AN: I don't own DC/Young Justice, The Darkness, Witchblade, or anything
Chapter Four: "Criminal Underbelly"
A Month Later
The renamed Estacado Family went about their renewed business under their new boss, Jason Estacado, formerly Jason Todd.
They were dealing with the legal business rather well, while Jason went about dealing with the other crime families and criminals in New York City.
They had gotten the prostitutes off the streets and into actual jobs, from waitresses to nurses and other things they could do, especially since some of them actually had college education before they got screwed over and left broken as hookers, but were now on the mend with the family's assistance.
Jason was just finishing up cleaning out an unnamed gang from an underground restaurant.
"Jesus fuck", Jason sighs as he changes from the armor back to a black and red three-piece suit, "With the new Hall of Justice on Justice Island being constructed opposite the United Nations building, you'd figure that there wouldn't be so many criminals in New York anymore, but no, you still have jackasses all over this city", approaching and entering his black 1969 Mustang to leave back for the penthouse.
In A Hidden Base Within New York
"Sir", a goon greets a heavyset man, "A man... or monster... He did knocked our boys off the census".
"Away", the man tells the goon, "I require no insight. My City. All Cities. Know all. See all. Ultimately... Punish all", as he sees Jason killing his men within his coffee as he drinks
Morning, Estacado Penthouse
Jason awakens to a knock at his bedroom door.
"Coming", Jason calls out as he walks over in his black silk pajamas. He heads over and opens the door, "What is it, Vinnie?"
"Heya, boss", Vinnie greets, "We have a man here that wants to meet with ya. We have him downstairs with the boys watching him".
Jason was curious who would be here to see him, no one but Talia even knows he's here.
"Alright, I'l be down in a minute", Jason tells him.
Vinnie nods and heads downstairs to help keep an eye on the man while Jason changed showered and changed into his clothes for the day.
After showering, Jason got dressed in a custom suit. Black pants, with purple dress shirt, grey suit vest, and a knee length black suit jacket with red lining on the inside of the jacket. He also wore black leather sneakers for both style and comfort, from fancy parties to run bitch run without hurting his feet. though the Darkness would heal that.
After dressing, he then heads down stairs and has Vinnie usher the man into the office with him and Jimmy.
Jason sat at his desk with Jimmy by his side, when Vinnie walks in with a middle-age man with a receding hairline in with a brown trenchcoat over a blue dress shirt and grey pants.
"Greetings", the man says to Jason, "On behalf of my employer, thank you for meeting on such short notice".
'There's something about this guy I don't like', Jason thinks, 'I already want to shoot him'
[ThEn Do It, Darkness tells him.
'Later. If he has shit to say', Jason thinks.
"You're probably curious about the identity of my employer", the man says with a smile.
"I'm assuming some kind of criminal", Vinnie remarks.
"The criminal-i-est", the man says.
"Your boss is.. Lex Luthor?", Jimmy asks.
"Nope", the man says.
"The Joker", Jason suggests, wanting an excuse to kill this guy.
"No", the man denies.
"Who is more criminal than the Joker?", Vinnie asks, "Um... Sinestro?".
"No, he's from this world".
"Ra's al Ghul?", Jason asks the man, wondering if the senile old Demon's Head was coming for him.
"Did you make that up? No", the man asks in confusion before denying him.
"Roman Sionis?", Jimmy asks, getting tired of the guessing game.
"Black Mask? No", the man says.
"Mrs. Lex Luthor?", Vinnie asks.
"Now you're not even trying", the man remarks at Vinnie.
"Two-Face?", Jason asks, his hand inching to his now favored guns that once belonged to his father, Jackie.
"No and no", the man double denies in as a play on Two-Face liking twos.
"Just say it before i kick your teeth in", Jason threatens him.
"Fine! I am working for none other than the criminal mastermind know as... Underbelly", the man says in excitement with an almost joker-esque smile, only to receive everyone else tilting their heads to the side in confusion, "I'll write the address down for you to meet, can't eave a digital trail, y'see. He wants to meet ya this evening at 7pm", he writes it down and goes to leave.
After he turns to leave, Jason signals Vinnie to keep an eye on the guy for now, who nods in confirmation and escorts the man out.
Jimmy looks to Jason, "Do you think you should meet with this... Underbelly?", he asks the young man.
Jason sighs, "It's best to deal with this now. If he's really the worst criminal, best to get rid of him before he actually gets popular", and goes to get something to eat, "Keep the boys away just in case it goes south".
Jimmy nods, more than trusting Jason to handle himself if things get ugly.
Later That Evening
Jason arrives at an abandoned manor in Astoria in Queens.
"Man, what a rat hole", Jason remarks at the state of the building, "Does he spend more on the interior?", he steps inside, "He does not", as he notes that it was in a disarray.
