Chapter 84

Law PoV

What a mess.

The abandoned building was spattered with blood and holes. With several boards of wood shattered around the place. Not to mention the large hole that I had caused due to the construction not being complete.

Then of course there was the elephant in the room, Ravager, who seems to have been treated rather poorly. Seems like they were trying to carve her up like a pumpkin on Halloween. Though they weren’t too successful, as one of them was definitely dead next to her.

There was no need to check their pulse, considering the knife that was firmly fixed into their head through their eye socket.

See? Aren’t you grateful for my help?

Indeed, the only reason I was even here was due to the voice in my head’s intervention. Who asked me if I ‘wanted to see something cool’. After explaining that I definitely didn’t want that, she simply giggled and accepted my refusal.

Almost immediately I got a bad feeling, and decided to walk back my answer.

Which seemed to be the correct choice.

Well then, I guess it’s safe to say you owe me a favor then.

I was expecting something along those lines. Especially considering she rarely helps out unless it benefits her in some way. Even so, it was indeed a worthwhile trade off.

The safety of my f-of the Titans was among my greatest concerns. Something I have come to understand quite well after Starfire had been shot by Deathstroke. The same Deathstroke that Ravager had once worked under.

Hah, it was kind of ironic, wasn’t it?

She went from fighting against and being betrayed at her lowest point, to working with us and being saved at her lowest point.

That’s only if you go through with it. It’d be a much safer option to make sure she doesn’t recover…

You mean it’d be the more entertaining option for you.

It can be both. You know, you wouldn’t even have to do anything. Just simply do nothing and nature will take care of the rest. It’s not like you attacked her, so who could possibly blame you?

Funny. I wonder what’s more entertaining to you. Your proposal, or my reaction to it.

Either way, I didn’t have time to actually focus on that. Ravager was already in a pretty bad state. If she didn’t get emergency treatment, she’d probably just succumb to her injuries. 

Fortunately for her, emergency treatment is what I specialize in.

Taking off one of the orange capsules around my belt, I opened it up and applied it’s contents to her wounds. Quickly sealing them up with the slimy texture of wet silly putty.

It took a minute, but eventually she was perfectly fine.

…Er, perfectly fine meaning that I did all that I can, and if she can recover, she’d recover. Not that she had been magically kissed on the forehead and purged of all ailments. She was still fucked up and wounded, but she’d at the very least not bleed out or internally.

With that out of the way, all that was left was to deal with her attackers.

Of course, Ravager still needed to be cared for and protected, which made this all the more complicated. Which left me with three potential options.

The first was to call in the Titans. The big upside of this was that Ravager’s safety would be pretty much guaranteed. But the downside was that I wouldn’t be able to talk to the culprits…

Just talk, huh? Uh huh…Sure…

They messed with a Titan. There were consequences to that.

I would make sure there was.

Ahaha, I like that side of you…

Gross.

Option two was to use our location to my advantage. With the Institute already close by, it wouldn’t take any time at all in securing Ravager’s position. Though the problem with that was pretty damn obvious.

They weren’t ready, not by a mile. Not for getting caught, not for getting a reputation, not for risking Ravager learning about them, hell, not even for combat.

At their current progress it’ll take years before they even become relevant at all. But that was fine. There was no rush.

That you know of…

…Ominous.

The third option was one I had forged myself through cold hard cash for moments just like these. That was of course to get the boys in blue involved. The JCPD and their newly acquired police commissioner.

I had already secured his position through bribery, but loyalty bought with money wasn’t exactly reliable. Nonetheless, he’s proven himself to at least be given a certain level of trust. Especially after he helped orchestrate Jinx ‘breaking out’ of police custody.

But that only really showed that he wasn’t an idiot. In truth he could be doing a multitude of things with that knowledge, such as attempting to build up blackmail material on me. Well, even if that does come to pass, I’ve already taken steps to ensure my safety.

What was truly in question, was whether he could be trusted with protecting Ravager, and guiding her to the Titan Tower. The skill of his men wasn’t anything to write home about, but he at least had absolute control over them. He reminded me of Ethan in that regard. Well, that and the fact they were both as round as bowling balls.

It also helped that all of their new and improved combat equipment had been bankrolled by me as well. So, while their natural skills were poor, their equipment could carry them.

Well, it seems like I’ve made my choice then.

Now it was time to get even.

~o~

Cheshire PoV

…Ow.

If Black Spider and Hook were actually good at their job, they would’ve at least been able to keep others from interfering. At least long enough for me to pry information about Red Arrow from Ravager.

But of course they weren’t. Only serving to make things that much more difficult for myself. Things would have been much easier if it wasn’t for that giant T shape tower. Without it, getting information out of any of the Titans would have been easy pickings, and I could’ve even gotten some family bonding time.

Unfortunately, that’s not how the die was cast.

So instead, we decided to grab those who left the tower instead. Kid Flash was the first choice, but his movements were too erratic to pin down. Leading us to decide on Ravager instead. The one who had been previously an enemy to not only the Titans, but the Justice League as well.

