Tetch reached for the gun, grabbing it and then turning around to take aim at the She-Hulk as she crossed her arms and looked down on him. "Go ahead, shoot.", She-Hulk said. "I'll easily take those bullets and not even get scratched. You think you're the first to try and shoot me?", she scoffed. "Give it up, Tetch, you're done. You made a huge mistake coming after my kids.".
Tetch snarled, "You will never take me back, ever!", as he didn't want to be humiliated by She-Hulk aka Poppy bringing him back to prison, and he isn't going to give up, and narrowed his eyes as it was clear that the twins had the same nearly indestructible skin, but Damien didn't, for as far as he knew, he was vulnerable, and considering that Jane and Dick was too far off, occupied with the knocked out Lily's ropes.
It really was the only option he had. He was either going back or be killed but if it was the latter, he would at least make sure to make the freaks suffer by at least killing one of them first. He quickly turned his gun and took aim with a clear shot at Damien's head.
Damien heard the gun go off due to his emerged feline hearing, and shifted swiftly into his birth form, a preteen panther cub-humanoid figure, dodging his head, and he winced hard as his neck protested from the pain of the turn and dodge, due to the deep-awful bruises and the abused vocal cords, and his voice was hoarse as he shouted in pain when the bullet narrowly yet successfully sheared through part of his right ear, tears flying as blood spouted out.
Damien shifted further into a full panther cub, whimpering in pain and trying to stop the bleeding with his paw as the others shouted in worry and horror, "Damien!", as a smug yet shocked Tetch stared with a wicked smirk before an enraged roar came, "You nearly killed my kid! I'm going to kill you, Tetch!".
She grabbed him hard by the neck as he dropped the gun, being lifted in the air. One tight squeeze and his whole neck would collapse, killing him instantly, and the She-Hulk knew that.
Poppy was internally battling with herself at the moment, about what to do. How much she wanted to kill the man for all he had done and now with this last act... but she had been in this position before with Talia. The same choice and she spared her. It was clear at that point though that he had chosen death than imprisonment once more before she took a deep breath and then threw him across the warehouse hard, before a sickening crack was heard as he died upon impact.
Just like that it was all over... and like her mother before, she had taken a life. But part of her knew there was a bit of a difference, Joe Chill was just some bum that got a bit too drunk and confident when he tried to strong arm her parents. If he had been sober trying that, he probably never would've shot at her father or tried shooting her mother; maybe firing off a warning shot but certainly wasn't in a murderous mindset. Tetch, on the other hand...
She-Hulk huffed before turning around and walking quickly to check on Damien as the other kids went to check on him, "Damien! Quickly, can you get through on your phones?".
Dick and Jane checked on theirs, and said, "The cell scrambler's dead.", looking overjoyed and relieved, barely recognizing that the crash of Tetch had destroyed the cell scrambler in his possession, and Jane replied, "You want me to call Fate? As Lily saw the whole thing and all?".
"I don't know yet...", She-Hulk shook her head. "Right now, I'm more worried about Damien than any secrets... Damien, please, answer me...", she started to tear up. "How bad is it? Can you still hear?". She was practically desperate to hear her former child now nephew say anything, even if it was pain.
Damien whimpered hoarsely, "Momma...it hurts...I think I can hear, but it's ringing...and my neck really hurts...", looking up from his cowering cub position, his paw bloodied, trying to hold into the wound of his humanoid feline ear.
Dick tore some of his shirt, "Let me bind that up, Damien...", quickly binding around Damien's head, avoiding his good ear, and wrapping the injured ear, "It's not the best, but it should hold until Grandpa takes a good look at it.", and She-Hulk exhaled, "Thank you, Dick.", her head and heart now clear, a bit more relieved, but still worried.
She glanced at the door of the small room where the other kids are locked up, and to the knocked-out Lily and Ralph, as the kids realized the danger's over, shifting back to normal with almost tired energy from everything, and Sean replied, "What did you think how much they heard?".
Daphne replied, "Not sure, but we gotta call Fate here now to fix Lily's memory of us changing and see to the kids if they had heard everything...The rest of the event should happen as it is, as the paramedics would see to the kids and Damien, at least until Grandpa and the others get here including you, Mom, as worried parents and all, along with the other kids' parents.".
"Right...", She-Hulk gave a small breath as she teared up, brushing Damien's shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Damien... I shouldn't have wasted my time with him, not even let him have the chance to get the gun...".
Damien hoarsely whispered, "It's not your fault, Momma...Mama and Papa wouldn't blame you either...", as he carefully shifted back to human form, his wound still the same, gratefully, but stinging still in pain.
