Godfather Owl: Guardian of Batman [61]
The pursuers behind them had mostly been taken care of, and even Kingpin himself had been struck by Bruce's petrification curse, toppling him off the back of his T-Rex.
Thinking back to that moment, Bruce couldn't help but shake his head to himself.
An evil brute like that—how could he ever withstand the force of righteous magic?
Finally, the tank crashed through the entrance of a tall building.
"Ashley, your dad's here!" Hawkeye called out from inside the tank, hoping for a response from his daughter. But as the vehicle rumbled into the building, everything inside left them utterly stunned.
Blood—
The entire building—Kingpin's lair—was covered in blood.
Countless bodies lay strewn across the floor, expressions frozen in terror, eyes wide open as if they'd seen something unspeakably horrifying right before they died.
Hawkeye stood rooted to the spot.
A flood of horror rose up within him, the stench of blood nearly overwhelming him completely.
Upon further inspection, it was clear that each one had been killed by a single, clean cut across the throat. This wasn't Ashley's style.
If Ashley had been here, she would've preferred to bash people's heads in.
Kingpin's building had been broken into from the outside, and then an indiscriminate massacre had taken place.
If that was the case, then what had happened to Ashley?!
Hawkeye couldn't bring himself to think any further. He jumped down from the tank and dashed into the building.
He had to find his daughter.
"Urgh—"
Bruce slumped against the side of the tank, retching. It was his first time seeing a scene this brutal, and it shook him to his core.
Kathoom clapped him on the back, murmuring, "Don't worry, you'll get used to it after a few more times."
"Aah—"
A desperate wail echoed from deep within the building. It was Hawkeye's voice.
What had happened was painfully clear.
Logan lowered his head, pulled his hat down over his eyes, as if he, too, was mourning for his old friend.
Even Kathoom couldn't help but feel a pang of pity for Hawkeye.
In this world, you can't expect happy endings.
Hawkeye was proof of that.
If he couldn't save Ashley, he would face the unbearable pain of a parent outliving their child—a tragedy beyond words.
But if he did save her, she'd likely end up killing him to assert her power. Seeing Ashley's true nature would break him just as thoroughly.
No matter what, Hawkeye's path was lined with suffering.
Kathoom sighed, "At the very least, right now, Hawkeye still thinks his daughter died a hero. In some way, that's a mercy, isn't it?"
Bruce didn't respond.
He was slowly adjusting to the scene around him, managing to stop himself from gagging.
Then a question surfaced in his mind.
"Who did this?" Bruce asked suddenly. "There's no way one of Kingpin's enemies just happened to pick today to settle a grudge, right?"
At that moment, Bruce felt a pervasive sense of danger creeping closer.
It reminded him of the first time he'd encountered Jason—a kind of supernatural intuition born from his magic.
A bat's instinct.
Bruce could sense, faintly, that some enormous threat was closing in on him.
"I don't know exactly who, but there's no doubt it's one of Barbatos' hunters," Kathoom muttered, looking around at the carnage. This kind of cold, ruthless slaughter reminded him of several people.
Ra's al Ghul, Talon, Zsasz...
"This time, we'd better prepare for the worst," Kathoom said grimly. "Let's assume the culprit is… Deathstroke."
Deathstroke…
Bruce didn't know exactly how dangerous this person was, but he did believe one thing:
There are no mistakes in nicknames. Anyone called Deathstroke wouldn't be an ordinary adversary.
"Kathoom, I've been wondering," Bruce spoke up, voicing a question that had been lurking in his mind for some time now.
"How does Barbatos keep sending people here? I mean, he can't come here himself, yet he can keep sending others, and each time they find our world with perfect accuracy."
"I don't know," Kathoom replied.
"No, you do know."
Bruce pressed, "You knew there'd be hunters after us from the moment we first crossed over."
"I don't know," Kathoom repeated.
But Bruce's mind was already wandering back to other, suspicious moments.
"When I found Barbatos' seal location according to the ancient texts, I was the one who broke the seal, but you were the one who came flying out."
Bruce stared at him. "Kathoom, have you known Barbatos for a while? What's the story between you two?"
"Alright, alright, since you're asking so much, I won't hide it from you."
Kathoom's expression turned nostalgic. "A long, long time ago—"
"Oh, spare me the story."
Bruce sighed suddenly. "If you won't tell me the truth, I can only take it as a sign that you don't trust me. Fine, we'll talk about it some other time."
He knew he wouldn't be able to get any truth from Kathoom now; he simply wasn't strong enough.
Besides, Bruce was reluctant to doubt the owl.
Ever since what had happened with Dumbledore, Bruce had learned the hard way that too much suspicion only led to disaster.
Bruce didn't push the issue any further, but he muttered to himself, "Though, is it possible that Barbatos once humiliated you somehow, left you with some kind of… unpleasant history?"
Kathoom's eyes widened. "You little—!"
Who did Bruce think he was?!
Did Bruce really have the nerve to say something like that with a straight face?
Kathoom couldn't help but pity all of Bruce's future foes—they'd have to face a Batman with a tongue just as sharp as his fists.
---
They made their way further into the building, where they found Hawkeye mourning.
He was holding his daughter's lifeless body, weeping.
Logan knelt beside his friend, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder, silent.
Kathoom glanced around, noticing something unusual about the room.
"This isn't a cell," he remarked. "From the setup, it looks more like… Kingpin's vault."
Sure enough, scattered around the room were gold bars and other valuable, oversized collectibles that hadn't yet been taken.
It was becoming much clearer.
When the enemy had invaded, Ashley actually had a chance to escape. But instead, she'd chosen to run to Kingpin's vault, hoping to grab some loot in the chaos.
Unfortunately, her target and her enemy's target had overlapped, and when they crossed paths, tragedy struck.
"What a shame."
Kathoom commented, flying a few laps around the vault.
Sure enough, he found a few more clues.
"Only the smallest, most valuable items were taken, and everything else was left untouched. Very Deathstroke-esque—grab the valuables and go, clean and efficient."
Taking money first to fund a capture plan? Not every villain operated with this level of foresight.
Kathoom landed, and before him lay a helmet.
Magneto's helmet.
"A pity Deathstroke isn't local—he clearly misjudged the true value of these items."
Kathoom picked up the helmet, tucked it into his feathers. "Guess that means the rest of this stuff is mine to… graciously accept."
---
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