Chapter 2

Chapter 2

-The Batcave-

"Hey Batman." Robin greeted his mentor as he walked down the stairs and entered the Batcave. He could see that Batman was typing away on the Batcomputer. Robin saw that he was updating Hugo Strange's files after the man had recently been put in prison for his cruel experiments on Arkham Asylum's inmates.

"Robin." Batman acknowledged him without looking up from the screen. "You seem to be in a good mood."

Robin snickered. "You can tell without even looking over!? Anyway, yeah I am. This new student at school is awesome! Marcus Light! He's gonna really stick it to Alice Winston later tonight!" Robin bragged as he took a seat next to Batman in front of the large computer screen.

'Teenage drama…' Batman lamented internally. He knew, as Dick's father figure, it was important for him to know what was going on in his son's school life though. "What happened?" Batman asked. "And I thought I told you to steer clear of the Winston family?"

Robin explained to Batman about Alice Winston and how she had been hounding one of his foundation's latest scholarship students for the past two months. Apparently the guy was 'ridiculously handsome' and the young Miss Winston was smitten at first sight. Batman wasn't a fan of the Winston family in general. They reeked of corruption and every time he had to attend an upper echelon party with them he felt dirty afterwards. He hadn't been able to find any evidence to truly bring them down yet though.

Batman hit a few keys on the keyboard as Robin pulled up a chair next to him. He sorted through all the student files for Gotham Academy.

"That's the guy. Marcus Light." Robin said, pointing to the screen. Marcus Light's student file had been pulled up.

"Hmmm. I admit this young man would certainly turn some heads back in my day." Batman commented as he read Marcus's profile. The young man was smart. Really smart. He had gotten a perfect score on every exam or assignment ever assigned to him in the past two months. His file also said that he grew up in Italy, yet he also had American citizenship courtesy of his father whose name isn't listed. His mother's name wasn't listed either. "That's odd…" Batman commented. He couldn't find any information on either of Marcus's parents. There was a phone number listed for Marcus's mother, but when Batman pulled it up, the number was registered to the Vatican of all places…

Robin looked at the screen as well and shrugged. "Eh, someone probably just forgot to file his information correctly when Marcus transferred here. Believe me, I've talked to the guy a few times and he seems really chill. There's nothing strange about him at all." 

BEEP BEEP

Just then, Batman's justice league communicator went off. Batman picked it up and looked at who was contacting him. "One second Robin. It's Giovanni Zatara. He wouldn't contact me unless it was important." Batman put the communicator to his ear. "Giovanni, it's Batman. Talk to me."

Batman frowned at what he heard from the magician. His fist clenched in irritation as he looked at the screen in front of him. The smiling face of Marcus Light in the picture now looked like he was mocking him... 

"Thank you for informing me of this." Batman said over the line. "I'll be getting on it soon. In the meantime, take some time off from the League to comfort your daughter. She was also foolish to run off into a situation involving actual flesh eating demons, Devils or whatever the monster really was." Bruce hung up the communicator and gave his protege the patented 'disappointment stare.'

Robin gulped at the deadpan expression Batman was giving him. "What was that about?"

"What was that you were just saying about Marcus Light? There was nothing strange about him at all…?" Batman asked Robin with a deadpan stare.

…

"Well…that could have gone better," Marcus said as he changed out of his school uniform. "I hope I didn't scar that girl for life," he said, referring to Zatanna. Stray Devil nests are always an extremely horrifying sight to behold.

'She'll get over it. I sensed a heroic strength of spirit from her.'

Marcus threw on a clean white button-up shirt and put on a pair of black jeans. "I hope so. I remember how scared I was the first time Mom took me on a Stray Devil hunt. Even if I knew I was in no danger with her around, I still shook like a leaf when I saw my first Devil," he said. He looked at himself in the mirror and smirked. He looked damn good and was ready to impress his date tonight.

'Don't go getting the girl pregnant now…'

He sputtered in indignation! "The hell!?"

'I was joking… I invented jokes, you know.'

"Uh huh... Sure you did. I bet it was really funny when you summoned swarms of locusts and made it rain fire back in the Egyptian days." He said sarcastically.

'It was pretty funny in hindsight… Maybe one of my top 10 best moments.'

Marcus facepalmed. His grandfather was reminiscing about the old days again…

Marcus had heard all of these stories at least a dozen times by now. He decided to just head out while ignoring the voice in his head. He didn't want to be late for his date with Artemis because of God's reminiscing.

…Yeah. That was who was stuck in his Sacred Gear.

