#with the vigilante's bloody history revealed

[naffeclipse]

Ahahahha good :)

The Reef would still be a place of contention for him, but so much has shaken up his world he speared his own brother and suddenly leaving the darkness behind isn't as easy (or freeing) as one might think. There's also living with the fact that his brothers and Y/N are reacting to him now after a very horrible moment of him inflicting anguish and pain, so it's not exactly welcoming as a whole.

He might hide out for a while, not doing anything malicious or sinister, just tuck himself into a dark sea cave and contemplate everything while wrestling with his ego in the depths. He does keep checking in on his brothers, and dealing with the vigilante when they appear, but it's hard to let go of years of hatred and anger and accept that things aren't what they were. Or that maybe he could have been wrong.

Question because I can't stop thinking about Mer style SJ au!

So, I'm terribly curious about how the final confrontation would go in this version! Since they are all organic, I imagine it wouldn't be possible to have an equivalent of the Celestial Wire, right?

It occurred to me that perhaps something with the poisonous spikes could happen, but I think you said their poison cannot harm those related to them, so that would likely not be it. Because in the main verse, in order for Sun to live, Eclipse would have to die so that he can get the celestial wire instead. But a mortal wound inflicted by his older brother would probably not be cured by Eclipse having (or being forced to) give up a crucial part of himself. So would Sun or Moon end up physically harmed by Eclipse in his blind rage? Or maybe something in their environment happens?

Oh, oh! That makes me think that while there is no way to set a building on fire, there certainly are hydrothermal vents that can reach dangerous temperatures! So maybe there could be some volcanic activity about to happen near where they are and Eclipse would be forced to realize that by dragging y/n down with him, and in consequence make his brothers chase after them, that they indeed are all now in danger because of his refusal to leave the darkness behind?

Ahhh, I don't know! Just rambling about possibilities at this point haha XD

Heya, babe!

That's right, no Celestial Wire to be given up here, but I do want to make use of the venomous spikes in one way or another, so I figured that the vigilante might get pricked by Eclipse and end up in dire need of an antidote. There was also a scene I had in mind of Eclipse finally stealing Y/N away and throwing them into a bowl-like rocky outcropping (coincidentally shaped in a manner of a clam) on land to dry them out for a while and see if they change their tune. That would spur Sun and Moon into a frenzy looking for them while they endure that torment.

As for a possible final confrontation, I love the thought of underwater hydrothermal vents being a destination for the final confrontation! Lowkey, I was messing around with ideas for an aquatic equivalent of a cigar for Eclipse and fiddling with him having some sort of magma stick that bubbled. But, I ended up scrapping it because Eclipes's hands were otherwise occupied with the vigilante alsdfjasld

Dragging Y/N down into the dark, only lit by the occasional bursts of boiling hot water and flashes of magma low on the ocean floor, would be an Eclipse move—and somewhere Sun and Moon would know to look. They see the twilight zone just as well as their brother. It would be pretty dramatic in the heated water.

As for the damage done, I see Eclipse giving into a moment of rage and incidentally spearing Sun with his trident. It's a moment of shock, of 'mom said I could never hurt my family but look at what I've just done' and both a flurry of panic for Y/N and total devastation for Moon.

Eclipse, in this AU, would have the chance to save his brother by quickly helping him back to the Reef alongside the vigilante and Moon. When they call for help, they're met with assistance and aquatic plants and special bindings to stop the blood flow and keep Sun stable. It's world-tilting for Eclipse and Moon is terrified for Sun while Y/N is desperately trying to see that Sun is taken care of and that Eclipse doesn't do any more harm.

Sun survives, but he was dangerously close to never waking up again, and Eclipse is shocked to his core. No matter what, he always did everything he could to make sure his brothers would survive, but he didn't. Not at that moment. Not right now. He hates being in the sunlight but he loathes not being near Sun. Moon refuses to let him close. Sun is still barely pushing through. The vigilante is ready to kill Eclipse if he so much as flicks a tentacle wrong, but can't risk upsetting Sun while he's healing.

It's a lot. It's confusing. Eclipse doesn't know what to do but watch Sun recover from the three teeth of his trident that almost stopped his little brother's heart.

[equestrianwritingsstuff]

I know everyone likes the "secretly good villain whumpee..." but what about when the villain was a rat- bastard with very few redeeming qualities... just being injured and sick and oh so broken. Just begging for mercy, even though they were so arrogant and vicious before.

I melt at those scenarios.

I agree with that. If the villain is secretly good, you might as well call him or her a hero- or at least a vigilante.

Vicious and Bloody

Warnings: gorey(?) description of injuries, maggots, blood, vomit, mention of people dying, pus, field medicine, bathing, vomit, sleep deprivation, pills (tylenol and ibuprofen), attempted murder, implied past torture, hallucinations, fever, delirium

~

There was no rational answer for the scene in front of her. Not even the greastest minds in history could comprehend it- figuratively speaking. It was just so peculiar, odd and out of place, that it was like from a different dimension.

The said scene would be absolutely mortifying to the squeamish soul. Between the blood and the vomit and the maggots, the sight was more than revolting.

But still, ignoring her instincts to gag and run, Civilian crouched down next to the poor man- not touching, of course, it would only irritate his injuries further and be disgusting on many levels.

"Should I call an ambulance?" Civilian asked the man softly, brushing back the part of his grimey hair that wasn't intoxicated by maggots or too much blood.

But in doing that, she realized that the man wasn't even conscious. Which, was not surprising and brought a small relief to the nervous civilian.

But it also revealed his identity. Even without the foreboding mask, his features unmistakably were those of the most feared and vile human of the city.

Villain.

"If you ever see Villain, call the heroes. If he so happens to be incapacitated, kill him or injure him further to limit his ability of escape or to destroy."

That mandatory lesson rang through Civilian's ears nearly as loud as semi's horn. It was every civilian's responsibility- whether they were a certified hero or not- to hand it or dispose of any being against the government.

Especially Villain.

Especially without any doubt Villain.

Civilian sighed and observed the injured man's face. It was her responsibility to do this, the city would thank her, applaud her.

She brought her hands to Villain's neck and squeezed. His breaths hitched, but he didn't wake, not even to the sensation of suffocation. Civilian squeezed her eyes shut, but it did nothing to rid her mind of the horrendous sight of his already crimson stained face growing even redder... his lips paling then morphing into a grayish blue...

Civilian gasped, drawing her hands away from his neck. The villain's eyes shot open as he tried to fill his lungs, but as he heaved and wheezed, they kept rolling up and sliding closed.

"Hey!" Civilian exclaimed, tapping his shoulder. Villain's eyes shot open and he looked at Civilian with an expression filled with the unthinkable.

Fear.

Villain's lip trembled as he tried his hardest to scoot away. He whimpered something unintelligently and weakly held up a hand as if to protect himself from futher harm- as if the shaking limb could do anything other than wave aimlessly in the air.

Upon coming to the conclusion that escape was impossible, the villain resumed a position of pointless mewling.

"Don't hurt me," he whined, tears streaming down his cheeks, making the small cuts sting and itch. "D-don't hurt me. I've been bad, please don't remind me. P-please." He shifted his head into his elbow and sobbed.

Civilian didn't know what to do with the scenario, so she just allowed him to cry until he was too exhausted to do anything other than whimper pained pleas.

When his eyes started to droop, Civilian wrapped her arms around his upper body and heaved him into a sitting position- somewhat shocked of how limp and pliable he was.

Then she stopped. What was she doing? Villain was the most notoriously evil person in the city, if not the universe. He killed hundreds, thousands even including men, women, and children. He was undeserving of any level of comfort, whether that be love, care, or compassion.

Yet someone had to be worse than him to put him in such a nasty condition.

"Don't hurt me," Villain whispered, clinging to Civilian's shirt with all his might- as little as that was.

"I won't," Civilian promised, smiling down at the injured villain. The villain sighed and closed his eyes.

She had to help him now. It would be practically illegal to turn him in, or harm him even further. Well, metaphorically speaking.

Civilian dragged Villain into her house. Luckily, she owned a one-story, so bringing him to the bathroom was not too big of a deal- apart from the exertion on her slender arms, that was.

Immediately, Civilian stripped off the remains of his tattered clothing and sat him in the tub. Gingerly, she washed out the infection wounds, making sure all the maggots were gone.

After thirty minutes, she only finished the lower half of his body and his back and shoulders were much, much worse. It took another hour to get done with those.

Civilian took a second to catch her breath, she didn't realize how diligently she was working. The villain was completely clean, other than countless uneven holes that looked like someone grabbed his skin and pulled it out.

The next line of business was whether or not to give him stitches. Many of the remainding wounds were heavily infected and would benefit from being dried out.

Many of those infected wounds needed to be drained and removed.

Civilian sighed, thinking of her nursing classes. She had school tomorrow...

Someone was dying.

Someone with the name of Villain.

Civilian ran into the kitchen and grabbed a knife. She ran in through the sharpener a couple times before heating it on the stove to remove bacteria. Here goes...

Civilian cut into one of the infected abscesses and carefully drained the pus out. She sighed and wiped her hands on a papertowel. She should really be wearing gloves...

Villain jerked, suddenly awakening with a shriek. His eyes saw the knife and he froze, staring at it for a long time, before erupting into unstoppable sobs.

"Don't hurt me! P-p-please don't... knife," he wailed, trying to curl into himself.

"Stop it," Civilian tried to reason, clenching her teeth, as she pulled Villain away from himself. He started to rock, back and forth... back and forth... back and-

"Hurts," he whimpered.

"I know," Civilian whispered, rubbing the back of his head. "I'm trying to help."

"No. Pain."

"No pain?" Civilian repeated, trying to make sense of what Villain's intent of the statically said statement.

"No pain," he murmured, resting his head against the tub. "Take away."

"I don't have anything for the pain," Civilian told him softly. "Some nyquil, but I'd rather give you tylenol for the fever."

Villain looked up at her with pleading eyes. "Please," he begged..

"It's just gonna make you tired, not take away the full extent of the pain."

Villain let out a strained sob and kicked out with his feet. Pouting in the most pitiful way.

"Just," Civilian sighed. "Just. It's gonna hurt."

Civilian leveled the knife to another wound and drained it. Villain writhed in the beginning, but stopped when he realized his fate.

By the time each major abscess was drained, Villain was barely conscious, his head lolling groggily against the bath tub. Civilian gulped. She would have to disinfect the wounds now, but she didn't have anything for it...

Salt water, a saline solution.

Villain's screams did not leave Civilian's memory for a while, even when he was finally asleep on the couch. Civilian aimlessly rubbed his hand, whispering to him as he slept, but it all felt wrong. So, so wrong. All the people he hurt never got the same level of care that he was receiving- as if they had any at all.

But at the same time, it felt right. None of Villain's victim's injuries were as extreme as his- they either died or went to the hospital. Whoever tortured Villain wanted him to suffer, not that Villain wanted people to not suffer...

Crap, this was confusing herself.

Civilian cared for Villain throughout the night. The open textbook on her kitchen table did not even remind her of her class in the morning. Nothing could, especially when someone so sick seeked her hospitality.

Villain's fever raged and he was fed more and more tylenol. Eventually, she started to put ice packs around his neck and major arteries, but he was still so, so miserable.

He started to hallucinate. Sometimes whimpering about a bat flying around his head, or laughing giddily. But one of these episodes really stood out to Civilian.

"Curve, curve," he muttered as his cheek rested against the mattress- for some reason he kept flipping himself to his stomach. "Fall."

"Then cave." The delirious, but intense gaze the villain had made Civilian wonder if he was trying to tell her something in his fevered state.

"Man hurt."

Civilian shushed Villain and gave him a quick sip of water with an ibuprofen tablet. He sighed and closed his eyes.

"Don't hurt me," Villain whispered, scratching at the sheets. "Please."

"I won't, sleep."

Villain slowly, oh so slowly nodded as he allowed his eyes to slip closed.

Civilian took care of Villain as best as she could. She really needed to get supplies, but it was dangerous to leave the villain unattended as sick and injured as he was. Infection set in agai, fever rose...

Civilian groaned and rubbed her head. She had a horrible headache from stress and lack of sleep.

Maybe a short nap wouldn't hurt...

When Civilian woke up, seven hours later, she found Villain shivering on the ground with vomit all over him.

"Dangit," Civilian groaned and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

Just dangit.

[bookworm-blogs]

Surprise Ask!: Some Kayama and Shirakumo headcannons?

I’M SORRY FOR NOT RESPONDING SOONER I’VE BEEN BUSY W/ WORK N SHIT FHFHFHH

But omg yes! HELL yess I do!!

Since you didn't specify whether their relationship would be platonic or romantic, I'll just do both because BY GOD THEIR FRIENDSHIP ITSELF IS HEAVILY OVERLOOKED. (I'm still salty about Kayama's lack of presence in the main magna regarding the Kurogiri reveal. She's just as much a friend to Shirakumo as Aizawa and Yamada, damn it! Then again Horikoshi could be holding off on us for a reason idk we'll just have to wait and see...)

Anyways! Platonic (ft. Rooftop Gang) headcannons!

1. Kayama and Shirakumo have a similar taste in music. I know our world and the BNHA world are different (apparently they haven't reached the moon yet in BNHA?? And Aizawa had a touch screen phone in Vigilantes so I'm assuming their generation and our millennials grew up a tad bit differently), but I can't help but think they would be complete nerds of 80's rock. Smashing Pumpkins, Fleetwood Mac, Red Hot Chili Peppers... These two would always contact each other on when the next album hits and be each other's first choice to concerts and would always blow all their money on band merch. Their all-time favorite song would probably be "Go Your Own Way" by Fleetwood Mac, or "September” by Earth, Wind, and Fire. They always argue about which is better.

2. These two are the BIGGEST video game nerds. Every now and then, when they aren’t busy with school or work studies, Kayama would come over to Shirakumo’s house to play games with him. Aizawa isn’t too fond of video games, and Yamada prefers to listen to different types of podcasts, so that leaves Kayama to be Shirakumo’s gamer buddy, which isn’t bad at all since this girl loves all types of games. From Animal Crossing to the Halo franchise, Kayama has a surprisingly broad range, with her favorite genre of video games being horror shooter games like Resident Evil. Shirakumo isn’t a big fan of horror and is more a fan of free world games like Red Dead Redemption or The Last of Us, though he does make an exception for point and click horror games.

3. Kayama occasionally pops in on the boys’ study sessions. Usually, Yamada would be at the helm tutoring Shirakumo and Aizawa, though Kayama would pop in from time to time to help him with harder subjects like history since she’s smart. She used to host their sessions at her house, though that quickly stopped since she always dressed up as a sexy teacher and got a little too close to the boys while showing them how to solve equations. 

4. They would regularly barge in each others’ homes. Shirakumo was especially guilty of this, as he would use his clouds to fly over to his friends’ room windows and sneak in through through them. It became such a common occurrence that Aizawa, Yamada, and Kayama all decided to just keep their windows open for the cloud boy to come in whenever. Usually Aizawa would be Shirakumo’s favorite victim (he loved watching Aizawa leap out of his skin every time he knocked on the window), though Yamada and Kayama were just as entertaining (Shirakumo once knocked on Yamada’s window and nearly went deaf after the blond screamed with his quirk on. Kayama was a bit more risky for obvious reasons). Kayama was the first one to return the favor, however, and when Shirakumo saw her sitting on his bed in the dark while petting Sushi like an evil mastermind, he let out a high pitched scream that Kayama still holds over his head to this day. 

5. Kayama and Shirakumo "flirt" with each other all the time. You know Ayame and Shigure from Fruits Baskets? How they would say something incredibly corny to each other before suddenly being like, "haha cheers mate." That's these two. Since they hang out on a regular basis, people always make fun of them by calling them boyfriend/girlfriend. One day, they got so fed up with having to explain themselves that they decided, "fuck it, if they want a show we'll give them a show." When they made their first target pass out from a furious blush and a bloody nose, Shirakumo and Kayama made this their "how to keep hoes at bay" strategy. Yamada finds their antics hilarious, while Aizawa always thought it was weird. Every time they "flirt," Shirakumo and Kayama always make sure to say "no hetero" as soon as the other person is gone.

Now for the romantic headcannons!

1. Everything is the same, except Shirakumo forgot to say "no hetero." This made Shirakumo have an existential crisis for about a month. He would always ask himself, "Why didn't I say it that time? Was I being stupid? Or did I actually mean it? What if this changes our friendship forever? Oh God, what if she hates me?" Aizawa would always be the first person Shirakumo goes to to vent his woes, sometimes even coming to his room in the middle of the night. While Shirakumo would ramble about how bad it is to catch feelings for his gal pal, Aizawa would always listen until he's done before telling him to just confess. Shirakumo doesn't, and this routine lasts an entire month.

2. Kayama realizes Shirakumo's growing crush but doesn't say anything bc she wants to hear it from him. This man tries acting like nothing's bothering him, but he was as obvious as Dipper from Gravity Falls (muttering under his breath and hopping at the first opportunity to hang out with her). At first Kayama didn't think much of it, but when she caught him glaring at a couple gawking boys in the hallway, she realized what was also going on.

3. After 3 months of awkwardness, Kayama finally dragged him off on a date. Shirakumo was terrified the entire time, waiting for Kayama to tell him he's not her type, but was shocked when she bluntly told him, "we should start dating" after watching a movie. Everything fell into place afterwards.

4. These two became the hottest couple at UA. Up until the Tasomiya Incident, Shirakumo and Kayama acted a lot like how they did before, except they now had dinner dates, movie nights, and all the fun couple stuff like making out behind the school and genuinely flirting (much to their friends' disgust. Seriously, do these two have no shame?). Kayama loved going shopping, and Shirakumo was more than happy to carry around her stuff on his clouds. Once, they got caught sneaking out to the pier at night and made a brave escape on Shirakumo's clouds. As soon as they got back to his house, they were on the floor, laughing.

5. After Shirakumo's death, Kayama hadn't dated since. Sometimes she would go out whenever her friends would set her up, but Shirakumo was the last time she ever has a serious relationship. She protects Sushi with her life, even as he grows older. Sushi was the last living remnant of Shirakumo, and she wants to keep him for as long as possible.

Little does she know he may not be as dead as she thinks... (Dun, dun dun)

Anyways yeah, I’m a slut for this rarepair and it breaks my heart that there isn’t more content on it. Fear not, my fellow CloudNight stans, for I am making a fanfic on Ao3 rn and am also gonna make a one-shot in a few days! Thank you, Nightowl, for giving me the chance to scream for a bit! ;’)

[365days365movies]

January 24, 2021: Speed Racer (2008) (Part 1)

Car Action Weekend Concludes!

