There I sat, across from a man who exuded a primal aura so refined it was as if he had stepped out of another era. In a bold move, I had challenged him to a fight, and the tension between us was palpable. It felt as though I was staring death in the face, but I refused to back down.
I knew with my deflective field which was a constant protector of mine, I would win the fight without a sinch. Heck, it even protects me from the sun and as a result of that my body cannot produce melanin and my skin now looks really pale.
'I haven't had a real fight in this verse yet,' I thought to myself. "Maybe it's time to drop the field and test my skills against Deathstroke."
With a deep breath, I closed my eyes and focused on the task at hand. I was still seated on the chair, but I took down the deflective field that surrounded me. The adrenaline rush hit me as I prepared to face the deadliest assassin in the world.
Deathstroke's heavy boot connected with my chest, sending me flying several meters back along with the chair. The impact was brutal, and I gasped for air, struggling to catch my breath. I coughed violently, trying to expel the little air I had left in my lungs.
"Come on, kid," Deathstroke taunted me, his voice dripping with malice. "The way things are going, I might not even need to use any of my weapons. I could slowly skin you alive with my bare hands until you confess everything you know about Ghost."
His words sent a chill down my spine. I knew Deathstroke was not someone to be taken lightly. He was a ruthless mercenary, feared by many. And now, I had his undivided attention.
I struggled to my feet, my body aching from the impact of his kick. My mind raced as I tried to come up with a plan. I knew I had to act fast, or Deathstroke would make good on his threat.
I quickly got back on my feet, ignoring the pain in my chest and the throbbing ache in my knee. I knew I had to think on my feet if I wanted to stand a chance against Deathstroke. I took a deep breath and focused, summoning all my energy and power.
"That's quite a kick you've got there," I said, smirking at Deathstroke. "But if that's all you've got, then this fight will be over soon. With your defeat, that is."
To make the fight worth my while, I recalibrated my deflective field and reduced its range to barely the surface of my skin. Making my skin seem as dense as a Kryptonian but with deflective attributes.
"Come on kid, show me what you've got to back up that big mouth of yours." With a smirk on his face, he dashed at me with a ferocious blow that from the looks of it I could tell it packed a punch.
I did a quick dive to the side and rolled on the floor. Increasing the acceleration beneath my feet, I dashed at him and gave a solid blow to his rib cage with the momentum and increased on impact.
Deathstroke flew across the warehouse and crashed into some boxes that were arranged in a corner.
I couldn't see his eyes too well but I bet he was surprised by the way he looked at me for a few seconds. He had underestimated me, thinking that I was just another inexperienced kid. But little did he know that I had a few tricks up my sleeve.
I concentrated, and suddenly, the air around us started to crackle with electricity. Sparks flew from my fingertips as I unleashed a barrage of lightning bolts at Deathstroke.
He was quick to react, dodging and parrying my attacks with ease. But I kept on pushing, pouring all my energy into the fight. I could feel my powers growing stronger with each passing moment.
Deathstroke was taken aback by my sudden display of power. He had never seen anything like it before. But he was not one to back down from a challenge. He drew his sword and charged at me, his eyes blazing with fury.
With a blast of energy, I knocked Deathstroke off his feet. He recovered quickly, launching a flurry of attacks at me. But I was ready for him. I dodged and weaved, striking back with lightning-fast blows. Each blow landed with a resounding thud, sending shockwaves through the air.
"That was… Unexpected, I guess now I can get a little bit more serious and see how well you do against swords." He stood up and dusted himself, then reached for his back and pulled out two swords which he definitely intended to carve out bits of me with.
He darted at me and made a horizontal swing at my chest which I evaded by tapping a foot on the ground, making him lose balance and miss me as I stood there looking at him. With his mask on, I could only imagine the sense of wonder he must have felt from that.
"That was, how do I put it?….Disappointing, I bet a ten year old could make a better swing than that. How do you expect to defeat me when you can't even make good use of those swords of yours?" Taunting him was fun, I knew he wasn't using even seventy percent of his actual skill but neither was I.
He grunted at that and made consecutive swings at me, of which I evaded everyone. With me constantly increasing the acceleration beneath each step of every move I made, I became faster and waited for an opening.
Deathstroke gave a fierce forty-five degree swing at me, aiming for a slash from my stomach through my chest, all the way to my shoulder but at the same time avoiding the artery around my neck so it wouldn't be too fatal.
'There… That's my opening.' I thought to myself as I took a quick side step, dodging while he immediately thrust his second sword forward as a way to recover from the first miss.
