Angel Breaker laughs

"Who ever said he was Mark Shaw in the first place?" Angel Breaker snickered. "I did not. You once told me: 'A ninja must see underneath the underneath.' No wonder you have grown so brittle. Your son, Batman, the DEO, this city–they have weakened you."

Blank stare. Aaron's brain hurled to a stop.

'What…? But…that guy in the mask…he's standing right there–'

Lady Shiva gurgled. Saliva and blood puked out of her. Aaron panicked. Fuck, that was Cassandra's mother. He couldn't let her die!

Before his knees could burst forward, a glomp emerged from Angel Breaker's shadow and in the next moment she was kicked in the temple. It was all so sudden, so random, that the swordswoman was sent skidding.

The Manhunter, high in the air, was momentarily distracted. And in that tiniest second of weakness, a batarang cut into his hand and Lady Shiva broke from his hold. She dropped to the floor and rolled as far back as she could. Holding her bruised throat, she hacked and coughed.

A small woman crept beside Lady Shiva.

Aaron's eyes widened.

'Cassandra?'

Garbed in her orphan outfit, the black protective gear highlighted in a hopeful gold, Cassandra stood, arms at the ready. Mark Shaw–no, whatever this guy's name was–stayed in the air with the power of his blue thrusters.

"The daughter of Cain," the Manhunter proclaimed. "I expected your arrival."

Cassandra didn't respond to him. Instead, she side-glanced her mother, her body language sending off waves of annoyance. Lady Shiva chuckled and she rose to her feet.

"To think the one who was supposed to kill me is saving my life." Lady Shiva cracked her jaw in place. "I suppose I cannot complain. Thank you, daughter."

"Mother."

There was no need to discuss or reminisce. Cassandra reached for her utility belt, filled her fingers with batarangs, and threw them at the red machine man. It was fast, it was glorious, yet the Manhunter easily incinerated the eight projectiles with his repulsors. Cassandra was fast, however, and came underneath him to throw another set of batarangs. This time, the Manhunter weaved to the side and failed to avoid the sharp metals.

A joint in his repulser boot was hit. The red villain lost power in his leg and dropped down far enough for Lady Shiva to leap through the air and strike him down. His back smashed into a desk and chemical liquid flung and stained his armour. As one, Cassandra and Lady Shiva slammed a foot down on him.

Crack!

For the second time, there was damage on his red armour. A sign of weakness, picking off from David Cain's efforts. They had not let it go to waste. Aaron couldn't see it but he heard it.

"Raah!" Angel Breaker was busy fighting the shadow-based hero, the Signal, otherwise known as Duke Thomas. His costume fizzled in electricity and his form melted into the shadows to avoid her magical slashes.

The Signal emerged directly in front of Angel Breaker and wailed on her. Her head left and right, up and down, as he struck her over and over again. His escrima sticks connected by a string and he wielded them like nunchucks.

Angel Breaker couldn't react. In such close range, she was at his mercy. His existence flickered, seemingly in camouflage mode, confusing even Aaron. His movements were impossible to read or predict.

One second, he was there and the other second he was gone.

His skills were already tremendous. With the combined might of his armour and the shadows, the Signal was unstoppable.

In a **** act of retaliation, Angel Breaker roared, tanked two of his hits, and rashly swung her blade right down the middle. The Signal suddenly glowed like a flashlight, piercing her eyes, and Angel Breaker immediately cried out in pain.

"You…" Angel Breaker backed away, losing balance while blinded. One hand clutched her eyes with the other swinging her blade at random in a frenzy of rage. Her temper could not be held back. The Signal coolly kept her away with a show of his escrima sticks.

"I'm guessing your sword is made of Nth metal. Guess what, lady Angel Breaker? Nth metal amplifies my powers." Signal chuckled as if he had already won the battle. His confidence was at a high and his body language was taut and guarded. "You might be able to beat Ivy or whatever, but I'm your single worst opponent."

Angel Breaker contained her rage, standing eerily still. Aaron watched her back. Her shoulders were shaking.

Aaron furrowed his brows. 'Is she okay–'

"Hehehehe. The Signal. Yes, you. You have arrived, I see. Yes." Angel Breaker cackled. "We absorbed you and Gotham Girl's powers with our weapon. You recovered faster than we expected."

"I don't consider two months of injury fast," the Signal quipped. "But whatever. I'm here to finish you off. I won't let my guard down this time."

"Oh, my dear boy," Angel Breaker said, cackling nonstop. "You already have."

The Signal tilted his head. Without warning, two bodies flew at him and toppled him down. Aaron's eyes went wide. Lady Shiva and Cassandra had been ragdolled.

The final boss descended with the presence of an unstoppable machine god. Arms outstretched, armour blazing with blue energy, and his words morphing the atmosphere.

"An impressive performance from the mother-daughter pair," the Manhunter announced. "If I hadn't broken seven of David Cain's ribs, then perhaps the father could have joined you."

Groans erupted from the fallen three. Aaron's heart sank. 'Get up, get up! Come on, Cass!'

Whatever off-screen beating the Manhunter gave Shiva and Cassandra was too much. The Signal pushed the two off of him but seeing the otherworldly aura of the Manhunter–of the man who everyone assumed was Mark Shaw–his body language weakened. The motherfucker was intimidating, that was for sure. Aaron himself did not see an effective way to intervene–at least one that did not lead to his ****.

So he stayed. He stayed glued to the back of the desk, far enough that he could still sneak out without them noticing.