Anime! As I’m sure Tumblr is aware, Japan’s most famous television format has spread far and wide, especially in the United States. It started on American TV with Astro Boy in 1963. A few series premiered after that, but one of the series that made the biggest splash was a little show about a boy, his girlfriend, his friend, his father, his little brother, and his little brother’s chimpanzee.

Oh, also cars or something.

Mach GoGoGo, AKA Speed Racer in the USA, was a classic series about car racing, with wacky enemies, crazy cars, and about a year’s worth of runtime. Still, it lasted for YEARS, to the extent that I remember watching it at some point in the early 2000s! But I didn’t grow up with it. The Wachowskis, however, might have.

Oh yeah, it’s THESE gals. Directors and creators of the Matrix, the Wachowskis were looking to direct a more family-friendly movie, and hopped onto a Speed Racer adaptation that’d been in development for years. Since 1992, Warner Bros had been trying to bring the enigmatic racecar driver to life, with Johnny Depp as the lead...in 1995. 

He left, though, and actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shia LaBeouf, and Zac Efron would be considered over the years. For the director, Julien Temple, Gus Van Sant, Alfonso Cuaron, and Hype Williams were recommended. Eventually, though, the Wachowskis would accept the job, and Emile Hirsch was brought into the project, alongside a surprising cast. But, we’ll get there. 

So why Speed Racer for this month? Why not save this for Sports November? Or, better yet, why watch this at all? Honestly...I wanted to do this one. Mostly because in recent years, it’s become controversial with reviewers and critics. Why? Well, lets get into it, rather than explain here! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap

Speed Racer - yes, Speed Racer (Emile Hersch), that is his ACTUAL NAME - is awaiting an upcoming race, when we get a glimpse into his past. A distracted kid at school, much to the dismay of his mother, Mom (Susan Sarandon), he’s not doing great at school, thinking only about races and his brother, Rex (Scott Porter).

In a legitimately neat touch, he daydreams being in a race, with the original Speed Racer theme song playing in the background. His daydream is bright and colorful, and looks like it’s drawn by a little kid. Which is funny, because the entire movie has a cartoon aesthetic, it turns out.

We’ll see if I get used to THAT. He gets in the car with Rex, and they go to the RIDICULOUS racetrack, holy shit. It’s like Mario Kart in here. From the track, we transition to the modern day. The world is watching, as Speed Racer tears up the track, and also as I GET A SEIZURE GAAAAAAAAH. This is an insanely colorful world with some very confusing and complicated visuals. This movie is...something, that’s for sure.

During the race, we find out that something happened to Rex 8 years ago, during which Rex set the track record. We also meet his girlfriend, Trixie (Christina Ricci), father, Pops (John Goodman), brother Spritle (Pauline Litt), and...chimpanzee, Chim Chim (Willy and Kenzie, interchangeably, YES I CREDITED THE CHIMPS). Speed Racer. I keep forgetting that this is Speed Racer.

More flashbacks to the past show us how Trixie and Speed met, as well as a STRAIGHT UP MURDER ATTEMPT WHAT

Whoof; cutthroat business, that racing stuff. Rex leaves Racer Motors as a result, and leaves Speed his car, apparently turning to the dark side by taking out other racers with increasingly dirty tactics. This lasted until a brutal crash that apparently killed him. But, if you know your Speed Racer mythos even a little...

Back to the race, where Speed is about to beat his brother’s record, but purposely slows down just enough. In any case, he wins the race, as a shadowy figure that totally isn’t his alive brother watches on.

The next morning, the family, Trixie, and road manager Sparky (Kick Gurry) are having breakfast. They’re interrupted by E.P. Arnold Royalton, esq. (Roger Allam), an executive who’s come to recruit Speed, proposing to act as a sponsor for not just Speed, but for Racer Motors. While Pops isn’t inclined to sign up with a big company, Royalton’s offer is intriguing enough for them to go to MY EYES!!!!

OH CHRIST MY EYES WHAT THE HELL

OK, look, this film is gorgeous, and also looks like Robert Rodriguez’s imagination vomited all over the screen. Seriously, I appreciate the artistry here, but...OW. And this ENTIRE SEQUENCE is an exercise in my visual tolerance for 2008-era graphics and ridiculously bright colors.

The Racers are taken for a dizzying journey through Royalton Industries, and my entire brain is melting, God. After the tour, Pops tells Royalton that, while his money intimidates him, he’s open to an alliance between RI and Racer Motors. And then, we transition from the bright and poppy world of Royalton Industries, to - 

YO WHAT??? Talk about a complete opposite tone! This crime boss, Cruncher Block (John Benfield), is beating and torturing a driver, Taejo (Rain), and he’s pretty obviously bloodied. Before feeding Taejo’s hands to his pet CGI piranhas (yes, really), they’re interrupted. Also, did I mention that this office is INSIDE OF A MOVING TRUCK WHAT.

The intruder is the mysterious Racer X (Matthew Fox), who takes down their battle truck with his car’s weaponry. And I gotta say, this is a neat, if extremely wacky, battle sequence. Cruncher throws Taejo out of the truck, only for Racer X to save him and try to recruit him to stop Cruncher. He might be a bit of a vigilante, it would seem.

While Speed and Trixie have a romantic getaway - which is spoiled by an intruding Spritle and Chim Chim - a shady deal between Royalton and a competitor is taking place, revealing that he isn’t entirely on the up-and-up. The next day, Speed meets with Royalton, thinking on signing the contracts. He decides not to, citing an interaction with his father from shortly after Rex’s death, and stating that he couldn’t abandon his family like that.

Royalton’s not very happy about that, though, and taps into his inner Tim Curry something FIERCE. He monologues on the invention of the modern racing league, as well as the financial implications of races through history. In other words, racing’s about power and money, and he reveals that races like the Grand Prix are rigged from the get-go. And SMACK-DAB in the middle of that villain monologue:

A sugar high. The editing of this film is hyperactive, I swear. Forgot to mention that Spritle and Chim Chim snuck into RI with Speed to steal candy - yes, really - and discover that the cars being built by RI have dirty tricks literally built in. Speed turns Royalton down, and Royalton tells him that Speed won’t win or even place in the next race, which we cut to immediately.

Taejo from earlier is racing, and gets in a crash that he somehow survives? Speed also crashes and loses, as predicted by Royalton, which destroys the Mach 6. This leads to Racer Motors being sued for copyright infringement, disgracing them in the media. He also speaks to Ben Burns (Richard Roundtree), one of his racing heroes, and finds out that his classic race was indeed rigged in his failure. This, of course, breaks Speed’s racing spirit.

After a pep talk from Mom, Racer Motors gets a visit from Racer X and Inspector Detector (Benny Furmann), who ask Speed for help. Taejo’s asked them for help, but only if Racer X and Speed help. Unfortunately, the race is on the same dangerous track that Rex died on. However, if they win, it will cause trouble for the crime boss Crusher and his secret ally, Royalton. While Pops fiercely objects, Speed goes in secret, with Trixie as support.

Speed finally wears the classic Speed Race outfit while in the classic car, they go to the race track, and I STROKE OUT AGAIN GODDAMIVWHBROVQJQ

And somehow THIS IS ONLY HALF OF THE GODDAMN MOVIE. See you in Part 2!

[abizarreyodelingincident]

LU: We’re all heroes here, right?

It was all coming together. The great showdown between the Heroes of Courage and their shadow. The ultimate conflict between legends and their inner demons given form. Soon, the demon thought to himself, soon, the pieces would fall into place, and only darkness would stand triumphant in blood.

"Surrender, Dark Link," the one they called Warriors demanded, sword raised in askance.

"Me? Surrender?" he asked, gleeful. "When it is finally time for you to listen to your repressed darkness? I know it, I see in your hearts, and long ago, you've fallen to temptation, to anger, to hatred. Why don't you reveal yourself, Fallen Hero?"

Shock covered all faces, none too slow or too quick to materialize. Expected. No hero that had turned his back on the goddesses could hope to survive eight of his heroic companions if they found out. But here and now, before the throne of the royal family, in the presence of a potent ally...

Nervous glances flew between them. The poor heroes. They could not possibly believe that one of their own, one they had trusted so long would suddenly turn cloak. They wouldn't believe it! But on the off-chance... if there ever was a possibility...

The harmonious, almost elegant formation loosened. Its members more tense. Backs shifted away from others, subtly, at first.

It was all Dark Link had known it to be. If only one of them shouted 'Liar!', it would make the perfect cue for the fallen hero to reveal himself and take his rightful place at his side. Then, together, Tainted Light and Bloody Shadow would storm the Sacred Realm.

So easy. Trauma had erected walls between them, and now, none could move before it was too late.

Victory was his!

"Alright, fuck it!" Legend suddenly broke, nimbly jumping back away from the others. "I'm the one! I have had it with the quests and the trials and the tears every time a god wakes up from its post-orgy nap and realizes that thousands are suffering somewhere. I've spent more years away from home than within at this point. I endured and endured and then..."

Silence reigned for the span of a troubled heartbeat.

Legend's gaze searched and found Twilight, and the anger shining found a mirror.

"Then that fucking fish ripped my last hope for happiness away from me."

"Veteran..."

"Traitor," Warriors sneered, his weapon drawn.

Flames lit at the tip of Legend's fire rod, casting their glow upon his tempered sword. "Well, even if I hadn't been one, I still would have wanted to punch you in the face, Captain."

Dark Link muffled his own cackling, for fear it would spur the heroes away from this outcome. A drawn-out battle between heroes, weakening both sides before he could swoop in and massacre the rest. Oh, it was just as he had hoped when he had sensed the hidden darkness below the heroic spirit they all carried.

They were conflicted, hesitant. Easier preys, a balancing factor in the soon-to-be fight. A few, more decisive, but the deciding moment, the instant that would cut this moment from history as the triumph of darkness, had yet to come. A question was ignored, discarded outright. And Legend's expression tightened. Braced itself for violence...

"Wait!" called a man's voice.

That part, Dark Link hadn't anticipated.

The heroes froze, metal clanking where swords were hastily pulled back and bonked against armors or shields. Then, one broke away from the group, standing taller than his fellow traitor, with more hesitation.

"I can't do this. You'll have to do it to me too."

"Twilight?!" gasped Wild, though for some reason, it didn't sound as betrayed as it should have.

"Pup...?" Time asked, his gaze heavy. Not yet hostile.

Twilight rubbed the back of his neck, his slanted grin a good display of country boy charm. "Yeah, me too. For the same reason, actually. I... I never asked for it, spirits and gods toyed with me and convinced the one I love that she should exile herself away from me forever. I ain't proud." He paused when Legend shouted 'fuck that!' and pondered. "But I want my pound of flesh. Honestly, I didn't think I'd get this far." He lifted a hand a summoned an energy ball black as night. "I use dark magic all the time. Thought one of you would have beheaded me by now."

Four, Time and Wild nodded, forced to concede the point. "I suppose it says something when your inner self is a feral predator that tears monsters' throats out," Four said. "Though, for the magic, that's more understandable, I think the only one that can really tell is... "

As he trailed off, his eyes widened, and so did the rest. Warriors gasped and scurried away from their wanderer.

Legend looked as if the Wind Fish had smacked him in the face. Jaw slack, and a faint shimmer of hope behind a whole lot of shock.

"Well, I wasn't going to say anything," Hyrule said, biting his lips. "I didn't want to be judgemental. Also, the hero before me went on like, ten quests and the world is still a desolated apocalyptic wasteland. Everything's poisonous or venomous, or some strange combination of both. I never knew water was drinkable before meeting you. I saved two different princesses and neither rewarded me with riches, so I've decided to pull the plug before a third needy damsel pushes me through months of fighting for my life against hordes of monsters."

With tears in his eyes, Legend rushed to envelop his successor into a manly hug.

Dark Link slowly raised his sword, clearing his throat. "Pardon, Heroes of Courage? And Traitors against the Goddesses, I guess, perhaps we-"

"Speaking of post-apocalyptic worlds," Wild began, not noticing he cut off their archenemy.

Twilight's breath hitched, his eyes suddenly watery. He seemed to be fighting a smile. "Cub?"

"Hylia really fucked up the timing of her divine intervention, " he said with a shrug. "I lost everyone except Zelda. Even lost myself. And yet, she never says a word... I just... I do hate her."

A bear hug cut off the tears before they could fall. Twilight lifted his little brother off the ground, whispered reassurances in his ears whilst his wolf hood was used to bury Wild's face into. The remaining Links let them share the moment, looked aside despite the uneasy detente this sudden spill of secrets had caused.

"Well, if we're playing cards on the table..." was Four's preface.

Groans mixed in with a growing sense of incredulity.

Four shot a wistful look to their common enemy, then back to a small, pocket mirror. His reflection's lips were a thin line. "My brother might have been born of darkness, but he had light in him too. He didn't deserve to fade away into nothing... I'd do anything to get him back."

He looked up again, a hint of nerves in his stance, but otherwise decisive. Twilight opened up his free arm and invited him with a wink. For once, there wasn't a protest at being treated like a kid. Just a quick sidehug and a few smirks exchanged on the side of evil.

"So," Legend drawled, waggling eyebrows at Warriors, "looks like you're outnumbered now. Five to four. Still interested in some vigilante justice?"

Warriors pinched his lips together. A series of emotions flashed in his eyes, his stance, and that would have been fine and good, except Legend, for all he wore the tag of an uncaring bastard, knew his companions very well by that point. It wasn't exactly horror that came to the front of his mind.

"... Seriously? You called me 'traitor!' Turned on me and everything!"

Warriors' expression twisted again. He tried his usual nonchalant hairflip but only managed to dishevel it some more. "What? I had to be convincing. How was I supposed to know I wasn't the only one with resentment issues?"

Hyrule snorted. "We share the same spirit, don't we?"

Something dawned on Twilight, his face lighting up, hope renewed, but before he could act on it, Legend tilted his head. A smirk sharp enough to draw blood.

"So, what's your story, captain? Lost your shampoo?"

"Was turned on by most soldiers in my own unit for being the target of a lustful stalking sorceress. Apparently," he drawled, venom on his tongue, "it was my fault the war happened. I shouldn't have existed. And those were people I'd fought side-by-side with for years. Imagine what strangers think."

The Links winced.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Legend said, and by all accounts, meant it.

"... Thanks."

The moment passed. They shuffled awkwardly. Neither very willing to say much after an unexpected heart to heart.

A little way away from the rest, Time frowned. "Didn't you lead the army to victory though?" he asked, pensive.

Tossing his arms in the air, Warriors huffed. "Well, yeah, I wanted revenge on the sorceress too!"

Dark Link gulped. All eight of the Chosen Heroes had nodded in unison at the explanation. Discreetly, he took a couple of steps back toward the darker corners of the throne room with a thought for the nearest exit.

(Unfortunately, Dark Link had, very consciously, chosen a room with no exit to avoid any chance of his preys escaping. He thus saw a crucial flaw with that plan.)

A few feet away, the tension had all but melted. "Old Man?" called an hopeful Twilight.

"After a decade of peace fighting through the trauma of my adventures and finally getting to marry the woman of my life, I did not take the call to adventure well." His hand went to his adventurer's pouch and his items, where his descendant knew a certain mask had been hidden. "I came prepared this time around. What's one more dead god if it means this is the last time I'm stolen away from my family? Although," he added, glancing at the assembled fallen heroes, "I had not anticipated my family growing this large this quickly."

"Sap," Warriors said, but he strongly patted Time on the back nonetheless. "So, that's seven now? Sky, anything you want to confess?"

The question, it seemed, wasn't even an 'if' anymore. More of a polite 'why?'. The unspoken undertone had similarly evolved to suggest that 'why not?' would be considered an acceptable answer at this point.

Sky wilted under the pressure. "I tried. To break the curse, I mean. Demise's curse. I found the triforce, spoke with the goddesses." The soft angles of Sky's face sharpened. "But it was pointless! Couldn't do it. Wouldn't. T-they told me that the wheels of fate had turned or some bullshit and I just had to make peace with the idea that my Zelda, that my reincarnations and hers would be plagued by a demon god for all eternity! I know Hylia... Zelda's different. She's hylian. We belong to one another."

The general surprise brought a blush to his face.

Clearing his throat, he said: "Anyway, erm, yeah, I'm doing it for my Zelda, our descendants and, well, all of you. I'm sorry I didn't solve this in my own lifetime, but since we have the opportunity."

"Attaboy, Chosen," Legend crooned. "I knew my inner bastard had to come from somewhere."

Loving teasing followed that comment.

As one, eight heroes turned toward Wind, who had yet to speak. Unbothered, he shrugged, his giant bone hammer hefted across his shoulders.

"What? I told you guys I'm a pirate. Raiding, pillaging, treasure hunting and underage drinking, all that. Hell, the closest thing to a dad I have is a cowardly conman who works me to the bone. I'm down for some godslaying."

Warriors and Sky highfived him. Which was followed by a noogie, a punch to someone's kidney and a bit of a chase around the throne room. All under the (non-evil) laughter of the onlookers.

Then, it dawned on them.

"So, we could have dropped the charade from the very beginning?" Legend asked, incredulous. Months of pretending! Dancing around the subject!

With a sigh and a mumble that might have been a 'typical', Warriors nodded. "That's what happens when members of a team keep secrets from each other."

"To be fair," Four said, "we had good reasons to believe we should keep our true allegiances secret. Who wants to say 'I'm a disciple of darkness' to eight heroes of legend?"

"Hmm, hello?" Legend waved at himself, unamused.

Time breathed deeply, a twitch working under his jaw. "Never say that again," he hissed. At the curious looks he got, he added: "You wouldn't understand."

"So," Twilight said, clasping hands together, "how do we go about this then? Does anything change or...?"

"Besides the obvious?" Wild snarked.

"Yeah, besides that," Twilight replied, equally deadpan.

Warriors slid back between them with his usual flourish, though his focus was spread across the whole group. "I say we need to at least re-establish our priorities, now that it's out in the open."

Thus, they gathered much closer than before, shoulders to shoulders. Dark Link had long abandoned the idea of a surprise attack. Messing with heroes was fun, idiots had lines they didn't cross. Those gremlins he'd led on a wild goose chase apparently had more teeth than sharks. Evil, malice-infected sharks.

