Renegade and Zatanna were about to leave the Watchtower to reach their destination when suddenly a strange deafening noise rang out, alerting them both. When they turned around they were surprised by the appearance of a little boy.
"Billy Batson?" the acrobat murmured, surprised. "What are you doing here?"
Zatanna's eyes widened in shock, recognizing the name her ally said. "Wait a minute! Are you Shazam?"
Billy had a embarrassed smile and gave a shy wave. "Nice to officially meet you." he joked weakly. His eyes immediately fell on the imposing figure and he swallowed worriedly, his cheeks losing some color. He didn't even question how the hell Renegade knew his real name, though he shouldn't have been surprised since the mercenary already knew that Shazam was actually a child. "What is Renegade doing here?"
"He's on our side, for now. I can assure you of that." Zatanna stated, vouching on the mercenary's behalf. "He also wants to break Klarion's spell and bring everything back to normal."
This explains Renegade's message of comfort spread worldwide.
The boy nodded, trusting his teammate's judgment and what he himself witnessed from that recording, but suddenly frowned. "Klarion? I thought the spell was responsible by some sorcerers but not for Klarion himself."
The sorceress and the antihero exchanged a look. "I think you need to tell us how you got in here and why you think that." the Talon spoke with a gentle voice but at the same time with a certain authority.
The fifteen-year-old instinctively straightened his back at the authoritative tone. "I tried to enter the Watchtower through the zeta tubes but they denied me entry because I was not in my superhero form. Then when I transformed into Shazam, I managed to get in and met all the heroes there. So-"
"There are two dimensions: in this one there are minors and in the other there are adults." Renegade realized easily.
"Exactly. In the other dimension Dr. Fate located the source of the spell and explained that it came from a series of sorcerers."
"Then it's definitely a mix of both." Zatanna intervened and two pairs of eyes focused on her. "I also managed to locate the spell and I sensed traces of Klarion but also of someone else unknown, so the spell was cast both by Klarion and by the series of sorcerers mentioned by Dr. Fate and most likely Klarion remained in this dimension while the other sorcerers remained in that of adults."
"But Klarion is literally billions of years old." Renegade pointed out with a question implicit in his words.
"Magic is anything but rational."
The mercenary nodded, accepting the sorceress' short but exhaustive answer. His gaze fell on Billy. "You will have to act as an intermediary between this dimension and that of adults. Tell the Justice League that Klarion remained in this dimension and reassure them that he will not get away with it."
The fifteen-year-old was about to nod but hesitated. "Should I tell them that Renegade will be supporting Zatanna in the fight against Klarion?"
"Absolutely not." Deathstroke's former apprentice immediately denied it, shaking his head. "Just tell them that Zatanna has an ally she can trust with her life but don't mention my name."
Billy raised his head proudly, his clear blue eyes trained directly on the masked gaze. "Is that so? Can Zatanna really trust you with her life?"
He regretted his sudden bravado when he saw him approaching him. He couldn't suppress his surprised gasp when Renegade knelt in front of him, placing his hands on his shoulders and squeezing them comfortingly. "Take my word for it, kid. I will protect her at all costs, even at the expense of my own life." he declared solemnly, not mentioning the part about there being only one way to kill him permanently. He placed his right fist over his heart, staring at Billy with such intensity that it made him swallow nervously. "I swear on my mercenary honor."
Billy watched him for a few more seconds before a flash of confidence and determination crossed his gaze and he nodded. "I trust you, Renegade."
The assassin smiled brightly. "Well." he squeezed the boy's shoulders lightly before standing up again. "Now be our Hermes, the messenger of the gods." he joked.
Billy gave an amused laugh and gave a mock salute before yelling "Shazam!" and disappear after lightning struck him.
Renegade raised an eyebrow from under his mask. "I don't even want to know where the hell the lightning came from since we are literally in space and inside the Watchtower." when he turned he didn't expect to see Zatanna staring at him in shock and wonder. "What?"
"Did you really mean that you would sacrifice your life to save me?"
"Every single word." the anti-hero confirmed. "You know, I admire you heroes very much and how you wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice yourselves for the greater good, for the innocent and for the entire universe. An Earth without the Justice League is like a prison without guards: a dangerous place full of risks. I'm not lying when I say I'd rather kill myself than let one of you heroes die." he concluded with a sweet smile that caught the sorceress off guard.
Zatanna didn't expect such sincerity and such a touching speech from him. She swallowed hard, not sure how to respond to such an intense statement other than with a murmured "thank you" before clearing her throat in an attempt to free herself from her embarrassment. "Ready for Roanoke Island?"
Renegade politely ignored her embarrassment, to her immense gratitude, and sent her a smirk.
"Born ready."
