Damien had been practicing with a pair of escrima sticks on the wooden dummy. The strikes were fast, hard and brutal looking. Before Tim left, he offered to teach Stephanie some maneuvers via sparring, but was quickly shot down as Tim left the building. So, while he practiced, he’d attempt to make small conversation with the newbie vigilante. Such as.
“Hi”
Or.
“Hello. How are you?”
Though, it didn’t go much beyond that as he kept practicing, his silence enveloping the room once again. Enough to even make young Stephanie maybe a bit uncomfortable. It wasn’t that he was being intimidating, or anything of the sort. It was just his natural demeanor. It wasn’t great to begin with, and wasn’t any better. Conversations with his brothers were different, they talked about the city, what was going on and what they had been doing in the city. Also, they discussed scars and their father from time to time.
When the main computer monitor came up, Damien came to a stop to see what it was all about. But as he watched the live feed by the Joker, the color would drain from his face.His knuckles would grow white as he gripped the sticks even tighter in his hands. Once it was done and over, he would go back to striking the dummy. This time, though, he wasn’t holding back. The escrima sticks would start to splinter with each impact on the wooden dummy. Then soon even the dummy was succumbing to the damages of the sticks.
Cracks would start forming on the dummy, they were shallow at first. But after a couple of minutes both the dummy and the sticks seemed to explode with force. Splinters and chunks of wood going out in all directions. Even some sticking into Damien, though it seemed that it didn’t bother him. Sweat was dripping off his body as he walked over to where his outfit was and pulled it on.
Walking over to one of the motorcycles, he disables communications on it, and then on the inside of his helmet. Turning to look at Stephanie, even though she may not know him… it’d be clear that whatever it was that just happened on that screen, Was intensely personal with Damien.
“As I am sure you will notify my compatriots of what has just transpired. Give them a message from me.” putting the helmet on, he fixes the strap and then adjusts his gloves. “Tell them not to attempt to follow me, or stop me. I do not wish to harm them. And prepare, girl. Hell is about to ascend onto Gotham.” telling her now through the helmet, his voice becoming digitized. Turning the motorcycle on, he throttles it for a moment as he presses a button for the exit and drives out, wheels screeching the whole way.
Tim may not like he now has skid marks all over his floor, but Damien didn’t care. There was going to be no stone left unturned in Gotham. Whatever hole Joker was hiding out in was not going to protect him. Joker just committed the ultimate sin. There was very little that got to Damien, and the fact that Joker found a way to get to him? Well, Damien was going to have to kill him. There was no way around it, The Joker, Harley Quinn, his whole posse. They were going to die.
And nobody was going to stop him.
Even if that meant crippling his own brothers, and sisters, in arms.
Nothing was going to stop him from completing his mission.
In the last few hours, the police would have been receiving reports about a vigilante just absolutely tearing up gang and mafia hot spots. Leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. And this was just the start. Damien would know that the League of Shadow agents would be coming to raze this city to the ground in order to find Talia. While Damien didn’t necessarily care what happened to the city, but it didn’t mean he wanted to see it razed. With all communications cutoff from his family, Damien acted accordingly. Going deeper and darker than he ever had before.
Was he going to recover from this?
Only time would tell.
Right now, his only concern was finding his mother. In the distance, he could see other figures running the rooftops. Altering his own course, Damien moves to intercept a small group. Pulling his helmet off, he holds his free hand up to stop them.
<”Halt. I am Damien Al-Ghoul. You are to come with me.”> telling them in perfect Tibetan, they stop and kneel before him. Pledging their allegiance to him. When another group comes in, Damien gestures to them. <”You are to go to the harbor. I have reason to believe the signal may be coming from there.”> with a curt nod, they vanish, just as quick as they arrived. Pulling his helmet back on, he looks at the group in front of him. Nods, turns and heads towards a large abandoned building.
Damien doesn’t stop when he reaches the building across from it, instead he leaps and dives head in through one of the many windows. Windows around him also shatter as men clad in dark robes drive through and land without a sound. Almost as if they were weightless. The warehouse was home to the small time villain named Firefly. To Damien, this man was hardly worth his time. But the thing about these kinds of villains, and the bigger ones, they all talk and communicate.
