Chapter 17: Rules of the Game
There was a strange sense of calmness that came with the realization that things couldn't possibly be any worse. The fear that you have in a bad situation where you stress over the next thing that could degrade your situation further was no longer present.
Instead there was only an empty sense of reasoning that only existed as a means of problem solving. It was the human brain's natural method of shutting out all outside distractions, enabling you to come up with a way to change your fortunes.
Your decision-making is more rational, fueled less by the fear of loss or the paranoia of the worst-case scenario.
Your actions are more certain. Quicker, cleaner, sure and to the point. There is no second-guessing. What is there to second-guess? Things are already as bad as they're going to get, given the state you're in.
Something clicked the moment that he began playing a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with the Gotham City Police Department SWAT units accosting him. The hallways separating warehouses in the Wayne Enterprises storage facility he had returned to were now a labyrinth full of firearm-toting minotaurs, all gunning for him.
Later on down the line, Null would eventually find it darkly humorous that he only ever seemed to be at his best when he was of the mindset that he couldn't possibly make things any worse for himself. For the time being however, there wasn't any time to waste thought processes on anything like that.
In the midst of avoiding the SWAT officers hall-by-hall, doorway-by-doorway, Null took several seconds to stare at the layout of a map set in a small frame on a wall.
Paying attention to the 'you are here' marker, he felt a plan form in his head as he took note of the fact that the halls of the wing that they were in all took the form of a grid.
Everything in this hall lapped back around, and he doubted that this was the only map in the entire section.
He could hear the bootsteps that the approaching SWAT officers were trying to hide and knew he only had a few more moments to get his bearings and figure out which way he was going before they would be on him. Any bit of stealth he had earned by outrunning the last person to fire at him would then be lost.
Shutting his eyes to focus, he could hear the steps and point out which way they were going. Nearby at a fork in a corridor, he noticed two sets of footsteps break off from each other to investigate two separate halls simultaneously.
That left the way they had already come open, and fortunately for him, all he had to do was make it to the end of his hall and make a turn to get right behind them.
He had to be fast, as quiet as possible, and trust in his sense of hearing, because it was going to be his best chance of making it out in one piece.
Null ran until he reached a corner and saw the backs of two SWAT members making their way away from him. Breaking into a silent sprint, he counted the distance as he mentally prepared for what he was going to do when he reached them.
From behind, he slid underneath both of their legs, dumping them on the backs of their shoulders, necks, and heads. In the same motion he gestured with his hands, causing their guns to fly out of their hands and stick to the ceiling without a sound.
The men let out quiet 'oomphs' of surprise, accompanied by the soft rustle of their uniforms and body armor as they sat up as quickly as they could. The next and last thing they saw was a wide, sweeping low kick from Null to their heads that rendered them unconscious, helmets or not.
Their bodies were placed in the nearest open hallway closet he could find. No need to make it easy for them to realize that something was wrong.
Moving to the other hallway, he saw these two officers moving together, only breaking off to check each room in the hall one-by-one. The lead officer would enter a room, with the second waiting for him to exit again before they kept moving.
The amount of time they spent checking any given room was five seconds, which meant that was the time he had to defeat the first one and prepare to attack the other.
Null skulked behind them, keeping out of their sight, but at a range where he could act quickly. He would need to.
The next time the lead officer went inside a room to check it over, Null broke into a sprint and grabbed the second officer from behind, covering his mouth to muffle his cries of warning and delivering a shock to his body through his neck that knocked him out.
As the lead officer exited the room, he was met with a kick to the face while he walked through the doorway, forcing him to stumble back, off-balance. Null followed him in and magnetically disarmed him before pulling him in with his powers, dragging him straight into his grasp where he repeated the process of tasing the man at the neck to shut him down.
Both sets of fights had taken him less than sixty seconds total, including the time it took to sneak up on them and hide the bodies after he had finished with them.
Null dragged the first officer into the same room and hid them out of direct sight of the doorway. He took a sigh of relief before rushing to the nearest map and seeing where the next warehouse was. After relating its location to where he was, he made a beeline straight for it, avoiding any other officers that were perusing the rest of the hallways in search of him.
Even though he was running as fast as he could, Null never forgot his training, to never make footsteps that someone could follow the sound of. It was one of the earliest things he'd had to learn under Selina, and it served him well as he dashed through the facility.
It wouldn't take them long to find the bodies and begin swarming like bees all over again. He had provided a momentary opening for himself if anything, and that was only if the next warehouse didn't have cops crawling all over it either.
As he entered the warehouse, he noticed how tightly the doors shut and had an idea to buy himself some more time. Running a charge through the door, he magnetically bonded the doors to their frames to keep SWAT from just being able to push or pull them open.
The first thing to hit him upon getting inside was a strong smell of chemicals. No wonder the doors had been sealed so tightly. It was enough to gag him at the first whiff. There was no question that some potent stuff was stored here.
'If I were an asshole looking to make the biggest boom possible, I'd definitely stick a bomb here,' Null thought to himself with a frown as he started to look around.