Renegade and Zatanna were hidden in the dense forest about ten meters from Klarion, observing the sorcerer who was inside a blood-red magical pentagram in which there was a kind of gem in the center.
"Permission to kill?" Renegade half-joked in a whisper, pulling out a gun.
Zatanna snorted. "Permission denied."
The Talon pouted. "Killjoy." he grumbled displeased, putting the weapon back in his holster.
The sorceress was not surprised by his pout since she had understood that the murderer at her side was a very dramatic type.
Like, very dramatic.
Renegade grabbed two shuriken from his utility belt and threw them towards Klarion who had his back to them. However, the sorcerer whirled around and created a magical red barrier that surrounded himself and the ritual, and shuriken bounced harmlessly off it. His gaze fell first on the shuriken and then in the general direction of the dense forest.
"Come out, whoever you are, and perhaps I will be merciful enough to give you a merciful death."
Renegade glanced meaningfully at the sorceress beside him, and after she nodded, he walked out of the forest, walking as if he owned the island. "Klarion! It's nice to finally meet you, man!" he greeted him casually.
Klarion's eyes widened briefly before narrowing them into slits. "Renegade. You know, you have some nerve showing off after your latest stunt."
"You mean when I killed Hugo Strange who was a valuable ally for the Light and an infiltrator in Belle Reve?" the acrobat spoke in a loud voice so that even Zatanna, still hidden among the trees, could hear the discussion. "Man, they hired me on a contract. Nothing personal."
"How the hell do you know about the existence of the Light?" the sorcerer growled, his red eyes glowing dangerously.
The mercenary sent him a mysterious smirk. "I know many things, Klarion."
"Then you knew what you were doing and you did it anyway."
"Guilty."
Klarion stared at him menacingly for a few more seconds before grinning maniacally. "The others will be so happy when I hand them your head on a silver platter."
"You'll have to kill me first and trust me when I tell you it won't be easy at all."
"Do you really think you have a chance against me?" the sorcerer taunted him with a derisive snort. "I am Klarion, a Lord of Chaos and chaos personified. To me you are nothing more than a miserable insect that I will enjoy easily crushing." he stated with a crazed laugh.
"Then why don't you come out of your magical barrier to show what you're made of, man?" the younger one taunted him with a provocative smile.
The sorcerer pretended to think about it. "No, I don't think I will."
And then he attacked him with magical lightning.
Renegade rolled to the side, grunting involuntarily as the blast from the magical lightning hit him anyway. He landed easily on his feet and sprinted towards his enemy, drawing his escrima sticks. The Talon dodged further magical attacks and leapt over a huge boulder thrown at him, then using the momentum to launch himself into a double somersault forward and land in front of the barrier where he connected his already crackling escrima to maximum electricity of over 100.000 volts .
Klarion gave his crazy cackle as the electricity harmlessly passed through his magical barrier. "Did you really think it would take so little to nullify my barrier?" he mocked, waving his hands.
The anti-hero grunted as a magical ray came out of the barrier, hitting him directly in the chest and throwing him meters away, causing him to crash into a tree which fell noisily due to the strong impact. He immediately stood up with a forward somersault, placing his escrima to his back.
I have to change tactics. I can't attack him directly because of that damn barrier. But what the hell can I do?
His gaze fell to the side of the barrier where Teekl was licking his paws and his idea quickly formed. Ignoring the warning in his head -which sounded suspiciously like Slade's voice- stating that it was best not to kill the wizard's cat because there was no telling his reaction to it, his hand shot towards his holster and pointed the gun towards the cat, firing a single shot.
The assassin muttered in annoyance as Klarion had somehow managed to turn the bullet into a damned ball of wool that fell harmlessly to Teekl's side. "No uh. Don't you even dare think about hurting Teekl." Klarion growled menacingly, his eyes glowing brightly.
Renegade barely had time to see the cat teleported, probably to a safe place, before he noticed some trees being uprooted from the ground and starting to levitate a few feet.
"For heaven's sake-"
He managed to grab his swords and easily cut in half the numerous trees the sorcerer threw at him. He narrowed his white eyes.
It will be a very complicated battle.
Meanwhile Zatanna was watching the battle from behind a tree, worriedly biting her lip every time Renegade was hit or nearly hit. Despite the huge difference in power between the two, she was amazed by the overall good battle that the mercenary was waging against a powerful sorcerer like Klarion who, surprisingly, had not yet felt the magic that surrounded her.
He was probably too busy fighting Renegade to notice it.
She jumped in fright when Billy Batson suddenly appeared next to her and her eyes widened. "Billy? What-"
"The gem in the center of the pentagram is the main point of the spell. Getting rid of it means getting everything back to normal." the younger one warned her by hissing softly.
