Ch. 72 - The Joker's Game

The moment Crossbones heard the voice, he didn't hesitate to raise his rifle and rained bullets in the direction of where the voice came from.

"Don't be too excited we're just getting started." Suddenly, the voice appeared in a different location, telling Crossbones that he wasted a magazine for nothing.

"Shoot!" Crossbones ordered and the soldiers gathered around him immediately traced the voice and also wasted their magazines.

"Ooops, you guys missed!" The voice said in a playful tone, irritating Crossbones.

"Fight like a man, coward!" Crossbones yelled, however he was met with silence.

Just when he thought that his enemy retreated, the voice was heard by him again.

"Alright then, but first. I can't have others interfering." The voice said and before anyone could react, the soldiers that surrounded Crossbones slowly yelled in surprise and fear as something was suddenly dragging them.

"Ahhh!!"

"Helppp!"

"What did you do?" Crossbones tried to look around but still saw darkness, however he could feel that there's already no one beside him. The special force that he specifically recruited for this mission suddenly disappeared like they're nothing.

"Where are they! What have you done to my men!" Crossbones yelled at the top of his lungs when suddenly, the lights were turned back on again.

However, because his eyes got accustomed to the dark, it hurts his eyes by the sudden light.

When Crossbones removes his hand from his eyes and opened his eyelids, he saw that his men were tied in the ceiling, one by one.

Crossbones could tell that they're still alive as he could hear their moans in pain and heavily breathing.

"If you really care for them, then if you could beat me in my games, then you could free them, how about that?" When Crossbones turned his eyes in the railings, he saw the Joker, his supposed target, standing there with two other masked men, looking down at him playfully.

"What game." Crossbones squinted his eyes at him and finally agreed. Though whether he agreed or not, he has no choice but to participate in this game.

"Yosh! The first one is to fight my friend over here." Doflamingo excitedly said, while pointing at the man, wearing an Oni Mask, like the one in Japan.

The Oni Masked man then jumped off the railings and landed on the ground perfectly, without breaking off any bones or such. This also made Crossbones's confidence go down a bit. From his observation, he's fighting a very strong man after all, no normal man could jump off atleast 30 feet off of the ground and land without injuring himself.

"Let's start! How about this. I'll give you the first shot. Come on! Quickly, hit me!" The Oni Masked man then started jumping slightly repeatedly like Bruce Lee while arrogantly pointing at his cheek.

"Right here, give me a kick." Getting annoyed at this gesture, Crossbones then dashed towards him and delivered a terrifying roundhouse kick towards his face.

*Bam!*

However, instead of hitting his Oni Mask, the Masked man suddenly raised his arms to block it.

"Too slow. My turn!" The Oni Masked man smiled playfully before kicking him towards the abdomen.

Luckily, Crossbones managed to react just in time, so he used his gloves hands to block the kick.

However, the force behind the kick was too strong, so he skidded back on the ground.

"Hahh!" Crossbones groaned in pain as he shook his hand and noticed that they're smoking.

"What the fuck?" Judging from what he's seeing, the Oni Masked man's kick was too strong that it could directly cause some smoked on his hand.

"Surprised? That's not my full strength." The Oni Masked man mockingly said before chuckling.

"Come on. Is this what the top soldier of Hydra could do? Too weak! Even my grandma could punch better than you!" The Oni Masked man mocked.

"Raaarrgghh!" Crossbones endured the pain before yelling on the top of his lungs and delivered a set of CQC moves to the Masked Man, but all of them were either blocked or dodged before countering his own, forcing Crossbones to step back in pain.

One of the Masked man's counter attack was a hit towards his solar plexus.

"What, is that it? Here, let me give you a little motivation!" Doflamingo boredly said, as he was leaning on the railings with his hand under his chin, looking very bored. He then pressed on the remote control and one of Crossbones's men was suddenly released and fell on the ground with a thud.

Just to remind you, they're atleast 30 ft off of the ground so the moment his body fell, Crossbone could hear the cracking of the man's bones.

"You bastard!" Crossbones clenched his fist in anger.

"Ohhhh~ scary. Now, come on, show me something good or else more of them will fall." Doflamingo then dangled the remote control on is hands.

"How do you know that I care for them?" Crossbones clenched his fist and asked.

