Renegade easily managed to sneak into the top floor of the building where his victim lived: a corrupt former politician.
It should be a simple contract and easy money but actually Dick had a strange feeling starting right from his client whose identity seemed too precise. He began to think he had become too paranoid but still maintained his suspicions, knowing that his instincts were never wrong.
Regardless, the acrobat easily forced open the door handle and quietly entered the apartment, closing the door behind him. He looked around as he silently advanced, mentally taking note of how the house was a bit too bare for his taste, especially for what must have been the home of a corrupt and greedy former politician for power and money.
He reached the kitchen and saw that his victim was staring at the inside of the refrigerator and decided to make his presence known. "You stepped on the wrong feet in the course of your lousy political career, pal."
The Talon watched as the man in front of him gasped and as his head snapped in his direction, watching him with frightened eyes. "R-Renegade?"
A frown materialized in the features of the assassin who noticed several things: first, the former politician's gasp that seemed to him like a robotic and automatic movement and therefore inauthentic. This rang alarm bells for him since, as Slade liked to remind him, he was one of the best in the world at reading body movements that could tell him virtually anything.
The second thing the 17-year-old quickly noticed was that the man's heart had not begun to beat faster but had remained constant. The heartbeats of his victims always increased dramatically as soon as they saw him since they were terrified of him and knew that they were going to die, so the fact that their hearts seemed to be coming out of their ribcages was the symbol of their fear and terror of him.
The heartbeat was the best evidence of a person's state of fear and terror and it never lied.
But this man's heart remained constant and had not increased at all and this was an indication that he was not terrified of Renegade, although he tried to appear frightened by simulating terror in his gaze.
If Dick heard alarm bells before, now he could clearly feel his instincts screaming TRAP! TRAP! in every fiber of his being and his muscles automatically stiffened. He ignored the man's words that expressed false fear and his gaze shifted to his left, noticing that there was a window.
Immediately all the pieces of the puzzle snapped into place in the head of the mercenary who mentally cursed.
Fucking heroes!
Renegade sprang forward and nailed the false man to the wall forcefully while simultaneously with his other hand he quickly pulled out a lighter. Without wasting even a second he lit the fire on the fake clothes and fake hair and an excruciating scream of pain resounded throughout the house.
The assassin watched impassively as the fake man deformed and lost all traces of his humanity to assume a green skin and more deformed form, thus exposing the figure of Martian Manhunter. With a snarl he violently struck the Martian with a pair of punches in the middle of his face, feeling with satisfaction the alien's face crack with crunches under his fists, and then broke both of his arms in less than a second to prevent the Martian from putting out the fire, and subsequently the young man abruptly threw him to the ground.
Martian Manhunter's screams of pain from the fire that was still burning him were music to the acrobat's ears. "I hate being fooled." he growled annoyed.
Renegade threw himself to the side just in time to avoid impact with the blur that shattered the window into a thousand pieces but he did not even have time to blink when he was caught by the throat and slammed painfully with his back against the wall that shook on impact. "You're done, Renegade." Superman solemnly affirmed.
The hand of Deathstroke's former apprentice had quickly snapped along one of the holsters as he was already being lifted up by the Man of Steel, and Superman barely finished the sentence that a shot resounded sonorously throughout the building. The hero released his grip on the young man and staggered backward wounded, bringing a hand to the bleeding hole present on his right side and began coughing violently blood as the pain began to tear through him from within.
Renegade turned with a 360-degree roundhouse kick that brutally struck the bleeding side of Superman who with an excruciating scream of pain was sent backward, smashing through a wall. Renegade backed away from the now broken window since he was easily spotted from wherever the other heroes were and stowed his gun with kryptonite bullets while from his utility belt he grabbed some marbles, throwing them behind him.
The meta-human turned around and barely managed to catch a glimpse of a red and yellow blur entering the house and darting off only to be abruptly interrupted when Flash's run made contact with the marbles. This caused the speedster to stumble over his own steps, and because of his immense speed he ended up flying over Renegade's head and crashing painfully into the wall with such impact that he broke through even that wall and caused the building to shake again.
The mercenary laughed as he sprinted in the direction of the speedster on the ground, ignoring the chunks of wall and the dust that had risen. With smooth, expert moves he broke both of the legs of Flash, who emitted chilling screams of pain after sounds of broken bones resounded with crunches.
"That's for drugging me last time." Renegade growled, hitting the man with a kick to the temple that put him out of the game.
