Obligatory Disclaimer : I do not own anything (except maybe OC characters) all characters, places, worlds, universes…etc mentioned here belong to their respective owners and/or companies.

This is purely a work of fiction. Not meant to offend or incite, but to entertain and (maybe) inspire.

TEN TOES DOWN

Sparks glinted as their weapons met. Groans, grunts, shouts accompanied the crisp, incessantly heavy clang of metal against metal that echoed throughout the crumbling building.

“Ah!” Aquaman yelled, snapping Wonder Woman by her cape through a dirty brick wall. Brick fragments shattered from the impact, dust and debris rose from wild motion and the now destroyed wall. The warrior woman utilized the momentum to twist and roll to her feet, kicking away rubble that disturbed her footing.

They eyed each other as the dust settled, silent gazes sharpened with hatred focused on each with venom. Wonder Woman sliced off her cape then pointed her sword at the very muscular king of Atlantis, a silent declaration that his demise was at hand. The king tightened his hold over his scarred golden trident and dashed forward in defiance.

Right into three rolling grenades.

—BOOOM!

The blast rocked the barely standing building, its concussive force knocked away the two combatants who caught the brunt of it, sending them through different walled sections.

“Now!” Cyborg, Flash and Thomas crashed through the stained glass on the other side going for Wonder Woman, while I and Martha dropped from a broken section of the roof aiming for the merman.

I dashed for the kneeling, disoriented king. My body charged with adrenaline and dread, so much so I barely stifled the urge to burst out in laughter. “Hahaha!” Not so much for Martha.

Three Batarangs flew from my hands, each aiming for the king’s eyes and throat. He batted the deadly gadgets away with a swing of his lengthy weapon. Martha drew a gun, the twin to six barreled weapon she’d handed me and emptied its slugs at Aquaman.

The bullets flattened against his skin. The Atlanthean king frowned in annoyance rather than pain at the attack.

“You insolent surface dwellers. Know your place!” He roared, aiming a stab at the approaching Martha who dove to the side so hard she slammed against the floor, only to twist and pounce to her feet dodging a ground swipe that furrowed through the soot covered tiling, sliding inches away from her midsection as she tilted whipping a sealed vial of yellow, fizzling fluid at his face in the same motion.

He snagged the item inches away from touching his face curiously eyeing it as—Paff, a Batarang sliced through the vial, causing its reactive contents to evaporate onto the merman’s face.

“Ahk!” He spat, throwing away the vial to rub at his closed eyes as the noxious fumes seeped into his pores. The action itself dabbed what little of it was on his hands into his face.

I raced at the blinded opponent, ducked and rolled beneath his wild strikes to tag him sealed packs of red powder that broke upon contact with his body, its contents latching onto his skin like sparkles. Reddened eyes snapped open and pierced at me. The trident came down for my head. I raised an elbow, choosing to deflect rather than parry, the weapon’s length cracked against my vambrace as it slid off, resulting in a dull, throbbing pulse within my arm.

I reasoned it was a micro fracture as I rolled away from his effective range.

“Here fish brains!” Yelled Martha who rushed in to give some support, bending her knees as the trident from the advancing Aquaman missed her skull but shaved away half her hair and a small chunk of her upper ear as she slid under the merman who turned, aiming to impale her now defenseless back.

“Huup!” I landed a double kick on the small of his back which felt like a brick wall, giving Martha the opportunity to escape the ground shattering strike as the Atlantean stumbled a half step forward. I capitalized, throwing even more sealed packs of powder at him, seeing as it was unreactive he made no effort to avoid it but rather closed in on me.

I jumped to the side, avoiding an air breaking stab. “Die!!” The trident’s edge blurred with an electric buzz, he swung faster than anything I’d seen so far. The devastating strike blurred for my chest as I twisted away on my feet to evade, the razor sharp edge sliced through the armor padding of my suit, and despite being stalled by the threads of the suit of souls underneath it, it still caught a rib.