"Alright, so we are in agreement," Time said once the group talk had ended, "we will kill all the gods and remake the world in our images. Lost loved ones will be restored as will lost civilizations. Orphans and toddlers won't be drafted into hopeless battle against monstrosities. Sleeping-in will not be a pipe dream. Water will be drinkable. As will be booze."

Wind pouted. "I still say the booze to water ratio should be higher."

Warriors chuckled and ruffled his hair. "One cannot live entirely on booze, little brother."

Wind shot him a weirded out look. "What are you talking about? The hell do you think pirates live on?"

A gloved hand moved between the two before the argument could be taken seriously.

"There will be time to discuss the details later. For now, we ought to make progress on our primary objective."

At this very moment, one of the pillars in the throne room wobbled and toppled over, crashing with such ruckus that even a comatose Sky would have been awakened. Behind the dust cloud created from the impact, a frozen Dark Link stared at them all with the confidence of the mouse before a pack of wolves.

"Well, this is awkward."

"Shut up, Legend," Twilight groaned. "Just because we're all openly evil instead of covertly doesn't mean you should snark more."

"Bite me, wolfboy."

"You wanna go, bunnyboy?"

Warriors separated them. It was far too early to lose someone to in-fighting. At least a day needed to go by before that would be considered acceptable. There were rules to proper evil forces, after all.

"Right, anyway, Dark Link," - Time smiled tightly, eight bloodthirsty fallen heroes behind him, eyes alit with malice - "how about we make a deal?"

[fieryphoenix0007]

Prologue/Introduction

In the beginning…

  God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

And God said, “Let there be light”: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

Or so the story of Creation goes…

  Same, too, to say, that this was also the story of Michael’s first triumph against Samael’s Great Rebellion.

They say that the Bible is the Word of God, His Story, and His message to humanity, however, many theologians never fully understand all the words written by the great apostles, prophets and scribes of God.

  The writer themselves were puzzled with every word that came from the inspiration of God through their writing.

  ------------------------------ ------------------------------

  Facing with the punishment of being banned from the promised land of Canaan, the writer of the first five books, the “Pentateuch”, Moses, the great leader of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, determined to himself that he will write and record, scribe what the Lord inspires him to write.

  He began with the words, “In the beginning…” notating the answer to the large mystery of ‘Where did everything started from?’

  From Genesis to Exodus, how they escaped slavery from Egypt, and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy, Moses played a large role in starting writing the original manuscript of the Holy Book.

  What is common on these books are that they present God’s power to the human realm, His influence, physically, on the Earth’s fundamental laws. The impossible made possible, the unthinkable made pursuable, and the improbable proven.

  Little do we know about the spiritual creatures that help conjure these so-called ‘miracles’, or as the humans call it, ‘abnormalities’.

  The power to bend reality into your will is something that cannot be achieved by mere human. The humans do have their wild imagination – concoctions to a colourful and advancing world, however, they can only so little to so much with their own bare hands and feet.

  They are limited and cased into the laws of physics and the laws of the universe, whatever they can produce beyond those boundaries were theorized to be with the help of spiritual beings upon the will of God.

  These spiritual beings took on faces similar to human, but were theorized to be genderless, their form changes according to their purpose and each of them has a different power that can bend even nature itself.

  In reality, the appearance of each was uncommon to the human eyes, and mind, looking like sword, flames, ray of light, wheel, beast, and winged creatures.

  They operated in the shadows, perhaps, secret agents, fashioned by God, effortlessly blending into the crowd to create opportunities for trials and temptations, and visited humanity time and time again in a particular way that sends shivers down your spine.

  ------------------------------

------------------------------

  Moses was an Egyptian scholar. Years of his life focused on grooming and preparing him to be one of the great pillars of the dynasty of Egypt, along with his father and brother, the Pharaoh and prince regent.

  In the middle of the great pyramids’ construction, some believed that Moses was the chief engineer in building those ginormous symbol of wealth and power of the Egyptian monarchs and elites.

  Moses, the brother of the prince, standing in the midst of the crowd, proud of his lineage, and assisting his brother, the regent, on his projects and plans for the future of the kingdom.

  He was always at the top of his game. His teachers taught him manners of the royalty, work ethics, and their religious gods, but nothing from his prestige education and training has prepared him for the upcoming events.  

  “Stop! Please!” An Israelite girl pleaded and kneeled in front of the Egyptian soldier as her salty sweat runs down her brows.

  The slaves have been tirelessly put to work for almost seven days now by one of the nobles who felt that he would die at any moment.

  Soldiers were assigned to monitor each and every slave to work and accomplish the great task of mounting one of the greatest pyramids of all time.

  As women and the children were assigned to distribute food and water, the men, the older ones, and the young ones, were assigned to the heavy duty of creating blocks of mud and bringing them to the construction.

  SFX: WAPOOSH! The sound of the whip echoed in the valley.

  The Egyptian soldier just wouldn’t stop.

  She looked away every whip, the sight of her grandfather, whipped to death for falling behind the line, blood oozes out of the pores of his back, blending in the mud and straw where the slave drenched as he fell behind the line, rashes start to appear as the straw’s unbearable dryness produced the itching reddish appearance as it touched and the heat torched the old man’s skin.

  Moses was sensitive to these kinds of things, he doesn’t remember ever getting to know a slave, nor does he know that he was from one of the slaves, but his heart ached every time a slave cried out, his mind exploded in frustration every time he sees someone lashed to death.

  He did not fully understand why, but his body followed his heart and mind, because of this, most of the Senate did not like Moses.

  To them, he looked weak, sympathizing with the slaves. Though, the current Pharaoh keeps him in his heart as his son, and the current regent treats him like a blood-brother, you will notice a difference in heart.

  “Father, I’d like a slave to be in my quarters.” The first time he heard this from his brother, the prince regent, it immediately broke his heart.

  He realized he is still too weak to do anything, but now, now, that he’s the chief engineer, maybe, maybe, he thought, Maybe I can do something about this!

  He quickly rushed to the aid of the old man with a collapsed lung, the soldier continued to whip the man to death until he submitted, wobbling standing up and tried to barely carry his load.

  Of course, he wouldn’t be able to stand up - you’re whipping him to death!

  He thought this through…

  But it was too late, he grabbed the soldier’s wrist to stop, but the old man collapsed again and was no longer breathing, his unmoving body lay still half-buried in the sand and mud and the straw that he grew up to pick up in.

  I thought I can save him.

  He expected a wave of rejoicing of gratitude from the slaves, instead, a wild, deafening screech from the weeping of the granddaughter of the old man echoed through the desert.

  He couldn’t comfort the girl, he couldn’t scold the soldier, he couldn’t punish the abuser, and protect the weak, stuck in the middle, he was faced with the greatest enemy of his life – the cruelty of his own father, or so he thought.

  That night, determined to get justice, and to be the defender of the weak, the sneaky vigilante snuck through the darkness and struck quickly in the moonlight.  

  “No, please, don’t kill me.” The soldier appealed with his life.

  But the more he beseeched for mercy, the more Moses got agitated, he remembered how the little girl implored for his grandfather’s life, and for that, he struck the blows even harder and harder, until there’s no recognizable feature in the man’s face.

  A sigh of relief rushed down his spine as he finished the task, he succeeded in sending that soldier’s soul to hell’s hottest and finest rooms.  

  The relief quickly brushed down his face, and terror and panic soon came charging in. The clouds that covered the moonlight passed on and as the light hit the sand, his murder handiwork reflected in his eyes. His hands covered in blackish hard liquid, as the blood dried out immediately in the cold of the night.

  What have I done?

  Alas, he thought he was doing a righteous task by taking justice in his own hands, but what he took was his own innocence, and send it off to hell.

  Sand! I’ll… I’ll bury him in the sand!

  He quickly scooped his bloodied hands in the sand, cold and rough, gasping for air as he dashed to bury the body in the middle of nowhere. He knew that no secret in this world that will never be revealed, but hoped at the least that his family doesn’t find out.

  As he was finishing his burial, his eyes nervously darted and scoped around like a cornered impala, waiting for the lion to strike.

  There’s no one. Good.

  He speedily head back to the palace, near at the river’s bank, and washed off his body and threw his clothes, the river stowed away with the bloodied evidence of his crime.

  He looked at the silver moon, it was not a good sight. His eyes filled with the red-stained blood that splashed around while he bludgeoned the soldier to death with a sharp rock.

  He wanted to go back in time, to undo what he did, but it’s too late, it’s already done.

  Forgiveness from a god was familiar to Moses, they have customs and rituals indicated in their history paintings and drawings, but this was the first time he sought forgiveness from the God of the Israelites.

  God, if you can hear me, please… please forgive me. I’ve been good, and I’ve helped many of your people. I hope You can help me this time.

  Every one of the Egyptians was well acquainted with each other, though they treated the Israelites as slaves, their definition of family was still pretty close, hence, the next morning, the family of the soldier petitioned a searching party from the palace.

  Alarmed by the missing soldier report, the Pharaoh quickly dispatched a team to rummage through the desert and the nearest kilometres of the borders.

  And within that day, a few volunteers discovered a body, unrecognizable, near the borders of Egypt.  

  So… so fast, I… I need to get out of here.

  God wanted to help Moses, though he murdered a man in the name of revenge, he was still the chosen deliverer of the Israelites out of Egypt, that was His plan.

  Then…

  God liberated Moses all from the anchor of his family, the pressure of Egypt and from his crime.

  “Aren’t you the one who killed this man? Are you not an Egyptian as well? Why did you kill him?”

  Someone whispered in the crowd.

  Moses darted his eyes through the crowd, there was no one.

  Who’s talking, then… who?

  An old man has his back turned from Moses, and that’s when his heart spoke to him, Approach the old man, approach him.

  And he did.

  That voice steered him to something that he could not fathom, at the least for that moment, or for the next forty years.

  He frantically stretched out his arms across the crowd and reached the old man’s shoulder.

  “Wait…”

  His face quickly turned pale and devoid of any colour, as if the blood came rushing out, the old man’s face, it was the dead old man, the unmoving old man, whipped to death, bloodied with his back, and rashes in his whole body.

  “You killed him! You killed your fellow Egyptian! He killed him! I saw him last night!” The outlandish accusations of the old man seemed to be believable to the people around Moses.

  The Chief of the Army quickly posed a wanted poster and notice for the head of Moses, the man who killed an Egyptian.

  How is this possible? That old man already died, I avenged him.

His thoughts got scrambled quickly as puzzle as he packed up his things to escape justice for his murder charges.

  Pressed by the elites and nobles, the Pharaoh, issued a warrant to arrest and punish Moses for the murder charges.

  I have no other choice but go.

  MOSES! MOSES! The echoing soldiers and army ready to arrest him were now threading to the gates of Egypt.

  He quickly marched on to the death of the desert to escape his pursuers.

  *Huff, Huff*

This isn’t working, this isn’t what I wanted. I only wanted freedom for the slaves. Fair treatment for everyone, how did it end up this way?

  It’s too late, he was already miles away from the kingdom, in the vast desert. At least he knew how to find an oasis or something similar in this time of the day.

  Exhausted, lingering between life and death, Moses continued to march on at the cold of the night, his eyes barren of any life and hope, not knowing where to go, what to do, and if there is any future ahead of all of this.

  Then…

  SFX: Thud, thud

  His knee gave out, weakness due to thirst spread throughout his body and he suddenly fell on his knees, then his face on the sand.

  It’s as if he had lost all hope, closing his eyes to oblivion, his ears started tingling, there’s sound coming from somewhere.

  “Father, father…”

  The faintest sound of a lady woke him right up, his eyes dilated of joy and hope. He pulled out his arms from the sand, and pushed his body upwards, along with his torso and his legs.

  Flailing like his legs were going to give out, he struggled to find the sound.

  Where… where was it?

  “Aaa-, aa-, hee-“

  He doesn’t have that much voice in him, the sand dried up his throat, there’s vibration from his breathing, but sound, there’s nothing much, he’s too weak to speak, or even shout for help.

  “Father…”

  The whispers were getting louder by a minute, in what direction were they coming from?

  Moses closed his eyes, felt the wind and located where the whispers were coming from.

  South-east! South-east, go, go, go, move legs!

  And there it was, a small group of people, in tents surrounding a small oasis, supply of water, in the middle of the desert.

  Moses’ eyes lights up even more, shone, and the only thing he could see was the well besides the oasis.

  He ran and threw his face down at the water of the oasis, drinking, gulping, and-

  “Haaaaaaaaaaa.” Gasping for air. He lifted up his drenched face from the well, and looked up to the Heavens, the stars, the skies, the moon, it wasn’t bloody red anymore. He clearly saw the shining light reflecting to the water and on to his eyes.

  He wanted to cry his eyes out, but that’s not possible, he was still dehydrated from walking in the scorching hot desert for almost a day.

  Regaining his composure, his eyes wandered the premises, there’s no one nearby, no one awake, no soul that could whisper what he heard and yet he knows what he heard, he remembers what he heard.

  However…

  There’s something weird about the place. Everything was quiet, no one was definitely awake, particularly different from the bustling evening of Egypt.  

  Something even weirder caught his eye. A sword plunged shallowly on the sand near the well caught his curiosity, he began approaching the sword. It’s a double-edged sword.

  He was not familiar with this type of sword as Egyptians used a sickle-shaped, one – edged sword in their military.

  He’d only seen double-edged swords in their library of pictures, the walls that described their history and glory.

  In all the war pictures in those walls, he never saw a double-edged sword depicted in the drawings.

  Enthralled by the sword, he grabbed tightly the hilt of the shining silver sword and quietly pulled it out of the cold sand.

  “Moses.”

  “Ha!”

  Upon hearing a voice, he was startled and jerked off the sword out of his hands into the sand beneath his shoeless toes.

  What was that? Was that the sword?

  “Was… was that you?”

  What am I doing, talking to a sword? Is this a full-on hallucination?

  “Yes.”

  It talked! It talked, it talked, it talked! What?

  “What… what are you? Did you… did you save me and lead me here?”

  Definitely intrigued, he slowly approached the talking sword.

  “I am the messenger of God - the God of Jacob, the God of Joseph, the God of the Israelites.”

  You? A sword? Wait, Israelites?

  “So, it’s true, the God of Israel, is the true God?”

  There are many Egyptians gods that we pray to, but… I never felt a connection.

  Moses tried to grab again the hilt of the sword. This time, he made sure he tightly gripped the hilt.

  “Yes.”

  His heart skipped a beat, but he didn’t let go of the sword. Hard as it may seem but his mind accepted the fact that the talking sword is what led him there.

  “What do you want?”

  “Simple. To inform you something.”

  “Some… thing?”

  “You are of Israel, son of Jochebed, daughter of Levi, one of the sons of Jacob.”

  “What? That’s… that’s… impossible.”

  He gathered his thoughts, he’s an Egyptian, yet he has feelings for the slaves, pity, love, mercy, and the slaves are good to him as well, they knew something that he doesn’t.

  Flashbacks came flooding in.

  The time he felt pity for the first time for the slaves outside of the palace working on with the pyramids, and that time that he saw a little girl guiding him in the river, or that time that he remember in his dreams that an adult woman slave was singing him to sleep, those… those weren’t just dreams, they’re… they’re memories.

  They’re… my memories?

  “Your mother kept you alive in a basket for almost three years.”

  “Pharaoh, your adoptive grandfather has decided to slay the male Israelites to avoid increasing the number of the slaves, he was afraid that a rebellion will happen if Israel were to outgrow Egypt and overcome them in numbers.” The sword continued the story.

  “Numbers… wait, what? He… Grandfather…”

  “The history is not one pleasant thing to remember. The children howled and whimpered, and their mothers wailed and bellowed their cries, it’s as if the Heavens closed again its windows, this time, against humanity.”

  “So…”

  The reason why many Israelites hated my grandfather was… was…

  “The soldiers, along with their conscience, begrudgingly tossed the male infants to the Nile, only to be drowned, or subdued or eaten by the reptiles which roam about the river. That day, the Earth, the land, the waters grieved for the gifts of God shed blood unnaturally through the wickedness of the heart of Pharaoh.”

  “Then… I… I was about to be killed…”

  “Yes, however, your mother was able to get you hidden from the soldiers. Once she was fully aware that she will not be able to for the next years of your infancy, she… she prepared a basket for you to be able to float into the Nile. Guided by your sister, Miriam, Jochebed hesitantly watched you, and the basket sail within the most dangerous depths of the river to the chamber of Pharaoh’s daughter. That’s how you became the Prince of Egypt.”

  His eyes opened wide, his knee gave out again, but not due to hunger, not due to dehydration, but due to shock, he also lost the power to hold the sword and it fell, blade-first into the ground.

  “That’s… how do you know so much about me?”

  “I already told you, I am the messenger of God.”

  “If you have saved me, then…”

“Yes, you will be Israel’s deliverer, you will deliver them out of slavery into the promise land.”

  “I… no, no, no… I just came out of there as a murderer! I’m a criminal, not some saviour, and who am I to… to…”

  “You’re not just someone, God set you up to be the Prince of Egypt and the Deliverer of Israel, you are Moses.”

  “How can I…”

  “Believe. For now, learn the way of the priest and the shepherd. I will be reaching you again when the time comes.”

  “When the time comes?”

  “Yes. “

  Moses, looking down, has realized his fate, and his life was a set-up to believe what’s in front of him, but now…

  There’s an even bigger person than father, than the Pharaoh.

  “Who… who are you?”

  “Me?”

  “Yes.”

  As soon as Moses became curious about the sword, what emerged from the back of the sword raised his interest even more.

  White, fluffy, and shining bird-like wings fluttered in front of his eyes, with a jaw-dropping beauty and elegant movement, the only thing that Moses can do is try to reach out the illuminating wings.

  He let go of the hilt of the sword and thus, it hovers in the air.

  “I am-“

[ichikaakiyama]

FIC: Blades In The Dark (Vigilante Iida, Villain Deku)

DISCLAIMER: Usual ownership disclaimers apply. Characters who are underaged/minors in canon are aged up in my work by default. TITLE: Blades In The Dark CHARACTERS: Vigilante Tenya Iida, Villain Deku RATING: None WARNINGS: mild descriptions of violence, mentions of canon characters dying

- - - - -

He feels the wind pick up before he hears the telltale rev of engines close in, but it’s enough to alert him. Not that there’s much he can do; no matter how strong he gets, Izuku will just never be as fast as Iida and his legs.

