Renegade grabbed the woman in front of him by the neck and easily let her dangle half a meter from the ground, enjoying her strangled sounds and terrified, panicked eyes. "Justice for Andrew, bitch."
Recognition flashed in her eyes and soon after the Talon fatally snapped her neck. He contemptuously threw her corpse on the ground, took a photo of her lifeless body with his work cell phone and sent it to his client.
In this case he had been hired by a mother who desperately wanted justice and revenge for the death of her 20-year-old son Andrew who died in a car accident last year.
Or at least it would have been a car accident if his current victim, Hannah, hadn't had a blood alcohol level 4 points above the legal limit to the point that she hadn't stopped at the red light and had hit the poor boy without giving him priority at pedestrian crossings.
One of the many demonstrations of how sometimes the justice system may suck -not only in the US but in general throughout the world- was the fact that since her parents were influential and important people -her father was a judge and her mother a surgeon- Hannah only got by with house arrest for a few months.
Corruption sucks.
His phone rang, distracting him from his thoughts, and he noticed that he had received his $2,500 payment along with a message of profound thanks.
Dick often accepted such low wages both because he didn't lack money at all but above all because he simply wanted to provide a sort of comfort and justice for the people who needed it, as in this case.
Hell, it wasn't uncommon for him to bring contracts to terms for free. The only thing he wanted was to do good in this world with his methods and the pay was therefore something secondary to him.
Nothing more and nothing less.
He placed his work phone in one of the numerous compartments of his armor but didn't have time to do anything else when suddenly a female voice rang out clearly from outside through a megaphone.
"Surrender, Renegade! You're surrounded! Leave the house with your hands behind your head!"
The acrobat sighed, recognizing Amanda Waller's voice.
Hasn't Waller given up yet after all her failed attempts to capture me?
Dick took full advantage of his enhanced hearing and, hearing only a single heartbeat that surely belonged to the black woman, frowned in confusion.
Why would she bluff that I'm surrounded? Unless it's a trap or something and, knowing her, it probably is.
His gaze moved to the stairs that would lead to the upper floor and then also to the roof of the house.
I could get up on the roof and lose her with my superhuman speed and agility and some smoke bombs. I know that bitch, though, and I know there's sure to be some sniper out there ready to blow my brains out as soon as I step on the roof and, even if that doesn't kill me, it's fucking annoying to run around with a goddamn bullet, or worse, in my head along with any many fragments and even though I know I could make it, it's fucking annoying to pull bullets out of my head.
For a long time Dick had remembered an important detail about his last year with the Court of Owls: namely, the fact that while in the first two years with the Owls he was tortured and killed in the worst possible ways, he arrived at the third year that he was totally accustomed to the sensation of death to the point that he had become numb to it, that is, he could continue to fight even with numerous deadly and lethal wounds inflicted on his body.
In fact, it was not uncommon for him to be forced to brutally fight a dozen Talons after Cobb had stuck a knife on his throat, head, heart and so on without being given the order to be able to pull them out.
Basically, unless something out of the ordinary happened or he was fatally struck with some divine, magical, and that sort of weapon, Dick could not die at all.
Except apparently for magic because it was fucking irrational.
So the Owls, exploiting this ability/curse, brutally trained Dick so that he could continue to survive and fight even with dozens and dozens of lethal and fatal wounds on his body.
However, the thought of forcing Slade or someone else to extract any bullets, or shrapnel, from his head because otherwise his healing factor would be slowed down was not at all appealing.
So with an annoyed sigh the mercenary made the decision to go out the front door to face Waller and almost certainly her trap. He stepped outside and arched an eyebrow under his mask when he saw only Amanda Waller in the middle of the street tens of meter away from him with a megaphone in her hand.
There was literally no living soul except her: no cars or civilians walking by.
It was as if at that moment one of Portland's main streets was a fucking desert.
Alarm bells rang in the head of the acrobat, who dramatically spread his arms wide. "Aren't you getting tired of trying to capture me, Waller? After seven years of countless miserably failed attempts?"
"This time I will capture you, no matter if dead or alive!" she snarled.