"Mister Estacado. Welcome", a gravilly voice greets him.
"Great, nice to meet you", Jason says in a short manner.
"Enough formality", the heavyset man says with the man you sent him standing next to him, "Let me introduce myself. I am... Underbelly. Or we can keep it simple. You can call me "Boss"", he smiles in a sickening manner, "Deal with this. I'm unhappy".
He wore only black suit pants and black shows, showing off his top half which looked like slop. His skin was all grey and bubbly. his body looked like a misshapen blob and he looked to have several more mouths from his massive hums along his now neck having head.
"Yeeeaahhh... I don't work for just anyone... let alone my boys", Jason says, already planning to kill this guy, "Let's start with what the hell you are and what you want".
"I am a thought made man", Underbelly smiles in a disgusting manner, "I am corruption that runs through every major city in th world. I am the living embodiment of greed. And sloth. Envy and murder. I don't merely siphon off the psychic energy of one criminal empire in one place at a time. I am everywhere. I am every dark deed. Every sin", he looks to Jason, "But I require individuals who would carry out my interests . I want you as my enforcer. A competent, powerful fighter who can strike feat into the hearts of my enemies. Unlike the spineless filth that works for me now", and he waves his tentacle hand forward, whipping off the man from this morning's head off.
[KiLl ThIs SoN Of A BiTcH ThAt DaRe TrIeS To ClAiM My TiTlE, the Darkness demands in anger.
Jason replied with unloading both clips of his dual Colt MK IV series 70 with black filled engravings along the barrels, Jackie's guns, now called the Estacado Guns, into Underbelly.
"Nah", Jason denies, "Me and my boys could never work for an amorphous blob creature that would murder his own assistant, nor any other criminal scumbag. I'll kill them dead".
Jason goes to leave, only for the remains of the blob to grab him up in massive hands.
"Dead? Who's dead?", Underbelly asks as he is reconstructed and threw Jason against a wall, "You weren't paying attention...", he comes close to Jason, "I can't... be killed. Any more than you can kill a thought. A sin. I am not here to be killed. I am everywhere there is crime. So let me make myself more clear: If you will not serve me... you will die!", his mouth splitting open like a snake.
Jason shoves a grenade he had into said mouth and it blew up, sending him away from the creature as the power went out in the building from the boom.
As the remains of the blob burns, Jason looks on in his Darkness Armor.
"If this guy can really everywhere, I need to find the center of his whole operation...", Jason began.
[AnD FiNiSh HiM, the Darkness finishes the thought.
"We have to go to the most vile, crime-ridden pit of despair and debauchery in the world", Jason says, "Guess I'll have to go to Gotham a little early".
Next Night, Gotham City
After Jason warned his crime family about the danger. Vinnie had him take the Mercedes Maybach Exelero, black with purple lights and interior, to Gotham while some boys take another car there just in case he needs anything.
Walking the streets of Gotham, dressed in black sneakers, dark jeans, red hoodie under a leather jacket, and fingerless gloves. HIs weapons were also on him.
He walked the streets till he came across an old building that brought back a memory.
7 Years Ago, 2013, this Building in Gotham City
One night after a mass break out from Arkham Asylum... the best of the worst gathered that night. Penguin, Two-Face, Mr Freeze, Clayface, Catwoman... and of course, The Joker
"Welcome, my fellow felonious felons. You're no doubt wondering why I called you here tonight!", Joker announces to his criminal compatriots.
"Because you're an idiot, I'm guessing", Catwoman retorts as she holds a glass of wine, gazing at the clown behind her goggles.
"Waaugh. Good one, Kitty", Penguin laughs as he drinks some scotch.
"So what does that make us for being here?", she retort.
Joker waves them off before gesturing to the table he has a foot on, "Behold, the discovery of a lifetime!", showing a green ball shaped device with red and purple segments and wires, "You see before you a device unlike any other! In an effort to "cure us", the good doctors of Arkham tried to-", only to hear the jingle of keys, "Eh?!".
They look over to the door to the room as it opens with a creak to show an overweight security guard.
"No one is supposed to be here this late", he muttered to himself before then seeing the gathered villains, "Should I come back later?", he fearfully asks.
Only to get shot trough with bullets from Joker's revolver and Penguin's trick umbrella till he was a mass of holey dead flesh.
"Or how about "not at all"!", Joker says to the corpse, "Hoo ha! Am i the only one who thought that was Batman in a disguise?"
"Um.. Yes", Freeze tells the clown.
"The only one", Clayface agreed.
"I jest", Joker waves off, "I jest because I love", he turns back to them, "Now, whoever wants to know what this little device I stole can do... open your mouth ans say "HA"!"
Which they all do.
"Why are we laughing?", Clayface remarks with a smile.
