39 Time for War

(Releasing the chapter a little early today)

"You sure this is a good idea?" a man in a red and silver suit with a red monocle asked for the 7th time into his earpiece.

[Yes. Take the shot.]

Deadshot nodded and turned his sights into the city. He sat there patiently for nearly an hour without making a move.

After so much time had passed, Deadshot saw his target appear and took the shot. Seeing them fall to the ground, Deadshot didn't stay around. He set down his sniper and ran off in order to not be caught.

10 minutes later, the location of the body that Deadshot had shot was surrounded by police cars and medical staff. But none of them seemed to be moving.

The lights of police cars flashed across the surfaces all around. The men and women present were each a shade of either red or blue. Everyone was facing one of two directions.

They were either looking down at the ground or up at the sky. Either way, they were looking around in fear.

Almost at the same time, Batman, Batgirl, and Huntress dropped down from the rooftops into the center of the sectioned-off area. Every officer noticed them enter but no one stopped them. It was not their place.

The trio looked toward the center of the circle and saw that there was a body lying under a blanket. The only part of them that was visible was their shoes. The black and blue gave each of them a clue to the person's identity.

Batman and Huntress were frozen in place. Even if they knew they were at war with the criminals of the city, neither was prepared for this. They had never considered this.

Barbara walked up to the body slowly, her footsteps unsteady. She wasn't ready for it either but she needed to know. She needed to confirm it with her own eyes.

Barbara took the blankets off of the body to reveal who was underneath. And it was exactly who they all knew it was and were denying that it should be.

The man's body was relatively unscathed. There were a few cuts due to its fall from high up as the body collided with signs and awnings on its way down. The injury that caused his death was clearly not those. Instead, it was his head.

The man's helmet had been half blown apart. The left side of his face was almost completely destroyed. But one could see the rest of his face due to the damage that the helmet had sustained.

'Dick!'

Barbara couldn't stand it anymore. She immediately collapsed to the ground. Batman saw Barbara uncover his son's face. He felt his entire world crumbling.

"Who did it? Who did it?!?!"

Everyone in the surroundings could feel Batman's rage. No one dared to move forward and speak up.

"Deadshot," Kid Flash said, appearing out of nowhere. "I just check the CCTV around the area where the shot came from. I also found this."

Kid Flash passed Batman the rifle he found where Deadshot had left it. A Setsuko-Arasaka WSE.

"Edgerunner tech," Huntress said from the side

Batman knew that this was an obvious provocation. They had done it all on purpose. If they wanted to hide their misdeeds, Jason would have ordered it. But instead, he let Deadshot be caught on camera and left the weapon at the scene of the crime.

"What are you doing here, Kid Flash?"

"Me and D... me and Batwing were supposed to meet up and catch a movie afterward. Our monthly Bro-Night."

"Hmm. Let's head back to the Batcave for now. We need to weigh our options and get prepared. If they don't hand over Deadshot willingly, we need the force the back us up."

The Batjet descended from the sky and floated right above Dick's body. Batman and Kid Flash loaded him inside while Huntress helped Barbara off the ground. The 4 entered the jet and flew back to the Batcave through the secret entrance that was underground.

But when they arrived, they were all floored. It wasn't just Batwing who had been attacked.

The first body they found was Kate's. At least half of it was. They could only see the top half of her body while the bottom seemed like it had been burned off. The woman's mask was removed. They could all see the hate in her eyes as she died.

The next body was Harper. She was still in her civilian clothes. But they didn't care. It looked like she was running to the case to put her uniform on when her body was riddled with bullets.

Tim had been dissected on the stairs. He had his bow staff in his hands but his arms weren't attached to his body. Neither were his legs nor his head. They had completely cut him apart.

The last person they saw was Alfred. His death seemed to be the slowest. He had a rope around his neck and there were bruises all over his body. Whoever had attacked had beaten him to death while he was hanging.

Bruce rushed to cut down Alfred. He prayed that there was still a small amount of life in him but all he saw in the old man's eyes was despair.

Barbara walked up to the Batcomputer and rewound the security cameras to about 20 minutes ago. There, they could see it all happen in real-time.

10 men in all black invaded the cave. At first, it was only Alfred. They took him down and tied the rope around his neck. As they were getting ready to hang him, Kate pulled in on her motorcycle. Tim and Harper also emerged from the training room at about the same time. They all saw what was happening and sprung into action.

Kate wanted to rush in but two explosive shurikens hit her waist before detonating. Her top half was sent flying to where the group had found her while her legs fell into the infinite abyss of the cave. One of the masked men rushed over to finish her off.

Tim had his staff in hand and was ready to rush over to save Alfred but two of the men confronted him. They kicked him over the railing and onto the stairs where they began to cut him apart as he continued to strike back.

Harper didn't notice either of these things because she was running toward the location where Alfred kept his shotgun. She knew it wasn't the time to worry about Bruce's no-kill rule. But before she could make it 10 steps, 2 of the men opened fire on her from behind.

After they were done with the others, the rest of the men joined their companions to finish off Alfred. They hung him up and beat him to death with their bare hands.

But none of this mattered. Alfred had already died on the inside. He had heard that Dick had died. He saw three more of the most important people in his life had died before his eyes. And he wasn't able to do a thing to prevent their deaths.

So even as he was beaten to death, Alfred did not let out a sound. He simply died without a sound.

Bruce saw everything that happened and the flames of rage in his heart could no longer be contained. He downloaded the video and sent it to every hero he believed would join him in revenge along with a message.

[Deadshot killed Batwing before these men killed the rest. Come to Gotham within the hour. With or without you, I'm going after Edgerunners.]