He looks down at the body on the ground, crouches down by the head hidden under a mass of blood and hair. “Stay down if you know what’s good for you,” he threatens, low and under his breath, a sharp contrast to the absolute vice with which he stabs his dagger down into the pro-hero’s shoulder. He ignores the yelp that escapes his victim as he straightens up, dusting off his vest and slacks as an echoing clang of metal meeting asphalt signals the arrival of his uninvited guest.

“I thought it might be you,” starts Iida, a quiet threat where his frame takes up nearly half the width of the narrow alley he has trapped Izuku in.

“Hello, Tenya,” Izuku greets back, cocking his head to one side as he turns to him, “Been quite a while, hasn’t it? Still wearing your brother’s armor, I see.”

Izuku sees Iida’s left eye twitch slightly, and feels the corner of his own lip curl into a tiny smirk. 

“I’ve come to stop you, Midoriya,” Iida declares, voice still even despite his warning, “Once and for all.”

Izuku lets out a singular chuckle, one hand shoved into his pocket. “Have you now?” he asks, amused, “Of all the people you could’ve gone after, I’m the one that’s made the top of your little black list?”

“How could you not?” Iida shoots back, “Aquario at Gungan Park, Lightspeed and their intern at the Kashyyk Mall, the murder at the winter fair, the bomb in that agency in Hosu, the ‘unexplained’ poisoning of the owners at Club Twi’lek…”

“...And the maiming of Laser Hero, Blast,” Izuku finishes for him, waving his hand to indicate his latest victim, nudging the unmoving form with his foot, “Well, maiming only because you got here before I could finish him off. What was your point again?”

“My point,” Iida growls, teeth gritted, “Is that your reign of terror is coming to an end. Right here, right now.”

“Terror?” Izuku asks in reply with a tiny chuckle, feigning incredulity, “I don’t see how me taking out the trash and weeding out the ineffectual is terrorizing.”

Iida tsks. “Don’t make me laugh, villain,” he spits out, “You hurt and maim for the fun of it, for the hell of it, indiscriminately and without abandon. You don’t even care to clean up after yourself, you’ve left too many clues behind for anyone to be able to brand you as anonymous.”

Izuku laughs, running his other hand through his hair to brush it out of his eyes. “Who said I was trying to be anonymous?” he points out, grinning when Iida’s eyes narrow at him, “If anything, I’m surprised it’s taken anyone this long to find me, let alone you, considering I - how did you put it? - haven’t bothered to clean up after myself. Do you honestly think I would be that careless? Come on, Tenya, you know me better than that.”

“I thought I did,” Iida retorts, “But then you...you…”

His chest heaves, seemingly with the effort of completing his thought. Izuku doesn’t need him to; he already knows. He shifts his weight onto one foot, his head tilted to one side again as he watches Iida struggle with himself. He remains silent as Iida recomposes himself, straightening his spine, tilting his chin up and squaring his jaw.

“You betrayed us,” Iida finally says, “You betrayed everyone who ever believed in you, everyone who ever cared about you and loved you. You betrayed your classmates, your friends, your mentor, your mother, him -”

“That’s rich, coming from you,” Izuku interjects, fist unconciously clenching at the mention of that person, “Or have you finally stopped pretending and lying about what you’ve been doing too? Since you’re still wearing that, I’d say the answer is no. Tell me I’m wrong, Ingenium.” 

This seems enough to make Iida snap. With a burst of firepower, he launches himself at Izuku at near top-speed, smashing him hard against the wall and pinning him there with a heavily armored forearm.

“You’re wrong,” Iida hisses through clenched teeth, “You don’t know me.”

Izuku laughs again, sputtering against the arm Iida has on his chest. “I’m the only one who knows you,” he challenges, “I’m the only one who knows why you’re so diligent at patrolling in the day. I’m the only one who knows what you’re really up to at night.”

“Shut up,” Iida threatens, pressing harder into Izuku’s chest, “I’m warning you…”

“Funny how you ran down my laundry list of hits without mentioning yours,” chuckles Izuku, “Or was it all just a convenient coincidence to you that the locations of my crime scenes were always just close enough to yours to steal attention?”

Iida’s eyes widen in surprise, and the pressure he has on Izuku lessens involuntarily. Izuku takes his opening, ramming an elbow into the side of Iida’s head and twisting out of his grip when Iida recoils from the unexpected attack. Ducking to avoid a kick from Iida by a literal hair, Izuku rolls out of range, pulling his knife out of Blast’s shoulder as he goes. He plants his feet and readies himself as Iida just narrowly avoids stepping on Blast in an effort to chase after him.

“I knew, Tenya,” Izuku reveals, “The moment I heard about your brother in the news, I knew. We’d already been down that road once, and your lucky ass got out of there alive because of him and me. But I knew, ever since that day in Hosu, that if he and I hadn’t been there to stop you, to save you, you’d have become someone very different.”

Iida grunts in disagreement, but says nothing else in response. He, too, is in a ready stance, one foot in front of the other, the opposite arm held in front of him, ready to defend against Izuku’s knife in the unlikely event that Izuku gets the drop on him and attacks first. Izuku knows he has to keep Iida at bay with words - he’s gotten too fast now for anyone to ever really be able to put any distance between him and themselves.

“I’ve been watching and waiting since I heard about your brother,” Izuku presses on, “Tensei Iida’s ‘untimely death’ during a botched robbery at the hands of a couple of unnamed criminals who were never caught. Hell of a tragedy, if you ask me.”

“Shut. UP,” Iida warns again, but Izuku waves him off.

“Almost as big a tragedy as the ‘sudden disappearance of Tensei’s brother,’ of course,” he continues, ignoring the anger seething from Iida, “Turbo Hero: Ingenium, suddenly goes missing and remains unheard from for months, only to turn up a bloody mess in almost exactly the same spot where his brother was killed, with no recollection of what had happened to him or how he ended up there in the first place...Or at least, that’s the story your stupidly rich family fed to the media to deflect suspicion. Because what else was it that they found in the same spot that night you were ‘found’? Oh, that’s right - the body of two people later barely identified to have been low ranking pro-heroes assigned to patrol the area.”

Izuku sees Iida’s fist clench, can see him practically vibrating with anger.

“Your family moved really fast to clear your name, didn’t they?” he says, “Wanted to make sure the Number Five hero Ingenium didn’t go the same way the former Number One hero Deku did. I guess some of us are just lucky enough to have been born and have made enough money to wipe a slate clean, while some of us aren’t. Next thing anyone knew, a criminal with a history of heinous acts was convicted of the hero deaths and put away for life. And so Tenya Iida, one of the top in our class in UA, heir to the name and armor of Ingenium, was exonerated of any suspected wrongdoing in the eyes of the public.”

Iida’s stance slackens. He straightens, but hangs his head, a hand remaining loosely fisted at his side. “You don’t…” he stammers, “You don’t...know…”

“But I do though,” Izuku tells him, matching Iida’s posture and relaxing his own, his tone softening to offer sympathy, “I do. I was there the next time you went out and made someone else pay for not being the hero that your brother needed when he was attacked. I didn’t mean to be - I just saw you. You had disguised yourself, of course, but anyone who has known you long enough would’ve recognized you. You never were very good at pretending, even when we were teenagers.” When Iida shows no signs of reacting, Izuku sheaths his dagger. “That patrolling hero never saw you coming, wouldn’t have stood a chance even if they did. You’re much too fast and much too strong. They were dead before they even hit the ground after you dropped them through that construction site to try and make it look like an accident. Fortunately for you, I knew enough to know that an autopsy report would’ve revealed the stab marks were the killing blow, not the impact of the fall.”

“So you...what?” Iida asks, “You killed Aquario and left him out in the open in Gungan Park to draw attention away from what I did?”

Izuku shrugs. “What are friends for, eh?”

“You are not my friend!” Iida replies, pointing a finger right at Izuku’s face, “I lost my friend the day you joined Shigaraki’s cause!”

Something jumps in the back of Izuku’s jaw at the mention of the name. “Is that what you think I did?” he asks Iida, whose eyes narrow at him in askance, “Joined Shigaraki. Hah. That’s funny…”

With Iida’s brow furrowed in confusion, Izuku closes the distance between them, putting a hand on Iida’s shoulder. “It doesn’t have to be this way, you know,” he says gently, sincerely, “I know what you’ve been doing, and I know why you’ve been doing it. I don’t blame you. But if anyone else were to find out, you wouldn’t get away scot-free again. They wouldn’t understand. Very few people do.”

“And you do?” Iida snorts, looking sideways at him.

“You don’t think so?” he shoots back, “Did you know Aquario, in addition to being a little-known but well-loved hero, was a secret head of a small group of drug traders? Did you know Lightspeed and their ‘intern’ were embezzling money from their agency, which meant they weren’t paying anyone else the right wages? Did you know the agency I bombed in Hosu was set-up by a hero who had once been caught in connection with a sex trafficking ring? Or did you really think I was choosing my victims, any of them, even the ones who came before them, at random?”

Izuku watches Iida’s jaw clench. “You have evidence of these people being fake with their heroism?” he asks, tone dark and ominous.

“Does it matter now?” Izuku retorts, “They’re dead. They died because they tarnished the name of heroes, a name I - we - used to believe in as a beacon of justice and peace-keeping. Someone had to make them pay for ruining heroism.”

“This doesn’t make you right,” Iida argues, “This still makes you a murderer.”

Izuku snorts. “Like you, you mean?” he says, “Or is it my turn to run through your latest hits?”

Iida stares straight ahead of him, eyes slightly squinted but focused on anything but Izuku. Izuku feels the tension leave Iida’s body, watches his fist unclench, hears the long, slow sigh of resolution that Iida lets out.

“So you know my secret,” he says after a while, “That doesn’t mean anything. That doesn’t change anything. I’m still a hero, and you’re still a villain. I can still take you out and keep my reputation intact and my secret safe. All you did was expose yourself as a witness. A loose end I’ll need to deal with.”

Izuku actually tosses his head back when he laughs this time. “Oh Tenya,” he says, clapping Iida on the shoulder, “You and I both know if you really wanted me dead, you’d have killed me by now. No one’s faster than the Turbo Hero, after all. Not even the former Number One hero.” He lets go of Iida and approaches Blast, passed out now from the blood loss and the pain. 

“So what now?” asks Iida as Izuku crouches down again.

“That’s up to you, really,” Izuku answers, going through the folds and pockets of Blast’s costume for anything to keep for himself, “We could have it out here, you and I, and maybe you’ll kill me or maybe I’ll kill you, and no one will ever know what truly happened here.” He turns Blast over onto his back.

“Or, we walk away and go about our days the way we have been over the past few weeks, where you, er, shall we say, stain the streets in the dark of night with the blood of those who should have saved your brother, while I help cover it all up from a distance by pulling focus with a more grandiose crime.” 

In Blast’s pocket, he finds a particularly beautiful silver ring, glistening even in the dim light of the alley, with jewels he suspects are very real and very expensive. He pockets it with a shrug. “And then, should you ever need my help, well...I daresay you’d know how to find me.” 

In another pocket, he finds an attractive pair of sunglasses; he hangs it off the top button of his vest. “While you think about it, let me just, ah, clean up here, as you said I should.” 

With his teeth, Izuku pulls off the leather glove on his right hand, exposing the scars that run down from the tips to the palm. He places his hand open-palmed on Blast’s chest, and watches as the hero’s body hardens into stone-like flakes that gradually crack and wither into dust carried off by the wind, until there is nothing left of the man once known as the Laser Hero.

Izuku grimaces at his handiwork, or the disappearance thereof. He can feel his nostril twitching in disgust as he looks at his scarred fingers, clapping his hands together to dust them off, as if anything of Blast might linger on his tainted skin. He pulls the glove black on as Iida watches him silently, eyes slightly wide as, Izuku suspects, realization dawns on him.

The two former friends stand staring at each other in silence, one in slight shock, the other in a quiet challenge. The wind whistles between them, the sky above them turning from orange to a bluish purple as dusk begins to fall and turn into night. No one moves, no one speaks. 

Iida’s phone rings. His eyes still on Izuku, he taps at a piece in his right ear. Izuku can’t hear what the other person on the line is saying, but from Iida’s responses, he can hazard a guess.

“No,” Iida says, still watching Izuku, who clasps his hands behind his back and grins at him quietly, “All clear here. Either a false lead or we lost the trail...I know. I know….Yes, return to base. We’ll pick this back up tomorrow.”

Izuku waits for Iida to end the call with another tap to his earpiece. “I take it we have a deal then?”

“Call it a temporary, flimsy truce,” Iida answers, “Stay out of my way, and I’ll stay out of yours. And don’t let anyone I work with get close to catching you, or I’ll be forced to deal with you myself.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Izuku says with a mirthless chuckle, “Just tell your partners to watch who they shake hands with.”

Izuku puts on the sunglasses despite the quickly darkening evening, runs a hand through his hair again before putting up the hood on his coat. 

“Have a productive evening, Ingenium.”

Only silence follows Izuku as he walks out of the alley, hands in his pockets and dark glasses on as he leaves Iida to his warring thoughts.

- - - - -

END.

[armageddon-generation]

Starting the DCEU right: fixing BvS and its lead-up

BvS is really frustrating, so I rewrote it, re-ordered the existing movies and inserted in a Batman movie

1. Wonder Woman

Start the DCEU off with  a ‘bold’ statement with the first female led superhero movie, and the first chronologically.

2. Man of Steel

Bright colours, bloody hell

Cut the heavy-handed Jesus/Messiah symbolism. Superman was created by Jews anyway, Christiansing him feels disrespectful

Put it in chronological order starting in Smallville, so we’re invested in Clark’s struggle

Pa Kent doesn’t die in a tornado, that scene is ridiculous

Move the Krypton sequence in the beginning to when Jor El is explaining Clark’s origin to him in the Arctic ship, so we maintain the mystery and don’t repeat ourselves

Focus on Clark trying to live a normal life – his relationship with Lois, becoming a reporter, while he fights regular crime in secret (the Smallville blur trope)

Zodd attacking disrupts that peace and forces Superman to go public for the first time

Thematically, classic ‘regular guy doing the right thing’ Richard Donner Superman is fighting off the ‘detached alien Messiah figure’ Zack Snyder Superman Zodd wants him to become

Metropolis’ destruction and Clark being forced to kill Zodd still happens, but show Clark trying to avoid populated areas and save bystanders instead of fight, Zodd just won’t let him.

3. Batman: Under the Red Hood

Under the Red Hood (UtRH) with a depressed robin-less Batman

Follow basic outline of UtRH animated movie (75 mins) in a 2-hour movie, incorporating elements of The Killing Joke

UtRH is a mystery that lets us focus on Batman’s detective side

Talia resurrected Jason as an apology to Bruce – allude to Damian’s existence when we visit the League of Assassins and establish their past romance

UtRH is the perfect story to introduce the batfamily - Bruce still isn’t talking to Dick after kicking him out to become Nightwing, the Red Hood pushes them to work together, but uncovering Jason’s identity fractures their relationship further (fight?)

Killing Joke happened recently and Barbra is still recovering. Show the events leading up to and after it in PTSD flashbacks, but framed through Barbra’s empowering story of recovery, not the traumatic incident itself. Maybe introduce Leslie Thompkins as her therapist.

Bruce is also estranged from Commissioner Gordon as a result of Killing Joke. When Jason finds out the Joker paralysed Barbra after he died and Bruce still let him live, he’s even angrier

This story is the perfect set-up for the DCEU’s (recast) Joker; he’s a secondary villain to Jason, but by mixing both UtRH and Killing Joke, his two most famous/heinous crimes, he immediately becomes a terrifying bogeyman with an established relationship with Batman

Stealth set-up for Birds of Prey (Oracle), Nightwing, and Red Hood and the Outlaws movies

By the end of the movie both Jason  and Joker escape and Bruce is left isolated and questioning his no-kill code after Jason’s arguments, Joker escaping yet again, and all his recent trauma, setting up his emotional state for BvS

The only ones to stay by his side are Alfred and Lucius Fox

4. Batman vs Superman

Clark is our protagonist, Bruce the sympathetic villain who’s redeemed by the end

After killing Zodd in MoS, Clark is determined not to kill – CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT through an opening action sequence

He and Lois are newlyweds 

Clark wants to be trusted, and that means conforming to government control (like in The Dark Knight Returns, except this time it’s sympathetic) – his moral dilemma is whether them controlling Superman is a good thing

Clark hates Batman because Bruce is becoming more and more recklessly violent (The Dark Knight Returns) since UtRH and The Killing Joke and his support structure collapsing. Clark reports on how the Bat-Brand is causing criminal deaths (which is now a big No-No for Supes, without him being  a hypocrite) - cut the unimportant conflict with Perry White

During the Metropolis attack Bruce loses someone. I don’t like killing a black character, but it makes the most sense that Lucius Fox would be in the Wayne Tech building and die. The audience has a history with the character – not only was he in UtRH, but also the Dark Knight Trilogy.

Alfred loses a leg, as in the Earth One graphic novels – that gruffer version of the character is similar to Jeremy Irons’ portrayal anyway

Bruce now has legitimate reasons to fear Clark, and he has no support network left.

Wayne Industries is funding the rebuilding of Metropolis, in collaboration with Lexcorp (like in the No Man’s Land comic event). Lex (recast) is presented as an ally to Bruce, sympathising with and stoking the flames of his Superman hatred

Insert the Diana subplot in here – BUT DON’T SPOIL HER BEING IN THE MOVIE IN THE TRAILERS. Bruce catches her snooping around at one of Lex’s fundraisers for rebuilding Metropolis. 

Lex doesn’t just have her photo – in the hundred years since Wonder Woman, Diana has become a protector of mythological beings (Nick Fury for the Gods). Instead of the email attachment of Justice League teaser trailers, Lex has stolen information from Diana that reveals the locations of Themascyra and Atlantis, the sister cities.

Bruce and Diana can have a philosophical discussion about new gods outmoding old gods without it being out of place – Diana is unsure of her place in this changing world

Lex is also planning to run for President – he encourages Bruce’s anti-authoritarian sentiment. The GCPD have started a manhunt for the more brutal Batman. Legitimise this sentiment further by having Clark’s main contact to the Government be morally corrupt Amanda Waller (replacing Holly Hunter’s Senator) who wants to use Clark in black-ops missions.

We see one of these missions. Amanda wants Clark to kill, which he refuses to do, only for her to kill the targets anyway. (a version of the drone strike scene that opened the original BvS)

This causes huge moral conflict for Clark – show he and Lois debating and supporting each other at home – Lois doesn’t trust Waller and starts investigating her.