Every other explosion had been massive enough to engulf entire buildings. To get rid of a place as traditionally sturdy as a modern storage facility, you would have to be thorough.
'This thing has to have a charge running through it to be remote activated. If it does, I can feel it when I'm close enough,' Null thought, trying to feel for anything that would draw him to it inexplicably, 'I've got to make this quick.'
And quicker than he the small timeframe he had originally given himself time for. He could already hear commotion at the door he had just barred. SWAT was going to find a way in, and it was likely going to happen within the next minute.
With that in mind, Null began jogging briskly around the warehouse, trying to get a hit from somewhere, anywhere, to let him find what he was looking for.
As he searched, the door burst open, prompting him to abandon his search in earnest and look for a place to hide as the SWAT members barked loudly for him to come out and surrender.
Heart thumping in his chest, Null found an unsealed 55-gallon drum sitting on a pallet containing three. He opened it and hopped inside, covering the top loosely with the lid so as not to cut off his oxygen supply. He didn't know how long he would need to hide from the police.
"Wait! Wait! Wait!" Commissioner Gordon shouted to the officers that had filed into the room in order to find their prey, "Can't you smell that? Be careful. If you fire a shot in here, there's a chance you could send this entire place up in flames."
Null couldn't help but grin at that as he settled down into his hiding place. Even with a decided disadvantage in numbers, as long as they weren't going to shoot at him, he had a chance if it had to come down to a fight.
However, his attempts to crouch inside of the barrel left him in a seated position. As Null looked down to see what his posterior had landed on, he had to bite back a pathetic whimper borne entirely from fear.
He was literally sitting on the bomb.
Well, this was what he had wanted, in a way. He just didn't think he'd ever have a high explosive so close to his nethers at any point in his lifetime.
Putting his hands on the device, he could feel the current flowing through it, similar to whenever he grabbed his cell phone or other standalone electronic devices.
Well if this was how it was, he could do the same thing he'd practiced doing on batteries – absorbing the electricity. Sure, this was on a significantly larger scale, but how bad could it be? He couldn't take a piece of it off to be traced without disarming it, so he had to try.
Null focused on his hands and started drawing power in as he slowly inhaled.
The faint crackling noise that came with Null draining the juice from the bomb attracted a small gathering of SWAT officers to the drum he was hiding inside of. They carefully crept into position, taking their time to prepare to ambush the boy inside and bring him down.
Before they could so much as touch the lid, Null burst from the container in a series of flips and landed on the ground. The first officer tried to knock him over with a ballistic shield in-hand. Null delivered a spin kick that knocked him down onto his back with one strike.
As he dealt with one officer attempted to swing at him with a with a baton, only for Null to catch his hand and stun him with a series of electric shocks that left him twitching on the ground.
Under his hood, both officers got a view of Null's eyes glowing a faint blue due to the extra electricity temporarily coursing through his system.
The ruckus caused other SWAT to make their way over, but Null didn't stop to think about what to do next, not allowing them the chance to formulate a method of approach. He simply couldn't hold still.
Instead of waiting, he picked up the drum with the bomb in it and blitzed the nearest individual that bore him ill will, decimating him with a smattering of kicks before he could even raise his weapon. This was how he moved from foe to foe, with no one able to stop him, and few even realizing what was happening until he was upon them.
Well-trained officers or not, humans were still humans and they had the reaction times to prove it.
"Holy shit, I feel like I just got the star in Super Mario Brothers!" Null frantically yelled to himself as he smashed his way through some of Gotham City's most hardened police officers, "RAAAAAH!"
Everything felt enhanced, even more than they usually did in the suit. His vision, his ability to feel things out of his sight via his static awareness, his reaction time. It was like he had been altogether supercharged. He sure didn't get that kind of boost from absorbing the charge from a cell phone or a D-cell battery. For those, it was just enough of a kick to know that he had gotten something extra.
Null felt a shove from behind and turned to face an officer with a shield trying to push him while winding up to swing with a baton.
A quick flick of the fingers had him instead swing the weapon at the back of one of his nearby comrades, forcing the man to bend forward in pain. Null used his back as a springboard, giving him better position to deliver a backflip kick that landed underneath the first officer's chin.
With a magnetic thrust while he was in midair, Null shot himself up toward the ceiling, finding he had given himself more of a boost than intended with his temporarily enhanced powers.
'Whoa,' He thought to himself as he stuck to the top of the room with the palm of one hand. Looking down, he found the barrel that he had originally hid himself inside of and pulled it up to him, sticking it to his free hand, 'Ugh. Not a great idea,' His elbow still hurt like the dickens.
Commissioner Gordon watched Null swing his legs in the direction of the exit and drop to the ground right in front of the open doors. He and the officers that were still upright pursued on foot, but even with a 55-gallon drum over his shoulder, he still easily outpaced them.
Lifting his radio to his mouth he shouted orders, "He's leaving through the north exit! Get the armored truck into position! You've got a few seconds at most!"
Null heard the shouts coming from somewhere behind him, but was focused on his mad dash to freedom. He didn't so much as open the doors leading outside as burst through them.
It was there he was faced with a BearCat armored truck. A formidable foe… under normal circumstances.
