Capítulo 28: Product #067
'Donna have you got eyes on the stage,' Dick asked as he walked down the corridors of the palace with a tray in hand hoping that none of the workers there would question him.
'I do, though I will admit that I am extremely upset about what my role in this mission is,' Donna stated as she spun around and danced on one of the various circular stages that were littered throughout the crowd, once she entered the room she was grabbed by a matronly sort of woman and ushered up onto one of the stages to take the place of another girl who's shift was over. Not wanting to compromise the mission Donna followed her orders instead of bashing her face in 'I'm sorry Donna, if this were a normal mission we'd have more leeway but if one thing goes wrong then everything can blow up in our face,' Dick explained.
'I know...' Donna replied though she still wasn't happy about it.
'Do you have eyes on Connor?' Dick asked.
Donna spun around the pole in the centre of her small stage almost sneering at the leers she was getting from the people below her, but as she spun it gave her a good view of the room and she managed to locate Connor who was leaned up against the wall looking in her direction with a smirk on his face as he held up his phone recording her 'Im gonna kill him...' she thought to herself before she turned back around to the stage.
'I have eyes on Connor,' she confirmed.
'Good, can you tell me the direction from the stage where the products are being taken in,' Dick asked.
'They're being taken onto the stage from the left-hand side,' she replied.
Dick immediately turned on his heels and started walking in a different direction, to avoid suspicion he'd take the long way around the main atrium, once there they could start looking for the store room 'Megan go ahead of me, there's no point in me slowing you down,' Dick said to the green girl floating invisibly above him. With a nod she flew down the corridor making her way to said location.
Meanwhile, in the main atrium, something was happening, the products stopped being rolled onto the stage and instead, five people with sacks on their heads were brought on stage by none other than Deathstroke they all had a similar outfit to Donna which was hardly anything at all. "I'm afraid to say this but in an escape attempt, one of our finest products was broken," Bruno Mannheim shouted out across the atrium much to the booing and jeers of the audience.
"I know I know, such a loss will undoubtedly be felt, especially to my wallet," Bruno said eliciting laughter from the audience.
One of the people on stage was struggling greatly, so much so that Deathstroke kicked her in the back of the leg forcing her to the ground, the sounds of her struggles were audible and made those closer to the stage laugh at her expense "But let it not be said that I am not an optimist, for with every loss brings new opportunity," Bruno said grandly.
He gestured for the hoods of the women to be taken off and Donna almost gasped. While she only recognised three of them it was the identity of those three that shocked her 'Harley Quinn, Killer Frost, Giganta and two other unknown women have been brought on stage.' Donna informed Dick who was troubled by the news.
'Megan, is Mark still dark?' Dick asked.
"Yes, I've tried reaching out for his mind but I have to be careful as he might not be the only telepath here," she said with concern.
'Donna, what are they doing, so the audition continuing?' Dick asked trying to get a grasp on the situation.
'No something different is happening, I'm not sure what though,' Donna said as she paused dancing.
The crowd laughed as Harley struggled and shouted through her gag, though none laughed more than the people who knew her personally. Killer Frost and Cassandra both stood at their sides while Giganta and another girl who goes by Kate stood on each end. Harley had convinced them all that they could escape and while they had come close they were stopped in the end by Deathstroke and Ravager, needless to say, Bruno was not happy when he found out they had destroyed the last known vial of the Extremis virus that was in his possession. Bruno knew that even ten of these women wouldn't recoup the loss of what they had destroyed, it's a good thing he had an idea to recoup such losses.
"The women before you cost me a lot of money, money that simply won't be recouped by their sale alone..." he said with a dark grin on his face.
"So I've decided to take advantage of my audience, why in front of me I have the very worst of society so I'm sure you'll all enjoy what I have in mind," he said as behind him a screen turned on showing a white room with a cage inside, the cage was constantly rocking back and forth as if what was inside was desperately trying to get out.
"This is Product #067, a creature so savage and so violent that every single attempt we've made to try and tame it or break it has led to utter failure and more than a hundred deaths," Bruno explained much to the interest of those in the audience, especially the booths for the rich clientele. Bruno then pressed a button on a pad he held and the door to the cage opened, the whole audience including Donna and Connor waited with bated breath over what they might see.