The mercenary picked up on something with his enhanced hearing and looked up sharply just in time to see Green Lantern Hal Jordan burst through the ceiling of the house and point his shining ring menacingly at him. He threw himself to the side dodging the anvil that the man materialized and used the wall as a springboard to soar toward the hero in question.
Green Lantern created a protective barrier around himself but that was what Renegade hoped for: in fact he jumped over the barrier and soared through the air, firing the grappling hook toward the ceiling ledge that miraculously resisted.
"Hey-where the hell are you going?"
The assassin chuckled at Hal's expletives as he landed on what was left of the roof previously smashed in by the hero in green, stowing the grappling hook in his utility belt as he sprinted away making a huge leap onto the roof of the nearby dwelling.
He turned and ducked sharply, narrowly dodging a long green hand that brushed against his hair. He stopped his run and threw an arrogant smirk in Green Lantern's direction. "You of all people will never be able to catch me, dude!" he taunted him, aiming to pummel the man's pride and ego.
He knew he had hit the mark when Hal growled. "You little shit!"
Renegade kept his gaze fixed on Green Lantern, who began darting toward him, and his left hand snapped sideways, catching a green arrow in midair and the next millisecond he threw it with all his strength at the sender without ever taking his eyes off Jordan, smiling internally when he heard Green Arrow's scream of pain.
The Talon waited until the last moment before ducking under the construct created by Green Lantern and rolling under the man's legs. Hal turned sharply and froze as he felt his hero disguise disappear. He stared at himself, shocked that he had lost his Green Lantern disguise that had now been replaced by his civilian clothes, and shifted his gaze to the assassin, his shock increasing further when he saw that he was holding his ring in his hand with a shit-eating grin.
"Looking for this?" Renegade mockingly raised the ring and laughed with his typical eerie chuckle that sent shivers of fear down the hero's spine. "Don't worry: I'll give it back once I kick all your asses again."
Hal did not even have time to open his mouth that the youngest hit him with a vicious punch to the face, sending him straight into unconsciousness.
Renegade stowed the Green Lantern ring in his utility belt and turned toward Green Arrow, smiling when he saw the man attempt to pull the arrow from his right shoulder. He jumped toward the same rooftop where the Star City vigilante was standing but managed to take only a few steps when suddenly he brought his hands over his ears because of the damned canary cry and winced slightly.
The acrobat looked up and saw that in the sky was Zatanna levitating in midair with Black Canary at her side, the blonde above a magical structure created by the sorceress. He wasted no time and threw two shurikens toward the women, then ducked quickly to avoid Green Arrow's left hook and retaliated with a brutal elbow that struck the archer hard in the temple, causing him to spit blood and fall unconscious.
Renegade returned his gaze to the sky and watched as Zatanna created a magical barrier to protect her and the blonde. Unfortunately for them, the shurikens were not deflected by the barrier but stuck on it and began to flash. The next second they exploded and created a blinding white light that forced the sorceress to lose her grip on the protective magical barrier, both women screaming in surprise and pain.
In the meantime, the mercenary had already drawn a gun loaded with tranquilizers and fired two shots in the direction of the women who were more than a thirty meters in the air from where he was standing, watching as the tranquilizers hit both Zatanna and Black Canary in their necks with more than accurate and perfect aim.
The two women began to fall some 30 meters into the air. Renegade, having anticipated this, had already started darting with his superhuman speed and leaping from rooftop to rooftop to break their fall but stopped when he saw Hawkgirl catch them on the fly, much to the relief of the 17-year-old.
Renegade stiffened and turned sharply, blocking the trident of Aquaman, who had leapt toward him, thanks to the spikes of his left arm. Taking advantage of the defenses left uncovered by the King of Atlantis, the mercenary hit him with a vicious punch to the stomach, feeling his ribs give way under his superhuman strength, and Aquaman automatically doubled over spitting blood.
The mercenary grabbed the Atlantean's head and crashed it violently to his knee, briefly enjoying the sound of broken cartilage, and the next millisecond hit Aquaman with a kick to the throat, forcing him to fall to his knees spitting more blood.
The assassin sensed something darting toward him and moved instinctively: with a speed that would have made the Flash proud, he grabbed Aquaman and put him to his side, using him as a shield. The 17-year-old grimaced in comprehension as Hawkman's mace thrust violently into the right side of the King of Atlantis, who emitted a choked scream of pain.
"Sorry, man."