The sorceress carefully absorbed the new information and nodded. "Thanks, Billy."
The boy nodded back and after wishing her good luck he disappeared with another lightning. Sighing Zatanna turned her attention back to the fight and her heart rate increased when she noticed Klarion looking in her direction. However, it did not last long as shurikens attached themselves to the barrier and caused explosions which, although they did not do too much damage to it, forced Klarion to return his gaze to Deathstroke's former apprentice.
Thanks for the distraction, Renegade.
"I admit I'm surprised you're still standing."
Renegade sent a smirk at his opponent, raising his fists in a defensive stance. "I don't get tired easily."
Klarion laughed evilly. "We will see your condition after my attack."
The mercenary watched as his red eyes glowed brightly and prepared to dodge whatever magical attack he would throw at him when suddenly a white magical beam attacked the barrier, forcing Klarion to stagger slightly to the side. The young man mentally cheered when he saw a small crack on the red barrier.
Small progress.
The two males' gazes shifted to the side and watched Zatanna emerge from the dense forest, her hands glowing with magical aura. "You won't get away with this, Klarion." she stated solemnly.
The sorcerer raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Are you seriously allied with a miserable cockroach like Renegade?" he asked in a sarcastic question before shaking his head. "It doesn't matter. I'll have fun taking you out too."
The battle continued with Renegade occasionally attacking the barrier in various ways both in an attempt to weaken it and to attract the super-villain's attention so that Zatanna, taking advantage of the defenses left open by the Lord of Chaos, could launch magical attacks that were weakening more and more the Klarion barrier, demonstrated by the appearance of more fractures.
"That's enough!" Klarion suddenly roared in anger, his eyes glowing blood red. "I will kill you so painfully that you will both beg for mercy that I will not show, you futile insects!"
Renegade threw himself to the side, narrowly dodging a magical lightning, but unbeknownst to him, the lightning behind him did a 180 turn and headed towards him. He let out a surprised cry as an immense amount of pain suddenly shot up his back and then spread throughout his body, forcing him to fall to his knees.
Unfortunately it seemed similar to Wotan's magical lightning: that is, a continuous and prolonged attack.
Renegade gritted his teeth hard, not wanting to give Klarion the satisfaction of hearing him scream in pain, and with difficulty he managed to move his gaze to the side: he noticed that Zatanna, a few meters away from him, had also been hit and her screams of excruciating pain tore his heart.
"Your screams are music to my ears." Klarion declared with an evil, crazed laugh. He then frowned at Renegade. "The fact that you don't scream surprises and annoys me." he shook his head. "It does not matter. I'll get back to you later." he chuckled, looking back at the young sorceress. "I will personally take care of the little Zatanna first."
Narrowing his eyes to see through the fog of pain, Renegade noticed that Klarion's hands began to glow with a menacing red aura and she realized with horror that the sorcerer was about to launch a potentially fatal magical attack on his ally.
Not on my watch. I promised I would keep her safe and I always keep my word.
With a grunt, Renegade leapt to his feet, staggering slightly to one side due to the daze and, ignoring the immense pain that continued to overwhelm him, he ran towards Zatanna and lunged at her, pushing her aside.
The assassin felt the magical attack hit him directly at the heart level with such force that it threw him several meters backwards. The millisecond after being struck he felt every fiber of his being and all his internal limbs burn as if by hellish flames and he sank into the familiar sensation of death even before he fell to the ground with two last random thoughts.
I hate the most powerful magic that neutralizes my armor's Promethium chain mail. Eh, I should have reflected the blow with one of the swords which perhaps would have absorbed the magic.
And
I hadn't died in a long time.
Zatanna knew that Klarion's would be a fatal and lethal magical attack aimed at her and the worst part was that she could barely move a muscle due to that damned magical lightning that was paralyzing her in physical agony. She shrieked as she was suddenly pushed aside and fell with a grunt to the ground. Luckily the magical lightning disappeared, allowing her to eagerly take deep breaths when suddenly she felt her heart stop momentarily.
If I didn't suffer Klarion's attack but was pushed aside, then-
The sorceress whirled around and in horror she observed Renegade's motionless body on the ground a few meters away from her.
He is still. Too still. I've never seen him like this. Only when Flash managed to sedate him but that was a totally different thing.
"Renegade!"
She barely noticed that she had shouted the mercenary's name and rising with a pained grunt she ran towards him. When she was close enough to see him better she froze on the spot, horror and shock overwhelming her and she had to physically force herself not to vomit the contents of her stomach.
Because the central part of Renegade's armor, right where there was the enormous blood-red R, right at the level of the heart, was completely incinerated, allowing the sorceress to observe in horror the bare skin of the young assassin's entire chest completely charred and of an ash black color.