Bring in the Sons of Batman subplot from The Dark Knight Returns – Batman’s brutal new tactics inspire a gang of, deadly copycat vigilantes. Possibly you could turn them into the We Are Robin gang from Scott Snyder’s comic run

We learn about the gang from the POV of one kid – Tim Drake (or Duke Thomas, but we’d have to give him Tim’s origin – figuring out Batman’s identity as a child detective)

Tim experiences the terror and violence Batman’s new brutality is inspiring on the streets of Gotham – he goes to Wayne Manor, only to find it abandoned. Alfred lets him into the Batcave to shake some sense into Bruce, and Tim gives his pitch about Batman always needing a Robin to balance him. Bruce kicks him out.

A scene where Lex inducts the wheelchair-bound Metropolis victim into his scheme.

The conflict and tension is driven up by Superman breaking up a Sons of Batman rally, then confronting Batman while he’s torturing some criminals.

Bruce is working on his power armour, exhausted. Here we see a version of the Knightmare sequence:

Future!Barry runs in, grabs Bruce and zips into the post-apocalypse to show him the future. This is the only time we see Batman kill in the movie – driven over the edge. He is fighting Evil Superman, bearded in the black suit, looking a lot like Zodd. Darkseid looms as a dark, unidentified figure in the distance. Barry runs Bruce back, yelling to find him in the present and watch out for Luthor, but Darkseid’s Omega beams hit and kill him just as Bruce is thrown back into the Cave.

He passes out, then wakes up later, convinced he’d had a dream about Superman destroying the world.

Lex lets Batman steal the kryptonite – he’s getting desperate

Finally, with the Batman crisis worsening, Waller orders Clark to take Bruce down.  Bruce is waiting with his power armour.

The fight should be a pastiche of fights from the comics – sonic weapons and kryptonite gas, but also Red Sun lasers and that moment in Hush where Bruce electrocutes Clark with the mains supply of a whole city.

Meanwhile, Lois’ investigation into Waller has uncovered that the government agents ordering Clark around answer to Lex Luthor. She realises Lex has been manipulating Superman and Batman into fighting in the hopes of killing both (supplying the kryptonite etc). Mercy Graves shows up to kill her but Lois escapes.

Meanwhile, Tim breaks back into the Batcave and steals a Robin suit.

Both Tim and Lois arrive at the scene of the fight and stop Bruce delivering the final blow. Instead of MARTHA!, Tim and Lois talk their respective heroes down, Lois explains Lex’s role. Bruce remembers Barry’s warning – was that dream real?

Lex realises what’s going on and releases his Big Bad, Metallo (replacing shit Doomsday), a kryptonite-powered cyborg mech created from the wheelchair-bound Metropolis victim and  Kryptonian-killing weapons technology from Zodd’s ship. This way the fight ties in with the consequences of Clark destroying Metroplolis.

Diana, having been in the Lexcorp facility to steal her information back, arrives to fight with Clark and Bruce. She’s decided she’s still a hero.

The power is out in Gotham after Bruce used the mains to fight Clark, and the city is in chaos.

Bruce enlists Tim to evacuate the city and stop rioting while Clark and Diana fight Metallo – adapting the Dark Knight Returns sequence where Bruce rides through Gotham on horseback, enlisting the Sons of Batman to do some good.

This is the culmination of Bruce’s arc; accepting Superman is needed while stopping a repeat of Metropolis’ destruction by damage-controlling his fight. He’s also taking responsibility for his impact on Gotham through the gang.

Lex remotely sets Metallo to self-destruct when he starts losing the fight. Clark tries to save his enemy (DEVELOPMENT from MoS) but dies in the explosion due to the fatal dose of radiation poisoning. This death sets up the next 'phase’ of movies

We’ve set up several threads for future movies – we are aware of Atlantis thanks to Diana’s information, without having Aquaman thrown in our faces.

Lex gets away – Bruce breaks into his office and confronts him, but Lex is untouchable and still running for President

Bruce is now privately investigating what he saw in the Knightmare, including finding Barry Allen

Tim starts training to be the next Robin – Bruce is learning from his mistakes with Jason.

Amanda Waller sets up Suicide Squad

Lois is revealed to be pregnant with Clark’s child at the end, paralleling Clark’s natural birth in Man of Steel

[fulcrumahsokaamidala]

Saturday Spectacular #3

Happy Saturday!!! So this is me thanking awesome fanfic writers for their amazing work and all the time they put into their fics. ♥️ I want to recommend spectacular fanfic stories I read this week! ♥️ They are posted in the order I read them. All posts will be tagged #saturday spectacular fic rec

Drunk Cuddly Oliver by @stephswims | Arrow | WIP

Emerald Archer Martial Arts by @alexiablackbriar13 | Arrow | Complete

Summary: In May 2019, a tired Oliver Queen and four months pregnant Felicity Smoak retire from their vigilante duties and move to the redwood forest town of Bloomfield with their son William, to raise their family in peace.

Along the journey, they build their own successful companies, increase the size of the Smoak-Queen clan by a couple more, train their kids in self-defense, and live out a blissful existence.

This is the story of 7 years of their happiness and family antics, after 7 years of crime-fighting and hardship to save their city.

Semper Fidelis by @oliversmuse | Arrow | WIP

Summary:  Oliver Queen is a member of the Bravo Squad, a team that specializes in search and rescue, covert infantry and translating foreign documents. He is known as one of the best and even though he is one of the youngest recruits he advances quickly. While serving he meets Lance Corporal Felicity Smoak, a young woman with skills in hand to hand combat. Despite the fact they butt heads they fall in love and soon start to talk about a future together. However, when her plane disappears on a mission in China and she is presumed dead, Bravo Squad searches frantically for her, only to find her plane and her bloody dog tags. Five years later Oliver runs into "Megan" at a coffee shop near that gym he has been running with his friends. She has lost her memory from the plane accident but has had dreams of Oliver and the Bravo Squad. With the help of his friends and team mates, can he help her reclaim her past and fall for him once again?

Airplanes, Coffee and Deadlines by @hope-for-olicity | Arrow | WIP

Summary: Felicity begins working at a national newspaper where she has always dreamed of working. On her first day, she meets a very interesting photojournalist. The two will eventually work together but sparks fly immediately.

and we're somehow caught up in a web of lies by inlovewithimpossibility | Arrow | WIP

Summary: After their encounter with the Count and Moira's release from prison, Thanksgiving is upon the residents of Starling City but when an article arises in the gossip magazines that throws both Oliver and Felicity under scrutiny, the two of them somehow find themselves caught up in the most elaborate lie they've told. What was supposed to be a relaxing week at the Queen cabin in New Hampshire for Oliver and a week celebrating Hanukkah and Thanksgiving alone for Felicity turns into a week at the cabin of acting, the Queen women and bubbling not-so-platonic feelings.

You Can't Afford Him by @quiveringbunny | Arrow | WIP

Summary: Oliver and Felicity, still strained after returning from Lian Yu following the takedown of Slade Wilson, take on roles that challenge their buried feelings when they go undercover to investigate a dangerous arms dealer. A Macau casino. A luxury suite. Suspenders. Lucky red panties. What could go wrong?

The Morning After by @stephswims | Arrow | One-shot

Providence by @so-caffeinated | Arrow | WIP

Summary: Will Queen has struggled in silence in the year since he was shot. But when a shadowy crime lord known as Domino targets the only woman Will’s ever truly loved, fate forces him to confront his demons in ways he never could have imagined… Whether he wants to or not.

Amelia Prescott has fought to take control of her life since learning two years ago that her personal and professional worlds were manipulated by others. But nothing can prepare her for just how hard she'll have to fight to set her own course, especially when her heart belongs to a damaged man and a crime lord threatens her every professional move... And her life.

Destiny brings them together, but as chaos reigns and personal demons haunt Will and Amelia both, it may also threaten to tear them apart. 

(i want to) save that light by @callistawolf | Arrow | WIP

Summary: What if one little thing changed in the history of Arrow? What if, instead of going to Laurel's apartment after discovering the extent of Merlyn's plans for the Glades, Oliver stayed at the foundry and talked to Felicity instead? This series of short vignettes explores some of the ripple-effect changes that could take place throughout the next season as a result of this one, fortuitous change.

The What If Harassment Alternative by portlandborn | Brooklyn Nine-Nine | WIP

Summary: What would have happened to Peraltiago And our intrepid detectives, if Amy had reported her mentor captains ugly behaviors?

bliss within madness by @alexiablackbriar13 | Arrow | WIP

Summary: “Hey, Mia. It’s your dad,” he whispered. Pausing, he added, “Mia or Lucas. We don’t know exactly who you are yet. But I promise you, your mom and I are gonna love you to the stars and back no matter who you turn out to be. I’m gonna call you Mia for now, though.” He kissed Felicity’s stomach softly, humming under his breath at the heat coming from her skin.

give all my secrets away by LiteraLital | Arrow | WIP

Summary: Before returning to the Waverider, Sara shares a drink with Oliver and Felicity as they reminisce about old times and some secrets are revealed, old and new... Based off the 7x18 sneak peek.

let me do this by @alexiablackbriar13 | Arrow | WIP

Summary: 7x18 Spec. Mia arrives back injured from a mission and Felicity patches her up.

I'll take care of you by  felicitybettx | Arrow | One-shot

Summary: Oliver finds out his pregnant wife braved not one, but two death-defying explosions while working with the canaries. He doesn’t handle it super well.

a once-in-a-lifetime love by  inlovewithimpossibility | Arrow | WIP

Summary: Felicity squeals a little as he lifts her into his lap with the utmost care, nuzzling her neck before planting a few kisses there. “Oliver?”“I ordered your fries and a chocolate shake.” He tells her and Felicity grins, pulling back to grasp his face in her hands.“You’re the best husband ever.” She tells him seriously and the smile that spreads across his face makes her feel like she’s a kid again.[extended scene from the end of 7x18 - takeout, sleepy cuddles and daddy-daughter chats with their unborn miracle]

i need you to be safe by @alexiablackbriar13 | Arrow | WIP

Summary: Post-7x18. Oliver does not react very well when finding out about the danger Felicity and their unborn baby were placed in. Felicity always knows exactly how to reassure him.

Can't Help Falling in Love  by @smoaking-greenarrow | Arrow | One-shot Collection

Summary: Collection of fluff fics based on Tumblr prompts! Some are angsty, but most of this is fluffy. Enjoy!

I wear high heels (she wears sneakers) by @mogirl97 | Supergirl | WIP

Summary: “Lena. It’s not just about football.” Kara waved her hands around emphatically, “It’s about school spirit and hanging out with your friends—“ Lena didn’t want to bring up the fact that she didn’t have any friends to hang out with. “—and watching me obliterate a bunch of guys’ egos and going out for celebratory Big Belly Burger afterwards.” ~A Supercorp High School AU~

for you, i will withstand the pain by @alexiablackbriar13 | Arrow | One-shot

Summary: Strange feelings of dread and hope associated with his baby's ultrasound photo prompt Oliver to make a crucial trip back in time to stop his past 2017 self from making a decision that threatens everything he's built with his family and by extension, the universe itself.

1st Night of Forever by @theartofbeinganerd | Agents of SHIELD | One-shot

Summary: Three years after the wedding that changed both of their lives forever, Jemma and Fitz are finally getting married, and officially becoming the family that they've built with Evelyn over the past few years - and they (and everyone around them) couldn't be happier about it.*The Fitzsimmons Wedding in my 1 Night 'verse, first started in 1 Night (+9 Months)*

whenever you're ready by @alexiablackbriar13 | Arrow | One-shot

Summary: Mia and William from 2040 travel back in time to 2019 to access an uncorrupted version of Archer. Oliver and Felicity investigate a break-in at the bunker only to find their children from the future bickering. Emotional confrontations and conversations ensue.

Artemis by @laxit21 | Arrow | WIP

Summary: When the Queen's Gambit sank, two people were stranded on Lian Yu. Five years later, four came back.

Daughter of the Demon by @laxit21 | Arrow | WIP

Summary: What if in 1988 while traveling through Las Vegas Ra's al Ghul bumps into a nice waitress named Donna Smoak and they have one-night stand together? A little bundle of joy named Felicity Smoak is the result. In 2014, the Demon Head becomes aware of his youngest daughter's existence.

The Ravager by @laxit21 | Arrow | WIP

Summary: Slade Wilson's plan for revenge against Oliver took time, money and no shortage of lives to pull together. His plan didn't anticipate Felicity Smoak. How will his plan change now that his lost-lost daughter is working with the very man he's trying to destroy?

The Daughter That Was Left by @laxit21 | Arrow | WIP

Summary: Before the Gambit, Oliver Queen met QC intern Felicity Smoak. When he boarded the Gambit, he left something behind. Now, five long years later someone is waiting for him.

Felicity of Themiscyra by @laxit21 | Arrow | WIP

Summary: Years ago, Donna Smoak left the island of Themiscyra and her sister Queen Hippolyta behind to live in man's world. She never told Felicity the truth about where she came from. As a result of the Undertaking, Felicity discovers some of her Amazonian abilities and makes an interesting new friend: Diana Prince.

I Scream But No Sound Comes out by @laxit21 | Arrow | WIP

Summary: When Oliver returns from Lian Yu after five years, he comes back different. What happened there damaged more than just his body. How will his friends and family deal with this new Oliver?

The Perfect Summer Day by cali-chan (girls_are_weird) | Stranger Things | One-shot

Summary: "Why didn't you go into the water with the others?""Because I want to go in with you." Joyce and Hopper take the kids on a day trip to the beach, and El helps Mike conquer one of his biggest fears. PG, fluff/romance, post-S2, Mike/Eleven.

Breathe Me In by cali-chan (girls_are_weird) | Stranger Things | One-shot

Summary: "So breathe me in so deep. Breathe me in, I'm yours to keep..." The two of them dancing through life together, as they had been since the beginning. PG, romance/fluff, post-S2, Mike/Eleven.

Carry Her Weight by cali-chan (girls_are_weird) | Stranger Things | One-shot

Summary: Something Mike had mentioned piqued her curiosity. "What's a piggyback ride?" PG, romance/fluff, post-S2, Mike/Eleven.

PB&J by @realityisoverrated-fic | Arrow | One-shot

Summary: After weeks of getting the silent treatment, Tommy tries to lure Oliver out to breakfast by sending him messages and pictures of how much fun he and Felicity are having. Oliver is still angry with Tommy and is refusing to take the bait.

[the-mic-drop]

Soldier: 76 being gay

I think it's awesome! Two "cover" characters being LGBT is both progressive for the present, and believable in the OW universe where the biggest* civil rights issue concerns artificial intelligence.

I also like how they made this announcement after giving him the grill-dad persona that the community bestowed upon him. It's a great way to normalize the concept of a gay man. He's clearly not gonna be dating anytime soon *, seeing as how he's in his Batman-with-a-gun vigilante phase, constantly looking for gangsters to bloody his knuckles against. Meanwhile, in fanon/event canon, he's gained the grill-master suburban dad persona; one of the most recognizable and inoffensive cishet characatures.*

The convenient/smart thing about making long-time cover characters gay is that they have enough lore and whatnot going on that their sexual preference is really more of a neat detail as opposed to a central attribute of their role in the plot.

Tracer being developed as a chronally-challenged special agent and civil rights advocate/activist, and the fact that she's a lesbian is really just a neat, world-building character trait. 76 is the former head of an international paramilitary peace keeping organization and now that the organization disbanded by mysterious means, he's keeping up the fight as a past-his-prime, super-soldier vigilante wherever he feels he's needed. Now that the organization is restarting, he's feeling conflicted admit his place in the world. Also he had a boyfriend at some point.

Letting these characters develop large, intricate histories and then throwing in "Oh btw, they're gay," makes it less of an actual relevant part of the character. Tracer, for example, hasn't really changed as a character since her relationship with Emily was revealed. Her motives, personality, and aesthetic haven't become "more gay" since the reveal, she's still Tracer, we just know about her girlfriend now. I'd be willing to bet our now knowing about 76's ex-boyfriend won't really change the already-established character.

Ultimately, this addition to canon will objectively do no harm and all good.

[thedcdunce]

Captain Boomerang

“It's not a bloody children's toy. It's a refined and elegant weapon which, in the hands of a master like yours truly, can lop yer bloody head off!” - Captain Boomerang

Real Name: George “Digger” Harkness

Aliases:

Mirror Master

George Green

Gender: Male

Height: 5′ 9″

Weight: 167 lbs (76 kg)

Eyes: Brown

Hair: Brown

Abilities:

Boomerang Mastery

Weaknesses:

Terminal Illness

Equipment:

Boomerangs

Base of Operations: Central City, Missouri

Universe:

Earth-One

New Earth

Parents:

W.W. Wiggins; father

Betty Harkness; mother

Marital Status: Single

Citizenship: Australian

Occupation: Professional Criminal

First Appearance: The Flash #117 (December, 1960)

Abilities

Boomerang Mastery

Weaknesses

Terminal Illness: In Convergence, it is revealed he suffers from cancer.

Equipment

Boomerangs:

Explosive Boomerang: A boomerang that explodes.

Collapsible Boomerang: A boomerang that collapses so that it can be easily concealed.

Lightning Boomerang: A lightning-fast boomerang that even knocked out the Flash.

Rocket Boomerang: A large boomerang capable of launching into space.

Razor Boomerang: A boomerang capable of cutting through bone and flesh when thrown correctly.

Personality

In his psychological profile, Simon LaGrieve states that George Harkness is perhaps the most well-adjusted member of the Suicide Squad. He is perfectly content with who he is, but Harkness is "an unprincipled sociopath with little or no moral sense of right and wrong." This extends to sexual harassment of women, and vocal racist tendencies. He has little regard for human life, as seen in the way he casually betrayed Mindboggler to her death over petty differences.

History

George "Digger" Harkness, aka Captain Boomerang was a recurring enemy of the Flash. He devised altered boomerangs which could produce astonishing effects and used them ruthlessly. He became a staple member of the Rogues Gallery, a group of villains dedicated to opposing Flash.

Early life

The illegitimate son of an American toy-maker, W.W. Wiggins, and an Australian woman, Betty Harkness, George Harkness was raised in poverty in the small town of Kurrumburra, Australia.  His stepfather, Ian, hated the boy and made his life miserable.

In school one day, Harkness crafted a boomerang.  He discovered he had great skill with the aboriginal weapon and often used it for mischief with his best friend, Mick Wentworth. He further honed his skills while spending some time hiding from the law in the Australian bush.