She-Hulk's heart lurched in despair as she saw the hand bruises, deep and all, and she kissed Damien's head, "You are a brave boy, Damien...It's going to be okay.", before taking a deep breath and pressed her comm, knowing that the family is hanging on a thread, "Our babies are alright, but they tussled hard with Tetch...He's dead...Call Fate to my location...we got some things to fix...", as she can see minor bruises on the others compared to Damien.
It was a near heart attack when she saw Tetch attack her twins with that knife, but it was a plummeting relief when they ended up unscathed.
She-Hulk then took a deep breath. "Damien got grazed in the ear...", she added. "He'll live but more than likely scared at worse." There was a pause on the other end before she could hear Bruce deeply sighing, with faintly of Selina having a relieved yet shocked sob.
"As long as he's alive, it'll be alright... not the first one in this family with scars after all... nor being shot.", Bruce replied wearily with relief, as Waylon asked, "Selina's immediately calling Fate. Did something happen?".
She-Hulk replied, "Same thing like with Talia. The bus aide saw them change before being harmlessly knocked out in a hand trick. The bus driver has been out all this time, as Tetch knocked him out hard with his gun. Other kids are locked up in a small room, but they could have heard the loud moments.".
"Understood.", Waylon responded. "Better safe than sorry, I mean, the bus aide might be trustworthy enough considering you probably saved her life from whatever Tetch had planned, but the other kids? Loose lips on a whole class worth for sure... someone's gonna end up spilling something even if not on purpose.".
Bruce then replied on the comm, "Fate's coming in a couple of seconds. Good thing that Tetch can't refute things as a silver lining.", and She-Hulk knew what he meant by that, as even if he's a criminal, his words of the situation would agree with the kids somewhat if he was in court or by the police, and replied, "Roger that. The bus aide is blonde, I think Tetch was planning to rape her, but I still don't trust her, even if she was protecting the kids, she would still spill something by accident to teachers or something.".
"I don't blame you, Poppy.", Fate's voice replied, and She-Hulk turned around to see a portal appearing with Doctor Fate and his apprentice Zatanna Zatara coming through, and Zatanna hissed, "Oh, damn, let me look at that.", noticing Damien's injury.
Fate stopped her, "Don't, Zatanna. I know it hurts your heart to see the kids hurt like this, but we must keep this as a normal kidnapping if severe, along with attempted murder and such. Thomas will take care of Damien at home after the paramedics check him out, along with the others' bruises and all. You listen to Jane's words of what happened with the bus aide, and fix her memory, it should be only a few minutes' change, Zatanna. I've frozen the kids in the room after I scanned the warehouse with one of my spells, Poppy. I'll see if they heard everything. Dick, come with me, so you can tell me what happened so I wouldn't make a mistake, if I make their memories of their hearing right.".
Jane and Dick glanced at She-Hulk who nodded with parental permission, and went to assist Fate and Zatanna, while She-Hulk, even if she wanted to change back to being Poppy and hold Damien in reassurance, has to keep her super hearing to listen for any police in case if the noises from the warehouse were heard by any civilian outside, calling 911, thanks to her. She is proud all the same to see her twins comfort Damien.
Still, it was going to be quite the mess to deal with, especially in the fact that after so long, one of the crime fighters of Gotham over the years since the millennium had started took a life. It wasn't like anyone was going to truly miss or feel sorry for Tetch; his acts and crimes far and away condemned him to society's everlasting disgust. But it still was a change that would be surprising for the police.
Poppy took a deep breath from where she was hiding, waiting for the others in her family to arrive so she could pretend to have shown up with them. She looked to her hands as she could practically see the blood on her hands because of her actions. She had Tetch disarmed, at her mercy and she threw him away with the intent to kill. It was no wild 'not knowing on strength' accident like what one could argue with Kel and Chill.
It was lucky that Fate and Zatanna were quick with modifications for Lily and the kids' memories, from sight and sound, and now Fate gave Poppy an invisible shield for her to hide while police and paramedics stormed the warehouse, after they went through their portal home.
Ralph ended up with a serious concussion, but managed to tell his side of the story, that is, before Tetch bonked him out, and Lily had a badly bruised couple of ribs where Tetch kicked her in the side, having seen him lock up the school kids in the small room, and a sharp memory of the Wayne family kids defending and protecting each other from Tetch and his attempt to murder them, with a memory of getting knocked out by hitting her head on the wall just enough to black out, but only having a migraine instead of a concussion like Ralph, and a faint memory of the Wayne kids tackling Tetch before she blacked out.
The rest of the school kids was checked up for shock and trauma, and with different police uniforms in questioning with the kids, their story only heard Tetch's raging madness, his obsession about Penelope Wayne, and the fight between Tetch and the kids, She-Hulk's arrival, Tetch's desperation, and the gunshot and the wall crash of Tetch's body.
