster and faster.
Grundy recovered and tried to throw a wild right cross followed by a left strike, but Scorpion weaved in between each move and responded with a quick double kick. Then he spun his entire body around, with his fist outstretched, and cracked Grundy in the face again. Grundy went down with his face planting the ground.
"Grandmaster!" Halting his assault, Scorpion turned to face Fox, who was being accompanied by a girl
"Fox, who is this?" Scorpion asked
"Cassandra Cain Grandmaster." Fox said. "With your permission I would like for her to join our clan."
Before Scorpion can answer, Grundy suddenly shouted in anger before charging straight forward toward Scorpion. This time, the Zombie managed to tackle Scorpion down to the ground where they landed hard. Pinning Scorpion hands to the ground, Grundy landed an assault of straight punches to the Spectre's face.
Scorpion felt every punch, each one feeling as if it was close to knocking him out. He managed to get his free hand up to block a blow, and Grundy tried to force down the oncoming hit. This allowed Scorpion to free his other hand, before swinging his fist it into Grundy's head.
The hit sent Grundy to the ground but he was instantly right back on his feet. So was Scorpion as he charged forward. Grundy tried to land a wild swing of his right hand but Scorpion ducked under it and retaliated with a high kick. Scorpion pressed his attack and landed a hard haymaker, followed by a reversed swing across Grundy's face and finishing with a brutal thrust into the chest, knocking Grundy to the ground.
Grundy was back up but Scorpion was on him immediately, but Grundy threw a completely inaccurate punch. Scorpion quickly ducked under the swing and hit Grundy in the jaw, staggering the Zombie and pushing him back.
Scorpion pressed his advantage and landed strike after strike with Hellfire coated punches to every conceivable body part on Grundy. Grundy tried to fight back but Scorpion only continued his relentless assault with more and more blows. He struck the face and the jawline, the shoulders and the chests, the thighs and the leg and pretty much anything that was part of the Zombie.
Grundy tried once more to strike back but his attacks missed their mark, while Scorpion continued to administer more punishment. Grundy was left dazed and beaten and yet he was still standing.
Seeing this, Scorpion delivered a devastating uppercut, directly on Grundy's face, hard enough to lift him off the ground.
Grundy crashed back into the ground with a heavy thud and there he lay unmoving but alive. Scorpion was about to finish him when suddenly, Grundy was teleported away by Morgan. Turning to face the Sorceress, Scorpion was about to face her, but she instantly teleported herself and the remaining living Legion members away.
"Scorpion." Batman called, as he approached the Spectre, with Talia by his side.
"You." Scorpion growled, as he saw Talia.
"That's enough Scorpion." Batman said, stepping between them. "You've done enough damage as it is."
"Step aside Batman." Scorpion said
"Grandmaster." Fox called, as he approached them. "Forgive me for not informing you earlier, but League of Assassin warriors have breached our home."
If glares could kill someone, Batman was sure Talia would have died multiple times by now, especially with the way Scorpion was glaring bloody murder at her. Batman honestly didn't know how he would defend Talia right now, but he had to try to at least, get Scorpion off her back.
"You should go to your clan." Batman said. "I'll stay here to deal with Talia, but later, we're going to talk about you killing Ra."
Rolling his eyes at Batman's statement, Scorpion turned to face Fox and Cassandra, with the later wearily eying the Spectre, but a reassuring nod from Fox did away with her worry. With Fox and Cass ready, Scorpion then teleported the group away.
Shirai Ryu Temple
Appearing in a burst of fire, Scorpion, Fox and Cass are greeted with the sight of multiple injured Shirai Ryu Ninjas, all of which are currently receiving treatment from the clans medical Ninja's. While Scorpion is still observing his clansmen, he comes across two medical nin's carrying a bodybag on a stretcher.
On seeing this, Scorpion balls his fist in anger, already having deduced it was a dead clansman being carried away.
Turning to his left, Scorpion starts walking towards Jason, who is sitting on a bench, as he is being healed by Raven. In front of them, Madam Bo is patching up a young Shirai Ryu's arm.