God–AKA: Big G–The head honcho of the Heavenly faction himself. Some supernaturals believed he was dead and gone. They were misinformed…on purpose.

At the end of the Great War, his grandfather was heavily injured by a terrifying beast that sprung up randomly towards the end of the fighting. In order to heal himself safely, the Lord faked 'his death' and hid inside the True Longinus to recover himself.

Marcus's mother is a powerful Angel and is very highly ranked in the Heavenly Faction.

When he was re-born, his mother fused the Spear of Destiny to his soul so that his grandfather could recover faster by being near his soul. As a Nephilim, his soul was incredibly powerful and had none of the restrictions placed upon it that regular Angels had.

Who is his mother?

She is…

RING! RING!

Marcus reached into his pocket for his ringing phone. He checked it and saw it was a number he didn't recognize. The area code was from Gotham, so he decided to answer. He kept walking down the sidewalk towards where he was going to meet up with Artemis as he held his phone to his ear.

"Hello?" He asked.

"Marcus, it's Dick."

"Oh, hey man! Didn't know you had my number. What's up? I can't talk long because I'm about to meet up with Artemis." He said.

"Oh right… There was that party tonight, wasn't there?" Dick asked.

"Yeah, man. Did you forget somehow? Are you alright?" He asked. Dick's tone made him seem flustered. He was also wondering how Dick even got his number since only a few people and the school had it.

"I'm alright… you know what. We'll talk tomorrow, there's no rush, I suppose." Dick said, and then he hung up the line.

Marcus placed his phone back in his pocket. "Well, that was weird…" He muttered. He didn't have time to think about it longer, though, because he had arrived at the meetup point. Across from him, he saw Artemis waiting for him. She was leaning on the side of a building, scrolling on her phone. She was wearing a black crop top and a pair of skinny jeans. He thought that she looked really cute.

"Artemis, hey there!" He called out as he approached her.

Artemis put away her phone and smiled at him.

She looked him up and down. "You look way better dressed casually than in the stuffy school uniforms." Artemis said as she continued checking him out. Her eyes were lingering on him longer than he expected. His short-sleeve shirt exposed a lot more of his muscles that the school uniform hid away.

"I could say the same." He replied. Artemis would definitely be turning some heads at the party. "Shall we go?" He asked as he put his arm forward for her to hold onto.

"We shall." Artemis smiled and grabbed his arm with a giggle. "I can't wait to crash Alice Winston's party and rub this date into that stuffy rich girl's face!"

He hailed a cab for them, and they were off to the party.

…

"Well, this place is absolutely huge, and it looks like half the school is here," Artemis commented while looking out the cab window.

Marcus had to agree. The mansion was gigantic and had to have at least 100 rooms inside. One of the biggest homes he'd ever laid eyes on. On top of that, the property itself was easily ten times bigger. The drive from the front gate to the main house took almost a full minute.

"Well, let's go then." He stepped out of the cab, and Artemis hopped out after him.

The two of them drew a couple of eyes at being seen together, but not very many. There were already hundreds of other students at the party, and most of them were already doing their own thing. Loud music was playing from speakers that were placed all around, and he could see over a dozen food and drink tables scattered about. They weren't just offering chips and punch either. He could see that these tables were full of foods like lobster and steak.

"Now this is one crazy rich party," Artemis said as she glanced at all the high-class food available. She had a gaze of longing at all that fancy food that he could relate too. Neither of them may like Alice, but this party was already looking pretty awesome.

They walked up to the front doors of the large mansion. Standing there, greeting everyone who came by, was the hostess of the party herself. Alice Winston was standing at the front door. It didn't take her long to spot him. Her eyes lit up upon seeing him. However, when she saw that he wasn't alone, her smile immediately dropped.

"Hey there, Alice. Amazing party and home you have here." Marcus said to her as Artemis and him walked up the steps.

Alice's jealousy was not subtle. She was glaring daggers at Artemis hanging off his arm.

Alice tried to force herself to smile, but she couldn't quite make it reach her eyes. "Thank you so much, Marcus." Alice replied, looking wearily at Artemis. "Who's your FRIEND?" Alice asked, purposely putting heavy emphasis on the word "friend."

"I'm his date." Artemis said bluntly while smirking at Alice. "I'm Artemis Crock, by the way. We've met before, you know."

Alice had a strained smile on her face. "Is that so…" Alice trailed off before looking between him and Artemis and biting her lip so hard that a small amount of blood started to leak out. "Excuse me. Enjoy the party…" Alice said before she turned and walked through the crowds.