The good news was that Tetch had been stopped before he would be able to add more to his list of victims. It couldn't undue the trauma and pain of the women he had attacked and violated before, but at least justice had finally been delivered, and he would never harm or even scare anyone ever again. That was the small comfort that Poppy could take into her heart after all that. That and she was protecting her children; something she could never be ashamed or feel guilty for, no matter what.
The Wayne kids, luckily, on the same brainwave, had conducted the same story to Lily and the locked-up kids' memories of sight and sound, and of course, with the clearly visible bruises and the narrowing attempted murder on them, especially Damien, with his ear wound, and the police couldn't actually blame the Sensational She-Hulk for doing Tetch away over the bus, against the wall on the other side where it wasn't a pretty sight, but deserving of Tetch all the same for his crimes in the past and the present.
After all, like the hardened criminals, the untold code was the same for the cops; no kids, and it was clear that it was Tetch's fault that started it all, not the kids or Lily, or the She-Hulk, so in the end, it was an open and close case quickly.
Tetch's body, not having relatives or anything, went to ashes, after the autopsy and all that night, after the investigation was over, and the school kids happily and tearfully reunited with emotional parents and such, including the Wayne family.
Damien went to wear a advanced Wayne neck cast and the best bandages the manor got, after being checked out by the closest hospital, with Thomas telling the relieving news to the family that Damien's healing steadily with the neck, perhaps due to his gamma genes, and it would take a while before the ear either becomes regrown, like a chameleon's tail, or a permanent scar, otherwise he is able to hear normally after some hours of the medicated gamma cream and all, gratefully, though he will be sore all the same for a while yet.
And of course, for the trauma and such, Friday the next day was then off from school, which is fair, considering the situation for the kids, figuring that school would be too stressful for the kids too fast, and for the Wayne Entreprises Halloween party in the ballroom, it was both celebrating the finale of the mass rapist and kidnapper, and understandably not asking too much questions as the party lasted for a few hours before wishing the family a good Halloween evening and a happy birthday for Poppy.
The family then relaxed finally, happily celebrating Poppy's birthday, had a couple of hours tricking or treating at the door, with one or two heading down to check on the Batcave, praying that the criminals tonight saw the warning of She-Hulk and Tetch's death as not robbing any place or anything, to ruin their night to pay respects to Kel, unknowing of the shocking news a few minutes later.
Alfred sprinted to one of the living rooms, eyes wide, as he came in, "Thomas, Martha, Kel's portrait is gone! I checked the security cameras on the secret entrance if it was anyone from the ballroom who came that way, and nobody came that way! It's only the wedding certificate papers now, and the alarm didn't trigger or anything, it was...just gone...".
"What are you talking about, Alfred?", Thomas asked. "How could...", he shook his head. "How exactly could her portrait just vanish?".
"Magic?", Martha suggested. "I mean, we know some folks after all...", as her heart began to race in confusion and shock. "Okay, true, but obviously Fate and his apprentice weren't on the camera, right?", Thomas asked Alfred.
Alfred shook his head, "No, they weren't on the camera, as we know Fate usually goes to a convention during the day, and he's usually home at night, like he always does every year, and Zatanna was doing magic shows to earn some money.".
Caroline frowned, "The tunnel cameras?", and Alfred replied, "Nothing, as we really camouflaged them out really well, and you know the cliff side is collapsed and made really difficult since the fiasco with those two men.
Bruce replied, "Why take the portrait and leave the wedding certificate papers?", and Poppy realized, "Because the papers is and was very important to Dad and Mom, and Mama wouldn't want them destroyed because she got married to them and vice versa. Okay, I get that Mama's portrait is of her as She-Hulk, but if nobody was there to take the portrait, then it must be for a reason...".
The others tried to think of what reason, next to the fact that it wasn't the only picture of Kel, as they kept pictures of their wife/mama/friend/aunt deeply locked in the Batcomputer, before Caroline suddenly remembered something.
"Waylon, the chimes I sent you as a gift from Heaven, they vanished, right, after we got back home?", Caroline asked, and Waylon nodded, "They sure did, probably because it was your spirit work, and since you weren't a spirit anymore, and alive again...Wait, you don't mean...?", as Martha and Thomas heard, tears beginning to fall.
Caroline replied, "Well, think about it, somehow Thomas, I, and Jane never needed the Pit again, yet Ra did...I think it was because we got rid of the League of Assassins altogether, since Ra was centuries old, and the League did immeasurable, unspoken crimes, along with the help of Dorji, of course.".