80: Messy

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(General P.O.V)

Deadman had finally arrived at Gotham. However, things were different from what he was expecting. Instead of a burning collapsed wreck, Gotham was the same as it always has been, albeit...cleaner. Not just the streets either.

The murky air around the city had disappeared. Gotham was a cursed city. Brand absolutely, indubitably believed that.

Something made the people here darker than they should have been, quicker to react on impulse. Quick to take the easy way out.

If that meant stabbing someone when they refused to hand over their wallet or even after they'd handed it over...it was still the same.

Gotham was dark.

Which is why the few good people who shone like a beacon of light in the darkness were even more impressive.

But that darkness seemed to have disappeared. At least for the time being.

There was also something else in the air. A sort of feeling that Deadman couldn't quite explain. If he had to describe it, he would say it felt like a thread. A spirit thread.

Or thousands of them, winding through the city like strands of webbing. The threads all leading to one place.

They were attached to a young man with silver hair and brown skin. This already would make him stand out, if it wasn't for how the outline of his soul shone.

It was a purple that almost obscured his real features.

Deadman had never felt so...in awe of something before. Was he a god?

No. The gods wouldn't waste time coming down to the mortal world. Especially to a dump like Gotham. They had champions and Avatars for that. So what or who was he?

Deadman had mostly come here to track down Constantine. Despite looking and waiting for him where they had decided to meet up, Constantine hadn't shown up.

So he decided to stalk the silver haired man. The man led him through the city at a fast speed. One that even a spirit like Deadman struggled to keep up with.

After some time, the silver haired man stopped in a junkyard. He seemed to disappear through a rusted car door.

Deadman finally figured out that it was a Pocket Dimension when he waited for the man to come out for more than a few long minutes.

He resolved to camp out in wait. He was a spirit, he had no need for food or sleep.

In the meantime, he tried to contact Constantine again. Even going as far as to briefly check out a few hide outs that he knew.

A few hours were enough for him to come to the conclusion that Constantine was not in the city.

The last option he had was Zatara. The Justice League's magician had his mansion on the outskirts of Gotham. All across the city on the other side.

Deadman chose to keep watch on the young man and then go to Zatara after he knew who the man was. A few days of trailing him were bound to reveal a lot of information.

Of course Deadman was careful to never get too close. He could feel the man's Spirit Energy permeate through a zone around him.

Things started getting interesting for Deadman when agents wearing blue costumes descended from choppers to surround the Junkyard.

Deadman had stayed away from the conflict. And in doing so, had learned a lot about the Silver haired man.

He was like him. And also not.

The Silver haired man could use his soul. Spirit Energy brimmed inside him as he fought. It was potent enough to even enable him to reinforce his physical body. Which was impossible.

His powers were only highlighted when the fight changed into ariel combat.

There Deadman had noticed the weirdness going in with the Pilots.

After the ingenious move the last pilot did, he possessed him and then pulled around, flying the jet closer to the spot where the Silver haired man had

Once Deadman was in his range...it was like time briefly stopped. Deadman felt himself exposed to something he couldn't comprehend.

He could only relate the soul scan Davian did on him to the meeting with his patron goddess when he had died.

Complete and utter surrender.

And then...Davian had turned away from him, springboarding through the air to approach the underside of the craft.

"I'm helping."

Deadman had decided. Unknowingly, his entire life would change based on this decision. The pilot, under Deadman's control, pulled on the yoke, shooting to the sky, right behind Davian.

And just like that...

(Davian's P.O.V)

"I can't believe you C-listers forced me to use my Shikai."

I ground out, more than a little peeved by the man standing before me.

I was in a high tech operations room. That is, if you ignored the damage from my entry. More of the Argus agents had their weapons trained on me while under cover. Just waiting for the order to start this show.

"I'm guessing you're the head honcho."

I pointed a sword at him. Dressed in a tight black T-shirt, grey tactical pants and holding onto a pad, this dude reminded me of that arrogant bad guy you had to beat up to get access towards the true hidden boss.

"Scarlet Devil."

He chuckled.

"Or should I call you Davian Mabuz?"

I raised my eyebrows.

"You know my real identity. I have no idea what that Scarlet Devil crap is. I only want to know one thing."

I twirled Chesha Neko. Their eyes followed the movement of the blade.

"Are you the guy I'm supposed to beat up for disturbing what I was hoping would be a quiet day?"

The man's smile seemed to widen.

"You have no idea who you're messing with. Let me show you, how out of your depth you are."

His arrogance was off the charts!

I almost felt a little in awe at his ego. I was even tempted to let him power up when he brought up his pad and begun tapping on it.

Psyke.

I appeared at his back, holding the small device faster than he could react to. Faster than any of them could react to.

"I'm guessing this is how you did it."

I spoke up, eyes running over the screen. There were sections I didn't quite understand.

However, the rows of attributes that seemed to come straight out of a video-game were indication enough.

Almost immediately, a scream sounded out as his wrist started spraying out blood. No surprise there, seeing as I had sliced it off.

"You...you bastard!!"

The man yelled, taking a knee.

"You can control people using this thing."