I was quicker than he was and it eventually left him wide open for me, taking on a steady stance, I channeled the energy to my fist and made the field around it really dense. It gave my fist a slightly visible blue aura around it. Increasing the momentum and the acceleration behind the punch, while adding electricity to it as I elegantly drove my raging fist against his mask. A crack appeared on his mask as it came in contact with my fist, that might have been his skull cracked open if he wasn't protected by it.
Deathstroke flew into a distance and was completely defenseless in mid-air, he tried to compose himself and control his landing but I dashed to him. "Where do you think you're going, I'm not done with you yet." I said to him as I felt a hint of fear from him but it was very brief, maybe because he wasn't expecting me to greatly dominate the fight that way. I delivered the same punch on his stomach, driving my fist into his stomach mid-air and sending him to the concrete floor.
He crashed into the ground, creating a small sized crater around him as he coughed out blood.
"Come on now, this isn't what I expected from the infamous Deathstroke, show me the man that strikes fear into the heart of his prey whenever they hear his name." I taunted him with a maniacal grin on my face as I let out a psychotic chuckle.
I watched him try to get up as he knelt on one knee and struggled to push himself on his feet. I dashed to his position and gave a kick to his ribcage, increasing the momentum of my kick as it sent him into a wall, it seemed like a kind of kick the likes of Superboy might deliver.
"Who…would have imagined… A kid as pale and fragile as you are, with a physique slightly above average , would be this powerful." He said to me as he gasped through each word, he might have broken something with all the heavy blows I had been giving.
He staggered on his feet, I was sure he felt numb due to the effect of the electricity. Before I knew it, he hurled two flat discs at my feet. "What do you expect to accomplish with…" I hadn't finished my statement before they exploded, I walked out of the smoke and was met by swords which attempted to take my arm off. On contact with the field on the surface of my skin, the sword deflected backward but he held his ground with his right leg and made it into a pivot for him to spin around and go for a higher strike at my neck.
The sound of a clanged metal echoed through the air, it reverberated off nearby walls and structures as I held on to his sword and broke it with my fist. He jumped backward to collect himself and finally brought out his guns as he sheathed his unbroken sword.
Deathstroke shot at me with both guns and they just deflected off me and back at him, he took a quick dive and avoided the incoming bullets.
"What are you? You certainly aren't human so there isn't any need for me to hold back anymore." He said as he hurled an active grenade at my feet.
*Booom*
The explosion from the grenade was nothing but a waste of an effort as it didn't have any effect on me, the force sent from the grenade at my position, I deflected it his way and it sent him flying. He made contact with the wall behind him and fell to the floor.
"You don't get it, do you? The world is my stage and in this warehouse, you are nothing but a mouse trapped in a cage with a vicious cat who has the tendency to play with his meal before he devours it whole." I said to him, emphasizing on each word as I entered into a short psychotic laughter session.
"Now then, let's get this over with. Shall we?"
[Slade Wilson POV]
Tom and I were having a fight in the warehouse and the kid took me by complete surprise, he had powers and in as much as I tried to grasp my head around the true nature of his powers, I just couldn't.
Who would have known someone who looked as pale as him would actually be this tough, swords were like sticks to him, bullets didn't even make a dent on him but rather deflected right back at me, and grenade didn't have the slightest effect on him but he was somehow able to send the shock wave my way.
I was struggling to get on my feet when I heard the laughter of a man who had lost his mind. I looked over and saw Tom staring down at me and his pupils were red as if they were almost glowing.
"You don't get it, do you? Thief world is my stage and in this warehouse, you are nothing but a mouse trapped in a cage with a vicious cat who has the tendency to play with his meal before he devours it whole." He said before laughing maniacally.
"Now then, let's get this over with. Shall we?"
He stretched out his hand and suddenly it seemed like I had lost my balance and was floating mid-air, the thought of shooting him in the head at that moment came to mind but if it was deflected right back at me, I wouldn't be able to evade it as he seems to be in control of my center of gravity.
"You are a monster and an evil man. But evil is human nature, that means I'm evil too. Let's share our evil and see who's evil is greater." Tom let out a chuckle before dashing to me and hitting my chest as he shoved me into the craters created on the wall behind me.
He was one messed up kid and before I could react to him, my limbs suddenly became numb as it felt like electricity was being sent through every inch of my body.
I grunted in pain but he didn't stop, instead he started laughing again as I slowly lost consciousness and everything went completely dark as I dropped to the floor.
…
[Tom Hendricks POV]
"Passed out already? Well that was… Disappointing." Deathstroke had passed out from me tweaking with the bioelectricity in his body until his brain couldn't hold out anymore and it resulted in him losing his consciousness.