When Harkness was eighteen, he and Wentworth robbed a general store and were able to make their escape with the aid of Harkness's boomerang. However, this incident caused Harkness's stepfather to kick him out of the house. His mother gave him a plane ticket to Central City and told him to get in touch with Wiggins.

Wiggins had been searching for a spokesman for his company's latest product, a toy boomerang.  Under the alias "George Green", Harkness auditioned for and got the job. Wiggins outfitted him with a costume and gave him the name "Captain Boomerang."

Silver Age Career

Harkness, however, had other plans for his new alter ego. He began a string of jewelry thefts. This alerted the attention of the Flash, and the Scarlet Speedster caught him in the act during one of his heists. However, Captain Boomerang fooled the speedster by claiming that he was being impersonated. He even brought the Flash to his apartment and introduced him to actors posing as his parents, stating that they would starve if he was convicted of the robberies and lost his job as Wiggins's spokesman. The next time that Boomerang encountered the Flash, he knocked him out with one of his boomerangs and tied the unconscious speedster to his "Rocket Boomerang", which he sent hurtling high up into the Earth's atmosphere. However, on the descent back to ground, the Flash released himself and captured the villain.

Once, he planted special getaway boomerangs in every jail within one hundred miles of Central City, where they would remain invisible until he concentrated his brain waves to materialize them. One year later, he had the chance to use one of them. He was being transported to the state pen, but an anonymous phone call said that there was a bomb in the patrol wagon that he was being transported in. The police evacuated the wagon and put Captain Boomerang into temporary custody at the police station. However, he used one of his getaway boomerangs to escape. As he escaped, he hurled a boomerang at Barry Allen for rubbing him the wrong way. Barry quickly changed into the Flash, and tried to apprehend Boomerang by creating air gusts, pushing the villain in front of him. However, the Captain contorted his body into the shape of a boomerang, which caused him to hurtle back towards the Flash, knocking him down. All of this had been recorded by Boomerang's father and put into a scrapbook entitled Flash -- This is your Death! Boomerang set Flash up in a machine, that sent the hero hurtling like a boomerang into another dimension, filled with terrible monsters. However, Flash stayed in the shape of a boomerang, knowing that he would be returned to his sender. Foiled, Boomerang and his father attempt to get away with a special flying boomerang. Flash then creates a waterspout as they fly over a lake, bringing them back down, where Flash takes them to police headquarters.

Legends

Amanda Waller recruited Captain Boomerang to her new Suicide Squad, in exchange for a pardon and prison release. He was forced to wear an explosive bracelet that would detonate if he disobeyed orders. They attacked Brimstone at Mount Rushmore. Blockbuster died in front of him. Boomerang distracted the monster with projectiles while Deadshot made the kill. Boomerang was furious when he realized that they were all supposed to die, and Rick Flag explained that every one of them is expendable including himself. Waller tried to keep Boomerang locked up, but Flag insisted on honoring their deal and released him. Boomerang immediately returned to the streets and embarked on a crime spree in New York City, where he battled Changeling and The Flash. G. Gordon Godfrey captured Boomerang and promised to execute him on live television. Boomerang threatened to expose the Suicide Squad unless they rescued him. Waller sent Deadshot to kill Boomerang, but Flag stopped him. Bronze Tiger chased Godfrey and Enchantress took down the Warhounds while Flag released Boomerang. Boomerang thanked him, and Flag punched Boomerang in the face.

Suicide Squad

Captain Boomerang is forced to continue serving with the Suicide Squad, but he still has to wear an explosive bracelet because Waller does not trust him. It is immediately established that the other Squad members do not like working with Boomerang, because of his loud racist and sexist attitudes. Boomerang sexually harasses his teammate Plastique, so Mindboggler uses her powers to embarrass him in front of the group. They are sent to destroy the terrorist group Jihad in Qurac, and Boomerang is told to neutralize their speedster Jaculi. Boomerang is used to dealing with the Flash, so he easily defeats Jaculi and kicks the terrorist off a roof to his death. Boomerang sees that Rustam is about to kill Mindboggler, and decides to let her die as punishment for humiliating him. When Belle Reve is attacked by the Female Furies, Boomerang chooses to simply hide and avoid conflict as others are dying. Boomerang is sent undercover to discredit the racist vigilante William Hell, and he infiltrates the Aryan Empire. Deadshot is forced to shoot an apple off of his head, and he does so with his eyes closed. He is part of the team sent by the President to arrest Firestorm. In this fight he is easily knocked out by Batman. Waller decides to let Boomerang live outside the prison, and he is given an apartment in New Orleans. They call Boomerang in as backup when they are fighting the People's Heroes in Russia, and he uses an exploding boomerang to defeat Sickle. He also knocks out Enchantress to stop her killing Deadshot, and says this is because he was cold and wanted to go indoors. Captain Boomerang returns to a life of petty crime and branches out to Gotham with Mirror Master. Both men were apprehended by the Batman. After Scudder died, Digger started impersonating Scudder as the Mirror Master. Warden Economos sends the team to destroy Manhunters during Millennium. Boomerang tests the explosive bracelets by telling Slipknot they do not work, and Slipknot blows his arm off trying to escape. He is nearly killed by Manhunters when he runs out of ammo, but he survives the encounter with Deadshot. They do not receive public credit for this mission. Waller sends Boomerang undercover with Black Orchid and Vixen to take down drug czar Xavier Cujo. Cujo tries to execute Boomerang, but Boomerang talks his way out of it. They get to their weapons and fight their way out, with Vixen killing Cujo. Boomerang tries to steal a large package of cocaine to sell for himself, but Black Orchid drags him away.

His career as Mirror Master was cut short when he was caught and brought to Waller, who put an end to it, and rescinded the benefits Harkness had been given, such as his apartment in New Orleans and his status as a voluntary member of the Squad. Harkness remained with the Squad until it was disbanded.

Identity Crisis

Harkness found himself an obsolete villain in the modern world of supervillains. Regularly going up to the supervillain satellite looking for jobs, asking favors from the Calculator, he was at the end of his rope looking for a job to put him on the map again. During this time, Harkness finally reached out to the son he abandoned, Owen Mercer. The two began to bond. Digger was killed by Jack Drake, father of Tim Drake. Digger had been sent by the real killer to attack Jack Drake, only the killer double crossed Digger and sent Drake a warning and a pistol to defend himself. Digger managed to kill Drake but not before he was shot himself. The sudden loss of Harkness caused Mercer to take up his father's mantle, and become the second Captain Boomerang.

Brightest Day

Harkness was one of twelve heroes and villains raised by the white light for mysterious reasons. Imprisoned in Iron Heights for crimes he committed when he was alive, Harkness makes a call to The Rogues requesting help in escaping the prison and that he become a Rogue again. Captain Cold denies helping him and tells Harkness he has to prove that he is still a Rogue by breaking out of Iron Heights himself and by taking on The Flash. Due to the exposure to the Black Ring, Harkness discovered he could manifest black construct boomerangs in times of duress. Utilizing the boomers which are able to explode on contact, he escaped from Iron Heights and sought out The Flash in an effort to win favor with The Rogues once again.

Convergence

Pre-Zero Hour Harkness is in Gotham when it was taken by Brainiac and is trapped for a year. He is recruited by pre-Zero Hour Amanda Waller to join the Suicide Squad. Harkness betrays the Suicide Squad after revealing he has cancer and is killed by Waller.

Fun Facts

"Digger" is a slang word for "soldier" for local Australians.

[officialleehadan]

Masterlist 09/02/2018

Hello Darlings, here is the updated masterlist as of 09/01/18

If you want to blacklist these posts, which will update every other week or so, the tag is Lee Hadan Masterlist

All the stories here are arranged by series, and the stories are arranged chronologically within their series. If there’s only one story in a series, I already have continuations written (or planned) and more will be coming soon!

EDIT: There seems to be some technical stuff going on, on Tumblr’s end, because the links here are not posting up on the Desktop version of Tumblr. I’ve already submitted a report about it, but if you’re having trouble seeing links on this post, that would be why.

+++

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Books on Amazon:

Goblin Armor

There has never been much in way of peace between the Faerie Realm, and  the Shadow Wold of the Goblins. Generations of hostility and mistrust  will do that. Still, for two generations, the border has been quiet, and the fearsom Goblins hidden away deep in their dark forest. Until now.  With the Goblins on the march, and Princess Snowbell’s king-father  flying to meet them, it is all Snow can do to keep her family, and her  Realm, from falling to treason, and murder. 

Return Again

I thought my father was normal. The kind of dad who deals with work, and homework, and the troubles that come with being a single father to a   seventeen-year-old girl. I didn’t know he went to a different world when he was a teenager. I didn’t know he was the Chosen One of a magic   sword. I didn’t know he saved a whole kingdom, maybe their world, before he was twenty. That was thirty years ago. Now they need him back, and   I’m going with him.

The Idol of Astre: ($2 a month on Patreon)

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

The Unsettled:

Handful of Salt

Critter Jar

Appropriate use of Craft Glitter

Unafraid

The Ghosts of Pinewood Estate (Patreon-Only!)

This Old House:

Experienced Home-Buying

Living Negotiation (Patreon-Only!)

White Roses and Deck Railings 

Twins Together:

Brothers Apart

Sanctuary Always

Twins in Crime

Twinning Disagreements

Bond of Brothers

One Mind, Two Heads (Patreon Only!)

Deities and Demigods:

Boredom

Inconvenienced

Luck’s Chosen

Golden Apples

Brewer’s Glass (Patreon-Only!)

Apocalypse:

Come Again Another Day

Invasion from Below

War-Beasts

Four Horses

Four Horsemen

Horsemen Four

Mercy Mercy Mercy

To Save a Bird

Together Time (Patreon-Only!)

Breaking Waves:

After the Storm

Winter Wind

Storm At Sea

Uncollected Faeries:

Faerie Ring

Glitter Poo

Skitter

Wine-Dark

The End of Indian Summer

Purple Handed

At the Sign of the Silver Rose:

Cold Iron Buckshot

Troll Market

Selkie Skin:

Seal Coat

Over the Sea (Patreon-Only!)

Uncollected Dragons:

Exploration by Wing

Iced White Wine

Mine to Hoard

Hoard of Memories

Uncollected Witches:

Best Served Cold

Casual Friday

Exotic Components

One Eye on the Other Side

Spelled Cooking

Thyme can Heal

The Lightning Witch:

Static Charge

First Strike

Black Lightning on the Horizon

Storm Breaking

Copper Pipes

Crash Down

Husband to the Queen

When the Wolf Star Rises

Treebrothers:

Snow Elf

Wild Roses and Birdsong

Bare-Handed

Spider-Eating Elves:

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

Introductory Trouble

Lady of Grace

Lady of Stone, and her Girlfriend

Lady Retrieved

Monsters on the Wing

Spiderwebs and Cookies

Royal Match

Lines in the Sand

Worldbuilding Essays:

Blood Magic

Elf Forest

Green Magic

Forge Magic

Thread Magic

Dragons

Light and Dark Magic

13 Moons

Frost Moon

Blue Moon

Jasmine Moon

HGE - Human/Alien Relations

Get That OUT of Your Mouth

Medical Attention

Claws

Ingenuity

War and Peace

Echo-Folk

HGE - Invasions

Invasion Denied

Blood Will Tell (What Waits in the Dark)

No Moon

HGE - The Others

Through Shattered Glass

Sea and Sky

HGE - Mismatched

Death Valley Sand

HGE - Conflagration

Fire District

HGE - Smoke before Fire

The Legend, The Rumor

Deep Water and Scales

Black Scales and Open Spaces

Screams in the Dark

Warning Lights

Into the Wild

Nobility and Flames

Packmates

HGE - The Maw

Back Room Handshakes

New Understandings

Poker Face

Brassy Secrets

HGE - Learn to Fly, Learn to Breathe:

Red Sun

Red Baron

Red Prince

Red Sky

Stone and Intuition:

Pack Hunters

Attack Droids

Dragon Bones

Dream of a Desk Job

BulbasaurBot

Explosive Foolishness

Inferno Grenades

Married Life

The Hand of Bone:

Death’s Kiss

Death’s Glow

Supers Beyond

Card Shark

Heroic Rescue

Housekeeping Before Villainy

Jet Fuel

Lobster Bisque

Opposing Elements:

Cold Front

Elemental

Reality at Will

Altering Reality

Reality Bent

The Pen is Mightier

Will of Fire

Chinese Pepper

Firepower

A Moment’s Peace

Burnout

Doctor Rimeheart (Supervillain Coffee Shop)

Handicapped

Power Rests in the Eye

Nuclear Option

Incidental Villain

Second in Command

Cut a Deal

First Summon

Even Supervillains run from Fangirls

The Blackest Coffee

Deal with the Devil

Opportunity for Advancement

Fear and Coffeegrounds

Personal Space

Broken Countertops

Christmas Cookies

Revealed

Wannabe Wannabes

Home Life

Shadows Unleashed

Old Villains (Patreon-Only!)

Higher Being Housemates

Bright Red Panties

Black and White Feathers

Demonic Comfort

Demonic Intervention

Unwanted Attention

Magpie Wings

Don’t Fall

Sparklers and Demon Smiles

Holy Words

Uncollected Demons:

Accidental Oops

Bloody Mirror

Brimstone Portal

Burn My Body and Bury Me Deep

Holy Protestation

On Repeat

The Gunsmith

The Wrong Victim

Over the Edge

Sinners

Seven Sins

House of Demons

A Deal Once Made:

You Scratch my Back

Contract Lawyer:

Blue Frosting

Fine Print

Uncollected:

Awaken History

Command.Awaken

Isle of Monsters

One Punch Man

Stonebreaker Caldera

Hot Potato, Hot Potato

Vigilante Vampire  

Crawlspace

Blood on the Walls

Between Us Girls:

Surprises Abroad

Uncollected Fantasy:

Below the Fog

Glitter Bold

God-Touched Tide

Into the Darkness

Turn Me

Wolf Moon

Blood Moon

Hallowed Halls Memorial

A Kiss to Heal a Broken Heart

Cursebroken

Nothing but Trouble

Build a House of Paper

Unspoken Words

Imagine Reality (Patreon-Only)

The Mistlands:

Foolhardy Errand

Letters Sent

Desert Glass:

Spellborn Lost

Smoked Glass

Books and Shared Experiences

Burned and Blasted

The Rise to Power:

Behind Closed Doors

Two Minds as One

Political Assassination

Gates Torn Down

Heaven’s Gates

Counter-Code:

Code for Magic

99 Shiny New Bugs

Blood Magic:

Blood Fire

At the Last Moment

Healing Touch                                                                                            

Unbound, Unbroken

Student Discovered

Claimed as Ours

Never Free:

Round and Round Again

Mistaken Step

Spinning Wheel

Stronger Together

Tea and History

Girl Talk

Golden Scales:

Tigerfish

Riverside

Blood and Passion:

White Marble

First Negotiation

Blood Summit

Blood Claim

CovenHold

Wolf Club

Blood-Traitor

Slow Burn:

About-Face

Dancing Lessons

Guiding Stars:

Procyon Moon

Altair Chariot

Vega Dignity

Secondhand Souls:

Partnership of Flames

+++

[lokidoki-imagines]

Library Vigilante

Pairing: Loki x Reader

Content/Warnings: Fluff, second hand embarrassment

Words: 2360

Prompt: Library AU ‘You’re overdue on this book and I want it so I’m tracking u the fuck down’ 

You can request more by dropping me an with an idea or pick a prompt from my favourite prompt lists one liners, 100 kinks, generals, AU’s and holiday prompts :) Hope you enjoy!

“I’m sorry, that book still hasn’t been returned to us yet.” The kind lady behind the desk spoke as she tapped away at her keys, “The gentlemen who has it is going to have a hefty fine when he decides to return it.” 

“He’s gonna have more than a hefty fine.” You mumbled, tapping your fingers off the desk. “How long overdue is it?” You asked, peering over the desk at the screen hoping to catch a glimpse of the name of this mysterious gentlemen. The librarian pulled her screen away abruptly making you huff in defeat. 

“I’m sorry Miss but that’s confidential information, you’ll have to wait until the book is returned or try another library.” She pulled her mouth into a tight line and began typing once again. You needed that book, it was the last one in the series and you were not prepared to pay a whole $25 on a book, not when there was a perfectly good one you could loan out for free. Slumping on the desk the librarian peered at you over her glasses, “Do you need anything else dear?” Yes I do I need that bloody book.

Pulling your head up you put on the best fake smile you could muster and glanced quickly at her name tag. “Susan,” You beamed, leaning ever slightly towards her “I just really need that book. You see, a poor art student like me doesn’t have a lot of money and libraries are where I can enjoy myself without having to pay and -”

“You should always donate some change to your local libraries dear, we have bills too you know.” Your smile dropped momentarily before you realised your face was betraying your annoyance. “Oh yes! I know that only too well Susan, see if you could just give me the details of the man who has the book I want, I could do you a favour and go and collect it.” Susan stared at you blankly, her fingers stilled over her keyboard. “I could be the libraries vigilante if you like.” You laughed, tucking a piece of your hair behind your ear nervously. “Like an avenger, only on a smaller scale.”

Susan began to shake her head as you clasped your hands together, “We don’t need -”

“No I know you don’t but see I need that book!” You snapped at her, you’d already tried the other libraries for it when you discovered last week that it was loaned out. Unfortunately for you so were all the other copies. You gave her your award winning puppy dog face before she switched the computer off and placed a sign on her desk saying ‘Out to lunch’. You frowned as you watched her collect her things and move to the room that was reserved for staff only. 

It was completely empty in there, it was your local library that you frequented quite often but never really saw anyone else there. You weren’t stupid, you knew that being the closest library to the local college there was always students drifting in trying to look inconspicuous as they made their way to the first floor history section. Wandering around the place you realised that the place was actually empty, Susan was out back for her 45 minute break and no doubt there were students canoodling upstairs but...You were alone.

Heart racing with sweaty palms, you ran around to the other side of the desk and switched the computer on. All you needed was a name and an address and then you could hightail it out of there like nothing had happened. 

“Okay, calm down, you’re not hacking S.H.I.E.L.D...” You mumbled as you were faced with a password entry system. Putting your head in your hands you glanced around the desk, there wasn’t much save for a photo of a man in a cap and gown and a bobble head of Thor. You snorted, flicking his head as you racked your brain for an idea. Pausing, you began to type.

Books. Password denied.

Avengers. Password denied.

One attempt left. You glanced at the nodding Thor and tried again, holding your breath you typed Thor.

