12 advance chapters in my Patreon.
Patreon.com/Saintbarbido.
::--------------------------------------------::
(General P.O.V)
The last few weeks had been crazy.
Raven would be the first to admit she would never have expected to get inducted into a squad with convicts to perform suicide missions. Then in a fluke, she had saved the life of their target and brought him to one of the only people she trusted.
Then that had gone awry when the powerful Lord of Order had decided that Davian was too dangerous to be left alive. A fight later and they found themselves in the home of one of Gotham's elites.
She had wondered why Zatara had brought them there specifically. In the beginning it had seemed planned. Only after Davian had filled her in on all that happened did she understand.
Bruce Wayne was Batman. And being possibly the most paranoid man on earth, it made sense that he would try to keep them close. Raven would never have thought close meant right in his home.
She remembered the fight with Deadshot. Davian had informed her the one responsible for shooting her with a frickin rpg was Deathstroke.
That had hurt.
After waking up, Raven had promised herself she was going to kick Deathstroke's ass the next time they met each other. But first, they had to handle the matter of where to stay.
"Batman will be looking for us. And that means the League will as well."
Davian had sighed, leaning on the beanbag, which if you counted the couch and a metal bed at the corner of the storage unit, was all the furniture inside.
He had a red rubber ball in his hands that he bounced off the metal walls of the unit. It made a dull thunk that Raven was steadily getting tired of.
"At this rate, leaving Gotham is the only option we have."
He mused.
"Though I don't know where we would go."
Raven closed the book on the Mind arts she had snagged back from the Tower of Fate before they had left. The book held interest to her due to her unique situation. The red gemstone in the middle of her head.
Speaking of which, Davian had not even once mentioned or asked about it. It was one of the things she liked about him. He never pried.
Her recent rotten luck in finding herself in fights however, proved that having a better lock on her emotions was important. Especially when she could hear him, banging on the walls of her mind. Her father.
"Of course we do."
Raven spoke up.
"Remember Kent? we never really checked up on him."
Davian sat up straighter.
"Oh yeah...the old guy who helped us out when I was in a coma."
He sniffed in distaste.
"That reminds me, I seem to pass out after every major fight."
"I'm guessing that's not good for your 'Street cred'?"
Raven smiled, using air quotes. The other thing about Davian that she had learned was that he was unabashedly prideful.
No, he didn't brag and nor was he arrogant. He just, according to his own words, 'knew and respected his worth. If you didn't fuck with him, he didn't fuck with you.'
Oh and he liked cursing. A lot.
"It's not funny. I could die while taking a nap. What kind of badass would I be then?"
He countered.
"Anyway, I have no idea where the Tower of Fate is located."
Raven's eyes turned black as her shadow spat out a long parchment of paper. Davian jerked a little in surprise.
"Whoa, you have a pocket dimension?"
Raven looked at him as if he was crazy.
"Umm...yeah. where do you think I kept my stuff?"
With a very unimpressed stare, Davian pointed at the leather bag on the bed.
"Oh."
Raven blinked.
"I asked the butler for your stuff when you were playing sleeping beauty."
Davian replied, fully aware of the irony while he moved over to her.
Oh yeah, he did, didn't he? That bag carried what she wouldn't mind losing. Plus, it was a convenient excuse for when she pulled things out of her Shadow Space.
"It's called a shadow space."
Raven explained.
"Dumb name."
Davian commented, leaning over to peer at the map.
"You think I could learn it? It looks useful."
Raven thought about it while also poring over the map. She hadn't sensed the space where the Tower had occupied, which meant if they really had to go to Salem, they needed to do it the old fashioned way, flying. Okay maybe it wasn't the old fashioned way, but it was the quickest.
A shadow space of his own would help Davian hide the very noticeable weapon strapped to his hip when the occasion called for it. The problem was,
"I don't know if you can 'learn' it. The space inside is small and it's one of the hardest spells to master because it drains magical energy to sustain itself."
Raven's answer made Davian hum.
"Wonder if there is a Kido spell like that..."
He muttered.
'What's Kido?'
Raven was tempted to ask what Kido was but hadn't wanted to be nosy. She knew that Davian also possessed a spirit of some kind within him. At times he would stiffen in place and seem as if he was talking to the air.
"... I'm thinking we can get there in a couple of days. The problem is money. Raven? Raven?"
The half demon-half human blinked realizing her mind had wandered off.
"Sorry, got lost in thought."
She had told him.
"It's cool. Anyway, about the money, I have an idea." He smiled, leaning back on the bed.
"We could kill two birds with one stone."
He winked at her, a devilish smirk on his face.
That's how the idea of crime fighting as a job had been born. And over the course of the weeks, Raven had realized it was a lucrative one.
