[IC] Gotham Knights - City On Fire

[Kazemitsu]

Kaze was less than impressed with how the group reacted to Jack being Slade. The bestial man had just put on a wary front. Batwoman had got up in his face and Guardian got up in her face before going off to do...something. While they bickered he was inching towards the gym, for once he actually did want to fight. His nose flared as he scented the air, the stink of Venom was heavy around here. There was always a little undertone of it in certain areas but this place was like the warehouse he had visited. It stuck heavy in the air like some sickly sludge.

Someone from the meeting point rooftop finally made an appearance. Someone cloaked like Kaze, but his name was Ka'van. Who offered to phase people into the abandoned looking gym. "I'll go in my own way. I don't exactly need to be hidden." He said while removing his cloak and bundling it up before tossing it to the side to retrieve later. Cloth was expensive when you didn't have money. Only Slade and Batman had seen him before so he ignored the rest. The only human thing about him was how he stood and how he stretched his limbs.

Once the others went Kaze simply waited. Watching the building and anticipating what would happen. The lights inside flickered and died which was his own signal. Launching himself forward he crashed through the wall of the gym and into the group of Venomed up goons. A dull thoom and one of the men was sent flying into the opposite wall, leaving him embedded with a spiderweb of cracks around him. Kaze turned glowing crimson eyes to the other goons and launched himself into them for a good brawl. He honestly couldn't remember the last big brawl he had been in, those memories were stolen from him if it had even ever happened.

[Burning Kitty]

He noticed Bane and a bunch of roided up thugs. "For fuck's sake." He jumped through the skylight using his shield as a battering ram slammed into the back of the head one roided up thug. He would use some more Venom but there were way to many thugs and he particularly didn't care to listen to Batman monologing about the evils of Venom or whatever. The roided thug that he hit in the back of the head at full force of the fall plus Guardian's punching power was knocked off balance and ended up stumbling into another they began fighting each other, until Bane bitch slapped them both.

[Unknown100]

Guardian’s mental breakdown and Batman so easily trusting Deathstroke left Batwoman more than just a bit concerned. She however went along and let Ka’van phase her inside. What hit her first was the smell of years and years of dried up sweat and blood.
The smell of military boot camp all over.

“Where are the lights?” one of the goons asked as everything turned black. Only the echoing sound of his friends’ heavy steps were heard in the big hall.

“They’re coming. Just like Bane-“
The other guy suddenly went silent. No scream, no gunfire and not a trace of him.

“What the fuck, man!” The goon looked for support in his teammates faces, but only saw the same look of surprise.
A cable shot out from the shadows above, attached itself to another and pulled him up, as if all that muscle and weight on him didn’t mean a thing.
Before anyone could point their guns at the ceiling an explosion of bricks and stone happened, as Kaze, in all his massiveness, ran straight through the wall and tackled a couple of the unsuspecting men.
Now that an opponent, even more massive than themselves, had jumped right up into their face, a brawl erupted. Suddenly everyone acted like primates. Punches of immense power was thrown around without much control or finesse. Just pure, raw power. More goons approached, but that's when another cable shoot out, attached itself to one and then he was gone. One by one Bane's men were picked off and simply disappeared from the battlefield that was the floor of the old gym.

That’s when the lights went back on and suddenly guns and the act of aiming was reliable once more. And suddenly there were no shadows for Batwoman to hide in.
She dropped down just a few feet from where Kaze was joggling grown men and got ready to cover him.
A whole legion of goons jacked up on venom poured in from another room. Bane must have arrived before them, or perhaps he had been in the boxing ring this whole time. Standing there, not moving an inch, until two of his men started fighting with each other. Then he moved with a surprising amount of speed. But so did Batwoman, as she pulled out her own weapon and opened fire on a legion of kneecaps.
When Guardian crashed down and started doing his thing, it only added to the chaotic war for Gotham’s soul.

