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The—What to call them—odd collection of people. are circling around the column Dick, Bruce, Tim, Damian, Stephanie, and even Duke are tied around. The demons are monologing. Steph resists the urge to bang her head against the column behind her if only so she doesn’t have to listen to these weirdos talk.
These people are an odd little collection. One of them looks like a nurse, another looks like a teacher, one is wearing a business suit, but the other one just looks like regular people. The only thing that is really odd about them, is what they’re yammering on about. They keep talking about how they made “Such a long trip” to come down here and see “The chosen one” or “the last son” Steph just about had a heart attack when they mentioned “the One Who Is All” before remembering that they keep referring to a male person. However, that begs the question as to who stole one of Cass’ epitaphs.
Still, the people keep on talking about prophecies and getting revenge for the massacre of their family, despite the fact that they are very clearly not related. Steph has tuned them out by now.
Stephanie lets her mind wander and briefly considers taking a quick Power Nap. That thought is quickly thrown out of the window as Average Joe snaps to attention at something. Now everyone is following their line of sight, including the Bats, and staring up at the rafter of the warehouse.
“The last son of the All-Caste.” The business suit guy says, clearly these guys absolutely hate this other guy. Who could have offended this diverse of a group of people. Seriously, what did this guy do to offend a nurse, a daycare worker, a businessman, and some average guy? Steph could take some pointers from this guy. “Come down here and fight, we’ll see if you cry like your family did.” Shit, alright, maybe this other guy didn’t do anything wrong.
The rafters stay silent for a moment, like the person is thinking about their answer. “I’ll fucking kill you,” the rafters respond, voice coming from everywhere in the ceiling. The voice sounds oddly familiar.
From the rafters drops a form, it crumples on the ground, blood leaking from the severed head. Steph resists the urge to vomit, sure she sees a lot of messed up stuff, but… she can see the bone in the neck. The warehouse is silent, the four people are staring at the decapitated body of this person on the floor. Bruce’s distaste at seeing a dead body is palpable, Duke probably feels like she does right now. The nurse’s face shifts from shock to extreme anger and offense.
“That was my SISTER,” She screeches at the ceiling, The man in the rafter laughs at her, throwing his voice across the room. “Come down here, I swear, I shall cut your head from your neck and stick on on a pike, you child” She spits the last word like it’s poison.
There's a second thud as the man lands on the floor, hunched, he’s clearly holding the head of the body in one of his hands, her long, black hair held at the root, strands wrapping around his wrist. Thankfully, The head isn’t facing her, but rather the group of four people, so Stephanie doesn’t puke on herself. “I threw up in my mouth a little bit,” Duke whispers to her, and, yeah, Steph kinda wants to, maybe it would make her feel better.
The figure stands, and between the way the overhead light is positioned and where she’s tied up, she can’t really see anything identifiable about the man, other than that he’s tall and well built, like, really well built, Jesus Christ, those thighs should not look those good in cargo pants.
“Jason? Dick says, clearly surprised at seeing the Red Hood here. Ewwww, Steph needs to go take a shower, hot enough to scald. Maybe she should go to church this week, hopefully God will forgive her for her thoughts.
Jason, apparently, chooses to ignore Dick in favor of throwing the severed head–Yuck– at the nurse who was yelling at him earlier.
“Consider it a gift, you can take it home and show your family,” Jason says, clearly not happy about something. His posture changes to that more suited for a fight.
The four people suddenly aren't people anymore. They change, becoming large, black masses that pulsate uncomfortably. Jason dishes forward, and Stephanie wants to yell, ask how he meant to win against 7-foot-tall masses of goo with fisticuffs. As Jason moves, Steph can make out that there are suddenly swords in Jason’s hands and not just regular swords. They look like they’re on fire and made of gold or bronze. They don’t even look real. The swords leave an afterimage of the fire in a sweeping trail with every stab and sweep Jason makes at the monsters. The monsters have changed again while fighting. Some have large hands with sharp claws, others have gaping maws with large teeth. Kind of reminiscent of the story of Little Red Riding Hood. You know, if the wolf was actually four goo monsters and the little girl was actually a six-something tall man with flaming swords.
Jason’s usual fighting style which prioritizes brute force, speed, and brutality, has been changed out for something more graceful and elegant. The afterimages of the flames and the actual moves look like a literal piece of art, kind of like when Cassandra fights. If it weren't for the sprays of nasty black goop every time Jason lands a hit, Steph would almost like to see this painted or something, but as it stands, the goo monsters and disgusting and scary.
As the fight progresses, Jason starts winning, he’s taken two of them down now, but he’s also losing steam, which is concerning because the other two clearly have more steam left in the tank than he does right now. Jason takes a hard hit, and, oh crap, there's blood leaking steadily from Jason’s side now. This fight looks like it's gonna go south real fast. But then Jason manages to finesse his way behind one of them and stick one of his blades in down to the hilt. Jason hops off the creature as it drops to the ground. Jason's heavy breathing sounds loud in the room.
The creature and Jason circle each other like something out of a cheap movie. If only, Steph is already wishing for this night to have never happened. Faster than Steph can really see, Jason makes a forward dash and swings for the creature. Instead, what Jason gets is the large, clawed hand smacking him on the head and upper body, tossing him into a wall like a rag doll. The bricks actually crack and dent under the weight of the throw. The creature approaches Jason and Steph starts fighting against the rope that has her tied to the column on the floor. It picks Jason up by his neck and his hands scrabble against the creature's disgusting, large hand. The swords have suddenly disappeared somewhere, you think they’d be easier to find, what with the glowing fire and all.
“Hey, nasty ass goo monster!” Steph shouts, trying to keep the panic out of her voice as the monster turns to look at her, “Your sister was ugly as a donkey and deserved it!” That’s a lie, she didn't even see the head or know the now decapitated girl, but Jason really looks like he could use a distraction right about now.
Thankfully, the distraction pans out well, as Steph can see Jason plunge a fiery sword into the chest of the monster. Hey, where'd he get that sword from? Either way. The creature drops and Jason goes with it, the impact echoing around the now near-silent warehouse. Jason is just lying prone on the floor, staring up at the ceiling. Bruce had apparently spent this time cutting through the rope, and just in time, as the rope is suddenly loose and Steph stands, along with everyone else, and rushes toward Jason. Coser up, Steph can clearly hear Jason struggling to breathe, the throw into the wall must have caused at least four broken ribs. The blood is still flowing from large claw marks on either side of his body. This looks really bad right now. Steph hears Dick tell Bruce to call for the Batmobile. She moves forward and starts applying pressure to the wounds on one side while being as considerate of his ribs as possible, Duke moving to do the same. God, she can feel his rattling breaths. Trying to lighten the situation, she asks “Hey, when were you gonna tell us about the flaming swords?” She manages to keep her voice steady even though the amount of blood Jason is spilling is concerning. Still, Jason manages to smile at the ridiculous question.