She smiled at me before kissing the front of my mask as I sat on the plant as if it was my throne. Harley left Talia and the woman as she ran off with her rocket hammer to battle some of the gangsters.
The battle raged around us and I looked over a few messages that came in during the fight. Some of the ninjas were reporting that Damian's takedowns were still alive. I could only nod at that since he was still very young, Talia scowled though. Instead of allowing Talia to get it into her head that she had to reprimand him, I shut her down with a look.
Once she noticed me looking at her, I could read as her thoughts on the matter changed. Rolling my eyes, I sent out a message to Waylon and the rest letting them know that it was fine. I was certain that Ivy's plants would like fresh meat anyway and what better way to clean up the battlefield.
We made it halfway across the battlefield before Damian came walking up to us. In one of his hands was a bloodied katana with some splashes on his armor. Waylon was carrying a man over one shoulder with a child under another arm. Damian went down as if to kneel, but I stopped him.
Raising a hand, I caught Damian with my telekinesis, "The son of Doom, does not kneel, not even to his own father."
Damian gave me a nod before moving over to the side to stand. Talia walked forward, but I stopped her as Ivy had the plant holding the insufferable lady bring her forward.
Ivy had the lady placed on the ground before us before Waylon dropped the man and child beside her. "You recognize her do you not?"
There were muffled screams before Waylon removed the gag from the man's mouth. Instantly he started to yell out.
"Julia, baby you okay? What do you want from us, do you know who I am? Do you know how much you have fucked up right now?"
Rolling my eyes, I stared at him before projecting my voice for all to hear. I scoffed before speaking. "I do not have the habit of learning the names of lesser peasants."
"Yeah, well, you fucked up, I work for Tony Zucco and he's gonna kill you."
Harley came cartwheeling over before jumping up and bringing her rocket mallet down on the pavement beside the two-bit mobster. "Who cares about some Tony ya-ya fella."
"She is correct," Ivy replied, smooth voice washing over everyone as some of her plants step forward.
"Then, I shall allow him to learn why he shall die today," I said, causing everyone to go silent. "Today at my son's soccer game, your wife was unbecoming of a lady. She was of course punished for such transgressions, but it would seem that she did not appreciate such lessons. Since you have allowed her to run wild, your wife took it upon herself to gather forces before disrupting our family outing. Fortunately, this has allowed my son to test his planning against another's forces. Unfortunately for you though, I'm not in the mood to allow such transgressions against my family."
I raised my hand, a ninja came and took Damian away. I pointed at the boy that was between his parents and another ninja brought him before me. It was easy to wipe his mind before sending him along to an orphanage. It was easy for him to learn to do better since he was now going to be raised in a better environment. Plus, I doubt Harley our Ivy would be happy with me for killing the child.
It was easy to tell as they watched the boy get taken away by one of the ninja's.
"Harley."
"Yes!" She replied chirpily with a bounce.
I waited for both Damian and the kid to be in the vans. Once the vans took off, my easy-going nature evaporated. "You may relieve the lady of her head if you would like."
Harley didn't need any telling twice before her rocket hammer activated and came smashing over and down. And just like that, the hooligan of a mother was dead, I never even learned her name.
"I'm gonna rip out ya fucken heart and have it for lunch!" The mobster roared as he tried to fight his bindings.
My answer was to squeeze Ivy's nice pert rear before speaking. "No, you are not, Ivy, you may feed your babies, I know they like their meat fresh."
Turning to the side, "Talia, get me everything we can find on this Tony Zucco, we might have to kill a mobster before he can retaliate."
"Of course my lord," Talia replied before pulling out a cellphone. Ignoring the sound of Ivy's plant feasting, I checked my back doors into the WatchTower's systems. Once I was in I made sure that they couldn't pick up our location.
It was all too easy with the access I received from Bruce's own backdoor into the subsystems.
***
Ignoring Talia, I had one of the female ninja's to tuck Damian in as I made my way to the main labs. She wasn't happy that we took the kid in after I had wiped his mind. I didn't see an issue with it since he was the same age as Damian and he would need a playmate. It's not like he could always leave to go play with other kids his age.
Granted, I could just give him access to teleporting tech, but there was no way that was gonna happen. So since that option was out, we were in luck that we got our hands on a playmate for the kid.
"Instead of pouting at me, go get the medical labs ready," I told Talia before walking away. She was going to learn how to stop being a hovering mom and that was final. Since I was still wearing my Doom monarch armor, I had Zelda meet me in the hanger bay.
As I stepped into the bay, I noticed the ruffle of my cape. It was easy to see what was giving off the wind as I noticed my raptor shaped VTOL primed and waiting for me to board. Off to the side of the raptor sat my throne with Zelda buzzing around it.
"Do not act as if you are a fly, that is unbecoming of a mother box," I said before sitting on my throne. Ports in my armor's back opened up and connected to the throne, allowing my suit access to additional advanced sensors built into the throne. Another advantage was also the greater amounts of energy the throne produced. I hadn't put any magic yet, but even without it, I doubt even superman could crack my shields.
My throne levitated upwards as Zelda settled herself, perched on my shoulder. Nothing was said as I reviewed what little information I had on Dr. Fries. The man was hiding out in Bludhaven from what Catwoman had been able to find. I wasn't sure of what his plots of plans were, but Doom didn't care.
My throne took up its position in the middle of the cargo bay. As we touched down, cables snaked out and connected to the raptor. Ignoring the flood of information, I commanded my pilot to take off before activating the stealth field. Plans, plots, or traps, Doom would get what he wanted.
For it was time for DOOM to save the world.