[vancexentan]

As the news of police reports, and other random inane nonsense was spoken through the loud speakers of the tv in the diner. Gotham was such an annoying place. He grew up here, and he was raised here for quite a bit before he more or less cut complete ties with the city. Damocles viewed such idle nonsense as this whole situation he had found himself in with Batman to be particularly annoying at this point. He had made Batman an absurd offer one he as a joke more than anything. He required a ton of cash, and a lot of freedom after all of this. And Batman had granted him his request thus putting himself squarely under another vigilante's thumb. Damocles had as always kept his part of the deal. He wondered though what was Batman's end game with Bane? Kill him? Throw him in Blackgate? He could only hope he had the sense to do some forward planning on the matter. Damocles was a hitman, and a thief he didn't like being sent after thugs that he wasn't allowed to put down. Car crashes, poison, a bullet in the head, or some other simple form of dispatching the scum of the world was always the preferred method. THEY chose to be scum, and THEY chose to hurt people, and scheme their way to the top. It showed lack of empathy for the humans around them. As Damocles was listening to a report on Scarecrow releasing fear toxin last week at a water plant he could only hope that Batman would just give him a call soon...and put him with a better teammate who knew what their job was.

[Unknown100]

There he stood. The black tank-top. Veins as tick as rope. Bane’s worn-out mask showed neither emotion or humanity. Only the cold gaze of death and it was fixed on someone. The mercenary called Nuke.
He had joined the part and was heading straight for Bane. Dodged ever single goon in his way. Made a run, then a jump, but was stopped immediately when he reached his opponent. Maybe the guy had aimed for a sucker punch or hoped Bane would play along. Whatever the case Bane had been smarter, moving to the side and grabbing him by the throat.

Batwoman had realized the error of her ally’s approach even before he moved. Yet when Bane raised him up, she still felt that old familiar pain of losing a buddy.

There was a cracking sound, even with everything that was going on, and then there was nothing.

All Batwoman's energy, all her sorrow, she turned into focus, when she approached. In that moment, she knew she could take on the whole room, all by herself, but strangely none of the gorillas made even the slightest attempt to block her path. Just ran right past her while she marched forward.
The second Batwoman entered the ring they started circling each other. It was as if everything outside didn’t exist at all. All the sounds, all the racket was gone.
All she heard was the sound of her own heartbeat. This would be the fight of her life, and one wrong step could be the end for her.

“And who are you supposed to be, Batgirl 2.0?” Bane asked crossing his arms, which only flexed his muscles further.

“Do I look like a girl to you?”

“No. No, you do not. A shame we’ve never run into each other. A clear mistake on my part, but I will tell you this only once: Tonight is not a good time to challenge me.”

“It going to get worse before it gets better. Besides your boy, Trogg, already told us quite a lot of embarrassing things about you. Perhaps your master plan is not as bulletproof as you might think.”

It was hard to know what Bane was feeling underneath the mask, yet based on his body language that last line struck a nerve.

Finally. A crack in the armor…

Bane threw a punch that could very well have cracked her skull open. Yet she just moved out of reach, and succeeded in making it look easy, though nothing could be further from the truth.
Batwoman followed up actually taking a step closer to the mountain of muscle, as she knew she would have to tenderize the meat a little more, before cutting it out.

“Trogg confirmed to me, what everyone already knows,” she taunted. “You’re nothing without the Venom. And you know it, don’t you?”
With graceful movements, she moved around in the ring fast enough to keep out of harm’s way, while Bane delivered a forward kick. He continued with, what on the outside looked like basic punches, but Batwoman could feel a powerful gust behind each swing, and still she kept going.
“Without it, you wouldn’t last two seconds against me, big guy. You know that, don’t know? I’m better than you. We are all better than you. Your victories never belonged to you.”
She managed to stay on the outside and dodge, roll and duck further attacks.
The fury of Bane was immeasurable and the way he moved seemed out of this world.
Just as she was cornered she used the ropes to spring up and make a flip above him. That’s when his speed surprised her and he grabbed her by the angle and slammed her into the ground. Hardly had she time to recover before he delivered a steady kick that left her moaning in pain. He seized her by the throat and raised her into the air while twisting her left arm, so it felt like it was going to break.

“It won’t work,” Bane rather calmly said to her.

“What?”

“You trying to make me angry so I’ll make a mistake.”