Marcus watched the girl storm off and shrugged. Hopefully, she wouldn't go and do anything too crazy before he had time to figure out what was going on with her.

Artemis snorted and then laughed. "That was great. Finally, Daddy's little princess was denied the thing she wanted." Artemis kept laughing as she watched Alice slink away through the crowds of partying students.

"Oh? A thing am I? How hurtful..." He said jokingly.

Artemis smirked at him, she grabbed his arm, and dragged him inside. "Well, come on then, THING! Let's raid her fancy liquor cabinets and dance!"

…

-Alice-

Alice Winston stormed up the floors of her mansion that were off-limits to the party-goers. She passed by her family's security guards, who were armed at all times, and marched into her father's study. She could see that he was currently in a meeting with a few other members of the "court," but she didn't care! She needed to talk to him now!

She was furious!

Furious! Furious! FURIOUS!

Her father stopped his conversation with his associates when he saw his daughter enter the room. "Alice, sweetie. What's wrong? I haven't seen you this upset in a while. Not since that last slave of ours got uppity and had to be put down." Mr. Winston said with a laugh.

Alice grabbed an expensive decorative vase and threw it across the room where it exploded against a wall. "How dare that ungrateful pretty boy snub me at my own party! He would have been lucky enough to be my dog!" Alice shrieked in rage as she picked up another vase to throw!

"Calm down, daughter. Behave yourself with the proper decorum befitting of my heiress. Now tell me what happened." Her father scolded her. She put down the vase with an angry huff.

"Ha! It sounds like she got rejected by a boy." One of her fathers associates said with a laugh. The other two men laughed as well.

Mr. Winston raised an eyebrow at his frowning daughter. "Is that what this tantrum is about? So what if you got rejected by some nobody boy. You're a Winston. There will always be better prospects for us. We are members of the elite who run this city from the shadows after all!" He declared.

Alice scowled. "He wasn't just some "nobody boy!" He's the most handsome man I've ever seen, and when I did my research on him, I found out he was raised in the church! Nobody would miss him because he's probably an orphan. He would have been perfect as my new slave!" Alice said with a hint of madness in her eyes. "I could have had him under the 'indoctrination process,' and then he would have been loyal to me forever!" 

"Most handsome man she's ever seen. Heh, girls these days…" One of the other men said with a laugh. "Now I actually want to see what this young man looks like myself."

Mr. Winston would be a liar if he said he wasn't a bit curious as well.

"Here!" His daughter shoved her phone in his face. On the screen was a photo of a young man with blond hair and bright green eyes. His eyes widened at what he saw. He didn't know human beings could ever look like that!

"That can't be real..." he said. "That's been photocopied, right?" He looked at the picture more closely.

"It's not! I took it myself. He would have made an extremely valuable slave!" Alice whined. "How dare he lead me on for two whole months! I kept asking him out over and over, and he kept refusing every time!"

"Hmmm, a slave with his looks could go for tens of millions after the indoctrination process…" Mr. Winston said while contemplating his options.

"You say he's an orphan?" He asked his daughter, and she nodded.

Mr. Winston smiled. "Well, this is Gotham after all. People go missing all the time. You'll get your new slave, my daughter." Mr. Winston said. Alice smiled up at him brightly. "Just be careful not to fully break him like you do with your other toys. He'll be worth a lot of money once you get bored with him." He reminded her.

Alice hugged her dad! "Thank you so much, daddy! I can't wait!" Alice exclaimed happily as she ran out of his office in excitement. Marcus Light would be hers! She should have just gone to her dad from the start!

Alice knew the party was still going on downstairs, but she needed to let off some steam before going back down. She headed past more of her family's security towards her special "playroom."

The stench that she absolutely adored hit her as she entered! It was the stench of blood! Alice picked up her mask that sat by the room's entrance and placed it on her face. Her mask was that of an owl… 

She walked into the room and could hear its current inhabitants trembling and crying. Chained to the wall and covered in injuries were a few of her toys that had yet to break properly.

"Please let us go… please, we won't tell anyone. I promise." A captive woman covered in bloody whip marks pleaded to her. Alice smirked. She loved it when her toys begged.

Alice laughed under her mask before she picked up a bloody spiked whip that was sitting nearby. "Don't worry, I will be letting you go soon. I have to make room for my newest toy, after all!"

Alice started playing with her toys the way her mother taught her. Their screams of pain were delightful to her ears.

Oh…how she missed her amazing mother terribly! It was too bad that her mother was currently locked up in Arkham and too high profile to break out. That was ok, though. Her dad told her that he had a plan to help her mother get free in a few months. 