***
Victor Von Doom
Leader, Lover, Visionary
The beep over the intercom stilled my hand from the precise work I was performing. Leaning back in my seat, I couldn't help but to glare at the blinking intercom button. Pressing the button on the intercom, I waited for them to speak.
"My Lord, there is a reported snowstorm in Gotham."
The screen on my wall turned on and I turned to look at the weather reports against my tech that were currently sending live. Well, it would seem that Mister Freeze was at it again. Plans within plans flew through my mind as I started to make hard calculations on how I could best take advantage of this situation.
There was another ping at my computer console, looking at the report made me raise a brow. It would seem that sending Dent to the international courts had paid off spectacularly. Well, the stipulations were those I could work with. It would help my standing by being known as the man who solved the melting of the polar ice-caps. Hmm, I wonder how Mister Freeze would respond to being told that he could no longer return to Gotham.
No matter, with this ruling Mister Freeze was mine for the taking. While looking over the rest of my reports, I found that the Bat-family was out in force. Urgh that mild irritation is back. Standing up from my chair, I went to check on my suit of armor one last time.
Zelda was floating around as she did her own self repair so that was a non issue. A flick of a finger had the cape removed and set to float at the side. Another flick had the latches of my DOOM armor unseal and open up for me to don. The plating was checked to make sure that the environmental seals could handle temperatures well below freezing.
Once that was verified, I then looked over my lower armor before reviewing my gauntlets and shoulder pauldrons. Once they were checked out, everything slid into place along my legs and shoulders. Zelda had my helm float off to the side and I stepped forward so that my cape would settle upon my sculpted shoulders.
With my full armor on, I held out a hand for Zelda and waited for her to integrate her systems into my armor. A shimmer of blue circuitry ran across my suit as the readings on my helmet's HUD changed. Sending along a sign of mental appreciation, I exited my chambers in the air ship and made my way to the cargo bay. Standing in the cargo bay, I summoned forth my throne, once seated I gave the command to fly over the center of the storm surrounding Gotham City.
It didn't take long before we were in a hover over the snow ravaged city. Ignoring the creeping irritation I felt with the situation, I sent out a pulse of telekinetic force. The cargo ramp lowered and I picked myself up and flew out of the VTOL, leaving my throne behind.
For the briefest of seconds I hovered there, just taking in the silence of the moment. This was one of those blatant situations where Bruce was nothing but a petty little man. All it would take for this to be solved was to call in superman. Yes, people would have still died because of the blizzard, but a lot more lives would have been saved without having to wait on one man to solve the puzzle of Mister Freeze.
The moment of solidarity I was taking quickly finished as Zelda cleared out the weather pattern and located the power signature that was keeping everything going. My HUD locked on as I rolled over in the air and powered myself forward. There was a crack of a sonic boom as I broke the sound barrier in my descent towards Gotham.
Nothing stood in my way as I cut through the harsh and frigid air. Hail, sleet, snow and the biting winds couldn't stop me as I flew past the Gotham bridge. Ignoring the Wayne Tech tower, I kept on flying, although I did find it strange that they had power and working heat. That was a stark contrast to the rest of the city which was out of power and any heating equivalent.
Keeping my irritation to myself, I kept on flying until I reached the docks. A sharp curve to the right set me on the path to the Gotham observatory. As I flew along the coastline, I noticed the odd iceberg here and there in the Gotham harbor. Ignoring the icebergs, I flew up the side of the rocky outcropping of the Gotham Observatory making sure to hug the rocky surface. It was a fool's errand to approach from the front side like I knew the Bat-family would.
The only thing that they were going to get from taking that way was a squad of goons and Mister Freeze sending out the periodical shot of freeze ray. A slow moving object pinged on my HUD and I marked it for tracking as I touched down on the icy ledge.
My armor shifted as glowing metal spikes came out of my boots and I stepped down as if I was walking on solid ground. The object was moving slowly, methodically and steadily, from the passive scans, it was shown to be clearly female, weighing in at one hundred twenty six pounds with a height just at five feet seven inches. Yeah, I knew who that was alright and was surprised to find that she was here instead of the Bat. Then again, he might be off saving the day somewhere else and claiming all of the credit. Those little bits of thoughts ran through my mind as I strolled down a heavily iced over hallway as if I owned the place.
Putting aside the fact that Bat-girl was here, urgh such a horrible name. I pressed my hand against the door that clearly led inside of the lab Mister Freeze was working out of. The goons on the other side of the door turned and looked at me strangely, but I kept on walking. It took them a solid minute before they turned to attack me, and they did not make it very far. A pulse of telekinetic force had them thrown out of the room with aplomb before the door closed behind their crumpled forms.
Mister Freeze paused at his work to look at me, but I paid him no mind as I found myself a seat to observe.
"You do not appear to be one of the bat's little minions, who are you?" Mister Freeze demanded with the irritation of a man beyond his breaking point.
"Someone with an offer of redemption." I replied with a shrug. "Whether you take it or not is entirely up to you."
"Then what is the offer?" Mister Freeze was interested in what I had to say now that I tickled his curiosity. "Whether it is worth my time or not, only I can tell."
"International pardon and advanced alien technology that even the Justice League doesn't have access to." I said, then with a wave of my hand a hologram appeared before us both. "I'm sure with what I have available we should be able to find a solution for Nora. All you have to do is help fix the ice caps."
"What do you know of my wife?" Mister Freeze asked in a flat voice, but I could hear the edge in his tone.
"Enough, but then again, you can always keep pursuing your little squabbles with the bat. That is, if your wife comes second to your ego." I poked as I followed the sensor ping of our now eavesdropper. Mister Freeze's hand creeped towards his cannon, but I raised a finger to stop him. "Think before your actions reflect poorly upon you."
*****
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