RECAP:
After the fall of
Blockbuster, Mayor Soames placed a new
official legislation into law called the Anti-Vigilante Displacement
act. Making metas and non-powered vigilantes fugitives of
justice
within the city limits of Blüdhaven. With the help
of
Special Agent Cisco Blaine, and the full power of the FBI; a new task
force was integrated into the Blüdhaven Police Department
known as
the Crime Prevention Squad. Meanwhile, Nightwing found
himself
betrayed by his information broker Oracle who agreed with Special Agent
Blaine's plans to save Blüdhaven. He also discovered
Blaine
had a sample of his DNA, which would allow him to uncover his identity,
so he fled in an effort to protect his identity and find a way to
protect Blüdhaven from the new menace that threatens it.
Blaine hung
upside down, tied by his ankles; his wrists bound together, and his
mouth gagged. He opened his eyes not knowing how much time passed, and
immediately felt a sense of vertigo once he realized he was not on his
feet. His eyes trained upwards to the sight of black boots with a
yellow trim around them. A small blade was placed against his
chest, and run up to his belt.
"Tell me," said a soft feminine voice. "Do you value your pride, American."
Blaine lowered his eyes and he could see a masked Asian woman; her red
costume had a yellow sun on it and a yellow sash around the
waist. She cut his belt, and he whimpered; she smiled. She
pushed him lightly with her foot and he rocked back and then forward
into her waiting grip.
"I have many ways of making a man like you talk; some more cruel than
others."
Blaine whimpered again, and she undid his pants; he whimpered some
more. Nightwing pulled up on the ropes bringing him within eye
level of her. She caressed his face, and held the very tip of her
blade to his chin.
"You tell me where I can find the blood sample you took from Nightwing,
and I will let you go. If not..."
She eased the tip against his privates and he whimpered while nodding
his head frantically. She undid the gag, and Blaine bit his lip
for a moment, and then spoke.
"It's at the Double Deuce hotel," he said with fear in his eyes.
"There's a lab on the East Side; room 213, and an entire facility below
ground. It used to be a bomb shelter designed to facilitate the mayor
and members of his cabinet in case of an nuclear attack."
She smiled and moved the blade away from his privates. He sighed before
a gas pellet was broken under his nose knocking him unconscious.
"Now, we have what we need," said Nightwing, as he leaned up and looked
at Katana. "However, breaking in will be a problem since they are
using Venom enhanced goons."
"I will take care of it, Richard-san."
"Are you sure?" asked Nightwing, a surprised look on his face.
"You'd be all alone against them."
"I'm sure. Do not worry."
A smile crossed her face, and she placed a hand on Blaine's
stomach. "I will also take care of him."
"Thank you..."
"You are more than welcome," she said. Nightwing walked away and she
turned around. "More than you will ever know."
A bomb with a fuse was tossed into Braedy's Grocery front window; not a
second later it exploded. Skipping through the streets in an
orange, white, and blue costume with a blue domino mask was the
Trickster with more of those bombs. He tossed into more windows causing
cars to explode, apartments to blow up, and stores lining up Lee Way
and Norris Street, which ran parallel to city hall. Several CPS
squad cars drove onto the scene, but Nite-Wing leaped through the
windshield of the first one taking out the officers in it while
Trickster pulled out a squirt gun, which fired a stream of napalm that
lit the officers in the second and third squad car on fire.
He giggled and ran up to Nite-Wing who had pulled out the two officers,
pummeling them to death.
"This is such a treat; you and me painting the town red!"
"Red, red, red!" said Nite-Wing as he continued the vicious beating on
the helpless officers.
Trickster tapped Nite-Wing on the shoulder after he finished with the
officers; both of them dead and leaking something fierce. He
pointed to City Hall, and their eyes had a gleam to them. They
both walked past the wrecked squad cars toward City Hall.
Elizabeth had heard loud noises, and due to her fits of restlessness
decided to check it out. She had slipped the bottom of her
uniform up to the waist and buckled it, then slung the fire resistant
socks on followed by the impact absorbent boots. She then put her
top on, which was made of Kevlar/nomeax weave. After spirit
gumming her domino mask into place, she put gloves on, did a quick
inventory check, and then jumped onto the fire escape where she headed
for the roof. The moon was out in full, yet she could see the
smoke coming from Lee Way and Norris Street. She ran and leaped
across to the other roof, narrowly missing the edge by an inch.
She broke into a run and then flipped down onto the adjacent roof while
making her way to where she could hear gun shots.
Kasumi dropped the severed head of Mayor Soames before Sensei and he
smiled as he touched the decomposed face of the man who had insulted
him. His eyes had been removed as part of a ritual unique to certain
Native American myths that Sensei believed. He turned to a
servant and motioned to the head.
"Have this cleaned a bit, and then bottled with a fine wine."
"Yes, Sensei."
Kasumi bowed after removing her mask; sightless, but able to hear her
master quite well due to her other senses developing to almost a
superhuman degree. She laid her sword in front of the floor
before him, and kneeled down on the floor, lowering her head again.
"If you wish to take my head, honorable one, then I give it freely."
"I should for all of your failures, and yet you managed to complete
your task; albeit later than I wanted."
She nodded her head, and Sensei turned his back to her, "Hit the
showers; catch some rest, I shall need of you later."
She nodded again, and then grabbed the sword, her mask, and left.
A bald lieutenant of the league with a dragon on his left breast walked
over to Sensei; placing his hands behind his back and lowering his head.
"What do you wish, Sensei?"
"Kasumi is no longer of any use to me. Kill her. I shall be enjoying a
drink."
"Yes Sensei."
"Oh, and Nori..."
"Yes Sensei?"
"Have fun..."
"Yes, Sensei."
