A/N: Set three years after Red Chapter 7.
She felt another syringe near her neck and Emma Stewart descended into a full-blown panic attack.
"No! Don't! Stop Grant!" Emma struggled and thrashed in her restraints, heart racing and pure terror on her face. An overpowering feeling of adrenaline filled her. Her voice was strained from screaming.
"Aw you don't like this?" Ravager held the syringe in front of her face. "You already had a full dose of Crane's fear toxin. What's another dose?"
This wasn't real, wasn't happening...
A deranged laugh filled the air, terrifying Emma even more. Ravager thrusted the syringe into her neck and injected her, causing her to scream.
"Watching you squirm, plead, and scream is very en-ter-tain-ing, Red," the blond hummed, a twisted smile stretching across his face.
Emma just continued to struggle fruitlessly, but then, her muscles all suddenly relaxed and her sensory organs went numb all around her body.
No one's going to save me, she realized. I'm going to die.
"Seems like you're finally accepting your fate, huh?" Ravager snorted as he looked on with a sadistic smile. "You're hopeless."
Emma dissolved into soft crying. She bit her lip so forcefully that it tore open and began to bleed; the copper taste filled her mouth. Her whole face was red from crying and her throat raw from screaming for the past two hours.
"Don't...please," she whispered, completely defeated and shaking.
"Oh the fun is only starting," he stated darkly.
She just quietly whispered, "Why?"
Ravager tilted his head back as a deep and amused bellowing laugh sounded from him. "Because life isn't fair Red," His eyes hardened as he drew his fist back.
Pain was the first thing that registered. Her head. Her back. Her body. Everything hurt. She grimaced and when she opened her eyes everything was blurred. She blinked several times, hoping to clear her vision. It didn't help much. She was still seeing double as her head throbbed.
I gotta get out of here. I have to stand, she thought. Several minutes later she tried to slowly get to her knees but wished she hadn't when the pain in her back flared and almost forced her back into unconsciousness. Groaning, she fought the darkness but when she tried to move her arms, she realized that her hands were bound behind her.
"Dammit," she muttered, closing her eyes, and laying her forehead back against the floor. She remembered the shot she had heard before she went unconscious and knew that was what was causing the pain in her back. Eventually, she was able to sit up and lean against the wall. Several minutes passed before the spinning stopped and the nauseous feeling left. She swallowed and then chanced opening her eyes once again.
She was in an old abandoned warehouse. She looked down and saw the blood still coming out of the small bullet hole in her back. The bullet was still lodged inside of her. She looked over to see Ravager sleeping on an old, rusted folding chair.
"Wonderful," she rolled her eyes. "I either bleed to death or get beaten to death. Great choices. Alright come on Emma, get your ass off the floor," she muttered, trying to gather the strength to move again.
She blew out a deep breath and pulled her legs up underneath her. Leaning her back against the wall and pushing with her hands, she slowly got to her feet, holding back any cries of pain as she moved.
As soon as she was on her feet she immediately felt a hand on her throat and her body being forcefully shoved against the wall.
"Did I say you could get up?" Ravager asked her. "Were you trying to leave?" He then dropped her to the floor. "Don't worry Red, I don't want you to die too fast. Now stay still," he knelt on her back, causing her to shout in pain. He removed a pair of long, metal tweezers from his utility belt.
Saying nothing more, he shoved the tweezers into the hole in Emma's back and started feeling around. Emma screamed and jerked, trying to move away, while Ravager easily held her still. After a full minute, he stopped. "Ah, there we are." He slowly pulled the tweezers from Emma's back, the ends clutching a deformed piece of metal. He dropped the spent bullet into his hand and held it in front of Emma's line of vision.
"This will make a nice memento of this historic day," he pocketed the bullet before pulling out a lighter. "Now, we should stop that bleeding."
Emma's eyes widened as she watched him pull a coin out of his pocket next and held it over the flame of the lighter, "Grant please don't."
"I'm going to need you to hold still again," he shoved her head down as he pressed the red hot coin against the bullet hole.
Emma screamed in pain, "Grant stop!"
Ravager then pulled her off the floor and dragged her over to the folding chair and threw her into it. "Well, Red, you must be the unluckiest person on the planet. We're going to have so much fun. This was just the beginning."
Emma grunted as the fist slammed into her stomach, the blow sucking the breath out of her. Before she could even double over from the pain, another fist slammed into the bottom on her jaw, smashing her head against the back of the chair. Her vision blurred and she silently hoped that she would just pass out.
"Seems like that hurt. Did it hurt?" When Emma didn't reply, Ravager frowned. "I asked you a question. I expect an answer."
"Screw you," she mumbled. Her head jerked to the side when his fist connected with her right cheek.
"Still got some sass in you," he chuckled. "That was always one of the things I loved about you."
"Just kill me already," she muttered.
"Oh no Red, I'm not quite done with you yet. You are far from being dead but don't worry we'll get there eventually."
"...ill you..." she incoherently mumbled.
"What was that?"
"If you kill me then she'll kill you," she quietly said as she glared at him. "My mother...she'll find you...she'll kill you."
Ravager began to laugh, "You think your mommy knows where you're at? No one knows where you are. You made sure of that. If you were dead, people wouldn't even miss you. They wouldn't even notice you were gone."
And the worst part was that Emma knew he was right.
A single crimson ring flew through the void of space. It had a purpose, given to it by its master Atrocitus. It was programmed to seek out a suitable host in order to wreak righteous vengeance upon the galaxy.
It was an advanced power ring similar to those crafted by the Oans but very much different in terms of power and intent. Like an Oan power ring it was one of the most advanced weapons in the galaxy yet not truly sentient as it was fueled by black magic that helped forge it. Suddenly the ring detected a great source of anger and rage.
According to the ring's scans the creature below did not fit just one species recorded in the database. That was hardly a problem as the ring's backup programs reclassified the unknown species as a Human-Thanagarian hybrid of Sector 2814. The ring immediately altered its course and headed to the source of the rage in Gotham City on the planet of Earth.