Password accepted.

“Black widow eat your heart out!” You muttered before typing the name of the book into the database. “Susan, we all have our vices.” It had been loaned out for quite a while, the man who currently possessed it has had it for 7 weeks. Who takes 7 weeks to read a book?! You thought while pulling up his details.

Grabbing a pen from a pot you quickly scribbled down his name and address on a piece of paper before switching the computer off again and hightailing it out of there.

It was a warm day so you decided to walk seeing as it was only a couple of blocks away from the library, you were running through the scenario of how the situation was going to go in your head when you realised that it wasn’t quite as far as you had thought. It was a small set of fancy apartments that was just down the road from the avengers tower, you remember the media saying that Tony Stark had built them but no one figured out what for. 

You scanned the list of names next to buzzers until you found the one you were after, “Donald Blake you’re mine!” You whispered as you pushed the buzzer for the apartment above his. 

“Hello?” A voice crackled through the intercom.

“Hi! I’m Donald’s girlfriend and I thought I’d surprise him,” You chirped, “he think’s I’m in California!” This better work.

“Oh how romantic! Do you want me to buzz you in?” The voice asked.

You let out a silent prayer to whatever God happened to be listening before replying in a sickly sweet voice, “Yes thank you that would be amazing!”

Moments later you heard the tell tale buzz of the door unlocking, you quickly rushed through the glass doors and into the lift, pushing the button for the 3rd floor. The end was in sight, you were so close to getting the book and if you were honest, the adrenaline from the whole thing was more fun now than actually getting the book. The doors opened as your stepped out and made your way to the only door, steeling yourself you took a deep breath in and knocked quickly.

Picking at the skin around your thumbs you stopped breathing when the door opened to reveal none other than Thor, God of thunder himself.

He looked bigger than you’d imagined. Not that you’d imagined him of course, but he seemed bigger than he did on TV. You swallowed quickly as your checked the name and address on the slip of paper.

You looked up at the confused God, “Hi, does uh, Donald Blake live here?” You asked quickly, glancing at the paper before showing the God the slip too.

His laughter was like a boom, deep and hearty his whole body shook as he stepped aside to let you in. He shut the door behind himself before he led you through to a sitting room.

“Loki!” He laughed, gesturing to a man reclining on a chaise in the window, book open in hand. He was handsome you’d give him that, not in the obvious way like Thor but handsome non the less for a guy who tried to take over New York.

Your eyes locked with his when you realised that Donald Blake probably wasn’t gonna be sharing an apartment with the two asgardian brothers. Loki’s eyes roamed over your form as you stood next to his brother, his gaze was calculating and judgemental but not as cold and icy as you’d thought it would be. There was more indifference really.

“Brother.” He replied eventually, his voice more silky than you’d expected it. His eye’s had gone back to his book once he’d examined you and Thor motioned for you to sit.

“No thank you,” You noticed the younger prince’s eyes snap over to watch the scene unfold. “I’ve actually come for Donald Blake.” Puffing your chest out you turned away from Thor’s amused smile to glare at the raven haired prince who was watching you with curiosity.

“I’m guessing Donald Blake is a fake name, I don’t care. All I know is that I didn’t hack into that stupid computer using your name,” You shoved a finger into Thor’s chest before pausing and smiling, “Susan loves you by the way, you’d make her day if you visited.” Turning back around to Loki you noticed he’d close his book and sat up, your nerves were getting the better of you now as he stood up to his full height.

He’s taller than I thought he’d be.

“Anyway, you’re overdue on a book I want so I’ve tracked you down so you can return it.” Placing your hands on your hips you nodded once, signalling that you were finished. 

Loki’s mouth fell agape slightly before looking off to the side confused. Your confidence and bravado that had spurred you on had left, the adrenaline in your veins was replaced with fire as you felt yourself getting more embarrassed with each beat of silence.

Thor had taken to sitting on the couch that Loki was leaning on, a large smile plastered onto his distractingly attractive face. “You hacked into the libraries system?” Loki clarified.

You nodded. “Found our name and address?”

Oh god.

“Came here, let yourself in.”

Oh no.

“Knocked on our door and now you’re demanding a book back so that you may read it?”

I sound like a freakin’ psycho.

Thor looked between me and his brother who at that moment in time, had his head cocked to the left and was studying you very intently.

“How did you get into the building?” Thor laughed, taking a swig of whatever was in the bright rainbow coloured mug. 

Oh god now I’m gonna sound insane, officially insane. You thought before clasping your hands behind your back, rocking on the balls of your feet. “There’s a very nice lady upstairs, and uh, I told her that I’d flew in from California to see my boyfriend, Donald.” Thor clasped Loki on the shoulder and stood up taking his rainbow mug and his chuckles with him down the corridor.

You panicked, how could the god of thunder leave you with the god who’d tried to take over your planet not even 5 years earlier? Movement caught your eye as you watched Loki move with every bit of elegance you’d expect from a prince over to a leaning pile of books in the corner. 

He didn’t seem as bad as every said really, watching him move books from the top to the bottom before moving the pile all together to sift through another you began to wonder.

“Which one’s your favourite?” You asked quietly, his hands pausing for a moment before carrying on with their task. You left it there, you’d already made yourself look like a lunatic and didn’t want to annoy the trickster god anymore by asking him mundane questions. 

He seemed to find what he was looking for and straightened up, walking over to where you were with three very purposeful strides. “Here,” He spoke softly, handing you the book you’d come for. You smiled and flicked through the pages out of habit. “It’s this series actually.”

Your smile dropped as you looked up to him, realising that he was answering your question after all. “I rather liked this series, of all the boring books earth has to offer these one’s are rather amusing I suppose.” 

“If you like these one’s then any of the books written by Neil Gaiman would probably suit you,” You let out a breathy laugh as you tucked the book into your rucksack. “His stories are about norse gods actually, and how they -” You stopped as you realised you were babbling again, with a wave of your hand you glanced at the door. “You don’t care, why would you? I should get out of your hair, thanks for the book.” You turned to leave as Thor entered the room again.

Waving at him over Loki’s shoulder you turned back to the raven haired god, “Maybe I’ll see you at the library sometime,” You smiled at him as you pulled the door open, “bring money, Susan says you’ve a hefty fine waiting for you!” You laughed nervously before closing the door behind you. 

Mind whirling from meeting two very handsome gods, you leaned against the wall as you waited for the elevator to arrive. “Book lady!” Your head whipped round to see Thor standing in the doorway to the apartment you’d just exited.

“Yeah?” You answered as you saw Loki glancing nervously between his brother and you, “What’s your name?” Thor boomed as the lift arrived with a ding.

You grinned, “Y/N.” Stepping into the lift you tried to ignore the quiet bickering that was going on between the two brothers. You pressed the button for the ground floor but it wasn’t moving, and the doors wouldn’t close either. Watching as Thor grinned at his brother while talking quietly you began to stroll back over to the pair.

“Not to sound imposing, but the elevator’s broke.” Loki glared hard at Thor once more before watching his brother walk away. 

Loki’s mouth opened and then closed again, looking off the the side you followed his gaze but found nothing of interest.

“You ok Loki?” His head snapped back with wide eyes.

He cleared his throat and nodded, “Would you like to get coffee?” He asked quickly, glancing behind him at Thor who was grinning like a mad man.

Once again you felt yourself warm up as you nodded a bit too quickly, “I think I’d really like that.” Loki’s face relaxed as he grabbed a jacket from the coat stand and pulled the door shut. “You take every girl who tracks you down for books out for coffee?” You teased, taking the stairs with him.

He smirked as he held the glass entry door for you, “Only the ones called Y/N.”

[seeselfblack]

You should know this IMPORTANT bit of Black history...

When the Fourth of July Was a Black Holiday

After the Civil War, African Americans in the South transformed Independence Day into a celebration of their newly won freedom. 

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?” Famed black abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass posed this question before a large, mostly white crowd in Rochester, New York on July 5, 1852. It is “a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim,” Douglass explained, adding that he felt much the same: “I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! ... This Fourth [of] July is yours not mine.” 

Yet the tables had turned by July 4, 1865, at least in the South. Having lost a bloody four-year war to break free from the United States and defend the institution of slavery, Confederate sympathizers had little desire to celebrate the Fourth now that they were back in the Union and slavery was no more. “The white people,” wrote a young woman in Columbia, South Carolina, “shut themselves within doors.”

African Americans, meanwhile, embraced the Fourth like never before. From Washington, D.C., to Mobile, Alabama, they gathered together to watch fireworks and listen to orators recite the Emancipation Proclamation, the Declaration of Independence, and the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery when it was ratified in late 1865.

As we document in our new book, Denmark Vesey’s Garden: Slavery and Memory in the Cradle of the Confederacy, the most extraordinary festivities were held in Charleston, South Carolina, the majority-black city where Southern secession and the Civil War had begun. At the 1865 commemoration in Charleston, one speaker noted the altered meaning of the holiday for black Americans, who could at last “bask in the sunshine of liberty...”

...Throughout the South, freedwomen were conspicuous participants in Fourth of July celebrations, pushing back against the gender and, in many cases, class barriers that relegated them to the sidelines of Reconstruction politics. The domestic workers and washerwomen of the Daughters of Zion and the Sisters of Zion, two benevolent societies in Memphis, Tennessee, marched in parades each year. The 1875 parade featured a carriage carrying “a queen for the day”—a striking claim to the respectability whites routinely denied black women.

At Charleston’s White Point Garden, freedwomen joined freedmen in annual performances of songs and dances, including one called the “Too-la-loo” that had subversive meaning. About two dozen participants—evenly split between men and women—formed a ring, into which one of the female dancers would move while the others sang and clapped. “Go hunt your lover, Too-la-loo!/Go find your lover, Too-la-loo!” they urged the lady in the center, who eventually chose a suitor to join her. The Too-la-loo allowed ex-slaves to poke fun at the elite courtship rituals of their former masters while also engaging in a raucous celebration of their own emancipation. In 1876, 50 groups danced the Too-la-loo from early morning until after midnight. The dance was so popular among the freed population in Charleston, in fact, that Too-la-loo eventually became shorthand for the Fourth of July there...

...In Charleston and elsewhere, whites deeply resented their former slaves turning the Fourth into a commemoration of black liberty. What “a dreadful day” it was, complained one Charleston planter in a letter to his daughter. A local merchant lamented in his journal that the nation’s holiday had become “a nigger day”: “Nigger procession[,] nigger dinner and balls and promenades,” and “scarcely a white person seen in the streets.” Even some Northern whites could not abide what they saw. At the 1865 festivities in Mobile, federal troops from Illinois and Indiana were overheard wishing newly freed slaves dead...

...Fourth of July celebrations became more politically charged affairs. Republican candidates and officeholders played a prominent role in the festivities in the 1870s, much to the consternation of white Democrats, who used some commemorations as an opportunity to reclaim their power through force of arms. On July 4, 1875, a white mob broke up a Republican rally in Vicksburg, Mississippi, killing a black deputy sheriff. The next year, in the village of Hamburg, South Carolina, anger over a black militia parade on the Fourth boiled over into a full-blown riot that left at least seven African Americans dead at the hands of white vigilantes. The Hamburg massacre helped conservatives wrest control of local and state governments from the biracial Republican Party that fall, making South Carolina one of the final three Southern states to be returned to the Democratic fold.

In the years that followed, as white Southerners began implementing segregationist laws and customs, they quashed official black celebrations of the Fourth. Beginning in 1881, Charleston city leaders pushed Too-la-loo to parks further and further away from downtown until finally, in 1886, they succeeded in removing it from the peninsula altogether. African American families and friends continued to meet in more informal gatherings in the city, but by the early 1900s both Charleston and Atlanta had forbidden vendors from setting up food stalls along the streets where black residents had long congregated on the Fourth... 

Continue reading full article over at the Atlantic.com

[letaliabane]

Recovery

Last installment to Resurrection, Revelation and Redemption aka the RED series

A/N: The Batboys have successfully saved their sister/daughter and Jason is thankful that they reached her, however there is a much bigger problem than old Joker and Black Mask at hand. Will they be able to work out the family conflict before damage can be inflicted on the family bonds any longer? Or is it really time to go their seperate ways?

Warning: Mentioning of rape (BUT NO RAPE!), blood

Previous (Redemption)

Jason sat afar from the unconscious body of his beloved, surrounded by his brothers as he kept his head in his hands, still in his bloodied armour, his helmet long gone. His hair was all over the place, having been running his hand through it like a madman.

The past few hours had been a blur, from abandoning his weapons to cradle Y/N in his arms as tears ran freely down his face, holding her dearly to her to his chest. That’s when he had lost his helmet, throwing it across the floor of the godforsaken prison.

But that didn’t matter. Not now.

All he could remember was that he had jumped onto his bike before finally finding himself watch from afar as Bruce and Alfred cut open the woman he loved, pulling out the small knives and daggers that Joker and Black Mask had pierced through her.

But the thing that got his blood boiling, was the sight of his murder’s hands on her, the way his smile widened at the fact that Jason caught him in the act of trying to ruin the woman he loved.  

Jason didn’t even register the fact that he walked away from the medical bay, it was only when he was grabbed by the arm did he finally freeze.

‘Where do you think your going?’

‘None of your business!’ Dick, still in his Nightwing uniform, shook his head in realisation, his face filled with horror, ‘Your going after him aren’t you?’

‘Like I said, it’s none of your business-’

‘Y/N wouldn’t want you to do this-’

‘You would do the same thing if it was the woman you loved who was nearly raped and now on that surgery table! How would it be like if Barbara was in Y/N’s place!’  

Dick was silent at this as Jason seethed, the two brothers staring into each other’s faces with great anger, before he finally whispered, ‘She was caught up in Joker’s talons before any of us Jason, if you don’t remember, he shot her point blank and now she’s stuck in a fucking wheelchair.’

Jason felt guilt crawl at his stomach, but he didn’t acknowledge as Dick stared him down, a growl in his firm tone as he shook in anger.

‘And I love Y/N with all my being, she is my little sister! But I know, if I went out there right now and killed that-fucking bastard, it may bring satisfaction to me but not to her when she wakes up!’

Jason chuckled at this, only for Dick to turn him towards him roughly, anger now swelling in his veins, ‘Do you really want Y/N to see you like this-’

‘What’s going on here?’ Jason turned away from his fa-Well, Bruce, who’s cowl was removed and his hands covered in blood, with a great huff as his older brother spoke for him, ‘He’s going after Joker!’

Damon and Tim turned at Dick’s outburst, their eyes twitching between their father and brother, Bruce turning to him dangerously slow, his expression unreadable. Even Jason turning to him finally when he was silent, though unable to actually get his eye.

‘What?’

‘Are you serious?’ Jason couldn’t help but look up at the man at his simple words, ‘What-’

‘Why would you even think of going after him?! After everything he has done to you and this family-’

‘This family?’ It was Jason’s turn to Bruce, anger once again boiling within him, ‘This family-WHAT ABOUT ME?!’

Dick stepped away from his father and younger brother, knowing that this row was one that he knew would be coming the moment he found out that Jason was alive again.

‘This is what’s its really been about Bruce!’ Jason exclaimed, his eyes widened like a madman, ‘You, and me, and him! Now its time for you to fucking decide! If you won’t kill that psychotic piece of filth, I will! You allowed him to kill me, but I won’t allow him to kill the woman I love or anybody else-And-And if you wanna stop me! You know what you’re gonna have to do? Your gonna have to kill me!’

Bruce shook his head, ’You know I won’t do that-’

‘I’m gonna fucking blow his brains out! And if you wanna stop me, your gonna have to shoot me, right between the eyes!’

‘You don’t understand. I don’t think you’ve ever understood.’

‘What? Oh wait-your moral code just won’t allow for that? It’s too hard to cross that line?!’

‘NO!’ Bruce finally yelled, no only shocking Jason but causing his other sons to jump at his raised voice, the pain finally wrenched from within him.

’God Almighty, NO! It’d be too damn easy to cross that fucking line! All I’ve ever wanted to do is kill him, to subjecting him to every horrendous torture he’s dealt out to others, including you and Y/N, and then… end him.’

Bruce shook his head as he finally looked back towards his son, his dear son that he witnessed dying on tape, lifelessly muttering, ‘But if I do that, if I allow myself to go down into that place, I’ll never come back.’

Jason shook his head, gritting his teeth painfully, ‘I’m talking about him. Just him. And doing it because-because he took me away from you … the one thing I thought you would fight for! You came for your daughter but not me?! I don’t even know what to believe anymore …’

Bruce stayed silent at his words, his eyes filled with pain. Jason just scoffed before turning to his bike, only to be grabbed by his shoulder.

’Let me go Bruce …’ However the man kept his hand steady, even as Jason continued to tug his arm out of his grasp, only for him to tighten his grip. Jason turned to him angrily, his anger beginning to fire up again, ‘Let me fucking go.’

‘That’s not an option.’  

And then suddenly, like a switch had been flicked, Jason snapped, punching Bruce right across the jaw, elbowing him with a hard kneeing to the stomach.

‘I’LL SMASH YOU! I’LL SMASH YOU!’

He couldn’t control himself, pushing Bruce around, punching, hitting him, gripping the front of his suit and shaking him around. And yet, Bruce didn’t even lift a finger.

His heart broke as his son-HIS son, broke before him for the second time. And this time, he wouldn’t ignore their pain.

He grabbed him around the shoulders, holding Jason close to him and ignoring how he tried to resist, tightening his hold around his son.

‘LET ME GO! LET ME GO!’ Jason cried out, punching him in the chest, pushing and shoving with all his might until finally, he broke.

He crumpled against the man’s chest, looking up into the eyes of his father as tears ran down his face, whimpering, ‘You could’ve come for me! Why didn’t you come for me?!’

Bruce shook his head, and as his son fell to his knees, he brought him to his chest, his son’s head resting in the crook of his neck as he cried, finally able to hold the broken boy he never was able to save.

‘Its okay, I’ve got you son, I’ve got you.’

Just as my eyes fluttered open, I let out a desperate groan as my head began to pour. As my senses came back, I realised I was on my side, my back burning and the rest of my body stinging. 

I looked up into the bright lights, instantly shaking my head due to the intensity, groaning once more. Slowly, I sat up carefully, only to realise that I was in the Batcave when the cold air hit my bare arms.

I smiled at the sight of it, relishing the feeling of being home, I looked down at my body to find myself in a very thin white night dress, looking around to see Alfred, who stood at the sink washing blood covered utensils, only to turn with a wide smile, ‘Ah Miss Y/N, you are awake! Thank goodness!’ 