Batwoman struggled just to breath, and yet she managed to make a coherent sentence while facing him. “Oh, I’m disappointed, Bane-train. You missed how I’m tiring you out, and making you reveal your best moves to me. But… mostly… you missed this part.” And with those words she used her free hand to grab the Venom controller on his wrist and turned.

Nothing happened. The handle didn’t move an inch. It was as welded together with the rest.

“Hoping to give me an overdose? That won’t work. You see I learn from my mistakes, and it takes considerable more strength to operate my Venom now. Strength I have…” He squeezed her further and whispered in her ear: “… And you don’t.”
With those words, he threw her from the ring, and she only just got out of the way when he smashed down where her head had been a second ago. The collision shook the ground like an earthquake from where she was lying, and she did not stay down any longer than she had to. When Bane did a haymaker, it was right into her fist holding a batarang like a knife. Though her hand was swung backwards by the enormous force, the sharp metal stayed buried halfway into his hand. She used his outcry and surprise to go in with a punch herself, but he saw it and caught it right next to his face.
“Predictable and weak. It’s a shame you came here wounded. It would be a pleasure to-“
Bane was interrupted when she opened her palm and revealed a flashbang. Its immense light left him blinded and open for her to unleash some brutal punishment to his throat.
Every time he felt a new blow the flashbang shined again like clockwork and made him unable to open his eyes. By the sixth punch his torment was starting to show.

[Burning Kitty]

Guardian slipped one of the Venom patches out of a bag, he tossed the bag with around a dozen of the VPs at Batwoman. "Your strategy may have failed but my boss' demands may make up for it. Make the bastard OD."

Guardian was approached by two of the roided up goons. He put himself in between them, every time they tried to him him they ended up hitting each other. He then had an idea. He grabbed two vials of the Gaurdian Serum and injected each goon. The Guardian Serum would burn out the Venom faster, each goon was wearing at least six patches each. That much Venom would cause both to burn out quick. Within a minute one goon began clutching his chest he was having a massive coronary, he was dead before he hit the ground. The other Guardian kept off balance until his plan worked, Guardian knocked him out. Guardian checked on the one that clutched his chest. "Deceased. Coronary probably. Add it to the list of known side effects." His diagnosis was clinical it lacked any emotion. He tagged the body for his organization to collect at a later date. A third goon grabbed him by the neck. Guardian using his shield sliced several nerves leading to the hand, forcing him to drop Guardian. "Cut the nerves to your hand." His whole demeanor changed. He quickly moved to behind the goon that grabbed his neck and struck the goon's spine with his shield. The goon's legs gave out from under him. "My legs! I can't feel my legs!" The goon screamed. "Severed spinal cord. Paralysis. Chances of walking astronomically slim." Again he was purely clinical, like a robot.

[Kazemitsu]

Kaze dipped and moved almost silently as the Venomed Goons attacked him. His reflexes were greater than their speed thanks to his reptilian nature. One of them overextended his punch and wound up across the building just like the first goon he attacked. But as fluid as his movements were he didn't have eyes on the back of his head. A goon got in a good shot, rocking him forward and making him growl. Something only really heard during the jurassic period. Whipping around the giant reptile slammed his forehead into the goons face, crushing his nose and sending him flat on his back. Two down, more to go.

The Guardian was making short work of other goons. But the way he did it made Kaze narrow his eyes. "Batman said no deaths or crippling except Bane." He growled out while catching the arm of a goon and slamming him like a ragdoll into the ground. Leaving him embedded there as he moved through the goons. Unfortunately for him he looked over at the ring just as Batwoman was setting off flashbangs. The giants pupils nearly vanished thanks to the bright light and his sensitive hearing was assaulted brutally by his own ally.

A monstrous roar rang out that shook the dust from the ceiling as he clutched his eyes and his ears flattened to his skull. His tail whipped back and forth, slamming into whatever was closest to him. Barbells bent like grass, goons were sent flying with sickening cracks of broken bones. The wall closest to him was blown out by the long limb as well. If the Guardian didn't get away or block he'd meet the same fate as the goons, sent flying away by the blinded and deafened behemoth.

