79 CHAPTER 73

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[David Lance POV]

I stared into Ivy's eyes, her multiple vines slowly moving forward, twitchingly trying to reach me, as I tried to make sense of her words in confusion. All my life, I had trained to expect the unexpected, but this entire situation was so out of the park that it had simply caught me off guard.

"Kid, this is happening, one way or another," Ivy said with a tone of finality, her eyes narrowing in a small glare as her vines shot forward like bullets trying to pierce me.

Jumping over her vines, I took the fight to Ivy, throwing a hard punch at Ivy's stomach before she could counter, putting some weight into it. The blow caught Ivy by surprise, knocking her a few inches into the air as I followed with a spinning kick to her torso, slamming her against the wall that cracked upon impact.

From the ground, Ivy growled, giving me a glare before swinging her arm at me even though I was clearly out of her range. Knowing what was about to happen, I jumped back, dodging the several vines that soon enough protruded from the place at sound-breaking speeds.

The vines stood still for a moment as Ivy got back on her feet, glaring daggers at me. "That… wasn't nice…"

I paid her words no heed, instead focusing on her plants and the environment for a brief moment before taking a step forward, hurling a few explosive knives at her aiming at her face, knowing that she would instinctively protect herself using her plants, blocking her field of view in the process.

"Fuck," Ivy cursed, blocking the explosive knives just as I had predicted, allowing me to close the distance between us the moment she had lost sight of me.

In front of her, I slapped her throat softly, forcing her into a choking frenzy of cough before following up with a rapid-fire series of blows to immobilize her. Hitting her in the nose, the jaw, behind the ear, the solar plexus, and her kidney area in quick succession.

Ivy froze for the briefest of moments before her body dropped to the ground with a loud thud, with her plants following suit soon after.

I sighed.

It had been good she had underestimated. Otherwise, this fight would've been a bit more complicated.

Taking a deep breath, I gave Ivy a glance before deciding to cuff her to take her to authorities, when all of the sudden, a knife flew out of the shadows of the apartment toward my face.

Seeing this, my hand shot forward instinctively, grabbing the knife before it could reach me, as the unknown attacker came at me from the shadows of the room with a raised fist.

Constantine Drakon.

Frowning in confusion as to why he was here in the first place, I moved forward, ducking under his attack, before jabbing the knife he had thrown into his leg. 

"Kid, all I need is Iv—" Drakon started without even looking at me as he took the knife out of his leg. 

However, before he could continue speaking, I interrupted him by delivering a hard kick into his solar plexus. Losing his balance, he fell to the ground, gasping for air.

Seeing he was wide open and on the ground gasping for air, I took a step forward, kicking him on the chin with enough force to knock him out cold. 

With Drakon out for the count, his body laying a few feet away from Ivy's, I started to try and think of a logical reason for him to be here. Last time I checked, he was still in jail and hadn't escaped.

He obviously had escaped at some point since I last checked, but why had he come here of all places after doing so? And for what did he need Poison Ivy, for that matter?

However, my train of thought came to an abrupt end when I suddenly heard the sound of a gunshot. Without a thought, I jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding the bullet that left a sizable hole where I once stood.

Based on the sound of the bullet alone and the hole it had left, whoever had shot at me, had guns of a caliber capable of hurting me. That wasn't a coincidence.

Before I could give that revelation another thought, another shot rang out, and then another, as I continued to dodge, ducking and weaving as the bullets flew past me. Until finally, the shooting stopped, and I cautiously straightened up, feeling the warm pull of Raven trying to make a telepathic link between us. 

`What's the situation?` Raven asked as I let her make the connection.

`Ivy asked me out on a date, but not for her, for Harley; I knocked her out, then an assassin tried to take me out, I knocked him out, and now, there's a sniper shooting at me from somewhere,` I replied, summarizing what had happened so far to the best of my abilities.

`I will scry the area to see what I can find,` Raven replied soon after.

`Don't make your presence known, and be ready to make a portal for me and the two I knocked out, I have a bad feeling about this,` I replied, giving Ivy a look.

If Drakon needed Ivy for something, and the sniper was on his side, then my mission was to keep Ivy out of their hands, even if I didn't know for what they needed her for.

`There are two people going your way,` Raven informed me.

Moments after Raven's warning, I heard footsteps outside the apartment that came to a halt in front of the burnt door, welcoming a brief moment of silence before someone kicked the door open. 

"We come in peace," Said the one who had knocked on the door, coming into the apartment, hands raised high into the air, as the second person that had come with him stayed out of the room.

Peace? After shooting at me a few dozen times with a tank busting bullets? Well, that's a funny way to promote peace.

"Black Bolt, is it?" The man said with an easygoing smile. His entire body language was screaming confidence, a fact that a few moments ago, I would've considered stupidity of some kind, as that confidence had led Drakon and Ivy to be defeated in less than a minute each.

However, in the case of this man… He was obviously aware of my feats today, including the fact I had dodged multiple bullets, yet… he was completely calm.

Yet, he looked at me like I didn't pose any threat to him at all.

That confidence, sided with the fact I had never seen him before in my life, nor in person nor in comics, put me on an edge, as I had nothing on him to prepare accordingly, no guideline to take in order to defeat him.

"Not much of a talker, are you?" The man chuckled, taking a step forward. "Very well then, allow me to introduce myself, my name is Aladdin, and I'm here for the green lady you have there." He finished, pointing at Ivy.

I shook my head.

`That man… his body is covered in magic,` Raven said, sounding unsure about something. 

`Be ready to make the portals,` I replied, saving my questions for later.

"Look, Black Bolt, I know we started on a bad note," Aladdin sighed, scratching the back of his head. "But believe me, I told the boss not to shoot at you or send Drakon at you for that matter; I told her that words can sometimes do more than swords or bullets, but she didn't listen. As usual, but now, here I am, talking, telling you that all your problems right now will go away if you give us Ivy."

-No,- I shook my head, pressing one of my voice line buttons to convey the message as I walked toward Ivy, putting myself right in between him and his target.

"Do I have to?" Aladdin sighed. "Waller, he's just a kid… Ok, ok, no need to scream, I'll do…"

Waller…

Amanda fucking Waller… Now it makes sense.

`Raven portal, now, outside the window,` I told Raven through our link, giving her introductions before grabbing Ivy and jumping out of the window into a portal that was opening outside, my eyes locking with Aladdin's, who was simply smiling from the eyes as if content with my choice.