ISSUE #6 (December 2018)
Written by Jake Hawkins Featuring: The Red Hood
Oracle
Black Canary
Static
Black Lightning
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LONDON, ENGLAND
Jason Todd led the group that managed to survive the Belle Reeve fiasco into the safe house. He was thankful for once in his new life that Bruce’s need to be prepared gave them all a moment to assess how to proceed. A retina scan on the door recognized him almost immediately, granting them entry into the large brownstone owned by a subsidiary of Wayne Enterprises. “You sure nobody could have saw us coming in here? I wouldn’t rule out Talia having us tailed the moment we left Belle Reeve.” Ben Turner asked as he wandered around the large living room. “Jet was cloaked the moment we hit the country. As far as this place goes, Oracle told me it’s outfitted with a state-of-the-art hologram display. To anyone not here, it’s a burnt out flat that’s too hazardous even for squatters.” Jason assured him as he tossed his helmet across the room and plopped onto a nearby couch. “Fridge should be stocked Virgil”. “Say less.” Virgil told Jason enthusiastically as he headed into the kitchen and immediately dove in to whatever he could find. “What’s you guys move from here? We don’t have the luxury of waiting for Talia to do whatever what’s left of her heart desires.” Sara asked as she plopped on to the couch across from Jason. “You’re not going to have to, I think I’ve managed to narrow down where Talia and company might have popped out. She’s figured out how easily I’ve been tracking her motherbox, they’ve started scrambling it’s signal.” A screen came to life with the image of Barbara Gordon much to the surprise of everyone in the room. “Jesus Babs, some manners next time, please.” Jason cracked as he turned around to see the screen. Barbara rolled her eyes before continuing. “I’m loading a set of coordinates into your jet’s flight navigation. They aren’t exact but I’m sure you’ll find the perimeter being patrolled by the league should you get close enough.” “In other words, there’s a pit around there somewhere.” Ben assumed, and Barbara nodded to confirm his theory. “Exactly. I had Zatanna scan the region for any spike in mystical elements and about seven hours ago there appears to have been just that.” “Lance sisters, can you two put the sibling beef aside and accompany me on a good old-fashioned stake out?” Jason asked as he turned to Dinah and Sara. “That don’t sound like too big a risk to be taking right now to you?” Jefferson stated as he took a seat at the kitchen counter next to Virgil, who had begun munching his way through a bag of chips. “For all we know Ra’s is back on two legs and ready to relieve everyone who crosses his path of the ability to breath, so as of right now I propose a little more offense. Ever since Bruce handed me this case it’s like I’ve been dogging a few steps behind.” Jason answered, his frustrations apparent in his tone. “For right now, it looks like you’re going to have to keep lagging. A STAR labs international convoy has just been hit fifteen blocks from here by another militia group Talia hired.” Barbara informed the group before pulling up live footage of the scene directly from CCTV in the area. “What’s in these trucks they need to shoot up the city in broad daylight for?” Dinah asked as she approached the screen, her eyes riveted to the footage. “Truck’s cargo was blacklisted by Argus, go figure, but give me a few clicks and ah. Apparently, they are carrying some of the tech salvaged from a Braniac invasion a few years back.” Barbara discovered right in front of them. “That’s gotta be why they were after those prototype power cells. She could be trying to reverse engineer the tech. Those things Luthor was working on would be capable of powering that stuff up.” Virgil said between chews. ‘Where’d you find the kid?” Jefferson asked as he leaned towards Jason. “He’s a bang baby from Dakota. Boy pulls his weight.” Jason answered before turning to the team. “Alright, on the fly audible. Sara and Ben, you guys check out the coordinates Oracle gave us. Try not to engage until we can regroup.” “So are they part of the squad now?” Virgil asked, interrupting Jason’s strategy session. “Just asking for future clarification. Sara looked back at Virgil and her sister before turning to Jason. “Yeah sure, I like what you guys are doing here. I can stick around if it means I’ll get the chance to punch an Al Ghul in the face.” “Yeah, I’m in. It’s long past time I put some good back into the world. Lord knows I’ve done my fair share of the opposite.” Ben grunted shaking Jason’s hand. “We’ll take the jet. You still know how to fly, Tiger?” Sara asked Ben as they headed back towards the rooftop. “You know I’ve done nothing but get better with age.” Ben answered with a nod as Sara led the way. “I need to get back stateside, debrief Bruce on everything I learned under Waller. You all be safe.” Jefferson advised before turning to Barbara. “Think you could catch me a ride to Gotham?” “I’ve got access to the JL teleporter, just step outside the brownstone and I’ll have you at the manor in no time.” Barbara replied, and Jefferson