[Omega Man]

Batwoman went at Bane after the giant mountain of a man broke Nuke like a twig. Guardian was holding his own. And Batman and Slade had separated on their way up. With Slade taking Batgirl and his daughter away from the fight, Batman jumped into the fray rocking one of the musclebound goons. He noticed something off about the fighting style Bane was using. Batman watched as Batwoman challenged the masked meathead, getting caught up in defending himself from one of the downed goons getting back up, looking back at probably his closest ally in the field useing flashbangs. When the tail of Kaze started whipping around, Bats knew to get out of the way. As he made it closer to Batwoman, who'd freed herself from Bane's grip, he mentioned...

"This isn't Bane. His fighting style is off, and sloppy, and Batwing's visual log from his suit had Bane looking a bit bigger than this guy. Wore a white top too." Batman explained.

The two bat themed heroes dodged a few attacks from the behemoth as he began to tire. The rest of the group finished off the goons. A couple of tag team maneuvers had 'Bane' on the floor gasping for air after a well placed strike to the throat. The handful of Venom patches on the floor he rolled into didn't do him any favors.

"Where is he? WHERE'S BANE?" Batman screamed taking the guy's mask off as his condition visually got worse.

"DAMNIT! I NEED THE ******* KNIFE! I KNOW YOU KNOW SOMETHING YOU PIECE OF..." Batman screamed as the guy's heart finally went out.

It got quiet save for the noise of a few goons getting dropped again. Batman dropped to his knees and grabbed at the forehead of his mask. He failed. The window to save the boys has passed. No knife no spell. Bane was messing with him. But why now? And why involve Slade and the League of Assassins?

Later, at the Bat-Cave...

Those who were in it for the money were paid and long gone. Batgirl was saved so it wasn't a total loss and Batman knew that they did some good. Barbara was staying with her father, however Slade and Rose Wilson stood in the 'Cave along with Batman, Batwoman, Alfred, and Lucius Fox who showed up to discuss his injured son.

"...docs say he's gonna be okay. I'm glad you were able to save her Bruce. Who's this guy?" Lucius asked looking over at Slade in his Skeleton Jack gear.

"Nobody you want to know..." Slade responded.

_{"What are you doing?"} Rose whispered?

"I'll talk with you later Lucius. I've got to figure out what to do with the boys..." Batman said as Alfred showed Mr. Fox out of the cave.

Batman looked at Deathstroke, still in his Skeleton Jack attire and holding his daughter's hand.

"You're about as good at being Slade as the creep at the gym was at being Bane. Your fighting style wasn't as polished, you're under armed to be Slade Wilson, but I can't peg you. Unless..." Batman said getting wide eyed. Batwoman had no idea what was going on, she just had Batman's back.

"My name's Jericho. I'm Slade's son. I have the ability to jump into people's bodies through eye contact." Slade explained, "I jumped into my dad after my body was destroyed in an explosion caused by one of the rival mercenaries who hated him. I was living with him at the time and made it out alive in the body of a cat before finally bumping into him days later... if you can help us Batman... I can help you. I'm no mystic, but I can keep one of the Robins alive until their injuries heal. Healing is another power I've been developing. The cat got ran over like three times..."

Batman looked at Batwoman and then back at Jericho.

"What do you need from me?" Batman asked.

Hours later,
Coast City California...

Slade was back in his Deathstroke gear and didn't remember anything past the point where he saw that ugly brown cat. He was half intoxicated, had blood on his boots and sword, and was near the body of some guy he killed on a rooftop in Coast City on the other end of the United States.

"What the **** just happened? Where am I?" he asked himself out loud.

Back at the Cave...

"You sure this is the one you wanted?" asked a young man from behind some shadows.

"Yes. Now while you're in his body you're going to have to use another ID. Dye his hair, do whatever...." Batman instructed with his mask off now.

"Since I can't 'really' be Nightwing, can I keep being Skeleton Jack? It's gonna be nice having two eyes again!" asked Jericho stepping out in some street clothes in the body of Richard Grayson holding another type of Skeleton Jack mask.

To be continued in....

Gotham Knights: City on Fire

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