Being the daughter of Deathstroke, she’d have obviously grabbed any information she could.  Including where we could find Red Arrow. She’d also be the most agreeable to an exchange. One in which she’d be on the backfoot of due to being surrounded and pressed.

Her being able to put up a fight against all three of us wasn’t something that was expected. Which only further highlighted the failures of those incompetent buffoons.

If I had been fighting her one on one with intent to truly kill from the start, then I’d probably win. It would unlikely be easy, but I’d undoubtedly come out on top. What I hadn’t been expecting was how pathetic the others were. Utterly disgracing the league with their incompetence. Their idiocy so great they might as well have been fighting each other instead of her.

So I was forced to retreat for a bit, before going back onto the offense.

Returning back the Demon’s Head empty handed was not an option. Either I returned with something, or I didn’t return at all.

And the League wasn’t exactly the kind of place that accepted resignations.

A plan was already starting to form as I fled towards the second floor of the building. Leaving immediately was the safe option, but it also made things harder in terms of getting what the League wanted. If the Titans were all on high alert, things got more complicated.

But if they were responding to Ravager’s current state, their guard would be lowered. Especially if they were close enough to be in the same building she was injured in. They likely would think we’ve already fled, allowing us to get the jump on them once again.

But all this depended on getting a Titan that was not only easy to handle, but also lacked strong senses. The cut on my chest was bleeding out and could lead a trail if I wasn’t careful, and my shoulder which felt like it had been fractured smelled burnt, thanks to the leader of the Titans showing up.

Even without the little boy wonder here, it seemed like they were really trying to imitate Batman’s ferocity.

It was cute.

…It’d be cuter if my shoulder didn’t ache in pain with every movement. Even so, I was just going to have to tough it out. Besides, the pain was nothing compared to training with good old dad.

 Now my mood was officially ruined.

Aaaaaand was only getting worse, as Black Spider’s worthless ass limped towards me from the end of the hallway. Did he seriously have the same idea as me? No, he wasn’t nearly that smart.

He must have traced me somehow. Finding my position with one of those stupid gadgets of his. It wasn’t a tracker, as he wasn’t nearly slick enough to get one over on me. Not in a million years.

His left arm trailed behind him limply. Being held in place by his other hand in order to keep the pain to a minimum. The large gash in his stomach spewing out blood…and leaving a pretty obvious trail behind him.

If this was the best he could do, then he might as well kill himself and save me the trouble.

“C-Chesh, I nee-”

Whatever he was going to say was cut off, as a massive pale white tendril shot through his chest. Ripping apart his ribcage like his bones were made of balsa wood. Five claw like indentions spread out, causing the large gouge to become wider and wider until the only thing connecting his chest together was the skin on either side.

Due to his spine being severed, what remained of his upper body fell forward. Colliding with the ground with a wet squelch.

Just as quickly as the massive white tendril appeared, it disappeared back into the arm of Law. The current leader of the Titans who gazed dispassionately at Black Spider.

…Or what remained of him, at any rate.

“…Oh my. Are the Titans just full of murderers now?”

I called out playfully, while adjusting my stance. The plan from before was quickly abandoned. Any thoughts of continuing on was tossed out. The only thing that mattered now was escaping the Titans with my life intact.

Law might not be the greatest threat on the team, but if the others held similar ruthless views…

It wouldn’t look good for me.

“My hand slipped. It was an honest accident.”

He stated in a calm and matter of fact way as he steadily walked over to my position. Neither his steps or his voice betrayed any sort of nervousness from his actions. This hadn’t been a spur of the moment thing, or driven by emotion.

This was as premeditated as it got.

“Just like how Ravager’s hand slipped?”

He smiled.

“No, not quite. I imagine the stress of the moment or something similar got to her, which caused the slip up. Me on the other hand, I simply got worried due to a member of my team being injured. I believe you helped with that, right?”

Despite the tenseness of the situation, I couldn’t help but grin under the mask. Something about atmosphere he was giving off was dangerous. Not dangerous enough to abandon all my training and flee, but dangerous enough to make it interesting.

To make me want to play with him.

A small knife was quickly freed from my sleeve and kept hidden in my palm. Due to how small the movement was, it was practically imperceptible. Even so, it didn’t hurt to keep him distracted.

“What, ‘you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us’? I thought the Titans was a group of superheroes, not some sort of gang.”

“Do you know what separates superheroes from villains?”

The question was unexpected, but not too surprising. These types always loved to hear themselves talk.

“Morality?”

I decided to go with as a answer. Not out of any sort of genuineness, but to attempt to ruffle his feathers. Something that didn’t seem to be happening.

He continued on.

“Superheroes win, and villains lose. That’s all there is to it.”

What, so might makes right? Oh, he’d fit in right at home in the League.

“Oh, how heroic.”

The knife was thrown from the palm of my hand in such a way as to be almost impossible to see. He didn’t even react until the knife had already plunged into his arm. He looked down at it with a questioning look before pulling it out completely. His blood dripping down his arm with a…strange pinkish tint.

“…Jellyfish toxin? That’s the best you can do? How…villainous of you.”

The seriousness of the situation escalated further when his arm stopped bleeding.

This was going to be a problem.