For supercharged Null, it was just a particularly bulky domino once he unleashed everything he had in a single magnetic burst, "Get the fuck out of my way!" He shouted belligerently as flipped the sizeable vehicle over with a single shove of his superpowers. Without ever breaking stride, he hopped onto the side of the overturned BearCat and repulsed himself off of it.
It sent him hurtling off of the premises and into the night air, leaving nothing but the creaking sound of settling metal behind.
Null didn't even provide himself the time to be wary of it. The extra electricity was burning through his system and he needed it out, pronto.
Commissioner Gordon burst through the door, followed by the remainder of the able-bodied SWAT. He stared in awe at the flipped BearCat as the driver and two men stationed inside crawled out, all in one piece.
If he were a more expressive man, he would have been left scratching his head. He'd actually thought he'd been overestimating Null by bringing two entire teams to bring him in. Better safe than sorry, and with this mostly unknown element he had tried to be careful.
Even that hadn't been enough.
The encounter, from the moment Null and Gordon first exchanged words to the moment he'd launched himself off of Wayne Enterprises property, had lasted less than fifteen minutes.
XxX
(San Francisco, California – Titans Tower)
Supergirl huffed to no one as she stood inside of the elevator inside of the superhero base. This was the sort of thing she should have expected when she decided to try and spend the weekend with the friends and partners of her 'cousin' Superboy. He'd been so amused when he first heard about her… friendship(?) with Null, it only stood to serve that he'd have told the others about it, even if he hadn't been as quick to jump all over it as she'd expected, current events withstanding.
Well, since there was no pressing threat against the world as they knew it, they had to talk about something. She was in, and there wasn't exactly a lot of common ground for them to talk about, hence, why it became a topic at the tail end of the evening. Kara had not been a fan.
The doors of the elevator opened to the Tower's crime database central where she saw one person inside. She didn't need three guesses or enhanced vision to figure out who it probably was. Robin was the only one on the current team who spent extra amounts of time studying whenever there was a down moment or nothing for all of them to do when hanging out together.
She silently flew in, respectful enough to keep from disturbing whatever he was doing, but he noticed her anyway, looking back with a momentary smile upon seeing her, "Hey Kara," Apparently he wasn't so engrossed with his work to keep from greeting her.
"Hi," Kara replied, floating closer now that she had been discovered, "What are you doing in here?"
"Nothing much," Robin replied, swiveling around in his seat to return to the files, "You?"
She had been hoping that he wouldn't ask, but of course it would be strange for her to be there of all places. Come to think of it, was she even allowed down there? She wasn't really a Teen Titan.
"I just… didn't want to be around everyone else anymore. At least not for a little while," Kara admitted before huffing and crossing her arms over her chest, "Geez. I don't come here that much. You'd think that when you guys actually do see me, you'd have more to talk to me about than you-know-who."
Robin shook his head and grunted in response. He wasn't really surprised. By now it was national if not world news about what had happened in Gotham City. He'd actually bailed out on any conversation involving it when it'd come up after he'd arrived at the tower. He didn't blame anyone. They were curious and worried about him. That was what good friends did; they asked about your troubles out of concern.
That didn't mean he was going to talk about it or anything. Gotham City cases belonged to Batman, period. No outside butting in, except for the rare situations in which it was requested… which sometimes made it hard to get that help.
"I just… I can't believe he'd do something like that. Even by accident," Kara continued, figuring that Robin was just willing to let her talk a bit, "But we have to do what we have to do."
"Right," Robin agreed, letting the statement breathe for a moment before speaking up again, "And what I have to do doesn't have anything to do with Null," He turned and took a bit of satisfaction in the shocked look on her face, "There aren't any flies in here, but you should still probably close your mouth."
Kara did as advised, frowning as she tried to come up with something worthwhile to say, "Wow. Really? I mean, I figured you would have been the first person chomping at the bit to get to him."
Robin rolled his eyes behind his domino mask and turned back to his work, "No."
"No?"
"I'm not stupid, and I don't hold mindless grudges," He specified, "Null does enough things that are wrong without having to ignore what I know about him and make up things to blame him for."
While she heard what Robin said, what went unsaid spoke volumes more, "You're saying he didn't do it," Kara almost immediately surmised, her face brightening before just as quickly it fell thoughtfully, "Why aren't you telling more heroes then?"
"If he stays in Gotham City, he won't have to deal with other heroes," Robin answered without really giving her a reason. Gotham City was like Las Vegas, at least when it came to crime. What happened there was contained there, in the best case scenario at least. That much was true.
It wasn't what Kara was looking for though, and she knew that he knew it, "That's not a good enough reason, Tim."
Maybe it was because he was talking to one of the few people that held Null in a decent light. Maybe it was some sort of latent guilt at going along with Batman's plan. Either way, the next time Robin opened his mouth, he let slip something he knew Batman would ream him for if he knew that he'd done it.
"The more people who know for sure that Null isn't responsible for the bombings, the less of a chance we'll have to catch the person who was with their pants down," Robin explained, "Whoever is behind all of this underestimated everyone involved."