headed out to the street. “Bruce has got the garage here stocked I’m sure.” Jason assumed as he turned back to the screen Barbara was on. Blocks away from the brownstone, bullets rip through the windshield glass of the STAR labs semi-truck, it’s driver ducking to the floor just in time to avoid the onslaught. Sirens blare as police set a perimeter around the scene, doing their best to engage the members of the militia group without sustaining any more casualties. A pair of men set charges on each side of the truck’s trailer before scurrying away. The trailer blows apart, revealing a slew of crates all marked with STAR lab’s usual insignia. One of the men fired his assault rifle in to the crowd of police officers before jumping on to what was left of the trailer. He’s handed a crowbar by another member of the group, who begins to cover him as he uses it to crack open one of the crates. High above the firefight waging on the streets, Ra’s Al Ghul watched the men hired by his daughter carrying out the heist below. “I’m impressed by the groups you’ve managed to employ, daughter. I wasn’t expecting for everything to not only be in motion, but to be moving so smoothly upon my return.” Ra’s admitted as his daughter entered the office where he sat. Behind her a pair of league members escorted an older woman in her mid-forties into the office, and Ra’s eyes fell on his newfound prey. “Prime Minister Bonney, normally I am far from fond of doing business with bureaucrats, but you are indeed quite the exception to the rule.” Ra’s greeted her as she was forced into the seat across from him. The two ninjas exited the room, closing the door behind them as Ubu and Talia remained. “I was informed by MI6 you had been killed in a battle near Washington, D.C. with the Batman.” Linda Bonney voice was terse as she finally spoke, her eyes darting around the room. Blood was splattered against the walls and the office was a mess, a sign of the brief battle that was surely waged before Ra’s and the league occupied the building hours prior. “I learned to defy the minor nuisance that death is long before you took your first breaths, prime minister. But that isn’t why I went through all the trouble of putting together this unscheduled rendezvous.” “Unscheduled? That’s a polite way of putting kidnapping and what I am to assume comes next, coercion.” Linda spat back. “We should never let being within reach of our goals dilute our manners. Now if we could forgo any more pleasantries, the last we spoke we were in the midst of certain negotiations we need to revisit.” Ra’s reminded her as he stood up and walked around the desk. “You were supposed to supply us with several facilities for us to operate from as we prepared to launch our initiative here, yet the moment my father was no longer available, you made yourself the very same.” Talia chimed in from behind as she approached the prime minister. “Someone in your position is expected to better life for people, to bring change where it’s needed for the positive.” Talia leaned in front of Linda, eyeing her with a curious rage. “Do you know how many people I had to kill to get you here? If you did, you would realize just how deeply rooted the consequences of your actions can be. How many lives could have been spared had you some sort of backbone?” Ra’s held up a hand, and his daughter backed off. “You were paid quite well to deliver on your end of our agreement, and you failed to do so. On top of that, you sought to protect yourself at any and all cost, which led to the deaths of many in the quest for this wrong to be righted. But I would like to applaud you personally prime minister, for your actions will be the catalyst behind the events on the horizon. People like you are given positions of such power, such gravity that they could change the world order. Yet you don’t dare think of anyone besides yourself. These are the types of problems that weigh too heavily on this earth.” Ra’s gestures with a finger for the prime minister to join him at the window, which she does reluctantly. “Below us right now, the keys to this nation’s salvation are being handed to me. You tremble, wondering if these are your last moments. Please relax Mrs. Bonney, you have a large role to play in the coming days. You will be the catalyst for revolution, hold your head with pride.” In the streets a garbage truck smashed through the cars creating the police barricade, sending them careening on to the sidewalk. Three men leaped out the cab and opened the back of the truck as they joined the other militia members in tossing the STAR labs crates into the truck. A jolt of electricity strikes the semi, pulling the hubcaps off each of the tires. The hubcaps went hurling at the militia members, striking a pair of them in the face with alarming force. Static soared on to the scene, whizzing past bullets that flew in his direction. “We got about fifteen of these dudes Jay, they’ve almost cleaned out the truck.” Static spoke into his communicator before landing in the thick of the chaos. He blasted a piece of the blown apart trailer and pulled it in front of him as a flurry of bullets came in his direction. “Get as far away