[ Time: 12:00 pm ]
[ Location: Gotham City, New Jersey, Wayne Botanical Gardens ]
[Third-person POV ]
[ Selina Kyle, Catwoman ]
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Selina ran as fast as she could while holding Holly's hand.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
"Shit Selina!" Holly yelled as Catwoman tackled her to the ground. As the two women tumbled through the grass to a stop, a glowing yellow blade thumped into a tree behind them followed by gunshots.
Selina sat up checking behind them. Two hunters on dirt bikes drove towards them. The one on the left raised a rifle, while the other pulled out a pistol.
"Selina!" Holy cried out again as Selina pushed her to the floor a second time as bullets rattled the trees behind them.
Pulling out her whip, she lashed out at the two thugs. Swiping the rifle out of the left one's hands she charged the right thug. He let off the shot before Selina managed to reach him but she'd already been bouncing between trees and running up their sides before whipping his gun away and smashing down on his face with a devastating axe kick.
Then as the other one approached having pulled out a knife, Selina swept out his legs from under him with one smooth move, got to her feet, and knocked him out with one swift stomp to the face.
After making sure he was knocked out Selina rushed back over to Holly.
"Are you alright, sweetie? Come here," Checking her over Selina frantically searched for any form of injury but thankfully only found a couple of scrapes and light bruises.
"I'm fine Selina more importantly what about you that guy didn't land a shot did he?" Holly asked searching just as swiftly as Selina had for any wounds or injuries that thankfully weren't there.
Seeing they were both fine, they embraced for a while, hoping they could forget the terrible world around them. Neither of them was seriously hurt and now they only needed to find their way out of this death trap that they called the woods.
"Come on we need to go quickly," Selina broke their hug and gripped Holly by the shoulders.
"Okay," Holly nodded, the two stood up and began to run again; only behind them a small drone followed the duo through the woods. On the other end of the drone, a man with long white hair watched from the other side of the monitor.
"Seems those hunters of yours are all bite no bark Kraven," Harvey Dent growled out from his dark side. His other kinder half was blocked by his hair and the other side was in full control. Two-Face flipped his trademark coin and glared at the result.
"Hmph grrr fine, I'll do it myself," Two-Face growled picking up a red katana sitting next to him and standing up.
A few minutes later, he left their forward operating base and headed into the woods to clean up Black Mask's mess.
XXX
[ Time: 12:10 pm ]
[ Location: Gotham City, New Jersey, Wayne Botanical Gardens ]
[Third-person POV ]
[ Kairo Oyama ]
XXX
Explosions surrounded Kai as men screamed. Thanks to his dismantling, men had lost limbs guns had been sliced apart and vehicles had taken enough damage to quickly catch fire and explode. Meanwhile, black mask had his throat bitten off by Mimi who changed from a fly to a wolf in moments and tore open the crime lord's neck.
The wind blades had been far more devastating than he'd expected and the threat of the gang had been thoroughly eliminated. That just left the one obstacle standing in his way.
Firefly was still standing there radiating flaming energy; his guard was up and his arms had been slashed but the man had only taken a few steps back from his position in front of me.
Sighing tiredly I stepped forward, I wasn't out of magical power but the mental strain of it could be a bit exhausting and I'd taken the wind blade spell to a brand new level by combining it with an omnidirectional gust of wind whilst also being precise enough to target all of the enemies' weapons.
He stepped forward through the flaming crowd of wounded men and walked over to the pinned and choking form of the Black Mask. Mimi had gotten him good; a clean bite to the neck hadn't killed him but the man was suffocating in his own blood and even if the suffocation stopped, he'd still bleed out anyway.
'It's probably best to just kill him and put him out of his misery' I nodded as Mimi shifted into a dove and landed on my shoulder. Meanwhile, Firefly started circling me, and I did the same. Our eyes locked and eventually we ended up switching places. I was in front of the wriggling bodies of Roman and Mimi.
Lifting my hand and shifting into saber form I went to cut off his head when another red blade countered mine. I looked up to see a tall man in a pristine suit that was half white and half black. The man had long white hair the same color as my own and beneath the black shroud, one glaring yellow eye.
The slice came quickly, quicker than even he could react and the only thing that saved him was a quick blink backwards. He only just regained balance when he heard the sound of Firefly's blast coming at him. He turned shifting his hands into a metallic shield before blasting backward into a pile of flaming rubble. Quickly rolling off the fire Kai was perfectly intact; however, his favorite hoodie was burned beyond recognition, irreparable. Seeing that his favorite piece of cream clothing had been completely singed to the point that it was falling off his body. Kai believed it was time to take the kiddie gloves off.
Without another word, he charged at Firefly before blinking forward and using a sonic blast to throw him into the distance. Stepping into the air after he he generates a lightning bolt in his hands and slams it into the blazing villain's face. Meanwhile Two face had shucked the injured Black Mask over his shoulder and started running with him only to run into Mimi in the form of a mountain lion. Mimi still didn't have enough biomass to become something bigger but she could use a form like this to great effect.
Two-Face unsheathed his red katana with one hand and pointed it at Mimi before narrowing his eyes. He opened his mouth to speak when suddenly Firefly came crashing down; I thought he ground behind him. Kai retrieved the flaming man and drove blow after blow into his stomach.