The suit of souls responded to my injury, stemming the bleeding as I spun away, avoiding the bulk of the bisecting strike that sent me bouncing off the wall. I used my arm to cushion the slam, causing the dull throb on it to flare into an annoying ache.

Martha offered me a hand up. On our feet we stared at Aquaman, who stared back.

“You will all die very painful deaths.” Chemical irritation made tears run down the bastard’s eyes, but his earlier movements caused a cascading reaction as the red particles on his skin finally began to activate. The particles foamed, bubbled and hardened all over him, sapping water from his body to power the chemical reaction and trap him in the rapid process.

“Uhk-!!” He stumbled, parts of his skin fizzled and bubbled along with the foam that siphoned the vital fluid away from his body—the very thing that contributed most to his empowered biology. His cheeks visibly sunk in, his frame remained large but a scrutinizing gaze revealed that his mass was being drained.

“This will not stop me.” He stated, the steel in his voice as sharp as it had always been. Even as his weapon minutely trembled. This was enough time.

“I know,” I nodded, taking a painful breath into aching lungs. “this will.”

Bang!

Martha fired a single round. The bullet unsurprisingly dug halfway into the flesh of his arm. Regardless of his weakened state, he still possessed an amount of enhancement. Except that wasn’t all the bullet was meant for, the incendiary round sparked not a moment later, igniting the chemicals on his skin in a blaze. A little something I’d cut into the fluid sapping, magnesium carbonate mixture to give it that extra oomph just as dealers gave their addicts, except mine took longer to kick in and rather than being fentanyl or baking soda, it was a mixture of…things I can’t legally tell you.

“W-wha--AHHHH!” Aquaman squealed like a pig, all things do when they burn, humans or animals. The hoarse shriek that comes straight from the soul is always the same. I strode towards the Atlantean king on fire, who threw away his trident to run, roll and kick about in circles, pulling flaming patches of his own skin off in an attempt to release himself from the unceasing flames which dug deeper into his flesh. The fire would continue burning till he turned to ash; any amount of fluid added to it only made it worse.

I retrieved his trident, acquainted myself to its weight and wielded it, slashing it against his calves to render him partially immobile, he tossed and turned on the floor unintelligibly wailing for the pain to stop.

I raised the weapon above his head, stared at his sizzling eyes for a moment and brought it down. The trident’s edge carved his head in two, dyeing the dirty ground in burning skull fragments, ambiguous tissue, steaming brain matter and blackening blood. The body went limp, shuddering occasionally from burned muscles. The cloak couldn’t encase his body to claim his soul due to the fire, a small loss overall.

Curiously, a finger rested on the symbolic buckle by his torso. This world would soon end. I took a deep breath, the scent in the air was mouthwatering and disgusting like a furred rabbit skewered over a campfire.

“Brucie you’re bleeding.”

“It’s stopped, mom. I’m healing fast.” I lied, I wasn’t healing fast at all, the suit of souls just kept my wound compressed. The swipe had literally taken a rib and every breath I took was a monumental effort of pain and agony. My healing factor was working to mend me, but it would need time and nutrients, damn third rate healing factor. I felt through my pouch, noting that a single untouched vial of Dionesium along with a diluted half remained.“Tsk.” I should’ve gotten more. I rubbed the substance directly into my wound, handing the little left of it to Martha to apply on her ear. I swallowed the rising blood down and said “We need to go help them.”

“C’mere first.” She pulled me, spat on her thumb and used it to wipe sooth and dried blood from my cheeks and nostrils. “There, now we can go.” She led, I aimed and swung. The blunt end of the trident met the back of her head. I held her as she fell and positioned her somewhere safe and restrained her.

“Sorry.” She’ll never allow me to do what I had planned. I rummaged through her coat pocket and retrieved the Alicut ruby, leaving a key to the cuffs in its place.

*.*.*.*