Renegade landed crouched on a rooftop and with an annoyed sigh brought a hand to his earpiece. "Found anything?"
"No." came Cheshire's ready voice that mirrored his annoyance.
"Negative, Renegade." spoke Lady Shiva. "I assume you haven't found anything useful either."
"That's right." the 17-year-old grunted. "Keep searching and keep a low profile. I don't want to risk word of our presence spreading that might lead to the Red Sharks not even leaving their home. I also want to avoid any slight possibility of diplomatic incidents."
Two "Roger" resounded simultaneously in his ear and he turned off the communications. He paused on the roof and mentally went over all the information Talia was able to give them.
According to Talia's sources, the Red Sharks were a rather large mafia with a lot of criminals as members and it was therefore possible that they could have several bases in different cities. The identity of the mafia leader was unknown but he apparently called himself as Bestial Dragon. Given the enormous size of the mafia group, it is quite likely that he referred to deputy leaders or at least people he trusted enough to help him run his mafia empire.
The Red Sharks have gained in recent years the reputation as the most dangerous Russian mafia and had long been wanted by Russia itself for very serious crimes: not only smuggling of weapons, organs, people and drugs but also of children, sexual abuse of minors and people of all sexes and ages, hundreds and hundreds of first-degree murders and the list went on with other serious crimes. Only in recent months have they also begun illegally getting hold of classified information concerning the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of State and Department of Homeland Security and selling that information to terrorist organizations and states that are enemies of the U.S., making the equivalent of millions and millions of dollars.
By now, the Red Sharks were no longer just a Russian mafia organization but also a terrorist organization, making the mission of the League of Assassins to eliminate them completely more urgent, thus doing both Russia and the U.S. a favor.
The thought of what to do about terrorist organizations and states that are enemies of the U.S. that have acquired the classified information about the U.S. briefly flashed through Renegade's mind as he shook his head.
One thing at a time. Let's eliminate the Red Sharks first, then we'll think about what to do about the criminals who purchased the information.
He nodded to himself and decided to get back to work and to try to dig up some useful information about the Red Sharks.
"Cheshire in. I may have found a lead. I'm tailing a suspect. Get to my location."
Renegade raised his holographic glove, seeing the coordinates Cheshire provided to him and Lady Shiva. "Roger. We will arrive as soon as possible."
It took the young assassin about fifteen minutes to reach Cheshire since she was on the completely opposite side of town. He saw Cheshire and Lady Shiva crouched on a rooftop a few twenty meters away from him. With a smirk, the Talon jumped from rooftop to rooftop without making even the slightest sound and finally slipped silently behind the two female assassins. "Sup."
Moving by pure instinct and reflex Renegade easily blocked both Cheshire's fist with his left hand and parried Lady Shiva's sword strike with the spikes present on his right arm. He emitted a silent giggle at the combination of deadly and lethal glances he received and sent them an amused smirk.
It was always good to sneak up on the best assassins in the world without them noticing. The first time he managed to do this with Slade he had almost stabbed him in the heart but it had definitely been worth it to hear his father's heartbeat suddenly increase.
From that moment on Dick had become able to sneak up on the best mercenary in the world and to be able to figure out every time Slade was trying to do it with him and because of that his father always looked at him with a mix of pride -Renegade was definitely better than Deathstroke in terms of stealth- and annoyance.
The latter because Dick took great pleasure in suddenly appearing at Slade's side, causing him to have a mini heart attack each time.
"Will you ever stop giving us heart attacks with your damn stealth skills?" hissed Lady Shiva. "I swear, you're quieter than a dead man!"
Renegade shrugged with a lazy smile on his face. "Never. And technically I'm kind of undead."
Cheshire rolled her eyes. "Don't complain if sooner or later some of us accidentally decapitate you."
"You'll never be able to overcome my reflexes." the acrobat hummed happily.
Cheshire glared at him but did not contradict him, knowing that he was right. She merely sighed and pointed downward where there was a dark, abandoned alley. "The man I tailed turned into this alley, approached a specific piece of wall, knocked twice on it and within seconds that piece of wall turned partially around, revealing a keypad where the man typed a code. When he finished, the wall behind him opened, revealing a secret passage that closed again as soon as he entered it."
"Why were you following that man in the first place?" the world's deadliest woman asked curiously.
"Because I saw him repeatedly looking over his shoulder and casting glances in virtually every direction. I found him very suspicious and decided to tail him."
"Good job, sister." Renegade praised, chuckling when he saw her smiling brightly. "Did you happen to see the pin?"
She shook her head. "I was too far away to see it. I do, however, remember accurately the piece of wall where he knocked."
"Good." Renegade stared at Lady Shiva who unconsciously straightened her back at his leader's gaze. "You'll stay here and check that no one reaches us. If you think anyone is planning to turn into this alley, give two short whistles."
Lady Shiva nodded. "Roger."
Renegade smiled briefly at her and with a nod to Cheshire he jumped down, turning his fall into a forward roll and then taking a leap and landing perfectly on his feet. He turned and saw Cheshire merely landing in a crouch on the ground, giving him a look that was both flat and affectionate. "Show-off."