Alice could then show her mother how much she'd improved when it came to playing with her toys. Her mother would be so proud of her!

Dollhouse would be so proud of her!

…

Marcus had a lot of fun at his first-ever high school party, especially once Artemis found the liquor stash. All the liquor was held behind a glass case that had a fancy-looking lock. Artemis pulled out a bobby pin and picked the lock easily.

It didn't take long for the other students at the party to realize that the booze was no longer locked down. From there, the party got pretty crazy. He spent the next few hours between talking and dancing with a slightly inebriated Artemis. He even allowed himself to get slightly drunk as well. He knew at any time, he could use his magic to purge the alcohol from his system, but he enjoyed getting the experience.

Unfortunately, the party eventually came to an end, and drunk students started calling convoys of cabs to take them all home. He hopped in the back of a cab with Artemis, and it drove them directly towards her house. When they got there, he paid the driver, and he walked Artemis up the stairs to the door of her apartment.

"I had a lot more fun tonight than I thought I would, Marcus," Artemis said to him.

"I did too. We should do this again," he suggested.

…

-Artemis-

Artemis leaned forward and kissed Marcus on the cheek. "Maybe." She said with a smirk. "I'll see you in class on Monday." She stepped inside her apartment and closed the door behind her. The apartment was dark. It looked like her mom was already asleep and she was glad for that. She didn't need the woman nagging her about being out late at night and coming home smelling of alcohol. 

Artemis was still slightly buzzed, so she went over towards the kitchen sink to get herself a glass of water. 

"Well now? Someone had fun tonight didn't they?" A voice called out from inside the apartment. Artemis spun around and threw the glass she was drinking from with all her strength. She also reached into a nearby drawer and pulled out a kitchen knife. She cursed herself internally for not noticing the intruder earlier. 

The glass went sailing and smashed loudly into the wall. Artemis could hear that her mom was awake now and panicking in the next room.

The figure who had dodged her glass stepped forward out of the darkness. "Easy there sister. I was just teasing you."

"Jade…" Artemis said bitterly as she recognized her sister. Jade was wearing a dark green ninja outfit and Artemis could see her sister was armed to the teeth.

"I prefer going by Chesire now." Her sister said nonchalantly. "I'm honestly surprised my stuffy sister actually went out on a date with an actual human being of all things." Chesire added with a laugh.

"Why do you care? I know that you went on a few dates at my age." Artemis said defensively. 

Cheshire shrugged. "To be honest I don't care. I'm actually happy for my baby sister getting out there. It's just unfortunate is all…"

The door of a nearby room opened and Artemis saw her mother wheel herself out of the room. "Jade…" She said bitterly. 

"It's Cheshire now, mother. And I'm not here for you. I'm here to keep my kid sister away from all the chaos that's about to go down." Cheshire said.

Artemis clenched the pommel of the knife in her grip. "Chaos? What the hell are you playing at?" 

Cheshire sighed before she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. She pressed the screen a few times before pulling up a picture and presenting it to her sister. Artemis's eyes widened in shock when she saw it. It was a picture of her and Marcus from the party they just came from. Marcus's face was circled in red. Below the picture was basic information about him like his name and address.

"Yep. Someone put a million dollar bounty on your little boyfriend to be captured. It's unfortunate, but you probably won't be seeing him anymore. A nice handsome harmless guy like him, this city will chew him up and won't spit him out." Cheshire said with a shrug.

Artemis spun around and ran towards the front door. She had to go warn Marcus! She had to save him! "Ooof!" Artemis felt the wind get knocked out of her as her sister tackled her to the floor. 

"Nuh uh, little sis. I can't have you interfering. That much money for some regular teenager is going to draw every criminal in the city towards his location. If you go out and try to save him, you'll just be killed." Cheshire said as she held Artemis down tightly.

Artemis screamed in rage and tried to push her sister off of her! "Let me go! Let me–" Artemis felt something stab into her neck. Her vision started to darken.

"Go to sleep for a while, Artemis. By the morning, everything will be over already." Cheshire said as she dropped the syringe.

…

Marcus walked down the sidewalk with a grin on his face. He just had his first kiss! Yes, it was on the cheek, but it still counted in his book!

'You are embarrassingly innocent…' Big G lamented.

'And who's fault is that?' Marcus asked, mildly offended. 'I grew up mostly in the church...' How exactly was he supposed to get any dates when most of the girls he knew identified as nuns?

'Sigh…I'll have to ask your mother to give you the talk now…' Big G replied jokingly.