The Talon narrowed the white slits of his red mask. "Eh. Something must have changed. You used to want to capture me alive. What, did your superiors get fed up with the fact that they can't control me or something and want me out of the picture?"
"I suggest you put your hands behind your head, you arrogant asshole!"
"Or what? What's your lousy plan this time?" he challenged her in a lazy, nonchalant voice. "I have better things to do than-"
"Now."
Renegade froze and his head snapped upward, opening his eyes wide when he saw at least a dozen military helicopters flying over the sky above him. The thing he heard after the noisy rumble of the helicopters were so many screams and heavy footsteps, and he brought his eyes back to his front, opening his mouth wide when he saw an unconceivable number of soldiers, marines and officers coming up from numerous directions and quickly surrounding both him and the dwelling behind him, blocking his every way out.
There were so many men and women that Dick could not even give a rough estimate of how many there actually were.
Amanda Waller stood in front of all these officers and stepped forward, sending him a cold, victorious smile. "I've rounded up many hundreds of the best military, marines, federal agents from the FBI, NCIS, CIA, DEA and other federal agencies. They are among the best shooters and they will not miss you. Surrounding us are more than twenty of the best snipers in the U.S., ready to shoot you if you move even an inch. More than ten military helicopters will keep track of your every movement with thermal technology."
"Well, they're not the best snipers in the world. That title goes to me, Deadshot and Deathstroke, you know?" the Talon remarked lazily, smiling at her indifferent and annoyed look.
Renegade looked around, meeting without a trace of fear the hundreds of pistols and rifles pointed at his figure and the expressionless faces of every soldier, marine and federal agent that formed a huge circle made up of at least 10 layers, all attached to each other and with no margin of distance from each other.
"Even you can't get away from hundreds and hundreds of the best marksmen in the entire United States, Renegade." the mercenary's gaze shifted to Waller who was staring at him with a cold, impassive smirk, her brown eyes harder than steel glinting with victory. "Surrender. You cannot escape. Otherwise you will have more holes than a Swiss cheese and go down in history as the one who was riddled with the most bullets ever."
Renegade again heard a deafening, rumbling noise from above and slowly raised his head, not very surprised when he saw a few more helicopters with the symbols of various news outlets flying overhead.
Just what I needed. I'm probably live internationally right now. That Waller bitch is just itching to brag about catching or killing me, huh?
The anti-hero remained motionless as he again pointed his indecipherable gaze at the countless weapons aimed at him, his mind traveling fast and working overtime.
How can I get out of this situation? Surrendering is not an option. I could simply try to escape and resist the thousands of bullets that will be fired at me. Bullets that hit me from the bottom of my neck down will still ricochet harmlessly off the armor and won't go through it. The real problem is the ones that will shoot me in the head.
Many hundreds among all of them will hit my head and despite my complete training and extraordinary healing factor as Talon, even I am not able to go on with hundreds of bullets in my head and would die momentarily, giving them time to catch me. Or maybe I am able to hold on anyway and I could make it. But in that case I would have to ask someone to extract hundreds, if not thousands, of pieces of bullets from my head and I would like to avoid that, thank you very much.
So running away like this is out of the options and I can't even hurt these military, marines and federal agents: it's not their fault they are being exploited by that bitch Waller and, besides, they are the heroes of this nation and I would rather behead myself than hurt a single one of them.
"Time is running out, Renegade." the Belle Reve director growled impatiently.
"Surely you cannot kill me until I move, Waller." Renegade sent her an innocent smile. "What will the whole world think if you give orders to your men to riddle with bullets a 17-year-old who hasn't moved an inch? The U.S. will lose a lot of credibility and everyone will want the head of you, your superiors and even the president since, come on, only the president can authorize the use of so many resources."
He watched in satisfaction as a flash of annoyance crossed Amanda Waller's usually composed and indifferent features before she smiled coldly at him. "Between you and me, I hope you move so I can watch you get riddled with bullets."
The Talon merely returned the menacing smirk but chose to remain silent, preferring to think of a fucking escape route. He immediately remembered how he had left the door of the house behind him open and was certain that no other agents were inside both because that dwelling had only one access and because his enhanced hearing picked up a lot of heartbeats but a lot behind him, that is, outside and on the other side of the house.