I held it up. Should I keep it or...

"It might be useful but..."

Chase trailed off.

"Yeah. It's unethical for something like this to exist."

I threw it up, then watched as it was slashed into small pieces no bigger than shredded paper.

"No...no! What did you do?!"

The Man dove after the remains, blood caking the floor as he frantically tried to salvage the parts.

"Do something!"

He shouted at his men.

I jerked my head towards them, hitting them with the most unimpressed look I could.

"Move an inch and you die."

I promised, the strings I had turned invisible briefly flashing in the air around us.

None of them dared to test me. Some even lowered their guns.

I turned to the wannabe villain, placing Chesha Neko's blade below his chin, turning his head to stare at me. His face held immense hate mixed with a little bit of fear.

"I won't ask you again. Are you the leader?"

He forcibly calmed himself, still holding onto his wrist, only this time no blood was coming out of it. Infact...there seemed to be a metallic sheen at the severed part.

The Man looked back at me, his arrogant smirk returning.

"The fact that you have no idea what you're dealing with is pretty funny."

He started laughing.

"Is this guy for real?"

Chase wondered out loud.

"He's actually pissing me off. How can anyone so weak, be this arrogant?

I had never heard Chase so...annoyed. it was almost funny if I wasn't also annoyed by the guy's attitude.

I pressed the tip of my blade on his neck. A trail of blood dripped down his neck.

"You understand, I can get answers from the others right? Which means I have no actual need for you. Tell me why I shouldn't kill you right now?"

To his benefit, he didn't show fear. It was quite the opposite.

"You think you have me at a disadvantage?"

His eyes begun glowing.

Ah. And now the true game begins.

A menacing laugh escaped him.

"I wanted you to think that..."

He spread out his hands and the surroundings started to change.

It was like time rewound. The destroyed chamber went back to it's original state before I had crashed through.

I swept my gaze around, taking note of the huge satellite feed they had over the world. The dozens of screens all monitoring Gotham. Monitoring the places I had frequented.

"I took control of your mind the second you stepped in here!"

He yelled, snapping a finger.

The floor disappeared from underneath me as I found myself falling.

I managed to stop my descent by creating a platform of Reiryoku. Only for massive shadow to loom over me.

"This fight was already lost the moment I decided to use Brother Eye on you. What an overkill."

His voice boomed out through the surroundings.

I looked up and saw him, his body was gigantic. Almost as big as Trigon had been.

He waved a hand and his palm crashed through the shield I had hastily created with my sheath. His long fingers wrapped around my form as he grabbed me, bringing me closer to his face.

"Deathstroke thought I had failed. He thought that you were dangerous. That a single man could destroy Argus. Destroy what I have painstakingly, cheated, lied and killed to build."

He laughed.

"Where is the danger he spoke of?"

"Mmh."

I hummed, a thoughtful look appearing on my face.

"I see now. He's the one behind you. Or rather, you're working for Leviathan. You're working for Talia."

I hadn't sat on my laurels when Raven and I had escaped the Wayne Manor. I had tried to find out more about Leviathan. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of news about them.

Even Artemis who was very familiar with the underworld knew next to nothing.

All I had going for me was our first meeting.

Talia had seemed very interested in me. How strange.

And if she was willing to go to these lengths just to capture me then why not just pay her a visit after I was done here?

Speaking of which...the man whose name I still didn't know was still busy monologuing.

"Okay. Enough."

I flexed my spirit energy.

"What..."

He pulled away his hand, the skin flaking off as thousands of strings lashed out and sliced into his palm.

"How?!"

He ground out, staring at me cautiously.

"You're not supposed to have any control in here! I am the master of this..."

I landed a slap on his cheek, throwing him away and breaking the mental illusions around us as Chase took control of the man's mind scape.

By using his metahuman abilities to dive into my mind, he had left himself open for the same. Chase had a lot of abilities at his disposal and something told me that anything he had shown was but the tip of an iceberg.

The mind-scape broke around us and we found ourselves in the operations room. It had only been a few seconds.

The man's body hit the floor, staring up at me like I was the devil. Or the Grim Reaper. He had no idea how right he was.

"Any last words?"

I asked him.

"You...you tricked me. You were never under my control. You only wanted information."

He said, almost lifelessly.

"Duh." I answered him, tapping his shoulder.

"I needed to know who I was fighting. Your mind control might have worked on someone else but unfortunately for you... you're about to see why it couldn't work on me. I want to introduce you to someone."

He looked up at me and then scrambled backwards in fear.

"Wait... please...I have money! Don't do this! Not yet!!"

A low rumble escaped the massive figure that stepped out of my shadow. His shoulders were taller than my head and his face was full of large teeth.

"I normally don't concern myself with you humans...but you remind me of a rat. A dirty, scraggly, smelly nuisance of a rodent."

Chase growled out in a deep baritone as he stalked forward.

"No!! Help! What are you!?"

My opponent or rather...Chase's victim panicked.

Then again if a giant purple cat with sharp teeth and intimidating eyes stalked towards you then...it was only right you tired to run away.

I looked at the terrified agents.

"I would look away if I was you. Things are about to get messy."