"I did a research on you and from the reports that I got. You would sometimes take a shot for your men. Which increased yoru reputation among the ranks of both Hydra and Shield." Doflamingo revealed his weakness which was confirmed by Crossbones grinding his teeth in anger.

What Doflamingo said was right. He may be viscious and ruthless but there is one thing that made him unique and different from the rest of the Hydra Agents and that is because he cares for his men. If he knew that this mission would be like this, then he would have refused even before Alexander Pierce ordered him.

"Now onto the game! Let's not delay the time. I still have many things to do." Doflamingo looked at his watch and clapped his hands, resuming the fight.

***

"Hahh...Hahhh." Crossbones was kneeling the ground while the Oni Masked man was staring at him playfully.

It's been half an hour since they resumed the fight and not even once he managed to hit his opponent. It's like he could see the future or something.

"Too bad. You're the reason why two of your men will die today." Doflamingo shrugged his shoulders before pressing the button on the remote control two times, as two of Crossbones's men was released, meeting the same fate as the other guy.

Now that only leaves Crossbones with 5 men left.

"Onto the next game! Here's your gun. All you need to do is to shoot any of us. If you empty your magazine without atleast hitting any of us. Then you lost." Doflamingo told him the instructions before throwing an Astra A-80 pistol in front of him.

"Pick it up and shoot any of us." Doflamingo said.

Crossbones smiled in excitement as he finally thought that he has a chance to win. After all, he's the best of the best when it comes to marksmanship.

So, he grabbed the pistol and without hesitation, he shot the three of them consecutively under just a second.

*Bang!* x3

"Ooops. You missed." The three of them suddenly tilted their heads, the moment Crossbones pulled the trigger.

"What?" Crossbones stared wide-eyed at this. He has seen many outrageous things but never in his life he saw someone capable of dodging bullets.

"You have 7 bullets left. Use it wisely~." Doflamingo playfully said while showing him 7 fingers and wiggles them in front of him.

"You bastard! Stop moving!" Crossbones angrily yelled at him before wasting 6 more bullets but unlike earlier, this time all of his bullets were only focused on Doflamingo himself, because he thinks that he must be the leader among them, coupled with the fact that he's the Joker.

"Oops, you have a single bullet left~. How about this, since it's your last bullet, I won't move this time. Let's see if you could hit me." Doflamingo then spreads his arms, while not moving even an inch, like a statue.

Crossbones grinned in both anger and excitement as he finally saw his chance, thanks to the Joker's arrogance.

'You think I just have a poor marksmanship? Then, watch this!' Crossbones thought to himself before pointing the muzzle right exactly on Doflamingo's head before pulling the trigger.

*Boom!*

As the bullet left the muzzle and quickly sprangs towards Doflamingo's head.

Just when Crossbones thought that he finally got him, a stray bird came flying from outside and flew right in front of Doflamingo, exactly where the bullet was supposed to hit.

"Kaaa!"

The stray bird then fell on the ground, bleeding profusely from its left wing.

"What?" Crossbones's hand trembled as he lost his grip on his handgun, making it fall on the ground.

"This isn't possible. How is that possible! A stray bird!?" Crossbones punched the ground as it cracked, in exchanged of also cracking his hand.

"Ooops! Looks like luck is on my side!" Doflamingo playfully picked up the bird and suddenly, it miraculously flew away, as if it wasn't hit by a stray bullet just now.

"Don't worry though, you still have one last game to finish and if you win, then you'd be able to save all your men." Doflamingo then front flipped, free-falling off the air before perfectly landing on the ground, though it cracked a bit.

"This time. I think your chances of winning is huge!" Doflamingo slowly walked over him and grabbed the handgun on the ground.

"We're doing a field strip! The first one to disassemble a gun and assemble it back again wins! How about that? I'm sure you're confident in this game." As soon as Doflamingo said that, a table suddenly appeared in the middle of them with two fully assembled SIG Sauer M11-A1.

"You ready?" Doflamingo offered his hand to Crossbones who heaved heavily before slapping his hand away.

"Just make sure you won't cheat." Crossbones said, as he stood in front of the table.

"I promise that I will only use what I'm capable of doing without any external means." Doflamingo raised his right hand and straightened his back, as if he's doing an oath.

"So, ready? Then, let's begin!"

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