I didn't see the need to tie him up because I'm sure a trained professional like him could escape any form of restraint I could find there. 'How the table had turned.' the thought that came to mind as I stared at the unconscious man who laid in front of me.
The next thing I found myself doing was checking his pockets and phone to gather whatever information I could and maybe find out who had ordered the elimination of Ghost, I went ahead to look around the warehouse to see if I might find anything useful, after all he picked it as the place to execute his mission. Whoever they were, I'll be coming for their asses soon enough. It's time Ghost started striking fear in the hearts of those bastards who thought I was a weakling or a coward just because I never involved myself in any operation or revealed my identity to anyone.
Hiding in the shadows does not mean one is a coward, rather it strikes fear into the hearts of their opponents as they won't be able to predict their next move. Maybe that's why Deathstroke's employer wants me dead, I might either be a glitch in his/her operations or maybe because they are just simply scared of me.
I felt a light and barely noticeable movement from Deathstroke, if I hadn't been alert at the moment I might not have felt the slight friction he had made with the ground as he slowly reached for one of the pockets in his gear.
"I know you are awake already, and don't even think of pulling one on me because I disarmed you of anything that could serve as a weapon to you. It's just you on your mission gear right now." I said to him without even sparing him a glance as I went through the laptop I found in a room somewhere in the warehouse, it seemed to have been where he took camp for his assassination mission.
"Are you so confident in your own abilities that you didn't see it to be a need to restrain me? That boy, is called arrogance." The first words he said to me as he slowly turned over on his back, his right hand on his ribcage yet he didn't show any expression which showed if he was in any kind of pain. That was truely remarkable, nerves of steel if I may comment on it.
"I didn't see it necessary to restrain you when I know that you might be able to set yourself free from whatever I used, so I'd rather stick to using my powers to restrain you if it calls for it."
"Okay, you clearly won this bout. So, tell me the proposal you mentioned earlier which you had for me." He said as he slowly got himself in a sitting position with his back laid against a wall.
"You were wrong about me being Ghost but you were right about one thing, I do have a way of contacting him."
"I thought as much, I came to a conclusion that you either have connections with him or you were Ghost. My gut feeling is never wrong whenever I link it up with facts from my investigations." Deathstroke said in a low tone, he spat blood on the floor and two teeth went along. Maybe I did it a little bit too much, but nevertheless, it was necessary to get him to listen to me.
A wild beast would not listen or submit to another unless it is completely dominated and tamed by a more superior one. I needed to exert dominance unless he would have eaten me raw without showing mercy.
Taking a deep breath and exhaling it, I turned over to him and asked. "How would you like to work for Ghost?" His reaction was dull, maybe because he doesn't let emotions show in his face, or maybe because it sounded like a bad joke to him.
"Why would I work for Ghost?"Deathstroke asked.
"He's looking to put together a team of highly skilled outlaws who would handle his personal operations and trust me when I say, the pay is worth it." I took a seat in front of him and continued. "And of course you can continue being the mercenary that you are, he'll only call on you when he needs your services. All you need to do is make yourself a valuable asset to his arsenal and give him your complete loyalty."
"Um.. But how can I trust a man I've never met or even seen with my eyes, not to talk or even have a conversation with him?" The questions were on point and made a solid argument, I needed to find a way to get him to meet with Ghost but not with me, maybe a substitute.
"That's reasonable enough. Fine, you'll get to meet Ghost once you agree to offer your services to him and your complete loyalty to him. And he'll pay you well and would give you operations that you will definitely enjoy executing.
"Is he recruiting just me, or are they others?" He asked, curiosity slightly echoed from his voice but not as audible as most people might be.
"For now you are the first, but there will definitely be others. He has his eyes on a few persons with unique skills and was planning to reach out to you soon but things worked out quicker than they were actually supposed to be. Now that we've made contact, it's only reasonable to facilitate things, otherwise he might have my head for missing the opportunity." I needed to make Ghost sound a little more like a no-nonsense person so Deathstroke would have a sense of respect towards the figure.
Okay, I guess you've told me all that you are allowed to tell me…So, when can I meet him?"
"Go' treat your wounds and contact me on this line once you are prepared to meet with him." I handed him a paper with a number to my burner phone written on it.
"Goodbye Slade, until we meet again." I walked towards the door and gave a wave without turning back, and I could feel him staring at me with the paper still on his hand as I walked away.
Please kindly visit my to read over 30 chapters ahead./Maverick_DaSupreme