The Nightbird barreled through the streets with Nightwing inside. He
checked his onboard computer, and picked up Flamebird's transponder
signal, and he made a left on Denzel road to cut through Aston parkway
straight to City Hall. He could see the smoke rising from the
smashed cars, and the CPS cruisers were utterly wrecked. A horde of the
local gangs had started to run ramshod over the CPS and anyone that
provided resistance. Nightwing flipped a switch on the Nightbird
revealing twin bola launchers on the sides, and by pushing in the red
button beneath the switch he fired the bolas netting himself some of
the crazed gang bangers. Slamming on the brakes, he came to a
complete stop, and he could see Trickster in the lead of the gangs with
another individual wearing a black and red jacket that had Nite-Wing on
the front and back. He engaged the Nightbird's security lock
system, and climbed out, and then made his way toward them.
He could see Flamebird fighting her way in from the other side where a
concentration of the gangs were, and he found himself conflicted.
While Mayor Soames was scum, he didn't deserve to die, nor did his
cabinet and the office workers inside, but he couldn't let Flamebird be
overwhelmed by the psychotics among the local gangs. So, he ran
towards them, and fought his way through until he was back to back with
Flamebird.
"What kept you?" she asked. She was breathing hard, but whether it was
from exhaustion Nightwing didn't know.
"I was busy. Are you all right?" he asked knocking out two gang members
with a jumping split kick.
"I'll be fine," she said, elbowing a gang member with a bandana on the
back of the head, and kneeing him in the face, shattering his
nose. She tossed him onto his back. "Just worry about
watching my back."
"No problem," he said.
While they battled the gangs, Katana broke into the facility below the
Double Deuce hotel, her lithe form easily fitting through the air
duct. She dropped down onto the floor, as quietly as possible and
pulled her katana- the Soultaker-
from its scabbard, as she walked toward the labs, which were indicated
to be on the East Side. She kept checking the numbers until she
came upon 213, and she opened the door just a crack to see lab workers
and three venom enhanced soldiers. She kept her katana level when
a massive hand grabbed her shoulder, and a fist came down toward her
face. She barely moved in time, as it knocked a chunk of the doorframe
away.
"Come on," she said, a smile forming on her face. "You must do
better than that!"
The massive brute charged toward her, and she made several swift swipes
and then jumped back. He fell to the ground bleeding from his
slit throat, and cleanly removed arms and legs. The other three
brutes rushed out and she spun her katana until the pointed end was
facing upwards; then she aimed it at the heart of the next one to come
at her, and plunged it straight through. A fist from the brute's
partner came toward her from her left, and she kicked off of him as he
died; she lopped off the offending brute's hand after avoiding his
punch, and then slit his throat killing him as well. This left
the fourth one who came toward her unafraid; she swiped her katana low
biting through flesh, and cutting through the cartilage of the knees
and slicing them neatly in half. He fell over unable to get up
and continue his attack.
"Well, that was not hard at all."
Katana walked into the laboratory and eyed the lab technicians. "Now,
which one of you can tell me where Nightwing's blood sample is?"
One of the lab technicians pointed to the far cabinet, and Katana
walked over to it; opened it up to where she found not just a vial of
Nightwing's blood, but of Blockbuster, and many others in
Blüdhaven. She turned to the lab technicians, and brandished
her katana in an intimidating fashion.
"What is all of this blood for?"
"Blaine; he wants to examine the mutagenic factors of Desmond. As for
the others, I have no idea."
Katana turned to the cabinet realizing that her task was more difficult
than she thought. She sheathed her katana blade, and motioned for
the lab technicians to leave, which they did with no qualms what so
ever. She then looked for a computer and pulled out a datajack,
which she plugged in.
"Oracle, are you online?"
Yes, I am Katana. How is Nightwing?
"He's fine for the moment. Right now we have more pressing concerns."
What would that be?
"They have been cataloging blood samples of everyone in Blüdhaven;
perhaps those who visit Blüdhaven," she said. "I can wipe
out their facility provided with the information of what will do the
most damage..."
But, you need me to track down any
files that may have passed through the Internet, and corrupt them so we
can keep our secrets.
"Yes," she said, typing a few keys. "What would do the most
damage to this complex, yet provide me with sufficient time to escape?"
I'm checking the database of the
FBI's Crime Prevention Squad blue prints... Okay, I have
something; they have a epsilon class reactor that powers the whole
complex, all you have to do is create a feed back loop into its central
processor, and fifteen minutes from then the epsilon reactor will
implode taking the facility with it.
"What is an epsilon reactor, and how can I access it?
It's a matter condenser that draws
and condenses ambient matter into a small spherical shaped source of
atomic energy. By creating a feed back loop, you will cause the epsilon
reactor to condense upon itself, thereby imploding. As to how you
can access it; there is a panel on the floor below you that will allow
you to set it up, I will run you through the sequence while I run a
search program for DNA files sent in the past several months.
"Okay," said Katana, removing the datajack.
She ran down the hall, and took a flight of stairs down to the floor
Oracle described, then looked for the keypad that would allow her
access to the epsilon class reactor. After passing several panels
a touch tone keypad revealed itself, and Katana tapped inner mic.
"I found the touch tone keypad."
All right. Just follow my
instructions, and then run like hell.
She listened to Oracle's words and typed in the exact commands that
Oracle said. A read out appeared that warned her of an imminent
overload and sirens blared. Katana broke out into a run clearing
the floor she was on, and the lab floor above. She caught an anti-grav
elevator, which took her quickly up to the hotel above ground, and she
sprinted right past the confused guards, as the matter condensing field
began to envelope the facility. By the time she stopped running a
large crater stood where the Double Deuce hotel was, and she took that
moment to take a breather. To
be Continued... Next Issue: Stemming Panic NEVERMORE:
They is a fictional representation of I; the individual.