Renegade took advantage of Hawkman's moment of shock that he was horrified that he had just hit one of his teammates with his mace, albeit unintentionally, and in a few moves brutally knocked him down: first he punched him in the throat -moderating his strength considerably, of course: he didn't want to kill him by mistake- forcing Carter to fall to his knees with choking noises, then he hit him with a vicious punch to the face and then grabbed his head and crashed it several times on the roof, creating a considerable dent in the ground.
The acrobat let go of the Thanagarian whose body sagged to the ground and cast a glance at Aquaman who fell unconscious backwards to the ground, the mace still lodged at his side.
I'll have to give them all a good medication job.
Without ever looking back Renegade's right hand snapped behind his head, catching a batarang on the fly and breaking it easily before it exploded. He turned and threw a smirk in the direction of Batman who stood several rooftops away from him. "Did you really think you were going to hit me with that?"
"No. But she did."
Renegade stiffened and turned sharply but was struck by a violent mace blow to the face by Hawkgirl. He twisted his back in the air backwards to do a backward somersault in midair and landed crouched on another rooftop, absentmindedly wiping away the blood that began to gush from his broken nose. He turned his body so that he had a good view of both Hawkgirl and Batman but his attention quickly shifted to the Thanagarian when he saw her speeding toward him.
The Talon blocked her mace with his spikes and barely had time to hit her with a right hook to the face when a massive weight crashed into him on his back knocking him off the roof.
While they were falling some twenty meters Batman, who was practically glued to the antihero's back, painfully twisted both of Renegade's arms behind his back and the mercenary could do nothing but violently hit the various ledges of the building with his head, his vision becoming increasingly blurred.
A few seconds later Renegade crashed violently to the ground and an involuntary grunt escaped from his lips, due to both the fall from more than twenty meters and his head crashing hard into the concrete of the alley and Batman's body, weighed down by all his armor, colliding hard against his back.
Renegade's vision became further blurred and he felt the air abruptly expelled from his lungs. He had time to think that yes, that was going to be a bad concussion -which fortunately did not generally last too long thanks to his healing factor but damn if they were still annoying!- when suddenly he was spun around, resulting in a batarang being pointed menacingly at his throat as Batman exerted his full weight on the body of Deathstroke's former apprentice.
"You won't get away this time, Renegade." he snarled, the batarang barely slicing the assassin's throat from which droplets of dark blood began to spill.
"You know, the stars I see because of the concussion you kindly provided do not suit you at all, Batman."
With an exceptional display of flexibility that had everything to do with his natural acrobatic skills, Renegade wrapped his legs around the Dark Knight's neck and slammed his head violently into the ground, surely giving him a nasty concussion.
The mercenary got back up by soaring through the air in a mid-air somersault and landed with a brutal elbow to the stomach of the Gotham vigilante, who automatically raised his head in the air, spitting blood, and the younger man hit him with another hard elbow directly to the jaw.
And Batman is out of the picture too. The acrobat thought as he watched the aforementioned hero fall to the ground and then never move again. Serves you right, Bruce. I know that the Justice League attack was engineered by you in every single detail.
Renegade turned sharply just in time to block Hawkgirl's attack from above with spikes and, without missing a second, he simultaneously hit her with a vicious punch to the stomach and a lethal kick to her left leg, just below the knee. The Thanagarian fell to her knees on the ground spitting blood and Renegade quickly grabbed his escrima and connected them on her stomach.
A high intensity of electric current ran through every fiber in Hawkgirl's body as she let out a small, choked scream. The pain seemed eternal to her but in reality it must have been only a few seconds as her vision darkened and she fell directly into the world of unconsciousness.
The mercenary stowed his trusty escrima at his waist when he stiffened and turned sharply.
Only to be grabbed as if he were a rag doll by a massive red blur.
"Where did you think you were going?" Shazam asked as he stared with a frown at the assassin, easily blocking his arms by his divine strength.
How many fucking heroes are involved in Batman's plan to capture me? Has he seriously involved the entire fucking Justice League just for me? Geez, should I feel honored or offended?
"You know, you should tell your teammates that you're really just a kid."
Shazam's eyes went wide in shock. "H-How do you know that?"
Shazam's shock caused his grip on the mercenary, otherwise impossible to break or escape because of the immense greater force, to loosen just enough for him to slip his hand into his utility belt and pull out a tranquilizer and then quickly thrust it into the superhero's neck.
"Good night, buddy."
Renegade barely registered the figure of Shazam falling to the ground when he was forced to throw himself to the side to dodge a magical attack. With a flat gaze he watched as Dr. Fate himself levitated menacingly toward him.
Are you fucking kidding me? How the hell am I supposed to beat the fucking Dr. Fate?