"It's him- some kind of gas", Catwoman deduces with her own smile.
"I'm so going to enjoy killing this clown!", Penguin claims as he can't stop laughing.
"Relax boys and girls!", Joker says, not smiling, "When you see what this device can do, all will e forgiven!"
"JOKER!", a voice yells out through the room
"Eh?", Joker utters before he skylight above them crashes in with glass falling as Batman and Robin enter the scene, "BATMAN!", Joker yells out at the sight of his nemesis, "And the wee one", he grumbles as he adds on Robin.
It was Jason's Robin, "forgot my name again? It's Robin, scumbag", Robin 2 growls, "Maybe I need to carve i in your forehead with a batarang"
Batman dealt with the Joker while Robin 2 kicked the freeze-gun away from Mister Freeze before then taking down Penguin.
He looked to see the body of the guard that was killed, his body had this green and red energies smoking from it. A poor guy was dead on the floor. Someone's dad? Definitely a son. A husband that wouldn't make it home in the morning? He was killed. In the blink of an eye with laughter.
Such pure unadulterated evil
In The Present of 2020
"My gut says it's here", Jason remarks as he gazes upon the building before him.
He walks enters the building in a roundabout way.
"It is certainly entertaining", Underbelly comments as Jason enters the ruined building, It would be so much better if you were under my employ, but now I'll just kill you".
Jason opens fire with his pistols as Underbelly takes it.
"Maye you made the mistake of assuming I was that poor soul that was killed here at the hands of the Joker long ago. But you see, the device Joker had stolen then and lost in the battle was a psychic syphon. An experiment used to lobotomize the evil from inmates' minds. The device was breached in the battle and the psychic energy was released. I was released. Joker made me without realizing. I am Arkham's most evil, embodied in the remains of an innocent. I became every wicked thought this town ever had. I was Gotham's darkest shadow made flesh. I am a singularity. I am... Underbelly", the blob man rants.
Jason puts the guns away, "Your wrong about being evil personified...", Jason takes on his Darkness Armor, "We are!", an launches forward at the monster.
"What?!", Underbelly cries out as Jason tears off a pound of flesh and he couldn't regenerate.
"Come on out, boys!", Jason calls out and these little hairless dark gremlins crawl out from the shadows, Darklings, "It's feeding time!", and the horde of flesh eating munchkins rush the big blob of a man.
"No! Get off me!", Underbelly cries out as he swipes away at the Darklings.
"Eat eat eat!", the darklings all cry out as they attack the monster man.
Underbelly goes to run but Jason lands on him.
"You're going nowhere!", Jason says, digging his clawed fingers into Underbelly's flesh.
He was then subjected to a hive mind of Underbelly, seeing him in every major city, from coast to coast and all over the world, where crime and evil dwelled. He then used the power of Darkness to attack them all from within, every body and thought of Underbelly throughout the world.
"No! NO!", Underbelly cries as his form begins to deteriorate.
The darklings feast on what remains as the Darkness Armored Jason gazes coldly upon the sight.
Jason exits the building and onto the rooftops of Gotham City. He gazes from Wayne Tower to Arkham Island. His fist clench in a thought of breaking in and killing Joker before calming down.
Jason needs to complete his work with the Estacado Family in New York City, then he'll come for Gotham.
[We'Ll GuT That ClOwN], the Darkness grumbles to Jason.
In New York City, Abandoned Theater
Sara Pezzini followed a lead to a showing of illegal artifacts in search for Kenneth Irons, the man she believes killed her father and had just killed her partner on NYPD, Michael Yee.
One of the items was a gauntlet of some kind, warped and other worldly in appearance. In the gun fight, it had fallen from its display and landed beside a wounded Sara before it began to crawl itself to her and bonds with her right hand. An armor forms around her body, tearing off her clothes, unlike Jason's Darkness Armor, while also showing off far more skin save her private parts and nips, along with covering most of her arms and legs. It was mostly a dark metallic grey in color save some gold accents and red jewels on the right gauntlet.
She then proceeded to kill all the men around her as Irons and Ian Nottingham escape from the area, for now. Dead men fell to fire and bladed whips from the gauntlet.
After the fresh massacre, the armor and gauntlet become a small bracelet with a unique design and a red jewel in the center on her right wrist.
She passes out beside the body of her partner, unaware of the powerful item she has acquired...
The Witchblade
Chapter End
AN: Back here again. I based this chapter on the Underbelly arc from Red Hood Arsenal comic series, along with the og origin of Witchblade
Speaking of, I went with the og instead of the new rebooted origin of Witchblade from this year because it's more iconic, including the armor design (though the armor may change throughout the story)
The bracelet is based on the anime variant of the Witchblade bracelet because its more consistent in design, and look better than the live action show's version in my opinion.