They already had 4200 dollars from robbing those who robbed or hurt people. This would have made Raven's stomach churn in disgust but the real world had shown her how bad it could get if you were alone and unprepared. The worst part was that she couldn't go back to Azarath. It was too big a risk.
So they stalked the dark alleys of Gotham. With Raven's abilities, portalling in and out was easy. That was literally her job. She never accosted anyone. And after seeing the type of criminals they came across, she never intervened even when Davian became a little too...excited.
He had broken a man's arm after the guy had tried to rape a small girl.
This particular day hadn't been any different. During one of their many 'activities', they'd met a budding hero. Was that the word?
And after saving her life from a sneak attack, Artemis had become sort of an acquaintance/informer. Anything she wasn't able to handle she would call them in as back up. Kinda. This was actually the first time she had called them in on something resembling organized crime. Usually Raven and Davian stuck to the petty goons who never seemed to learn.
With Artemis in play, things changed.
She had started out by telling them what drug houses to hit. Nothing too big. Just small time criminals.
Then today had happened. A supply truck carrying drugs on it's way to an exchange. Raven had been unsure but Davian had eased her worries by telling her they could get out anytime they wanted.
So she had agreed. Artemis seemed to have knowledge about the criminal underworld of Gotham, so it wasn't like they were going in blind. That eased Raven's worries about being played, it wasn't the first time someone had tried to use her for her power.
This deal would be their ticket out of here.
Raven was leaning on a wall as the truck rounded up the corner, just like planned. Wearing a purple chinese dress with a black hood over her head, she looked no different from the throngs of people making their way up and down the street.
Then the transport truck had exploded. The screams begun as people begun pushing on each other, escaping the scene.
Within the span of a few seconds, pandemonium broke out. Raven threw her back to the wall, going through the inky portal she had created, and coming out of the door leading to the Chinese place that the truck was poised to land on.
The black portal disappeared as she stepped out into the streets, immediately taking stock of what was happening. The truck was suspended in yellow glowing ropes; no doubt Davian's handy work and a red skinned and white braided haired man was facing off against her partner.
Only Davian noticed her. The red skinned brute ran towards Davian in a speed that was highly unexpected from his lumbering form. Raven got out of her surprise quickly and pushed out her hands.
"Azarath metrion Zinthos!"
Black whips as thick as tree trunks, smacked Brick away before he knew what was happening. The supervillain felt something heavy and hard land on his left arm, breaking it. Then his back was planted onto the canopy of the outdoor restaurant.
Davian smiled, showing a thumbs up to Raven. Then the smile fell away. A small audible bang escaped his position and with an displacement of air currents, Davian was almost instantly to her right, blocking bullets with his body.
'He's getting better at moving in superspeed.'
Raven realized, her own hands covered in shadows.
"Don't get too distracted. You handle angry ketchup man while I get rid of the goons." Davian quickly came up with a plan.
"Something tells me our 'friend' wasn't entirely honest with us."
"Angry Ketchup man?"
Raven asked but Davian was already on the move.
Shots rang out across the street, Brick's men closing in on the pair. They had hid at the junction, waiting inside a Dragon Dance Costume, that they had used to blend in.
Davian ran forward without using Shunpo, the street having cleared enough that a fight wouldn't harm the civilians. His foot struck out and hit a table, throwing it towards two of the men at the corner of the store front.
The table distracted them enough that his Shunpo was not noticed by three more of Brick's men, these ones providing cover for the other two. Davian found himself in the air, falling towards a black minivan with the three goons huddling behind it.
He smiled.
"Hado no. 1: Sho!"
He whispered, this time the Kido spell exploding out of the bottom of his soles as he landed on top of the vehicle.
The minivan folded in on itself, the metal exploding outwards with the tires hitting and throwing the three men away onto the pavement, groaning in pain.
"I hope you guys have a good health insurance."
Davian quipped.
Raven on the other hand, had Brick restrained with black tentacles coming out of her Shadow. Police sirens could be heard from afar as Davian walked up to her, the Bakudo spell holding the truck unravelling and allowing it to land on the sidewalk.
The other two goons had placed down their weapons the minute they found themselves outmatched. Davian noticed a fair amount of people hiding inside the buildings, taking videos of both of them but did nothing about it.
"So what did he say?"
At Davian's question Raven held in a groan.
"Oh, you know, the usual stuff. 'You have no idea who you'll messing with', 'you will regret this', 'let me go and I'll make you rich.'"
She rolled her eyes.
Brick spat on the floor next to their feet. His face set in an angry snarl.
"You're done. Do you know who I work for? The offers off the ta..."
Then Davian's fist plowed into his cheek, turning his head to the side with a meaty thunk.
The Supervillain was immediately knocked out.
Raven blinked as Davian begun whistling, ruffling through Brick's pockets, as if everything was normal.