This did not leave Supergirl relieved or amused in the slightest, "So he's a patsy."
"You can't go spreading that around, Kara," Robin said sternly. He knew how she probably felt. Truth be told, he didn't like it either. But it wouldn't matter once the actual perpetrator was caught. "I told you, because for whatever reason he doesn't annoy you to death."
Kara was aware that whatever was happening was being sanctioned by Batman, and that was the reason she had less trouble adhering to the demand than if it had come from someone else. She owed Batman quite a bit after her original arrival on Earth, "I know. He'll be fine anyway. He's a lot smarter than you think he is."
"I never said I thought he wasn't smart," Robin specified, "Self-awareness is a measure of intelligence."
XxX
(The Next Morning – With Null – Gotham City)
Rose followed Max through the streets of Gotham City during the morning. It was weird to be outside and around him in the daylight, as it didn't happen very often. By that time, he was normally off at school, and Rose had become accustomed to waking up and beginning her day in earnest closer to noon. Compared to the two of them, he was better compared as a morning person.
Just not today.
He'd been buzzing with energy after he'd gotten home, and when she'd woken back up in the morning he'd still been awake, only in this odd tired version she saw before her. He was pale and his eyes were bloodshot, almost a step away from falling asleep on the sidewalk.
"You gonna be alright?" Rose asked, her hands shoved into her jacket pockets as her breath formed in the cold air, "You look hungover."
"I'm just dragging today," Max said dully, wholly unconvincing, "I'll snap out of it before noon. Maybe. Hopefully."
"Did you get bitten by a vampire last night or something?" The silver-haired mercenary girl teased as she followed Max off of one of the main roads and into a backstreet, "I bet you got bitten by one of the lame ones that sparkle in sunlight."
His instinct to react to her jabs hadn't been blunted by his current state of being, "You'd better hope I was, because that sounds like the kind of thing people get their throats torn out for by the other kind," Max said, "And we are kind of going into a dark alley and all."
Indeed they were. Max led Rose through a veritable maze of alleys, holes in fences, old abandoned backrooms with doors easy to pick the locks on, and more. If her mind hadn't been altered by the serum she'd been given by Deathstroke, she likely wouldn't have been able to remember the way out.
"How did you find this rat's nest?" Rose asked as she noticed that the farther they went, the less light was getting through, even though they were outside. Looking up through the missing glass panels from what seemed to be a dilapidated atrium, she could see they were in a place where multiple highways intersected above them.
Max kept moving them forward, having long since memorized his way around the times he had come there since finding it, "Robin found me while I was at the last place I was using to train," He told Rose, "I was looking for a new place to do heavier stuff with my powers when I wound up here. This place is such a headache to get to, even criminals don't use it. They can't really move product in and out of this place."
"What is it?" Rose asked she wiped her hand across a sign in front of a glass storefront, 'This place is seriously rundown,' She thought, cringing at the dirt and grime on the sign from years of buildup.
For once, Max was actually the one with the needed information. He had gone to the libraries for more than just to use their wi-fi after all, "Public records say it was a shopping center planned back in the 70s. They were upgrading the whole interstate system in the state back then though, and I guess crews were really in love with overpasses and interchanges back then."
"Ooh," Without any further elaboration, it was easy enough to see what a bad thing that would be for anyone involved.
"Yeah," Max said in agreement, "This wound up being literally the worst place to build anything in Gotham City that you expected to make money off of. But they didn't knock it down. They built apartments and shit around it. Tried to rebrand it as some neighborhood destination and other ideas for like… fifteen years before they gave up on it. And by then they couldn't get anything to knock it down, so it's just here now."
Rose grinned at him from behind at how well studied he was on their location. Someone had clearly done their homework, "Well look at the big brains on Sparky. It's weird, you actually knowing something I don't for once."
"I know plenty of things you don't," Max scoffed, "And I'd better know about this place if this is where I'm gonna stash my shit. Anyway, we're here."
Inside one of the mall locations was a blue drum sitting there, looking quite out of place amongst the other junk around it. Rose smiled and shook her head. Max certainly worked fast when there was a fire lit underneath his ass, "So last night sounds interesting from what you told me. You didn't have too much fun, did you?"
"I'd call it terrifying more than fun," Max grumbled, "Apparently, I warrant SWAT being sent after me now."
"Like I said, fun," Rose chirped, "But doesn't heading back there the way you did make you look guiltier? I thought you were trying to clear your name."
"Everybody already thinks I did it," Max told her with a shrug, "At this point, the only thing that'll help is busting the real bomber and getting proof."
Rose accepted his reasoning for the most part, but that all changed when she looked inside of the 55-gallon drum and saw the fulll bomb sitting there in its entirety. She jumped back several steps out of shock.
"What?" Max said, unaware of just what her problem was.
"You took the whole thing?" Rose replied in disbelief that soon gave way to annoyance, "All you needed was a piece!"
Max wasn't bothered by her growing displeasure, "Which piece?" He asked, quickly throwing verbal ice water on her temper.