Of course, Dick did not know what he was going to do once he barricaded himself inside the house but he would deal with that later.
Renegade took a deep breath and suddenly began to run at top superhuman speed behind him, ducking his head so that it was protected by the raised collar of his armor that protected the back of his neck.
Violent, deafening noises of bullets exploded around him as he zeroed in on the few meters that kept him and the dwelling separated and as he continued to run he brought his hands to his ears, not surprised when he absentmindedly felt his fingers wet with blood, and he winced slightly at the pain in his ears.
The good thing about the electrum was that it made Dick extremely fast and agile: much more even than Slade's super serum. So it took him not even three seconds -during which he felt thousands of bullets bounce harmlessly off his armor, boots, greaves and collar- to cross the threshold of the house and snap to the side, immediately closing the door. He immediately backed away from the window, which began to shatter into a thousand pieces from the numerous bullets, and quickly cleaned up the blood from the ground -shortly thanking whatever higher entity existed for the fact that he had put his hands over his ears just in time to prevent his blood from falling to the ground in the driveway outside-, wiping away any evidence of his DNA, and, after stuffing a special device into his ears that would muffle the deafening sound of gunfire just enough to block the bleeding from his ears, he ran with his head lowered toward the upper floor, climbing the stairs.
Waller's voice, though muffled by his equipment, nevertheless rang out clearly through the megaphone she used.
"If you do not leave the dwelling within 1 minute I will give the order for my men to fire 3 missiles at it!"
Dick could not hold back a derisive snort as he positioned himself in a strategic corner of the room.
Really you have even equipped some of your officers with fucking rocket launchers? Not that they will be able to kill me, of course, but still.
His mind continued to wander quickly, deciding what to do and ignoring thousands more bullets that broke the 4 windows -one on each side- of the upper floor.
Now he was completely surrounded on all sides of the dwelling and-
Wait a minute! Waller said that military helicopters are equipped with thermal technology that tracks body temperature! This means that since I do not possess a heartbeat and am very cold to the touch, they will have a much harder time tracking me and therefore I can escape from them faster!
Dick had never loved being without a heartbeat more at that moment.
Now I just have to find a way to escape the hundreds of guns surrounding the house pointed at me.
His gaze fell on the four walls of the room in which there were present four windows, one on each side. A victorious smirk formed between his lips and the young assassin sneered.
Fuck you, Waller. Now I'm going to humiliate you globally. Serves you right, you fucking bitch.
Amanda Waller growled impatiently and raised her megaphone. "You have 20 seconds left before I give the order to blow up the dwelling with you in it, Renegade!" she shouted, motioning to the 3 officers holding rocket launchers to wait again until further notice and they nodded to her.
She longed for Renegade to blow himself up so that this could be over once and for all.
That would be good fucking riddance.
From her warning about 7 more seconds of tense, heavy silence passed.
Then the world around her erupted into absolute hell.
Amanda screamed after she was violently hit by a blinding white light while simultaneously her ears began to ring painfully following a deafening sound, causing her to lose her balance and fall to the ground with a grunt. Her head collided violently with the asphalt of the road, wrenching a painful grunt from her.
The blinding lasted about 5 seconds and she weakly opened her eyes, blinking numerous times in an attempt to banish the residual flashes of light from her vision. With difficulty she rose to her feet, staggering sideways and almost falling again due to the state of imbalance her body was currently in. She blinked a few more times, ignoring the trickle of blood flowing from a deep gash from her temple, and with immense horror and shock realized that literally all of the hundreds of officers in front of the dwelling were on the ground, all of them as stunned as she was.
Amanda began to run and took about a minute to circumnavigate the house from the outside and with growing horror realized that on every side around the house there was not a single person not stunned by whatever the hell had happened. With her heart beating rapidly in her chest she pointed a finger in the direction of the first person she saw. "You! What the hell happened?" she growled dangerously, her eyes darkening.