"ENOUGH!" Garfield screamed with rage letting out a massive explosive aura of heat that knocked all of them away and started another ring of fire around them. Kai was knocked back but quickly rolled with the force and tried to regain his feet. Looking up he saw the blazing felon flying forward and shooting two super-hot radiation beams his way. Blinking to the side he dodged and summoned a tree below his charging foe.
Then before he could recover a bolt of lightning smashed down into him and blasted through the wooden bark. Throwing another lightning bolt at Firefly the blast rocked him back and Kai flew towards him grabbing the burning man by the waist and tackling him down into the water.
Firefly tried to grab Kai and boil him alive as he roared under the water. But despite the boiling liquid and the force of the expanding steam around him Kai took him down farther and farther before unleashing more electricity in a massive aura around them. Meanwhile, Firefly decided the best idea was to up the heat and he started glowing and radiating more and more energy. The entirety of the small lake was struck over and over by strikes of lightning, and massive crackling arcs of electricity coated the surface and blasted outward. Then a great bright light blasted out of the water, making an explosive wave of water crash over the banks of the area. For over a minute and a half, the blasts of lightning struck over and over and over until they finally stopped and the steaming pool of boiling water began to still.
Then a few moments later the water rippled and out of the depths Firefly came out. Then he was promptly tossed to the ground like a sack of coals, and Kairo sighed as he coughed and gasped for air. His metallic skin flickered back and forth from a natural brown to a metallic sheen and back again.
"Fuck." He stared down at the fallen villain. Firefly was completely unconscious; the garden was in ruins and flames and fallen trees were everywhere; dozens of dead fish floated to the top of the nearby water; the greenhouse glass was shattered and ablaze. Rubble cascaded around the world and the unconscious and bleeding forms of the goons were scattered around as ashes blew in the wind. The light in Kai's eyes dimmed as he took in the devastation. He let his sense of nature, bloom, and nature's embrace worked in tandem.
He could feel it all, nature crying out in pain and suffering as innocent life was consumed by the fires of battle. He could feel the hunter vehicles as they trampled over the plants and crushed the animals while checking the air with exhausted and the shits of their weapons. It kept trying to pour in but Kai flinched and twitched violently as a wave of energy existed in his body and he forced it out.
"These so much, too much pain, too much anger, is this how Ivy feels? I can't, how is she even sane at all?" He breathed deeply trying to regain control of himself; he'd learned a few breathing techniques during her last life but he'd never truly mastered them. Even so, he was a firm believer that although he could control the world around him he could control his own reactions to it. The problem was that he had never felt this drained before. He had never used so much energy in any battle he'd been in so far.
Stepping over to Firefly's collapsed and unconscious form, Kai remembered how it felt, how much pain the burning forest was in. The rage, the anger, the hate within, but more than anything was the frantic burning desire to kill. What kind of person could do something like this? What kind of man could unleash such devastation and feel nothing?
His metallic hand razed and molded into deadly pointed class he loomed over the charcoal monster. He raised his hand to strike and eliminate the threat to nature when he remembered Selina. He remembered how poorly she'd reacted the last time he was about to kill someone. He had beaten Firefly already; he was helpless, defenseless, weak and it would only take a moment to end his pathetic life for what he did to the nature all around him. But then as Kairo looked at the surrounding flames a second time he realised something. Other fires had been started from the repeated striking of lightning. He'd also caused explosions when he'd destroyed the vehicles of Black Mask's gang. He looked back down at the helpless villain for another long moment before sighing and retracting his claws.
"You and I are the same," Was he a villain? No but he had caused just as much if not more devastation to the garden as he had. But Garfield robbed people? Kai had done the same. But Firefly was a killer? So was Kairo; in his own mind what he'd been doing and what Garfield had done wasn't any different. Regardless of the fact that Firefly was the one who burnt down an orphanage Kai too had done things that were morally questionable. Just look at the people he'd been hanging out with for the past few days.
Killer Croc? Capable. Catwoman? Robber, Burglar, and thief. Holly? An illegal prostitute. Domino? A mercenary for hire. Mr Freeze? A terrorist. Poison Ivy? An Eco and Bio terrorist.
So did he really have the right to take this man's life? The answer he came to was no. But then a second question arose. Did he even need a reason? He was right after all. Sure Kai wasn't a villain but he wasn't a hero either. He didn't want or need to follow society's laws any longer. He had or at least he wanted the power to make society's social contract with him go up in smoke and disappear. Sure strength wasn't all that mattered but how could he sit there and let Firefly get away when he could so easily end the threat once and for all?
He'd already spared the villain once and what had he done? He'd come back far stronger than before and caused half the devastation that surrounded him now. How could he let him go after all that he'd done? But would Selina reject him if he did so? Would she still allow him to be called her son?
As Kairo was racked with indecision the sound of voices in the distance and rattling gunfire caught his attention. Remembering that Firefly hadn't been the only villain there, he needed to go find the others. Not to mention the last time he saw Mimi she had been facing off with Two-Face.
He looked back to Firefly, then to the woods, and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and made a choice. Crouching he sprayed a mist of sleep powder over the villain's face to make sure he wouldn't wake anytime soon. Standing up again he turned toward the approaching voices.
[chapter image]
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So Kai has given himself another dilemma on whether to kill or not to kill. Plus the woods have gotten just that much more dangerous and the girls are still all alone. Not to mention what happened to Mimi? Where could she and Two Face have gone?
Find out next time!