"…" Rose opened her mouth to draw upon the vast knowledge of explosives that had been bestowed upon her by Deathstroke, only to realize that he hadn't finished teaching her how to make her own bombs, "…I'm not sure, actually," She'd have to fix that herself at the nearest possible opportunity.
A smug expression that made Rose want to punch him appeared on Max face, "Uh-huh. So until we do know, the whole bomb is right here. Plus, I defused the damn thing, so I could start taking it apart part-by-part right now if I really wanted to."
"What? How did you defuse anything?"
"I absorbed the electricity."
"You can do that?" She asked, silver eyebrows raising up in surprise before a skeptical scowl followed, "No you can't. When you fought that Electrocutioner loser-."
Max rolled his eyes and cut her off before she could launch into a spiel about how he was full of crap, "Okay, think about it like this. Generators and switchers can handle electricity inside of them for different purposes, but can they get struck by lightning and keep working just fine?"
"No, but they're just machines."
"-And I'm just a human being… metahuman… whatever. The point still stands," Max said, continuing his explanation, "Getting shocked hurts unless I can prepare to absorb it, and I need my hands for that."
His hands, because it was the only point he could actually focus through well enough to draw anything in. However, Rose was not pleased with that explanation, or one part of it at least.
"And you didn't know you could do that sooner?"
"It's not like I have anyone around to show me how."
"Will you stop being right about things? It's making me mad."
"Everything makes you mad."
XxX
(Later That Day)
Whether they knew it or not, and every true expert did, every bomb maker had a signature.
It was a certain way they did things, be it how they put the bomb together, the method they used to wire it, the detonation mechanism, the chemical mix, or any number of things. This was a very reliable method to discover who made any particular explosive device, especially for people well-informed in the criminal underworld.
Being thorough and taking the whole bomb was the best possible thing Null could have done to speed things up. It took Calculator all of five minutes to give him a name after having most of the parts picked up at separate places around the city.
It was nice to see his hard-earned money put to use so well for once.
Ironically enough, Null's target worked a day job at the same chemical factory where he'd fought Firefly months ago.
In the middle of the afternoon, he located a man unloading a van full of company materials and laid in wait for the prime opportunity to make his move. It was easy enough to find. He'd been so used to fighting dangerous people, he'd gotten used to people somehow countering him somehow, or at the very least being prepared.
Which was why he was actually surprised when he magnetically locked the van doors while the man was inside, "Hey! What the hell?" He heard from the trapped individual after he tried and failed to get himself out.
"Wow," Null said, dropping down on the top of the van from his hiding place after he'd done his job. He laid down on the roof as flat as he could and let his suit camouflage into the color and pattern of the van, "I actually got him in one try without making a scene."
"What's going on?" He asked as Rose slid into the front seat with a company jumpsuit on and started the engine, "Hey! Let me out!"
Rose didn't even bother looking back as she started driving the van around the premises, heading for the main gate, "Oh, calm down. We're just taking a little ride."
He did not calm down. But fortunately there was a very sturdy wall preventing him from doing just about anything to try and break free. Thankfully, it was also winter, so guards at the gate didn't really care much about the company van coming and going with a company dressed driver in the seat.
She didn't even have to stop and wait for someone to open the gate, which would have provided the chance for something to go wrong. They did it as they saw the van approaching. It was almost enough to make her laugh.
You could usually count on the laziness of the human condition to help along any plot or scheme involving people.
When they got a safe distance away, Null knocked on the roof, prompting Rose to open the passenger's side window long enough for him to slip into the passenger's seat, "Brrr. S'cold up there," He shivered as his suit camouflage turned back to its normal basic green color, "Well that was easy."
And he was happy about that. Ever since he'd come down from absorbing all of that electricity the other night, he'd been rather ill.
"Sure was," Rose agreed, reaching over to give Null a knock on the arm, "Kudos, Sparky. You've orchestrated your first successful kidnapping. Moving on up that crime totem pole!"
"That doesn't make me feel good at all," Null muttered, sitting back in his seat, but not easily or peacefully. It lasted for the duration of the twenty minute ride to their destination.
After they had made it to he eventually remarked on his clear discomfort, finding herself irritated at his jitters, "What are you looking for?" For goodness sake, he was starting to make her nervous, "Calm down. We're here."
"That was too easy," Null said, "I'm waiting for this guy to turn into some super-strong shapeshifter with claws and teeth, or for a bomb to be strapped to him, or something."
"There's a reason Gotham is a crime city," Rose said, turning off the engine and getting out of the van. She quickly unzipped and disposed of the chemical plant jumpsuit, revealing her normal Ravager gear underneath, "Because most of the time, people get away with this shit. At least at first. But we won't have him long enough to set off any Bat-sensors. And if Calculator is dead-on about this guy, he won't be telling anyone why we took him."
Null got out as well and moved to the back of the van to open up the doors, "I guess. Let's just hope this goes quick," He opened the doors and moved out of the way, just as the man inside came spilling out, prepared to fight for his life and freedom. Unfortunately for him, Null had expected that. He came barreling out expecting resistance and got none, causing him to fall onto the ground. He tried to recover valiantly, but by the time he got his head up, Ravager's sword was already pointed at his throat, "I wouldn't try that again."