His gaze remained on Cassandra, who failed to pull herself to her feet. Aaron cheered for her. He prayed. He called on gods he had never believed in. He hoped the Signal could clutch it out of here. Escape. Win. Anything.

"Children," Angel Breaker stated, "You are children and nothing more. You and the little Robins can fight all you want. At the end of the day, you are merely another casualty for the Batman to dwell on."

"The Penguin's men have been driven off," the red machine god with the commanding voice said. "The system cameras are still operational."

His heart dropped again. Aaron felt like he was sinking. If the cameras were linked to his mask, then maybe he knew a group of people had escaped.

"Good, good. Has Batman arrived?"

"Not yet. The advantage is to our–" The Manhunter stopped speaking and calmly raised a hand to catch a curved sword. "Talia al Ghul," he called out, bored. The wounded woman twisted and hurled a kick at his side. Nothing. The scarlet red metal armour did not even dent.

The single-edged kilij lost its blade as he shattered it with his hand. Talia attempted to gain distance but the Manhunter chased after her with a controlled burst of his repulsors. He back-handed her and hurled her into a table. Crack! Her bones snapped. Talia al Ghul lay there between the split of the table, chemicals of unknown elements splattered on her.

Did nothing work against this guy? Talia had hid in the shadows–biding her time perfectly–and yet…

'Nothing. It's like he's getting stronger!'

The Manhunter turned to face the Signal again. "Give up. I promise no harm will come to you, friend."

Silence settled over them. The Signal gripped the yellow sticks in his hands. His armour became electrified.

A smirk tugged on the Signal's lips. The upper half of his face, though covered, also radiated defiance. "You really think we came here without a plan?"

The Manhunter stayed quiet while Angel Breaker's expression broke into irritation. "You think one man can change anything?" she asked.

"Ask Mark Shaw over there–or whoever he is," the Signal taunted. "What does he see?"

She turned to the Manhunter, exasperated, and found him to be as still as a stone statue. "What's the status?"

"They are being overwhelmed," the Manhunter replied quietly, "by Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and Catwoman–the Gotham Sirens. I presume the Penguin tipped them off. And Prometheus…it seems Nightwing, Red Hood, Robin, and Red Robin are confronting him. Meaning, Batman will be here soon."

"You knew?" Angel Breaker asked him. "Why didn't you–"

"It was a hunch." The Manhunter kept an eye on the Signal. "As you yourself declared to me in the start of our alliance, you only listen to your blade and the facts."

Angel Breaker snickered good-naturedly. "Fine. Let's just get the machine ready."

The Signal growled. He displayed a skillful show of his escrima sticks. "Do you really think I'll let you–"

A shot of dread went up his spine as the Manhunter teleported in front of the Signal, grabbed him by the throat, and slammed him into Cassandra. He proceeded to stand on their backs, one foot planted painfully on each, and crossed his arms.

"You are worthy to be in the new world," the Manhunter declared. "Just, amusing, strong, disciplined. If either you or your partner had been the Chosen One, I would not have complained."

The fake Mark Shaw stepped off them like they were an annoying piece of gum. Angel Breaker seemed to disagree with keeping them alive but kept her mouth shut as they approached the massive machine at the back.

"We still lack Batmanium and the Eighth Metal," Angel Breaker said. Her voice was far enough to be a whisper. If it wasn't for Aaron's superb hearing, it would have amounted to incomprehensible mutters. "Batman will not bring it with him."

"No, he will not."

"Then shall we proceed with Plan B?" Angel Breaker suggested.

"Yes."

'Plan B? What the fuck is plan B?'

Batmanium, Dionesium, Electrum, Nth Metal, Promethium, and Eighth Metal. Hadiyah had told him they already had Dionesium, Electrum, and Promethium, and since the Angel Breaker sword was made of Nth Metal…well, that knocked off another in their list.

Tenth Metal was impossible to find, according to Batman. It was metal beyond the gods and reality–something that could shape the multiverse as they knew it. An alloy that…

That…

'No–'

Collecting the five metals of the Dark Multiverse was one thing, but…why Eighth Metal? Why not Kryptonite? It was adaptable enough. And this massive machine–Aaron knew what it was. If this place was indeed the secret underground floor of S.T.A.R Labs, then this amalgamation of a particle accelerator had to be the supersized anti-metahuman weapon.

Duke Thomas, the Signal, had been afflicted by the smaller anti-metahuman gun two months ago. It was why his girlfriend had been so lonely, he was secretly incapacitated. Then, as the news captured some time ago, the Signal returned. In other words, as Angel Breaker mentioned, the weapon did not kill metahumans or remove their powers. Rather, it absorbed them. Not steal or permanently take away–absorb.

The ginormous machine had to function the same way as its gun counterpart except on a vastly larger scale. It could affect the surrounding block–no, the entirety of Gotham. What would be the point of absorbing that much metahuman powers? The answer was obvious: the anti-metahuman machine was not a weapon but instead a power generator that absorbed super powers. If it was activated, fully activated, it would become the greatest source of energy on the planet.

Putting it all the together, the generator powered by metahumans in Gotham, the metals, their goals–

'They're trying to recreate the Tenth Metal. Element X. The building block of a higher dimension. The metal that Batman claimed was impossible to find. If they can recreate it, they can do anything. Reform the world, find the Chosen One, whatever they want…'

Aaron remained still. For once, he hoped he was wrong.