The mercenary chuckled and followed her, stopping when she did. Cheshire knocked twice on a piece of wall and, just as she had said, a few seconds later out came a keypad on which to type the code. Renegade connected his holographic glove to the keypad and began typing rapidly on his gadget, his fingers moving much faster than Jade's well-trained eyes could follow.
It took about ten seconds before the keypad glowed green and the two assassins heard the wall behind them move. The noise also attracted the attention of Lady Shiva who looked down in their direction and Renegade nodded to her as he disconnected his holographic glove from the keypad. The deadliest woman in the world immediately understood and she too descended from the roof and together the three of them entered the secret passage. They advanced silently without making a sound with the second most dangerous mercenary in the world standing further ahead, leading the trio.
Suddenly Renegade stopped, forcing the other two assassins to do the same. He cast them a look that conveyed a hidden, silent message and they nodded to him. The acrobat gave them a nod and silently slipped forward, lowering himself to the same level as the railing. He slowly raised his head just enough to allow him to see downstairs and he observed.
About 30 men. All armed. No cameras. Minimum three other rooms. Number of hypothetical other escape routes: unknown. None of them particularly stands out. It is evident from the way they move and their posture that they have been well trained, although their training is literally nothing compared to mine, Lady Shiva's and Cheshire's.
He turned to Lady Shiva and Cheshire who had stopped at the previous spot and relayed the information to them through sign language. They nodded and the Talon held up three fingers.
3
2
1
Now!
Renegade sprang up, slid along the railing and leapt forward, smashing a man's skull with a vicious kick. Loud curses and shouts in Russian resounded as he landed crouching on the ground and then sprinted in the direction of three armed men, easily dodging the rain of bullets.
The mercenary violently pierced the throat of one of them with a fist, jumped over the shoulders of the second one twisting his neck, landed crouching in front of the third one and then pierced his rib cage with a brutal punch and, after stealing his gun, rolled to the side dodging the multitude of bullets and with five shots Renegade killed as many people, all within not even ten seconds.
After Renegade created havoc the other two female assassins soon joined the fight and threw themselves into the chaos: Lady Shiva made a bloody clean sweep by skewering mobsters as if they were skewers thanks to her sword while Cheshire threw knives that, with extreme precision, stuck into the hearts or between the eyes of her victims.
Cheshire stabbed the heart of one criminal with her dagger and then quickly pulled it out and cut the carotid artery of yet another, ignoring the two men who pointed their guns at her and they were soon killed by Renegade who pierced their hearts with two punches. Renegade turned sharply and, again with the previously stolen pistol, killed three more criminals with as many bullets while at the same time Lady Shiva ducked, dodging the volleys of bullets and pulling out a Cheshire's knife that had pierced a man's brain and she threw it away, piercing the neck of another criminal.
Lady Shiva turned sharply and with a sharp horizontal sword attack cut the throats of three men, killing them. Behind her two other men tried to shoot her but were killed by Cheshire who threw two knives that pierced their hearts. Sportsmaster's daughter turned around grabbing a dagger and plunging it into the throat of another criminal while at the same time she quickly grabbed her sword, deflecting the bullets aimed at her with the blade.
Renegade had abandoned the stolen gun and opted for his escrima sticks, swinging them with all his strength left and right and sounds of broken bones resounded along with agonized screams of criminals falling lifeless one after another as if they were skittles. The mercenary slipped under several bullets, threw an escrima that connected violently with the forehead of a mobster who fell dead to the ground and in the meantime the Talon turned around, brutally and fatally striking at the temple of another criminal before he spun 360 degrees, catching in midair the other escrima previously thrown and then threw himself back into the fray.
Renegade, Lady Shiva and Cheshire formed an extremely formidable, lethal and dangerous team, to say the least: they had carried so many contracts and missions to completion -often together even with Katana and occasionally Talia herself- that they had learned to fight together without even uttering a single word aloud and could anticipate each other's moves in a way that seemed humanly impossible. They were a well-oiled machine and there was always someone protecting each other's backs.
In fact, it did not even take five minutes before the room was completely filled with fresh blood and about thirty lifeless bodies. The three assassins turned at the same time toward the only remaining criminal still alive, his hands shaking more than a leaf as he held a gun.
"Put it down, man. You don't want to piss us off." Renegade growled, speaking fluently in Russian. The criminal promptly obeyed and tremblingly placed the gun on the ground. He tremblingly raised his hands in the universal gesture of surrender and stared at the three assassins with a look of absolute terror, fear and shock. The mercenary nodded in satisfaction and turned to his partners. "Explore the base from top to bottom."
Cheshire and Lady Shiva gave him a nod and walked away with a smile between their lips, knowing that the youngest would be able to wrest any information from the sole survivor of the massacre.
Renegade returned his gaze to the criminal who seemed to be on the verge of fainting. "Are you part of the Red Sharks?" the mobster hesitated for a few seconds but nodded quickly when the mercenary took a menacing step forward. The experienced assassin looked around, mentally absorbing every piece of information he could glean from the place. "This is some kind of secondary base, isn't it?"