"Aw, go ahead and let him," Ravager replied, a dark grin on her face.
"Nope," Null asserted, grabbing the man by his collar and roughly throwing him ten feet away from Ravager.
As the man's brain rattled in his skull, his vision focused back on Null and realized that he'd just been thrown with one hand from a position of very little leverage. Upon getting a better look, he noticed that the boy looked a lot like the artist's rendering from police.
Ravager noticed a glint of recognition in the man's eye before he started to go into his 'innocent' spiel, "Why did you take me? Who the hell are you two?"
Null stalked over and crouched down in front of him, making eye contact as his hood shaded most of them from view, "You make bombs for people, right?" He asked, cutting straight to the heart of the matter.
"Who would want to buy a bomb?"
Null sighed and got up, walking back over to Ravager a few steps away. The man could hear the two of them whispering, "He knows you. I saw he recognized you," He felt a stab of fear creep into his heart, as Ravager spoke up louder, "He's not gonna comp to it. Do it."
Null lifted his hand in the direction of the bomb maker, putting him on his guard, "I saw this in a movie," He said as he made a fist with his extended limb and slowly began to turn it back and forth. Before the man could wonder what was happening, he felt horrible tearing pain inside of his body "Hey! I think it's working."
"Arrrgh!" He dropped to the floor, writhing in pain. It felt like someone was digging into the tissue of different parts of his body all at once, "What… are you doing!?" He cried out as he tried to hold back from screaming.
Null did his best to ignore his discomfort at the situation and put on a nonchalant demeanor. He was basically torturing another person, "You make bombs, so I figured you might have shrapnel in you. Lucky me, right? Anyway, I'm doing magnet-shit; moving it around and stuff. I can stop whenever you want, by the way."
Null just wanted a reason to stop. Preferably before he had to jostle the shrapnel enough to induce heavy internal bleeding. No one wanted that.
…Actually, Ravager likely would have been more than okay with that.
"You can scream you know," Ravager said, chiming in, "That was the whole reason I picked this place, so no one could hear you in case we had to get nasty," As though that were supposed to be some sort of comfort.
Case in point.
It didn't take much more than that. Internal pain was the worst, because it was difficult to become accustomed to enduring, nor could you touch it and get some sort of phantom sense of security. And if you knew it could come to an end, you would want it to, quickly.
"Alright, alright! I make bombs! Just stop!" With pleasure, Null opened his hand and let up on the torment. It took a few seconds for the man to catch his breath and speak again, "W-What do you want?"
"You made something in particular for somebody who screwed me over," Null said, "I'm not going to ask you where he is, because you won't know, and that's okay. I just want to know how you knew how to get into contact with him when his bombs were done."
"T-That's all you want?"
"It's probably all you've got," Null said before slowly beginning to close his hand, threatening to tamper with the shrapnel in the bomb maker's body again, "You're saying you have more? 'Cuz I'll take that too if you do."
"No-no-no-no-no!" The man quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out a drive, holding it up in an effort to appease his tormentors, "Here! I was supposed to use this to call him for the rest of my pay! He gave me three of these! One to get to him the first time, one to reach him after I made the bombs and hid 'em, one to get my money!"
"Give it," Null demanded, catching the small object when it was thrown at him, "Leave. Take the van."
Not needing to be told twice, the bomb maker scrambled to his feet and darted for the driver's seat of the van, almost destroying the ignition of the car by trying to pull off before the engine had even turned over. Anything to get away from the freak with the powers and the crazy girl with the sword.
Both of them watched him go before leaving the vicinity themselves quickly. It was still daylight outside, but they didn't have an unwritten agreement to operate solely at night the way most of Gotham's bad guys did. Thus, they already had a place set up to see to the next part of their approach.
A church at the center of Old Gotham went mostly undisturbed during most of the week, despite the fact that it had a deep congregation every Sunday. Even the few priests that could be found around on any given weekday didn't go up to the bell tower though. Not unless something was wrong. This was where Null and Ravager chose to perch for privacy for the time being.
"See? That was bloodless," Null commented on his previous interrogation tactic, "You don't have to cut body parts off to interrogate people."
"Boo. That's no fun," Ravager replied, mask off as she leaned against an opening in the bell tower that let her look out around the neighborhood, "That's not going to work on everyone. Then what?"
"I don't have plans on torturing anyone else anytime soon, so I'm not thinking about it," He said as he pulled a tablet from his satchel and hooked up a USB attachment to use with the portable drive that he had been given, "So how the fuck is this even supposed to work? Will a window open up or something?"
"I don't think this guy gave the bomb maker that much control," Ravager said before making a suggestion, "Turn it on. See what happens."
"What if it blows up?"
"It's a tablet. It won't be any kind of real explosion," Ravager contested; though she moved several steps away for safety, as if she didn't quite believe what she herself was saying.
With the silver-haired girl's version of support, Null fired up the tablet. It didn't even make it to the main screen before whatever was on the flash drive took control of the device and activated the webcam, immediately pulling him into a video call with… some guy dressed from head to toe in red with a golden face… probably a mask of some sort, that could even show surprise due to his reaction at seeing someone different than he expected.