12 advance chapters in my Patreon.
Patreon.com/Saintbarbido.
::--------------------------------------------::
(General P.O.V)
The last few weeks had been crazy.
Raven would be the first to admit she would never have expected to get inducted into a squad with convicts to perform suicide missions. Then in a fluke, she had saved the life of their target and brought him to one of the only people she trusted.
Then that had gone awry when the powerful Lord of Order had decided that Davian was too dangerous to be left alive. A fight later and they found themselves in the home of one of Gotham's elites.
She had wondered why Zatara had brought them there specifically. In the beginning it had seemed planned. Only after Davian had filled her in on all that happened did she understand.
Bruce Wayne was Batman. And being possibly the most paranoid man on earth, it made sense that he would try to keep them close. Raven would never have thought close meant right in his home.
She remembered the fight with Deadshot. Davian had informed her the one responsible for shooting her with a frickin rpg was Deathstroke.
That had hurt.
After waking up, Raven had promised herself she was going to kick Deathstroke's ass the next time they met each other. But first, they had to handle the matter of where to stay.
"Batman will be looking for us. And that means the League will as well."
Davian had sighed, leaning on the beanbag, which if you counted the couch and a metal bed at the corner of the storage unit, was all the furniture inside.
He had a red rubber ball in his hands that he bounced off the metal walls of the unit. It made a dull thunk that Raven was steadily getting tired of.
"At this rate, leaving Gotham is the only option we have."
He mused.
"Though I don't know where we would go."
Raven closed the book on the Mind arts she had snagged back from the Tower of Fate before they had left. The book held interest to her due to her unique situation. The red gemstone in the middle of her head.
Speaking of which, Davian had not even once mentioned or asked about it. It was one of the things she liked about him. He never pried.
Her recent rotten luck in finding herself in fights however, proved that having a better lock on her emotions was important. Especially when she could hear him, banging on the walls of her mind. Her father.
"Of course we do."
Raven spoke up.
"Remember Kent? we never really checked up on him."
Davian sat up straighter.
"Oh yeah...the old guy who helped us out when I was in a coma."
He sniffed in distaste.
"That reminds me, I seem to pass out after every major fight."
"I'm guessing that's not good for your 'Street cred'?"
Raven smiled, using air quotes. The other thing about Davian that she had learned was that he was unabashedly prideful.
No, he didn't brag and nor was he arrogant. He just, according to his own words, 'knew and respected his worth. If you didn't fuck with him, he didn't fuck with you.'
Oh and he liked cursing. A lot.
"It's not funny. I could die while taking a nap. What kind of badass would I be then?"
He countered.
"Anyway, I have no idea where the Tower of Fate is located."
Raven's eyes turned black as her shadow spat out a long parchment of paper. Davian jerked a little in surprise.
"Whoa, you have a pocket dimension?"
Raven looked at him as if he was crazy.
"Umm...yeah. where do you think I kept my stuff?"
With a very unimpressed stare, Davian pointed at the leather bag on the bed.
"Oh."
Raven blinked.
"I asked the butler for your stuff when you were playing sleeping beauty."
Davian replied, fully aware of the irony while he moved over to her.
Oh yeah, he did, didn't he? That bag carried what she wouldn't mind losing. Plus, it was a convenient excuse for when she pulled things out of her Shadow Space.
"It's called a shadow space."
Raven explained.
"Dumb name."
Davian commented, leaning over to peer at the map.
"You think I could learn it? It looks useful."
Raven thought about it while also poring over the map. She hadn't sensed the space where the Tower had occupied, which meant if they really had to go to Salem, they needed to do it the old fashioned way, flying. Okay maybe it wasn't the old fashioned way, but it was the quickest.
A shadow space of his own would help Davian hide the very noticeable weapon strapped to his hip when the occasion called for it. The problem was,
"I don't know if you can 'learn' it. The space inside is small and it's one of the hardest spells to master because it drains magical energy to sustain itself."
Raven's answer made Davian hum.
"Wonder if there is a Kido spell like that..."
He muttered.
'What's Kido?'
Raven was tempted to ask what Kido was but hadn't wanted to be nosy. She knew that Davian also possessed a spirit of some kind within him. At times he would stiffen in place and seem as if he was talking to the air.
"... I'm thinking we can get there in a couple of days. The problem is money. Raven? Raven?"
The half demon-half human blinked realizing her mind had wandered off.
"Sorry, got lost in thought."
She had told him.
"It's cool. Anyway, about the money, I have an idea." He smiled, leaning back on the bed.
"We could kill two birds with one stone."
He winked at her, a devilish smirk on his face.
That's how the idea of crime fighting as a job had been born. And over the course of the weeks, Raven had realized it was a lucrative one.
