Wrath

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Kevin Grant's pov

After making a pit-stop for some much needed PANTS after getting obliterated by Osiris' lightning, I flew back to the tower as fast as I could. Something wasn't right and by the time I got above the skyline I knew my gut was correct. As if on cue, lightning struck the now burning and smoldering tower.

I flew faster and the sight stopped me in my tracks. Three figures stood and more were on the floor. In rubble, Donna's shield was there. Cassandra had a bone protruding from her neck and crimson pooling under her. Starfire was in a purple bed of her own blood. Raven-

She was unrecognizable. Her eyes were swollen shut and face was covered in blood. Limp at the heavily armored one's feet I could see the blood dripping from his gloves from here.

A wash of emotions came over me like a tsunami. I wanted to vomit, run and cry all at the same time; like I did in 1812. However, stronger emotions overruled those impulses. Oh no, I really REALLY wanted to kill all these guys. This new power boiled in me as the man in the Silent Armor spoke, "Ah! You!" He popped his neck, "You're just in time! You killed that one girl didn't you?"

Girl? That one girl I accidentally killed when fighting Grundy? This is a revenge hit? My vision grew so red it was almost black in rage; the Heart's thump booming in my head.

The man in a trench coat handed the heavily armored one a fold out pistol. Tension was so thick that a katana couldn't hope on cutting it. This was it, a Mexican standoff of sorts.

"You like this sort of thing don't you?" The speaker continued, his voice contorted, "Justice."

"I kill a person on accident and you criticize me. You kill multiple on purpose and call it justice?" I said in a monotonous tone. In a blink I pasted the man to the floor, took him by the foot and smashed him over my head like a doll. My voice was contorted as I added, "You're right, we might like that."

The other two started shooting me but the bullets bounced off my head. I converted the flames around us into Hellfire and tethered them to the ceiling in a tentacle. Crushing them I relished in their screams as I-

"Did you seriously think I would be that easy?"

Hitting me in the back I went flying into the elevator. The spot that he hit me at burned like the sun does a vampire or some unholy corrosive. My anger was too hot for pain and I twirled back and wrapped him up in Hellfire. Hoping to suffocate him I-

"This won't work," he laughed, "dang, you got demon powers don't you? I thought I felt something funny."

"Ravager!" A voice chastised from behind me, "We need to go!"

"He's the one who killed her!"

In a blink I punched him in the gut, his armor plates on his torso shattering into pieces. My other hand quickly followed and broke the helmet in half on his face. I could sense the Silent Armor's location and knew he flew towards me when I turned my back again. Waving a hand at him, I dismissively blasted him with lightning. The last one cussed and flipped over me. He was fast but he wasn't going to be fast enough.

Something slashed my back and even though I felt the gash I slowly turned back to Ravager as he held his sword in a defensive stance. So I'm bulletproof but am still hurt by the Silent Armor and whatever is special about this sword. Ravager called out, "Deathstroke! Is your sword blessed?"

He pulled his sword out of his sheath on his back as if in response. I summoned the forked staff of Grendel again and blessed the copy with hellfire. The battle started again en masse and I blocked Ravager and Deathstroke on one side. On the other I tried to block the armored man's fist with my cursed arm like I did Osiris. My bones, for the first time in two centuries, broke through my cursed skin. I had never felt pain in that arm before when black gunk spat onto my chin from the bone ripping out of my skin. I was honestly perplexed but only for a moment.

"Fall back!" Deathstroke spat before leaping back while Ravager stubbornly locked blades with me.

"I'm going to kill you and then Diesel if it's the last thing I do!"

"No," we growled as we blasted the armored man back with a lightning strike, "death shall be all you know!" I shoved him off and threw my staff, pinning Diesel to the wall and grabbed Ravager's sword with my cursed, broken hand. After snapping his sword like a toothpick, I was slashed on my ankle from my side and I laughed. Holding myself up with my new flight powers I twirled around and kicked both Ravager and Deathstroke back. Having me sandwiched, they both charged me as fast as Grendel did. I summoned Hellfire tendrils from the chaos around me to control their movement. Leaping and dodging, it only had minimal effect and they closed the distance quickly. Both leaping towards me I summoned another forked staff and caught Deathstroke's sword with it as I caught Ravager's wrist and crushed it. Yet he acted like he didn't feel it and punched at me, dislocating several of his fingers against my face thanks to my new constitution from Osiris. Next there was a whistle and the staff I had summoned earlier hit me in the back of my cursed shoulder and popped it back.

The next punch landed with terrifying force, sending three teeth flying and breaking my jaw. It appears that Osiris' powers only work when activated, but instead of a magic word, I just pop my shoulder out like I always do. However being depowered mid fight had grave consequences if I didn't recover quickly.

Collapsing on one leg, my achilles tendon being cut, I shoved Ravager back but Deathstroke pushed down on me. With my free hand I needed to pop my shoulder back but couldn't as I tried to keep Deathstroke off of me with both hands. I also sensed the Silent Armor closing in fast. The situation forced my hand, I did something I was leary to do: I summoned my most powerful object.

The copy of Arisia's Lantern Ring.

I blasted Diesel back with a blast of green hard-light energy, Ravager charged me again--broken blade in hand like a knife, and I summoned a green hard-light cutlass or leadcutter, size 4, I had wielded in the Spanish American war.