"Did the League do this?" Scorpion asked, on reaching them
"Not entirely." Bo said, while dismissing the Ninja she was treating. "We didn't really have much trouble with the League. But we did encounter an unexpected foe."
"Who?" Fox asked
"Slade Wilson." Bo said
"I thought the League and Slade were enemies?" Scorpion asked
"Apparently, he was paid by the League to help them." Raven said, after completely healing Jason
"Worse part of it, he wasn't even here." Jason said
"What do you mean he wasn't here?" Fox asked
"He sent a robot to do his dirty work." Raven said. "That was why he was able to get the drop on us."
"I should have been here." Scorpion said
"It's not your fault." Bo assured him
"She's right." Raven said. "If anything, I should have been better."
"You're still learning." Scorpion said
"He still damaged my pride." Raven said
"A damaged pride is still better than losing your life." Scorpion said. "Regardless, Slade will pay for attacking our home."
Nodding, Raven then took notice of Cass. "So, who's the new recruit?" She asked
"Good question." Jason said. "Kinda noticed she's way quieter than Raven."
"Todd!"
"Her name is Cassandra Cain." Fox said, cutting Raven off. "I found her locked up under the Leagues headquarters."
"Cassandra Cain." Bo said thoughtfully, before remembering something. "Of course. She is the Daughter of David Cain and Lady Shiva, who was trained harshly in order to become Ra's body guard."
"How harsh are we talking about here?" Fox asked
"I don't know how far they went with her training, but it made her unable to speak." Bo said
"Her vocal cords seem okay, from what I can sense." Raven said
"Inability to speak due to speech deprivation." Scorpion deduced
"Correct." Bo said
"That's, harsh." Jason said
"You don't have to worry child." Bo said, while placing her hand on Cass shoulder. "This is your home now."
"Indeed." Scorpion said, before facing Fox "Fox, you will be tasked with teaching how to communicate and also protecting her."
"I will not fail you, Grandmaster." He bowed
"In the meantime, I will aid the medical team in tending to our injured before heading to Gotham." Scorpion said
Gotham City, Random Rooftop
"You crossed the line today Scorpion." Batman said, not long after Scorpion's arrival
"Ra's al Ghul had it coming." Scorpion said
"We don't kill." Batman said. "Even if said individual is a Villain."
"You forget I'm not a hero Batman." Scorpion said. "Besides, he had to die for attacking and killing my clansmen."
"We aren't gods Scorpion." Batman argued. "We don't decide who lives or die."
"If we were gods then?"
"What?" Batman asked
"If we were gods." Scorpion repeated. "Would it be okay to kill."
After a breaf silence Batman answered. "No."
Scorpion scoffed at his reply. "I thought as much. So tell me Batman, why isn't Talia being apprehended? Is it because she is the mother of your child?"
"How-"
"Can it Bruce." Scorpion said, deciding to use his real name. "I have actually met gods Bruce, including beings responsible for the creation of the universe. Believe me when I say this, they do not care who lives or die. To them, we're nothing but pawns to be used, before casting us aside once we've outlived our usefulness."
After a long silence, Scorpion spoke again. "Did you get any information on Slade?"
"No." Batman said, a little grateful Scorpion changed their topic. "The only thing I can tell you is that he's a regular foe to the Teen Titans."
"Those Teenagers in Jump city?" Scorpion asked
"Yes." Batman said. "Is there any other thing you need?"
"Warn Talia to keep her League away from my clan." Scorpion said, before teleporting away towards another building
"That went better than I expected." Raven said, while appearing beside Scorpion. "So, we're going with plan B right?"
"I still have misgivings on sending you to the Titans." Scorpion said
"I'll be fine." Raven reassured him. "Joining them will help us track Slade faster. Plus, a little change in scenery isn't that bad."
"Here." Scorpion said, as he handed Raven a Kunai. "Place your intent on it whenever you need me, and I'll be there by your side."
"Thank you, Father." Raven said, before hugging him. "Also try keeping Jason out of trouble." She added, causing Scorpion to chuckle.