Honestly, he hadn't been what Null had been expecting either.
"Whoa," Null said, breaking the ice, "Nice face."
"How did you get access to-?"
"Shhhhh…" Null hissed in a whisper as a wide unnerving grin slowly spread across his face, "Let's not worry about that right now. I'm just… so happy to finally get a look at the guy who thought it was a good idea to screw me over," Ravager stared unblinkingly at the apparent change in his demeanor, "And as I sit here, staring at some guy dressed like a drama club reject, I just have to ask. What in the blue hell did I ever do to you?"
He didn't remember doing anything to anger someone who ran around dressed like that, but then again, he didn't remember pissing off a lot of the people that he did.
"You were a means to an end, and not one that I had any problems with getting involved after the fact. You were a tool I needed to use in a fight against injustice, but scum like you is anything but innocent," The young man in red declared, his metal mask moving with the every motion of his face as though it were actual flesh and muscle, "I'm against anything that's against people! Cruelty, brutality, exploitation. These are the enemies of the people, the enemies of Anarky!"
Null pursed his lips before speaking again, "Clearly I'm the only guy in this town that plays this game with any kind of rules here," He muttered to himself.
"This is anything but a game, fool," Anarky spat, his disdain clearly lacing every word, "If you're wondering why you're such a good mark for being played, I hope you're at least smart enough to come to that conclusion on your own."
"Oh, I know why you were fine with framing me up. It's the same as why everyone else thinks they can get over on me. Because I'm a kid," Null said, before wagging a chiding finger at the webcam, "But you should remember, children are cruel. And Anarky, I can be very in touch with my inner child."
"Clearly," Anarky bit back, "You run around in the dead of night, thinking you're untouchable just because you wear a costume. Has it been fun for you?"
Even with the patronizing tone and the refusal to see Null as anything other than a nuisance, the thief didn't lose his cool. He'd been treated the same by just about everyone he'd ever met in costume, even as plain old Max; as someone who didn't know what he was doing or what he was talking about.
Getting angry about the same things all the time just got old after a while, especially when you knew it was coming. People never wanted to listen to begin with. They only wanted to hear just enough so that they could start talking down to you.
"Just because I work using rules, that doesn't mean I don't know it's not a game," Null countered smoothly, "Getting pulverized about a dozen times kind of got that across if I wasn't smart enough to realize it before."
"And what are your 'rules'?" It all sounded like a joke to Anarky, but it did nothing to discourage Null.
Null started listing them as he ticked them off on his fingers, "One - no one innocent gets hurt because of what I take. I steal from criminals – screw them, who cares about them? – or people and companies that can afford to take the hit. Two - no killing heroes or cops. The second I do, it's all over. There's no going back, and in my perfect world I'm not doing this crap forever. Believe it or not, I do have a future."
"Anything else?"
"Just one. Always break even," Null concluded casually, "I didn't start this, but even so, I'm not letting this end until I consider myself back in the black," At this, he grinned evilly again, "Now, I didn't lose any money on this, so let's just say I want some other form of compensation for all of the emotional distress you've put me through."
In the form of a beating. A rather spirited one. One that would leave a lot of marks, maybe generate a few scars, and possibly a long-lasting limp of some kind, if he felt so inclined in the heat of the moment.
Anarky stood, towering over his webcam as he pointed his odd baton Null's way, "You think your little 'code' makes you better than any other psycho out there? It doesn't! You're just as bad as all of the other scum in this town. The same as the Falcone Family, or any different crime group! As bad as Bane, or Freeze, or any other sick freak preying on others!" He exclaimed with no small measure of self-righteousness behind himself, "Do you know why? Because in your heart, no matter what, someone like you is always going to do what's best for one instead of all. It's always about what's good for you. You're selfish."
Null's grin warped to show decidedly more teeth. "You're right. I am selfish. I'm totally selfish. Leave that selfless shit to the heroes. That's what's supposed to make them so special, right?" He snapped crossly, "The only time I ever get up and do something by choice is when there's something I want. But sometimes, unfortunately for you, what I want, right now, isn't money. It isn't anything material, something to have and hold, or to sell."
As he seemed to be getting worked up, just as quickly he settled down. With a sigh, an eerie calm rolled over the thief, a glow of acceptance of the situation at hand and what he had mentally assigned himself to do next visible in his eyes.
"What I want, you can't put a price on. As far as I'm concerned, it's priceless," He continued, his voice steadily growing quieter with each sentence he uttered, "I want to hurt you, until you realize just how much of a mistake you made. And you can ask anybody who really knows. I always get what I want, Anarky."
"Someone like you, doesn't have the will to come after someone like me. Not even without the entire city wanting you dead," Null's red clad adversary declared, "You have no fortitude. No backbone. You'll fold before you even get to look me in the eye."
As Anarky spoke, Null was nodding absently, not listening to a word, "Just… run away, little rabbit. Run back to your hole," Null whispered, a comfortable smile spreading across his face underneath the hood, "I'm gonna smoke you out of it real soon."