(A prominent manufacturer of Leadcutters was Wilkinson Sword, who produced the sword in four sizes; Model 1 being the lightest, and Model 4 being the largest and heaviest. A Model 2 blade measures in at 31 inches in length and 1.75 inches in width, with a model 3 blade 33 inches long and 2 inches wide.)

Anticipating what I was going to do, Deathsroke rolled back and kicked my leg out in a sweep before I could bring my sword around and stab him. Before I knew it I was forced to bottle up with my ring's power, as Deathstroke whipped out an SMG and shot at my head. Ravager's blade pounded into my shield and it started to crack. Using the guard on the cutlass that doubled as brass knuckles I struck my shoulder before he could bring the blade down again.

As my shield broke, my body disappeared from around his blade into a cloud of locusts that formed behind him. He swung the blade back but I caught his wrist and growled, "You annoy me," before pulling his arm back and dislocating his whole arm. Next however my arms were pulled into me and my skin started burning with a pain I had never felt before and I have felt a lot of pain.

"Ha! Ha-ha!" Diesel huffed, a lasso in his hand and wrapped around me, "I knew you were nothing! Less than nothing!"

"Morphine!" Ravager screamed, "More morphine!

Fire burned in my eyes as the ring glowed violently bright as I spat, "I'm not even tired yet."

"Just gotta tighten it a little more!" The pain increased and I surprised myself with the scream coming from my lips. "Just a little more to pop your shoulder back in and I can kill these two and make you watch as I have my fun with your friends!" A smile was in his voice when he added, "Especially the women!"

Against my attempts to not let him under my skin, I couldn't help but glance at the bloodied form of Raven and this monster sticking his dick in her, against her will and over and over. I screamed in pain and rage, the ring and powers even more concentrated as the Lantern energy loosened the lasso on me. I'm not dying again, I'm not allowing good people I cared about become the playthings of a fate determined by a murderous rapist.

"Grant!" Deathstroke screamed a haunting scream, "Jesus! My son! Stay with me son!"

Breaking the bonds that held me, I charged Diesel with two green M1917 trench knives (the less popular model), stunned him with Osiris' mental attack and stabbed him with both knives in the gut. The triangular tipped blades were a combat medic's hell-on-earth because the wounds were so hard to sew up. Today, they would be illegal due to the Geneva convention because of the suffering they would cause… especially if I twisted them spitefully. I relished the shock on his face as he collapsed against the wall, as I twisted and ripped the blades out before punching him with the brass spiked knuckle guard. The weapons my ring made smashed into his mask. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. I did this until his mask was ripped off of his face and he looked up at me, his right eye swollen shut and his entire body growing pale from blood loss. All he did was chuckle and spit on me until a gunshot made him slump to the side. I swirled to where the shot came from and saw Deathstroke in the elevator with Ravager, that punk who bloodied my nose after Solomon Grundy, over his shoulder as the elevator door was closing.

"I will be back," Deathstroke promised, "and I will be ready."

"Did I say we were done?!" I shouted.

"The battle is, tend your wounded while I tend mine."

Then the door shut, his demeanor triggering the military man in me. I was this angry before in war but had to stop in the wave of a hat or flag. I could go after him but I had more pressing matters on my hands; like possibly choosing who among my friends lives and who dies. Jericho, Beastboy and Cyborg weren't here so I assumed the worst. The rage masking my swirling emotions left and I couldn't help but vomit. Sobbing I went to Robin and used my ring to unwrap the lasso from him but he was unconscious. He couldn't tell me what to do. Raven, my God Raven, she was unrecognizable. I let out another dry heave & cupped her face like precious Chinaware.

As soon as my cursed hand brushed the hair from her face the only idea that came to mind made me feel even more sick. I elongated my nail, knowing what I must do but not knowing if I had the strength to do it. Would it kill her though? Would the power surge drive me insane as a result?

I could take her healing powers.

Whenever she healed someone however she took that pain onto herself; being an empath. I can bloody regenerate and am used to pain. What I wasn't used to was this emotional dilemma! This is specifically why I worked alone, trying to forget everything since 1969. Forget everything I allowed to run rampant because of an innocent oath my brothers and I made back in 1869. Regress backwards and live a simpler, more child-like life not becoming some immortal know it all without a shred of humanity left. Not some leader, tactician, or politician detached from his peers who saw his men as pawns and craved for power or had responsibilities. I wanted to drift but also knew that the Heart that cursed me needed to be destroyed so this affliction came upon no one else.

I screamed into the air, unable to do it but I held the nail higher, tears streaming down my face. Psyching myself up to do this made me even more sick to my stomach until I heard a cough behind me. I looked back and saw Oracle stirring as she sat up. I retracted my nail and cussed, yelling,

"Oracle! I can't do it! What do I do?! Does-does this ring heal people?!"

"You got a Lantern ring?!"

"Just answer me!"

She coughed from the smoke and told me, "No it doesn't heal. Throw up a Bat signal and Superman symbol. Jesus," she muttered, rubbing her face, "Osiris punched me hard."

I blasted a hole in the ceiling and screamed as I used my emotion to power the ring. The ring blasted in a blinding green light that filled the storm darkened skies. However, there was nothing for a moment but I held up the standard anyway. After a few minutes there was a crack of thunder and a familiar voice said, "I'm here Kevin and friends follow close behind me."

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