They already had 4200 dollars from robbing those who robbed or hurt people. This would have made Raven's stomach churn in disgust but the real world had shown her how bad it could get if you were alone and unprepared. The worst part was that she couldn't go back to Azarath. It was too big a risk.
So they stalked the dark alleys of Gotham. With Raven's abilities, portalling in and out was easy. That was literally her job. She never accosted anyone. And after seeing the type of criminals they came across, she never intervened even when Davian became a little too...excited.
He had broken a man's arm after the guy had tried to rape a small girl.
This particular day hadn't been any different. During one of their many 'activities', they'd met a budding hero. Was that the word?
And after saving her life from a sneak attack, Artemis had become sort of an acquaintance/informer. Anything she wasn't able to handle she would call them in as back up. Kinda. This was actually the first time she had called them in on something resembling organized crime. Usually Raven and Davian stuck to the petty goons who never seemed to learn.
With Artemis in play, things changed.
She had started out by telling them what drug houses to hit. Nothing too big. Just small time criminals.
Then today had happened. A supply truck carrying drugs on it's way to an exchange. Raven had been unsure but Davian had eased her worries by telling her they could get out anytime they wanted.
So she had agreed. Artemis seemed to have knowledge about the criminal underworld of Gotham, so it wasn't like they were going in blind. That eased Raven's worries about being played, it wasn't the first time someone had tried to use her for her power.
This deal would be their ticket out of here.
Raven was leaning on a wall as the truck rounded up the corner, just like planned. Wearing a purple chinese dress with a black hood over her head, she looked no different from the throngs of people making their way up and down the street.
Then the transport truck had exploded. The screams begun as people begun pushing on each other, escaping the scene.
Within the span of a few seconds, pandemonium broke out. Raven threw her back to the wall, going through the inky portal she had created, and coming out of the door leading to the Chinese place that the truck was poised to land on.
The black portal disappeared as she stepped out into the streets, immediately taking stock of what was happening. The truck was suspended in yellow glowing ropes; no doubt Davian's handy work and a red skinned and white braided haired man was facing off against her partner.
Only Davian noticed her. The red skinned brute ran towards Davian in a speed that was highly unexpected from his lumbering form. Raven got out of her surprise quickly and pushed out her hands.
"Azarath metrion Zinthos!"
Black whips as thick as tree trunks, smacked Brick away before he knew what was happening. The supervillain felt something heavy and hard land on his left arm, breaking it. Then his back was planted onto the canopy of the outdoor restaurant.
Davian smiled, showing a thumbs up to Raven. Then the smile fell away. A small audible bang escaped his position and with an displacement of air currents, Davian was almost instantly to her right, blocking bullets with his body.
'He's getting better at moving in superspeed.'
Raven realized, her own hands covered in shadows.
"Don't get too distracted. You handle angry ketchup man while I get rid of the goons." Davian quickly came up with a plan.
"Something tells me our 'friend' wasn't entirely honest with us."
"Angry Ketchup man?"
Raven asked but Davian was already on the move.
Shots rang out across the street, Brick's men closing in on the pair. They had hid at the junction, waiting inside a Dragon Dance Costume, that they had used to blend in.
Davian ran forward without using Shunpo, the street having cleared enough that a fight wouldn't harm the civilians. His foot struck out and hit a table, throwing it towards two of the men at the corner of the store front.
The table distracted them enough that his Shunpo was not noticed by three more of Brick's men, these ones providing cover for the other two. Davian found himself in the air, falling towards a black minivan with the three goons huddling behind it.
He smiled.
"Hado no. 1: Sho!"
He whispered, this time the Kido spell exploding out of the bottom of his soles as he landed on top of the vehicle.
The minivan folded in on itself, the metal exploding outwards with the tires hitting and throwing the three men away onto the pavement, groaning in pain.
"I hope you guys have a good health insurance."
Davian quipped.
Raven on the other hand, had Brick restrained with black tentacles coming out of her Shadow. Police sirens could be heard from afar as Davian walked up to her, the Bakudo spell holding the truck unravelling and allowing it to land on the sidewalk.
The other two goons had placed down their weapons the minute they found themselves outmatched. Davian noticed a fair amount of people hiding inside the buildings, taking videos of both of them but did nothing about it.
"So what did he say?"
At Davian's question Raven held in a groan.
"Oh, you know, the usual stuff. 'You have no idea who you'll messing with', 'you will regret this', 'let me go and I'll make you rich.'"
She rolled her eyes.
Brick spat on the floor next to their feet. His face set in an angry snarl.
"You're done. Do you know who I work for? The offers off the ta..."
Then Davian's fist plowed into his cheek, turning his head to the side with a meaty thunk.
The Supervillain was immediately knocked out.
Raven blinked as Davian begun whistling, ruffling through Brick's pockets, as if everything was normal.