from here as you can, emergency service shouldn’t be too far!” He yelled over the gunfire to a group of civilians pinned down inside a nearby store front. A white 1967 Austin Healey surged on to the street, the Red Hood behind the wheel. “Alright Bruce let me see what you’ve been doing in your very little spare time.” He mumbled to himself before flicking a few switches on the dash. A sound like cannon fire shot from the car’s exhaust as blue flames sparked from its tail pipe. The car was launched over the garbage truck and landed right on top of the trailer bed. “Static get back!” The Red Hood barked as he pulled a handle down near the steering wheel, and a QLZ-87 popped out of the trunk. A pair of grenades launched at the truck and the militia members dove aside as their escape vehicle and their cargo went up in flames. Red Hood ducked out of the driver seat, sliding across the front of the car and to the ground to join Static. He loaded a clip full of his tranq bullets into a Glock 19 before firing a pair of shots into the back of the head of one of the hostiles. “Canary, we got them bottled in and on the defensive, you’re on deck.” Red Hood barked as he laid down cover fire and Static took to the air once again. As one of the militias aimed his weapon at Static, he’s caught with an elbow to back of the neck that causes him to stumble and drop his gun. He turned around just as the Black Canary caught him right under the chin with a front kick that knocks him out cold. Another of the hostile's notices Dinah, but before he can take aim, she rattles him with a sonic scream that sends him careening into a nearby vehicle. “Let’s wrap this up before it gets any further out of hand, or worse, Talia shows up with real fighters besides these scrubs.” Black Canary advised as she watched Static snatch away the weapons of a few hostiles with a line of lightning. “Ben and Sara should be reporting back soon.” “It would have been nice if we could have recovered those crates. We could have gotten a closer look at what Talia could have wanted bad enough to stir this shit up on a Tuesday afternoon.” The Red Hood admitted as he closed the gap between him and two militia members pinning down Dinah with assault rifle fire. He placed a well-aimed bullet between the eyes of the man on his right, dropping him with ease before ducking around the gunfire now aimed at him. He rolled behind a nearby mailbox, pulling his knife from its sheath. He turned and whipped the knife at the hostile, the blade sunk with a dull thud directly in the militia member’s eye. Red Hood waded through the anarchy around him and casually plunked the knife out the man’s eye. Static landed next to Red Hood as Black Canary put down the last couple of hostiles. “Get back to the brownstone, local PD can handle this. Canary, you’re driving.” Red Hood commanded as he tossed Dinah the keys to the car and he hopped into the passenger seat. Back inside the office building, a snarl curled on the lips of Talia as she tried to contact any of the militia forces below to no response. “Things not going very smoothly I assume? Pity.” Prime Minister Bonney chuckled, glad to see the anger etched on Talia’s face. “We have ways of dealing with zealots foolish enough to step in our path. Talia, deploy counter-measures immediately. Let the Todd boy be reminded who he is dealing with.” Ra’s instructed his daughter, who nodded quickly before leaving the room. As Black Canary, Static, and the Red Hood tore away from the scene, emergency service vehicles began to converge on the site of the chaos. Static turned around in his seat, watching as the injured were treated the moment a pair of ambulance’s arrived. It was at that moment Virgil happened to glance skyward, and his mouth fell open in horror as he watched a man plunging towards the ambulance. “Hey Jay, you might want to have her whip this thing around...” Virgil stammered. Black Canary slammed on the breaks and the three of them got out of the car just as the jumper reached the ground, and a massive explosion ripped through the streets. Static stood frozen, shocked that he was unable to prevent the slaughter he had just witnessed. Red Hood and Black Canary looked up, trying to figure out where the kamikaze bomber had jumped from. Static grabbed his disk and took off to the sky once again, rushing towards the explosion ready to search for any survivors. “Static wait!” Black Canary called after the young crimefighter as she and Jason saw several more men and women leaping from the roof off a building overseeing the street. Static ignored Canary’s order, landing next to an injured paramedic and attempting to wrench her from under what remained of a police cruiser. It was then he glanced up and saw the oncoming assault of bombers heading directly towards him. Static braced himself, stepping in front of the injured paramedic before putting all his power into a massive electrical forcefield. The flurry of bombers smacked against the shield generated by Static, the string of explosions rocking the city block and keeping Jason and Dinah from getting any closer. Finally, the explosions ceased, and Jason didn’t wait another second as