He hurried over quickly, helping me pull my legs over the side of the stretcher, groaning heartily due to the amount of pain that pulsed throughout my body.

The butler gently lifted my eyelids, speaking once more as he pointed a light into my eyes, ‘You are lucky to be alive Miss Y/N. You almost half the amount of blood from your body due to the flogging that those monsters inflicted on you, but also from the knives that had been plunged into many any areas of your body!’

I sighed as I heard the butler’s words, not cited to see what hid beneath my night dress. Alfred continued, ‘The men of the Wayne family have been absolutely worried sick ever since you collapsed at Arkham and brought you here in a matter of minutes-’

‘Arkham?!’ 

So that was where I was held hostage. Makes sense due to the fact that that was the mere location where our family was ripped apart. It just shocked me that I hadn’t even recognised the place, I must’ve been that out of it to not realise it.

I groaned as the memories came back to me. Jason. Tim. Dick and Bruce. They had all been there! I look up at the elder as he checked my pulse, asking carefully, ‘Are they okay? You know-’

‘I guess at that point in time, in a situation which contained you smack bang in the middle of it, makes it top priority to secure your well being, and nothing less of that. So yes, they put they’re difference aside for a better outcome.’ 

I smiled at this lightly, and yet I was worried, after all this business with me being captured, would Bruce put his foot down and stop me from having any contact with Jason due to his vigilante history?

Speaking of the devil, Alfred and I looked up as the elevator sounded, the doors opening to reveal Bruce, the light pooling around him as if he were a God. Well in this case, one that looked like they had walked straight through death itself. 

He was still in his Batman suit, however the cowl was gone. His hair was messy and face swollen with tiredness and the usual bruises gained from a fight, his blue eyes glazed and full of depth of emotions that could not be read. They widened at the sight of me, frozen and non-moving. 

Finally he began making his way over slowly, Alfred squeezing my hand before moving away to clean the utensils once more that were still covered in blood. I gave Bruce a small smile as he reached me, coughing lightly in the awkward silence that rang between us before he finally muttered, ‘How are you feeling?’

‘Like my head has been smashed with a sledgehammer, but other than that I’m perfectly content.’ He chuckled at this lightly, looking down at my face, holding a mere smile, only to change as tears welled in his eyes. 

‘You were in pretty bad shape. You had to have a blood transfusion and full operation right here by all of us, had to clot the blood as it poured like a waterfall down your back from those deep lashes …’

‘Dad-’

‘I had to cut open my little girl, my precious little girl-Y/N when I saw you in that-disgusting area of Arkham, I thought-I thought-’

At this I took Bruce into my arms, shocked as I held him tightly to me, allowing him to wrap his arms me as if I was made of glass, crying into my hair softly. 

To be honest I had missed my Dad, and I though I may have been angered by him due to his actions in relation to Jason’s death, I still loved him dearly. 

I felt my own tears well up in my eyes, running my hand through his dishevelled hair before whispering back, ‘I too for a moment thought I was done for. If none had found me, I definitely wouldn’t have made it without have made it out without all of you.’

Once he had calmed down, Bruce pulled away, cupping my cheeks loving in the palms of his large hands, running his fingertips across the bruised and cut skin of my cheeks as I gave him a loving smile.

‘Thank you for being the woman for this family. For keeping us together and being the support foundation that we need.’

I smiled at up him, now taking his hands into my own gently as I shook my head, ‘It wasn’t just me, it was all of us. We would’ve been on the streets, me most probably a prostitute just to scrape for money, the boys another bunch or robbers! You Bruce Wayne, you gave us a life! But this-the Batman, the Robin, the Nightwing, all of it, without it-I wouldn’t have made it tonight if it wasn’t for your training. So don’t take your work for granted because you’ve helped us, for the better … Dad.’

Bruce smiled at the name like he did when I had returned from Boston, with this certainty I knew, he loved being called it deep down. 

I placed a gentle kiss to his forehead, smiling up at him when suddenly the elevator sounded once more to reveal the one I had been really wanting to see. 

Jason, along with the rest of the boys who stood behind him, instantly looked up in shock and gasped at the sight of Bruce and I together, ‘Y/-Y/N-Your awake-’

But before Jason could reach me in his desperate dash, Bruce stopped him by standing in front of him, making all of us freeze at his actions. 

He sighed heavily before finally looking him in the eye, ‘Jason, before anything else, I need you to know how terribly sorry I am for what happened to you that night three years ago. I know it seemed like I abandoned you but I-’

Jason raised a hand at this, silencing the man. I couldn’t help but gulp nervously, hoping that a fight wouldn’t break out. I really hoped that whatever he was about to say wouldn’t break them apart. 

After all Jason had always said that he would never speak to Bruce ever again no matter the situation …

‘You should speak to Dad,’ I said softly as Jason ran his fingers down my back as we sat against the headboard together, our bodies intertwined, legs tangled. It was the wee early hours we lay in, having made love several times with pillow talk occurring every so often, and had led to this conversation. 

‘Y/N-’

‘I know Jay,’ I said, squeezing his hand as his arm tensed around me, ‘I can’t stand him for what happened too. Not your death, but for not telling me, for stopping me from coming to you earlier after you were resurrected from the pit. When he told me he knew you were alive, I almost wanted to punch him.’

‘But?’ I looked up at this, finding him staring down at me, and I sighed, ‘Jason if I wasn’t the only one who suffered when you were murdered. Dick couldn’t perform gymnastics the same, even Tim and Damian mourned you when they entered the manor. But Bruce was the worst! He was silent for months before he even spoke. Heck he even went after Joker before me!’ 

Jason’s eyes widened at this instantly, but I continued, sitting up to look at him properly, ‘Jason, Bruce nearly killed himself! I know that recruiting Tim it angered you, but there is a reason why he did it! If you just stopped and spoke to him, you would finally know the whole truth.’

He squeezed my hand as I finished, looking up at me through hooded eyelids before reaching over and caressing my cheek, allowing me to curl myself further into his touch, ‘You are so beautiful … too good for this world.’ 

I smiled weakly at this, my expression falling lightly at his next words, ‘But I can’t, not after everything that has happened. To be honest I want to, to a certain extent, but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to face my demons … and one of them is him.’

Tears filled my eyes at this, looking away from him slowly. All I wanted was our family to be whole again. But I guess not all wounds can be healed. Jason pulled me to his chest at this, holding me tightly to him and placing a kiss to my forehead, ‘I’m so, so sorry Y/N. I really am.’

I shook my head, hiding my face in his neck so he wouldn’t witness as I struggled to keep my composure, ‘Its okay, I understand.’

But the words that left his mouth in that moment, however, shocked me. 

‘No I’m the one who should be sorry …’

The boys were just as shocked as I was, for we knew very well that Jason did not apologise easily to anyone no matter the situation.

‘I didn’t allow you to speak your piece when we met after my death and only went straight to conclusions about your actions for what happened. Recently I shut my big mouth and allowed the truth to be told straight,’ he looked at Tim at this who saluted him back with a smirk before turning back to Bruce, ‘and realised that I was wrong about you. So I am sorry, and hope that we can amend our ties—Dad.’

At this Bruce’s eyes widened in horror, and he instantly had Jason in his arms in  a fatherly hug, tears welling in my eyes at the very scene, my heart leaping for joy, a feeling it had not felt in a very long time.

The rest of my brothers made their way over to me quietly, all smiling at the scene. I looked towards Tim, beckoning him over, ‘What did you say to make Jason see what was right, little bird?’ 

He just smiled at this, ‘Like the man said, I told him just as it was, the truth.’ 

I smiled at this, ruffling his hair before Dick embraced me, holding me close to him as he whispered worriedly, ‘Please don’t ever do that again, little sister. I don’t want to lose anyone else, especially you!’

I smiled up at him when I pulled away, , ‘Don’t worry I won’t be too troublesome … for now that is.’ He rolled his eyes at my words as Tim chuckled, before I looked down towards Damian who gave me his famous scowl, ‘And you little one?’

He just scoffed at this, Tim instantly whispering in my ear, ‘He’s acting all tough now, but he was in tears and was so worried about you, continuously checking on your vital levels and cleaning your wounds when you were out.’ 

I smiled at this, staring down at him as he looked up at me with worried eyes, ‘I’m okay Damian, really. You don’t have to worry.’

The young boy looked up at this, sending me a gentle smile as I gave him a small wink. And in a flash, he had me up in a quick embrace, hugging me tightly around the waist before pulling away with an awkward cough as his older brothers sniggered, causing him to chase after them with the threat of skinning them alive. 

I found myself chuckling at the scene, watching as my brothers ran throughout the bat cave before my eyes averted to Jason who made his way over, a small smile on his lips as he finally reached me, wrapping his arms around me tightly in his embrace.

No words were exchanged us, except for desperate love passing through each touch we exchanged, holding each other tightly despite the twinge of pain, Jason pressing kisses to any sort of skin he saw before placing them over my lips. 

I ran my fingers through his hair, smiling lovingly up at him when he finally pulled away from me. He placed his forehead against mine, tears filling his eyes fast before spilling down his cheeks, holding my face gently in his hands as if made of glass, ‘God I thought I lost you baby girl.’

I chuckled at this, gripping his hands firmly as he sighed shakily, ‘I’m so sorry I couldn’t protect you from those bastards-’

‘Jason Peter Todd,’ I said firmly, pulling away from him, making him freeze at my tone, ‘Don’t you dare apologise, Don’t you even dare!’

We stared into each others eyes before I finally spoke again, ‘It wasn’t your fault, not at all … I knew you would say this the moment I saw Joker that morning before I blacked out. It never was your fault! That git is a slimy, crazy psychotic bastard that has nothing better to do with his life.’

The vigilante chuckled at this, shaking his head before placing his forehead against my own, ‘I’m so fucking in love with you.’ I smiled at this, running my fingertips through his hair as he took my hand into his once more, ‘Me too.’ 

‘Do you know where Jason is?’ Bruce said, pulling at the collar of his tux as he looked around for his son.

It was a number of months later after the incident at Arkham Asylum that I found myself looking for the man of the moment, due to the fact that it was his birthday. The boys and I had decorated the house up for a small intimate party with family and a couple of very close friends, as all people knew, Jason hated big parties. 

I made my way out of the ballroom that we had spent decorating for hours upon hours, parting from the crowd, and grabbing my shawl before making my way into the great maze of a garden that stood tall outside the mansion before finally stumbling upon a pair of familiar gates I had not passed for months. 

My heels clicked against the pavement, informing the figure stooped over the darkened headstone that he was no longer alone. 

‘Thought I might find you here stranger.’ 

Jason turned to me at this, looking so grand in a dark blue blazer, smirking up at me with a burning cigaret hung between his lips, making me sigh deeply, ‘I wished you didn’t smoke …’ 

He too sighed at this, letting out a puff of smoke as I came to his side, wrapping his arm around my waist. He knew this very well, and thought I really did hate it, I knew it was a coping mechanism that he needed, and didn’t mind it to a certain extent. 

‘Why are you out here? What’s up?’ I turned to look down at his gravestone, weathered down and darkened, vines slowly crawling up its sides. Jason shrugged lightly, tossing his cigaret away, ‘I guess I wanted to take a trip down memory lane since it was that day.’ 

I looked up at him at this, his expression hardened, eyebrows furrowed and his jaw tight. I rubbed his back, leaning my head on his shoulder, ‘Bruce has been talking about getting rid of this. He only means to do it for your own good-I mean there really isn’t a point of it anymore … Don’t you think?’

At this, Jason shook his head, smiling lightly, ‘No-No I’m gonna talk to Bruce about not doing that.’ 

‘Why?’

‘I guess-This is the old me. The boy who was so excited on his first day as the sidekick of Batman, who wanted to explore a career in literature, who was excited to take his special girl out to the carnival - All to be destroyed by a stupid clown with green hair with a maniac laugh.’ 

Jason’s grip around my waist tightened, but I allowed him to do so before he reached to into his blazer and pull out a ripped piece of fabric, my heart dropping at the sight of the famous “R” of the Batman’s sidekick Robin. 

I choked at this. ‘You-’

‘Yeah,’ Jason said as he turned to me, staring down at me as he gripping the fabric, ‘I kept it. I know it-seems stupid, but it was a reminder that I had something to come back to, and that something was you.’

Tears began to well in my eyes as he stepped closer to me, leaving no space between us, ‘You know I used to visit here just beyond the treelike just to see you once I snapped out of the Joker’s mess? And when I would see you, when you would see before this gravestone with a large smile, it was like things were normal again. Hearing you speak and talk to me was like we never parted. Even through the moments when I saw red, you were the were the one thing that kept me grounded.’

I smiled weakly at him before turning away, shaking my head as I wiped away the tears that fell, ‘Bloody smooth talker.’ Jason chuckled loudly at this, wrapping his arms around me as I pulled him down towards me, kissing him gently, loving, intimately. 

It was during the mere months that had passed that Jason and I had become even closer than ever before, becoming each other’s confidant with each others secrets and insecurities. 

Jason, battling his demons that continued to rage on within him, and me as I got used to how I was unable to do perfect attacks as Batgirl or have the same body as before. 

We needed each other, that support, to balance each other out. 

And though I found out much later from Dick, Jason had already battled and faced one of his demons, leading his reconciliation with Bruce, who he now had a very close relationship with. 

When I pulled away, I continued to hold his face in my hands, kissing him once more, ‘Your too good for this world.’ He scoffed at this, but continued to smile down at me, pulling away quickly to place the ripped piece of fabric beside the gravestone. 

He was at my side once more, taking his hand in mine and leading me back wordlessly with a lopsided smile. And though the future was uncertain, and though bumps would be met upon the way, both Jason and I knew that we would beat them together. 

A/N: OMG its over! ITS OVER! I’m actually sad this is over! Sorry it was long, but usually with last chapters I tend to just go so deep and get lost. I loved this series as it was created from nothing literally. Sorry for the wait, I’ve been so busy at the moment since its Christmas timeeeee. Thank you to all who have followed this story for so long, I’m so glad you’ve stuck to it as I’ve written this throughout the year randomly. I hope to write more DC imagines so please request more from the DC universe! Onto finishing my Care for Series! See you soon x

Masterlist

[floraone]

Fic Rec Collection 3: Review Event Edition

Sailor Moon Fanfiction Review Event | Day 1: Rec Lists!

So, here’s some more of my favs to add to my other two previous fic rec collections ;) (And, as all my fic recs, they are all Usa/Mamo)

The Reveal by Kasienda

A series of unconnected shorts, all centered around this one magical moment where Usagi and Mamoru learn of their superhero alter-egos. Again and again, Kasienda reinvents this one moment. Sometimes it’s bloody and tragic, other times it happens over coffee, with just a simple slip of tongue and searching eyes. And it’s one of the most fabulous things I’ve read this year.

The Space Between by UglyGreenJacket

@uglygreenjacket set this collection of shorts between the end of R and the beginning of S, to close the gap and see where Usagi and Mamoru take the pieces and patch them back together - cause the break up arc was pretty harsh on them, after all. So this is them dealing with missing Chibs, planning their first milestone anniversary, Ikuko giving the boy who left her daughter a hard time, Mamoru dealing with wet dreams, and all in all complete with all those tentative steps of young love. She gives those two some wonderful, fluffy normalcy and a chance to grow together as a couple like they hadn’t had before.

The Bun-Head in the Oven by AngelMoon Girl

@angelmoongirl wrote this collection of drabbles in answer to the Transmissions From The Moon challenge, and wove it together into one coherent story of 9 months, a huge adorable bump that Mamoru likes to cuddle, and some very sweet as well as tragic moments they have to face that year, as they wait for Chibi-Usa to arrive. And let me say it right here, this woman is a poet.

Concrete Toyko by HarlequinWhiskers

HarlequinWhiskers took the aging up to new form in this wonderful and gritty WIP that had me hooked at the first chapter. The Senshi and Mamoru are all in their 20s, but they never regained their memories of their past lifes, save for the fact that they had one, and who they were, back then. This leaves Usagi and Mamoru in the most complicated relationship: Clearly and utterly attracted to one another, but who would jepoardize a crucial “work” relationship over such complicated feels?

Phantom by irritablevowel

@irritablevowel revisits the “Father returns to find gradeschool-aged kid where his one-night-stand used to be”-trope and does it RIGHT. Cause seriously, the only way this setting makes sense for the miracle romance, is if the poor guy never ever knew who Sailor Moon was, or that they have history. So, a fated sexy time on a rooftop later, and a couple years have passed until Mamoru comes home from Harvard to find Usagi working at the Crown and a smaller Usagi doing her homework at the counter.  Throw in one of the most intriguing villains of the Sailor Moon universe and I am hooked.

A Space In The Clouds by Antigone2

The world needs more Parallelverse!Fluff and @idesofnovember was so kind to supply us with the sweetest ever glimpse into what it’s like over there, with Kousagi and a Teenie!Chibs, on Mamoru’s 40th birthday. (And yes, deep in my heart, THIS, THIS RIGHT THERE, is the life I want those two to have.)

Aisuru Mamo-Chan by ellephedre

So, Ive mentioned this before, but @ellephedre needs mentioning again. It’s so simple an idea, and so logical, and its impact on me was instant infatuation with this fic. What if Mamoru, months later, receives all those letters Usagi wrote to him while he was “at Harvard”, each and every day? It both broke and mended my poor shipper-heart.

White Rabbit by EightofSwords/JadeEye

So, Eight says of this AU that it’s pretty OOC. And on the first observation it is, yet... on the second look, this darker, haughtier, older, broken Mamoru is someone I can totally see him becoming if Anime!Mamoru had been left to his own devices for much longer, Tuxedo Masking his way through the world without the Senshi. And Usagi, too, I can obviously totally see as a vigilante, and someone altogether flustered under Mamoru’s sexy smirks.

The Odds Considered by Kiyoshi Dot

This retelling and reframing of a slightly different season one romance oneshot dove straight for my heart and killed it. Kiyoshi Dot has a way of writing which feels as if you’re stumbling through a dream, and through an ocean of emotion and thoughts. And when Usagi lies on her bed as Mamoru slips through the window, with her hand beneath her cheek as she lies on her side, just looking at his eyelashes fluttering against his skin... it feels like the most gentle depiction of this love I could dream up.

So, I hope you enjoy at least some of those as much as I did, and if you do, make their day and let them know by dropping them a review or two. Cause that’s what this Review Event is about, so cheer them on, please!