E5: Different sides of the same coin!

"He called you guys down here too, huh?" Said Electrocutioner as he sat on the elevator waiting for Brutale and Stallion to arrive. 

"I'm pretty sure he called all 5 of us down here for this meeting, we all only ever get together for one of his meetings." Brutale replied as he was waiting for the elevator alongside the other two.

"Yeah, and it's so chivalrous that you waited for us by the way." Stallion jokingly responded and mocked him in his country cowboy accent as they all entered the elevator that secretly leads to Blockbuster's office and quarters together.

"Wha- no, yeah, I'm NOT going down there alone if this meeting's about that pretty boy vigilante that's been causing a mess lately. Maybe he'd hit one of you two instead of me this time." Electrocutioner replied, feeling annoyed by Stallion. 

"So, ya think he's pretty, huh…?" Stallion responded with a grin and a face that pissed Electrocutioner off even more than he already was anyway. 

"Now now, children, how about we calm down and get ready to get our own beatings instead of giving one to each other and a little guy. Blockbuster is definitely caught up on the latest and this Nightwing kid is really dealing damage. He's hit 40 of our warehouses, weapons deals and left messages to our extortionists and collectors that somehow actually frightened them. The longer this kid causes noise the sooner everybody else in Block buster's control steps out of line." Brutale warns his comrades, which changes their frustration with one another to absolute terror. 

The three rode the elevator to the bottom floor of Blockbuster's hidden building and each time they go down there, the three are reminded of how creepy but decorative his home is, paintings on the wall of Roland Desmond and his little brother Mark Desmond hugging, high fiving as children and their parents together. 

The trio of assassins and thugs needed to go down an extraordinarily long corridor filled with decorative paintings of family portraits and "project" to get to Blockbuster's office and down the hall they could hear beastly, inhuman roaring. Even the former interrogator was terrified after hearing it.

Finally they made it down to his office but he wasn't there, instead they found an old and strange voice recorder on his table with a note that said "Play me, listen, obey or I'll turn your heads around when I return!" Electrocutioner was reading it outloud as Brutale turned his head and saw Mark Desmond's coffin in the room with them. 

Stallion couldn't stop laughing after hearing what the note said, "That did happen, huh, he murdered 10 people last month with one of his experiments, can't say he didn't deserve that!" Stallion commented as he couldn't stop laughing. 

Electrocutioner and Brutale stared at him in silence with two confused faces on them, "You've killed at least 10 people, though, right…?" Electrocutioner asked as he was still immensely confused. 

"Nope, uh uh uh,I guess we don't work together often but I'm a bruiser, not a loser man." Stallion answered as he deeply hated the thought of him killing. 

"Whatever, let's just play the recording then." Electrocutioner replied before he played it. 

"I'm in Midway city dealing with some very urgent business of mine right now, I have no clue when I'll return but by the time I do, this vigilante that's been around for 5 months now had better be destroyed, absolutely obliterated. Surviving in defiance in my city for 5 months? I expect much better from ALL of you. Eliminate this mask by any means necessary or you four's getting buried beside him if I have to deal with him myself. Tell Torque if he fails me then we'll find out what happens if I spin his head back around like he wondered." They heard from the recording device with Blockbuster's voice, to say he was angry was an understatement. 

"So… What we 'oughta do now?" Stallion asked but the other Two's attention was taken by the coffin Brutale had seen previously. 

Stallion walked up and stood beside them as they couldn't take their eyes off the coffin, it had real gold and diamonds on it. 

"None of us knew our boss kept his dead brother's corpse in his office with him?" Electrocutioner asked the other two, there was something unsettling about the coffin's vibes it let off but none of them could place their fingers on what was making them feel afraid and creeped out. They felt like they couldn't get any closer, something was keeping them away from it. 

"Let's... Just go kill that Nightwing clown, yeah…?" Stallion responded with, confused because he was feeling dizzy all of a sudden. 

The three leave Blockbuster's office through that long hallway of hair-raising noises and in awkward silence as blockbuster's message slammed hard on them. 

"You're the smartest one, Brutale, what're we gonna do about this Nightwing Jerk?" Stallion asked once they all got in the long elevator.

"If we don't kill that idiot soon, Blockbuster will either kill us himself or won't feel like it and leave that up to every free-lance assassin or Merc he has in his phonebook to eradicate this kid and us with him. So, we do just that before him. I've made a few friends during my freelance days so I'll hire them in. I've already faced this kid once. He's almost as quick as a superhuman, if we all try to take him we'll all fail miserably or at least we can't take that risk. We need something even faster and deadlier than he and his scummy kind are. We need help and I've got plenty of it." Brutale answered Stallion before he walked off. 