Since the kidnaping of his mother, there were answers he needed first. Like, where she was kidnapped from. Firefly may or may not have this information. Currently, Firefly was attempting to gather a small army to take over Gotham. His only problem was timing, as the ninjas descended upon the building, the small army is now an army of corpses. They didn’t stand a chance to the ninjas, most of them no more skilled than being muscle. Firefly had ran and hid in a corner to stay away from the stabby stabby ninjas.
<”Halt. I will take care of him. Dispose of any others in this building.”> Damien commanded, and just like that, they were gone. Turning his attention to the second floor he was on, he would look around slowly, pulling out a sword from behind him. Joker made this personal, so Damien was going to deal with this in his own unique personal way. Tim made his suit fireproof thankfully. But it didn’t mean he was going to just stand there and take the flames. Firefly might be a low level criminal… didn’t mean he was dangerous and should not be taken lightly.
Lately, though, Damien hasn’t taken anything lightly.
Scanning the floor with the visor built into his helmet, he spots the heat signature of Firefly. The man had heard about the new Red Hood and didn’t want to deal with him in the slightest. Rumors went around the villain world that he worked much like Batman did. But, the other rumors suggested he was teaming up with Joker…
So, which was it?
Firefly was in no mood to find out.
Before the C-List villain could escape down a fire escape, a pair of batarangs would fly past him, wedging into the door. There was only one way out, and it was through the Red Hood. Firefly would growl as he’s trapped. “Nobody backs Firefly into a corner!” yelling as he unleashed his high grade military flamethrower. Flames sprouted, turning everything into ash or catching it on fire. Damien would run from it, but keep up with the seemingly chaotic pattern. The two danced for what seemed like full hours before Damien’s able to get in close and slice the hose that ran from the tank on Firefly’s back to his gun.
Not taking a minute to slow down, it only takes a second. Firefly goes to pull his plasma sword out, only to have his hand sliced cleanly off, leaving the sword to scatter onto the floor. The hand still attached to it. Damien would grab Firefly and push him up against the wall.
“I NEED INFORMATION!” Damien shouted, Firefly was in no real condition to talk as blood seemed out of his now stubbed arm. “WHY WAS TALIA IN GOTHAM AND WHERE WAS SHE?” he growled, but Firefly didn’t respond. Dropping him, Damien turned and picked up the sword that Firefly dropped. Pulling the hand off it, he tosses it into growing blaze behind him and comes back to Firefly. “Maybe you are in need of medical treatment…” trailing off as he leans down grabbing the stump of an arm that was bleeding, he puts the broadside of the plasma like blade against the raw meat of the amputated arm. Firefly screams in absolute pain as his stub becomes cauterized.
The pain is just too much for the villain to deal with as he passes out. Damien grabs him and takes him up to the roof as the floor under him starts to buckle and collapse. Flames spread fast and quick. Now they were breaking out the other windows. After a few moments, Damien slaps Firefly awake.
“Tell me what you know, and I may consider that you live.” Explaining to the injured villain. With the fear of god put into him, the Villain confesses. “Look, Man! I don’t know nothin’! It ain’t my thing. But I..I…I oh god.” using his other hand, Firefly holds the stump where his hand used to be. “I heard some of t’guys talkin’ bout this chick at the Iceberg Lounge. I swear ta God. That’s all I know!” Damien nodded, but dragged Firefly towards the edge anyway. “Your information will not be used in vain.” explaining as turned the man around at the edge of the building, doing some quick rewiring on Firefly’s harness. The villain is too out of it to realize what’s about to happen.
“You have been a menace to this city for far too long. You will no longer be bothering the citizens or law enforcement of this city.” pushing him off the edge of the building, the jetpack kicks in and spirals him high into the air with a blood curdling scream. Turning, Damien crosses the building as an explosion in the sky takes place behind him. Firefly wasn’t going to be a menace anymore, Damien saw to it.
Now, it was time to see what Penguin has been up to.