he tossed off his helmet and rushed into the maw of smoke and debris. “Static! C'mon man let me hear something from you.” A sputtering cough and the sound of feet scraping against pavement alerted Jason to Virgil’s location and he sprinted across the street, tossing piles of metal and rubble off Static and the injured paramedic. “That was all of them, right? Cause I don’t think I can do that again.” Static joked weakly as Jason helped him to his feet. They reached the car, but the Black Canary was nowhere in sight, which led Jason to assume the obvious. “Babs I need you to use the JL teleporter and get Virgil back to the brownstone.” Jason requested as he leaned Virgil against the car, his eyes on the building where the bombers came from. “Don’t bench me man just give me a second to catch my breath.” Virgil pleaded, struggling to stand upright on his own. “Nah you’ve done enough man. Let us handle this.” Jason told him as Virgil was whisked away by the teleporter. “Where the hell is Dinah? I’m getting all sorts of reports flooding in, I can’t even access CCTV anywhere in the area.” Barbara asked Jason as he picked his helmet back up and headed into the building where he was sure Dinah had gone. The Black Canary stepped out of the elevator and smiled as she was greeted by League of Assassin's ninja’s patrolling the corridor. As they began to surge towards her, she unleashed a massive sonic cry, shattering every piece of glass within twenty feet and bringing her assailants to their knees. One of the ninja’s scrambled to their feet and swung a desperate off-kilter punch at the Canary, who easily sidestepped the blow and cracked the ninja across the face with a vicious knee to the jaw. She continued down the hallway, making her way into the main office through a set of glass doors. Once inside, Ubu and Talia stood in her path. “The Black Canary, a bit unnecessarily far from Star City don’t you think?” Talia teased as Ubu handed her a long sword, not quite unlike the one her father was known for using. “I assume you are here because you enjoyed the show down there.” “I bet it’s been a while since someone’s punched you in the mouth. Don’t worry, I’m about to fix that.” Dinah told the daughter of the demon as she crossed the room towards her. Ubu immediately stepped in front of Talia, swinging a haymaker that caught the Black Canary on the chin with speed a man of his size shouldn’t even have. Black Canary didn’t waste an ounce of motion, returning the favor with a chop that caught Ubu in the side of the neck. Ubu stumbled but recovered in time to catch the Black Canary in the ribs with a straight kick that knocked her down. Before the massive bodyguard of the demon’s head could press the advantage, Dinah rolled to her feet and launched herself at him, connecting both knees under the chin with a devastating lifting kick. This time it was Dinah’s opportunity to press the advantage, and she smacked Ubu silly with a pair of roundhouse kicks followed by an elbow to the throat. Before she could put Ubu down for the count, she’s slashed across the back by Talia’s blade. Before she can get back to her feet, doing her best to ignore the pain from the gash on her back, Talia places a foot near her neck to hold her in place. “I do wonder what Bruce will think when I have your head on display in our armory.” Talia said with a smirk as she prepared to take Dinah’s head off. Before she could swing the blade, a pair of bullets caught her in the shoulder and arm, forcing her to drop her weapon. “I think you’ve killed more than enough people today. Don’t you think so Canary, I know I sure do.” The Red Hood cracked as he entered the main office, his gun trained on Ubu and Talia. “Mr. Todd, if I didn’t know any better, I would believe you were trying to undermine the very people responsible for you breathing.” Ra’s greeted Jason as he entered the room. “You must not be enjoying your time back amongst the living. I can rectify that for you, if you would like.” “Ra’s, wish I could say it’s great to see you. I did do my best to make sure you stayed dead.” Red Hood replied as he pointed his gun at the demon’s head this time. “I hope you all realize you aren’t stepping foot off this floor.” “On the contrary Mr. Todd, I would advise you to allow us to do just that, for quite a few reasons. The first being that Ms. Lance’s wound seems to be quite serious, you might want to focus on getting her medical attention rather immediately. The second-” Ra’s reached back inside and pulled Prime Minister Bonney in front of him, her mouth now gagged, and a bomb strapped to her chest, “Is quite obvious don’t you agree?” Red Hood examined the situation, finally relenting to the obvious and rushing over to Dinah, doing his best to stop the bleeding from the deep gash. Ra’s, Ubu, Talia, and the captive prime minister sauntered past the two heroes, heading towards the elevator. “I admire what you did her today Mr. Todd. The detective would be proud.” Ra’s taunted as the doors to the elevator closed. “Babs I need emergency evac...” Jason called into his communicator, frustrated he was forced to watch the demon’s head walk away. TO BE CONTINUED IN ISSUE #7 |