Electrocutioner and Stallion looked at one another for a moment, "I'll go rally the gangs and police up, get them prepared for a manhunt, you do… Whatever?" Electrocutioner told Stallion before leaving off to the police station. 

Stallion is left alone, nothing to do, he realized he wasn't good at much else beside fighting. He wasn't a leader like Brutale or a tracker like Electrocutioner.

Relaxing to himself in his trailer, the last gift his parents left him, filled with the last memories he has of them, on the phone he hears a distress call. 

"This is crot! There's some blue guy beaten down on us, his name's Night something, we need your help Stall!" After hearing this message, Stallion immediately hops into his truck and hopes his friend Thrill-devil and his gang could hold him off until he gets there. 

After a 30 minute drive, driving like a maniac through Blüdhaven's roads to get to the warehouse his friend and his gang does their tricks at and loves to relax after bullying whoever they want, Stallion arrives fully ready for a bloody battle and hoping to get all the glory of taking down Nightwing. 

"You can stop this, Juan, stop the bike and just go for a walk." Nightwing yelled out as he held on for dear life while on the bike with Thrill-devil. 

Thrill-devil kept silent and just kept riding, trying any maneuver to shake Nightwing off the bike with him so he could escape. 

"Alright, there's no civilians around?" Nightwing noted in his head, he decided to yank him off the bike, he broke Thrill-devil's grip and launched him into the air and stopped the bike himself. 

"This gang really needs to learn how to take breaks, heh, get it?" Nightwing asked Brendan once everything was done, "That… Ugh, was a nice one bro." Brendan took a long sigh as he didn't want to laugh and trying his best not to at the pun, "Really? Because I got one more for you…" He couldn't finish his sentence as the duo were interrupted by a shout from Stallion, as he just arrived. 

Stallion walks into the large warehouse, some bodies unconscious, his buddy Thrill-devil unconscious and laid out with Nightwing on his friend's bike. 

"You son of a!!!" Stallion shouted as his face was turning red and squaring up. 

Nightwing could feel Stallion's anger ramping up, he could imagine the strength Stallion possesses by looking at the 6'5 pro fighter, he could tell he was going to start charging from his stance. 

Nightwing saw that he was about to charge but he was faster than Nightwing thought, Stallion grabbed Nightwing and locked him into a double legged takedown position but instead of slamming him down on his back, he tossed him into the air. 

Nightwing was launched high enough to use what he practiced, he got into a position after he was forced to flip and landed back on his feet, from there he threw one of his escrima sticks at the back of Stallion's head, it bounced back to him. 

Stallion barely felt it and the stick did barely anything to him. Stallion turned around, still filled with uncontrollable rage, but he didn't charge him. Nightwing noticed a few things and thought to take a risk on a couple more. 

"You're Randy 'Enforcer that don't kill' Hanrahan, right?" Nightwing teased to provoke him to attack. Stallion didn't reply and charged at him faster but Nightwing was ready this time, "The son of Jackie and Thomas Hanrahan, right?" Nightwing continued after Stallion threw a combo of hooks that he dodged brilliantly. 

"Parents killed so you were taken in by your grandma when you were young. Oh man, I bet they would've been real proud to see you now!" Nightwing kept talking as Stallion kept swinging, throwing every kind of punch in the book, his punches were strong enough to make holes out of the concrete ground after Nightwing evaded him.

"Fighting to protect a best bud, fighting to protect what you love?" Nightwing stated and asked rhetorically as he blocked a heavy uppercut with both arms and escrima in hand from Stallion that knocked the good guy away, "Not common traits for real supervillains or the heir to… A well connected crime boss. It's not about the mask a hero wears or the symbol, but the person behind it." Nightwing finished, and this final statement finished Stallion's fit of rage too. He stopped throwing punches and stood in place soaking in the words he's just heard, every line of them, he stood staring at his massive hands.

"For the record Randal, I know what you went through, I know how it feels to be stuck in the crosshairs of your thirst for vengeance and what you've been taught, what they'd want. If your parents are anything like mine, they'd be proud that you stood strong against the monsters here for so long, strong where it matters, and your time working under Blockbuster isn't a blemish. You didn't allow him to break you. It's way easier to be a criminal in Blüdhaven than to be a guy standing for peace yet here you are with a heart that speaks it's language." Said Nightwing as his voice went from his Nightwing tone to one where Randy could hear genuine compassion in it. Which shocked Randy to his core.

"I'll go now but this is your choice and It's really not too late Randy, it's not too late to live the life you want for yourself, you're not a bad guy underneath. Not the guy that Blockbuster wants to mold you into one day." Nightwing finished as he extended his arm to help Randy off the floor after he fell down teary-eyed.