The unfortunate man -a federal agent of the FBI- swallowed nervously and straightened his back. "Apparently the subject somehow managed to simultaneously launch a minimum of four stun grenades to each side outside the house, paralyzing us all and effectively neutralizing our line of action."
The director of Belle Reve as well as an A.R.G.U.S. operational officer cursed sonorously. "Damn it! What the hell are you morons doing standing still? Spread out and fucking look for him!" she snapped angrily and all the officers went to work while she brought a hand to her ear, linking up with the helicopter pilots. "Where is Renegade right now?"
"Ms. Waller, I regret to inform you that we have lost track of Renegade."
"With thermal technology how the fuck is that possible?"
"There was an anomaly in that regard, ma'am. We noticed that we had difficulty from the beginning keeping track of Renegade with thermal technology: it's as if his body temperature is much lower than normal and therefore it's much harder to locate him, if not impossible."
"Are you telling me that Renegade has a body temperature like that of a fucking dead person?"
"Strange as it may be, yes, ma'am."
She grunted. "I've seen a lot of shit more fucked up than that!" she snapped and changed lines of communication, connecting with the snipers. "I hope for your sake you have Renegade in your sights right now!"
"Negative, ma'am. His stun grenades stunned most of us snipers while those further away who were not stunned reported that they lost track of the subject after Renegade climbed onto the roof, however, throwing smoke grenades that completely hid him from anyone's view."
With resounding expletives she removed the earpiece from her ear and threw it forcefully to the ground, crushing it furiously with one foot, and she also heedlessly tossed to the side the noise-canceling headphones she and everyone else were wearing to avoid being deaf from the previous extremely loud and deafening shooting.
Amanda knew that even with many hundreds of people including marines, military, federal agents and dozens of military helicopters and snipers, they would not be able to find Renegade.
Somehow that asshole managed to stun everyone and effectively use the few seconds he had to evade them all and even some of the world's best snipers.
And apparently that monster bastard was even a fucking undead who could not be located by thermal technology, which made the aid of military helicopters totally useless!
She was not at all surprised when several officers informed her that there was no trace of blood or anything else inside the house that would at least lead back to his civilian identity.
Now she was in a difficult position and her boss Sasha Bordeaux, director of the A.R.G.U.S., would surely have bitten her head off as well as the president of the U.S. who had graciously granted her all these resources...which in the end turned out to be useful as much as food for a dead man.
Not to mention that her failure had been recorded and published and, in no time, would have gone around the world, showing the skill and effectiveness of the lousy mercenary and the ineffectiveness and incompetence of Waller and the U.S. government, just to make matters worse.
This would have meant that Renegade's reputation would have skyrocketed even further and he would have gained many more supporters around the planet that already amounted to many millions and millions.
She clenched her fists fiercely at her side, her jaw ticking minutely as her eyes flashed harshly.
You always have to make my life more difficult, eh Renegade? You filthy bastard monster that you are. I've been hunting you for seven years and you've been fucking ruining my life and my reputation for seven years. Why the hell don't you get caught or die, fucking hell?
At least out of total failure she got something positive out of it.
Waller was holding a tablet that was showing her one of the many recordings made during this operation gone wrong. She slowed down the footage considerably when she got to the part of the shooting in which thousands of bullets were fired -she did not want to put herself in the shoes of the cleanup crew that was supposed to clean up the whole mess- and she saw clearly how Renegade had brought his hands over his ears since his hearing had been damaged by such deafening noise.
She sent a brief thanks to existing technology since otherwise she would never have had this detail since the mercenary had barely been a red and black blur to her eyes given his immense superhuman speed.
Although this was an action that any human being would have performed, Renegade was well known for his virtually infinite pain tolerance.
Consequently, his action of placing his hands over his ears to muffle the pain was an indication of the fact that, most likely, Renegade suffered from a strong hearing sensitivity -and perhaps also to sight - which, almost certainly, were both enhanced given the his status as a meta-human.
These were weaknesses -still uncertain and yet to be verified- that, if confirmed, could have been used to bring down the mercenary once and for all.
And Amanda Waller already had the perfect plan in mind to neutralize Renegade without even having to get her hands dirty herself.