"Y-yes."
"What is it used for?"
"T-this is the b-base we use f-for d-drug t-trafficking. H-here we have the supplies, i-information on b-buyers, i- interested parties and our s-sellers who s-supply us."
"Do the Red Sharks have other bases?"
The survivor seemed to regain some courage as he tightened his lips and remained silent. Faster than a human eye could see Renegade sprinted forward and in less than a second zeroed the distance, grabbing the criminal by the collar of his shirt and easily raising him more than a meter and a half off the ground. The Russian let out a surprised and frightened scream and the Talon growled impatiently.
"You need not fear Bestial Dragon but you must fear me. What he will be able to do to you pales considerably to anything I might put you through. I will not hesitate at all to make you eat your own fingers if you do not tell me everything you know."
If possible the man's skin paled further and he immediately and quickly pitted every piece of information. The interrogation lasted a few more minutes with Renegade asking the questions and the mobster not hesitating to answer them honestly, clearly intimidated to death by the mercenary.
"That's all I know! I swear!" he whimpered desperately. "I beg you! Let me go!"
"Thanks for being honest with me, man. I appreciate it." Renegade said sincerely before a shark-like smirk appeared on his face. "But you signed your own death warrant as soon as you joined the most dangerous and wanted Russian mafia in the world."
The acrobat savored the man's absolute level of terror and fear as he realized he would soon die before slamming his head violently against the wall, shattering his skull. The victim's body slumped against the wall and slumped over it, blood splatters on the wall and beginning to trickle rapidly to the ground from his fatal head wound.
Renegade turned, unsurprised when he saw Lady Shiva and Cheshire enjoying the show since he had heard them earlier, and nodded to them. "Found the drugs?"
"At least seven tons of drugs." nodded Lady Shiva.
"We also found a password-protected laptop." Cheshire added, raising the said laptop she was holding. "It probably has all the information on-"
"Buyers, sellers and interested parties." the Deathstroke's former apprentice concluded, nodding.
"What did he tell you?" asked the world's deadliest woman, nodding to the victim her nephew had just killed.
"The Red Sharks have three other bases: one is the base where they deal in arms trafficking, the other where they hold men, women, children and the elderly prisoners whom they sell to the best buyers, including their organs, and, while they wait for offers, physically and sexually abuse them, and finally the last one is their main base of operations where we can find Bestial Dragon. I got a sketch of the mafia leader and the distinguishing feature is a large scar running diagonally across his left eye that stops a few inches from his nose.
"I obviously kindly got the exact locations of the bases and our victim also said that the Red Sharks' main base is filled with about fifty armed mobsters while the other two bases have about twenty each."
Cheshire whistled softly. "Talia's informants were not lying when they said that the Red Sharks were a large mafia organization."
"What do we do with them, the information and the drugs?" asked Lady Shiva, pointing vaguely first to the room full of blood and dead bodies and then to the laptop in the hands of Sportsmaster's daughter.
The acrobat nodded to his older sister who handed him the laptop. In less than three minutes he downloaded every piece of information in it onto his holographic glove and told Cheshire to put the laptop down where they had found it.
"As for the drugs and all the information I plan to send an anonymous tip to Russian intelligence once we have permanently dismantled the Russian Sharks so that we don't risk them getting in our way during our mission."
"Sounds good." Lady Shiva nodded. "Let's not waste any more time here. We have three more bases to eliminate and about ninety more mobsters to kill."
"I have a plan in mind on how to greatly speed up the mission time." began Renegade who continued at the nods of the other two assassins. "The two of you will jointly take care of the bases concerning human trafficking and weapons while I will get rid of their main base of operations."
The two female assassins exchanged a brief glance and then simultaneously crossed their arms and stared at the youngest. "We won't let you fight alone against fifty Russian armed mobsters." Cheshire stated confidently.
Renegade sighed, acknowledging their concern. "Look, I know you're worried about me but I'll be fine. I've faced a lot worse and as you can see I'm still here."
"Just because you have a virtually unlimited healing factor this does not mean you are completely invincible and immortal. They will not hesitate to try to decapitate you." the world's deadliest woman pointed out with a snarl.
"Let them try." declared Renegade coldly.
"Why must you needlessly put your life in extreme danger every time?" growled Cheshire, staring fiercely at her little brother. "Lady Shiva is right: you are not immortal, Renegade. It often seems to me as if you forget that you have a fatal weakness and it also often seems to me that you willfully seek out virtually impossible and suicidal missions and contracts."
Renegade stared at them for a few seconds before shaking his head.
They do not understand. They cannot fully comprehend what I feel. It is impossible.
"Take care first of the base where they are holding hundreds of people captive and then get rid of the other base. Don't let a single mobster remain alive." the mercenary finally ordered, turning and walking away. "I will send you the coordinates soon."
As Renegade began to leave the base, thanks to his enhanced hearing he heard Cheshire and Lady Shiva murmuring to each other.
"He will get himself killed if he continues at this rate."
"I know. And I'm afraid he knows it too."