He laughed as he continued walking down the sidewalk. Artemis and he didn't actually live that far apart.

He didn't quite feel like rushing home just yet.

It was a nice night outside, and it was Friday night, so there were still quite a few people out and about in the city despite it being around midnight.

That's why Marcus was incredibly surprised when a javelin, of all things, came flying down towards him from a nearby rooftop!

His world slowed down as he reached his hand up and snatched the javelin out of the air, inches before it was about to impale him! His hand stung. It had been thrown with quite a lot of force!

Also… What the hell!? Who's throwing Javelins around the city!? They could hurt someone!

'I think that was the intention…'

A second later, a large man, with blonde hair and wearing a hockey mask, hopped down from a nearby rooftop and landed in front of him. This was obviously the guy who just tried to maim him out of nowhere. People on the streets nearby started murmuring.

"Is a villain attacking?" Someone shouted out.

"Who is he, though? His costume is kind of…lame." Another person added.

"Why is he wearing hockey pads?" A woman across the street muttered loudly.

"Some villains are poor, I guess…" Her boyfriend responded before taking her hand and smartly leading her away from the scene.

"..."

All of the comments and people making fun of the villain seemed to piss him off. The guy sounded really angry as he spoke. "My name is Sportsmaster, and these aren't regular hockey pads! They're heavily reinforced Kevlar!"

Marcus was just staring at the guy while trying his best not to cringe. He suddenly got attacked by a villain out of nowhere, and it was some moron with a sports theme of all things…

'Hahahaha! Sportsmaster! Hahahah! What a stupid name…' Even Big G couldn't take this man seriously as a villain. 'Run away before he pulls out a Tennis Racket next! hahahaha…'

"Listen, man." Marcus said while dropping the javelin to the sidewalk where it clanged loudly. "I don't know why you're attacking me, but you are so far out of your league it's not even funny. You should turn around and walk away."

"Oh snap! He just called you out, Sports Guy!? Are you gonna take that!?" A guy on the sidewalk nearby yelled loudly with excitement. He noticed that the guy's phone was out, and he was probably filming the encounter. 

Marcus wanted to facepalm. Erasing video footage was difficult, especially once it hit the internet. "Do you mind not recording, man…" He asked him. He'd rather not lose his anonymity because he was attacked by this moron.

"No can do, bruh! I'm live streaming, and I've already got 1000 viewers." The guy said as he panned his phone's camera all around the street. "Welcome back to the stream, everyone! Today it looks like Gotham has a new sports-themed villain!"

"I'm not new! I've been a Villain for over 20 years already! People all over the world tremble at the sight of me!" Sportsmanster shouted angrily.

"What!? How do you have 1000 viewers already? It's been like 30 seconds!" Marcus asked the streamer. The guy was livestreaming too? He facepalmed. He was screwed here… Was he going to be the guy to end up exposing the supernatural world after all this time?

"I got a lot of subs on Twitch. I stream all kinds of stuff, man. You should come check me out. My handle is–"

"Are you two ignoring me!?" Sportsmaster yelled angrily and cut the guy off.

Marcus turned back to Sportsmaster, who had pulled out a hockey stick, of all things, as a weapon. "You can't be serious right now…" He said while eyeing the stick. "Not even a sword, knife, or even another javelin. But an actual hockey stick of all things as a weapon?"

"Deadly serious! You're coming with me, punk!" Sportsmaster ran forward and swung his hockey stick at his head.

Marcus casually raised his hand and caught it easily. 

There wasn't anything special about it. It was a regular wooden hockey stick. "What! How!?" Sportsmaster's eyes widened in surprise behind his mask. "Ooof…" He then grunted in pain. He had landed a punch right in the man's diaphragm. The force of the blow completely knocked the wind out of him and caused him to drop to his knees in pain.

Marcus sighed. Having to spend any more time fighting this idiot would have been embarrassing. His first-ever supervillain fight should have been cool!

"Awe… Is the fight over already? What a lame villain!"

"The quality of Gotham's villains has really been going down lately…"

The people spectating nearby all shrugged and started to go back about their evenings. He decided to do the same.

"Hey, man! Wait up!" The streamer ran up to him. "That fight was super lame, but my community still all wants to know what your Hero Name is?"

"Yeah, I'm gonna have to pass on that one." Marcus said with a shrug as he turned around and started walking away. Luckily, he didn't need to expose any supernatural abilities to beat that moronic villain. The guy had attacked him randomly and so completely out of nowhere. He was hoping this wasn't going to be a thing, but he knew it probably was.

XXX

That's the end of chapter 2! 

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