A silence fell between them. Null had said all he'd needed to say. He'd gotten a look at the person he was going to bludgeon with electricity-laden fists, and had performed his public service of the day by warning him that in a short time he would be upon him, gleefully hitting him until he felt that the world was a better place because of it.
Anarky had said all he'd needed to say. He had insulted Null, cut him down repeatedly, belittled his desire for justice as a thief; a worthless, misshapen cyst, doing damage to the already disease-riddled body of society who deserved none. Yet, had done nothing to deter him. He had shown very little reaction at all outside of one almost outburst.
"…I would love to see you try."
Without sparing another moment for Null to speak, he ended contact between them. The screen blinked in a fatal error message as the drive in the tablet fizzled and smoked.
"Huh…" Null said as he tossed the ruined device aside, "He blue screen of death'd the tablet," He commented as though he were talking about the weather. Whatever. He'd bought that one for field use in the first place. He'd been prepared to lose it at some point, and could always get another one, "Well, I don't think he likes me!"
Ravager stood away with her mouth slightly agape. For someone who had never tried to scare a single person on purpose, and probably never even by accident, he hadn't done a bad job for his first time, "Where the hell did that come from?" She asked, "How much of that was fake?"
Null shrugged and hopped down, walking back over to her, "About 15%. I really am gonna take a serious chunk or two out of his ass when I find him. Like I said, I'm pissed."
She believed him, and she wasn't displeased either.
"I've gotta say, I like it when you're like this," Ravager said, "We should have more people screw you over so I can see it more often."
Null didn't respond at first, simply staring out into space for several seconds before turning her way, "…Wanna make out?" He blurted out suddenly.
For someone who prided herself on being prepared, Ravager was significantly caught off-guard, "What?"
"Huh?" Null immediately said, feigning ignorance.
Ravager was not willing to let it slide however, "No you don't. What did you just say?" She demanded.
"Sorry, it's just, I'm kind of riding a winning streak right now," Null told her, "I've learned that when things are going well, I should push my luck until I can't anymore, because life'll take it away on its own soon enough."
"So you ask me if I want to make out?" She asked incredulously.
Null took a precautionary step away from her. In case pouncing of a mauling variety were to occur, he wanted to be prepared, "It seemed like the thing to do! Carpe diem, Ravager!" He exclaimed, "It means seize the… the... the diem!"
"Really now?" Ravager's lips curled upward in a bemused smile.
"There's a chance you might have said yes."
"There was an infinitely better chance that I would have shot you," Ravager said, patting the gun she had holstered at her hip, "There was actually a better chance of me shooting you than me doing nothing at all."
"Ah, but you didn't," Null said, as though she was helping to make his point, "And while you didn't say yes either, that still leaves me breaking even. If you were listening to me speak to the big red drama reject, that's what matters; breaking even or coming out ahead."
And none of that was going to happen until some of the red on Anarky was blood from his own stupid face after he got hit in it repeatedly. Null just had to find him first.
…How the hell would he find him? He'd never actually tried to look for anyone before. Gotham City was a big place with more nooks and crannies and places to hide than anyone could imagine.
Null leaned on the ledge overlooking the neighborhood, staring out as though he'd see a landmark that would give him his answer. Out there, somewhere in that damn place, Anarky was hiding.
If he thought that he was just going to be able to make his next move just like that, and someone wasn't going to check him sooner or later, he was just too overconfident for his own good. Whether he was some sort of genius or not, people like that always had some kind of weakness to be exploited.
There was something out there Null could use to get face-to-face with him. He just had to find it.
Before long, Ravager moved past him and sat out on the ledge, looking out at the city by his side, "Ever tried to find a villain's hideout before?" She asked, likely already knowing the answer.
Searching for a villain was looking for trouble. Null never looked for trouble by choice. At least, he hadn't before, but things were changing and people had to change with them, slowly but surely.
"Nope," Null admitted, popping the 'p' in the word, "First time for everything, though."
"I can kill this one when we catch him, right?" Ravager asked, trying not to sound excited at the chance to do so, "It'd probably help me out with my job. You know, thinning the crime herd and all that."
"N-," After cutting himself off from outright saying no, Null took a moment to think about it, and found that he had very little problems with that arrangement in the grand scheme of things, "Maybe," He quickly amended, "…After I'm done with him, though. Can't really get much gratification out of kicking a corpse."
"You'd be surprised."
"How'd I know you were going to say some weird shit like that?"
Ravager didn't answer, instead smiling as she placed her mask back onto her head, "So, time to get hunting I guess," She said, leaning over to look Null's way, "Of course, it'd be outstanding if I could get some help with my thing too. You know; you scratch my back, I scratch yours."
Null imagined she was talking about her little deal to start whittling away at Gotham City's criminal element. He didn't mind, as long as she didn't expect him to go around executing people, "As long as you're not scratching my back with a sword, sure."
He would get to Anarky soon enough. Even though he would be careful about it as life would allow, the meeting couldn't come soon enough. The boy behind the guise of Null wasn't exactly the patient type, after all.