A red-clawed hand reached out of the cage crumpling the metal as it pulled out the rest of its body. A huge red monster standing at least 7ft tall with thick coiled muscles, it had a massive maw with sharp teeth and looked like a sort of human-dinosaur hybrid.
"Product #067 also known as the Rognarr, now don't worry everyone, this creature will be for sale just like everything else." He said as he raised his arm assuredly.
"But now we are going to have a little gamble..." he said almost cackling with glee.
"Beneath our very feet lies a large group of tunnels specifically designed for the storage of our more... dangerous creatures," he said with his smile stretching even wider. On the screen the creature immediately started bashing the walls of the room it was in, some of the crowd panicked as they could feel the force of the blow reverberate throughout the floor, but before they could panic Bruno held up a reassuring hand "Be calm my friends, those tunnels are built for people strong enough to fight Superman himself, they won't be brought down by such a primitive creature," he said with a chuckle that seemed to do well in reassuring the audience.
"Now we move on to what this event will entail, let me remind you that you are under no obligation to take part but we all know you can't help yourselves," Bruno said with a grin on his face. The screen behind Bruno changed from the image of the Rognarr to a screen that had the faces of all five women, above their heads lay general information about each woman "To make things interesting I shall be taking off their collars and allowing them use of their meta abilities, if they have any," He added the last part with a laugh as he looked at Harley who was still raging beneath the gag.
"So my friends! Place your bets on who will be the last to have their flesh picked clean from their bones!" Bruno shouted as five spotlights shone down in front of him, five different areas were set up for each of the five women where the audience could place their bets. Those in the booths were attended to by the staff and given their personal computer where they could place their bets, while all this happened Donna jumped down from the stage and started making her way over to Connor.
'Wonder Girl what's going on!' Dick asked over their link.
'Megan can you share my memory of the event over the link,' Donna asked.
'Give me a moment,' Megan asked and she pulled up the surface memory of what Donna had seen.
'Shit that's not good...' Dick said once he saw it.
'We need to let Mark know,' Megan said as she redoubled her efforts to find him.
'No...' Dick replied.
'What do you mean no? The whole reason he is here is to save Harley,' Megan stated.
'If we let him know she's here right now our cover will be blown and we lose our chance to find the storage area,' Dick said bluntly in a way that was rather reminiscent of Batman.
'We will tell him but we need to focus on the mission first,' Dick stated.
'You've seen what's about to happen by the time we find the storage she'll have been torn apart by that creature!!!' Megan shouted.
'Miss Martian I will not compromise this mission for a woman who has killed dozens of people and terrorised Gotham for years, stick to the mission, we can use this as they'll be distracted with the game for a while,' Dick replied coldly before he stopped talking and refocused on the mission.
Both Megan and Donna felt guilt surge through them as they watched the women get led off the stage. Mark would never trust them or work with them again if they went through with this, but more than that they would be dooming five people to a horrendous death two of whom they weren't even sure were villains or not 'Megan...' Donna called trying to speak privately with the Martian.
'Donna?' She replied.
'Try and find Mark, we can't let them all die regardless of the consequences,' Donna stated much to Megan's surprise. Donna had very much taken Dicks side earlier in the ship so for her to change her mind like this was very much surprising to Megan.
However she wasn't about to question it 'I'll do it,' she replied before speeding up and searching through the hallways for Mark.
———————————————————-
"AHHHHH!!!" All five of the women screamed as they were tossed down a chute by Deathstroke and a couple of guards. They all tumbled and hit each other before they fell from the ceiling in a white tiled corridor, as they fell to the floor the chute closed up behind them being replaced by another white tile.
They all groaned in pain as they stood up and detangled themselves from each other, Cassandra quickly untied and removed the gag from Harley's mouth "THOSE MOTHERFUCKING COCKING CUNT FACES!!!!" Harley shouted at the top of her lungs as she looked up from where they fell.
"Should've left the gag in," Killer Frost said mostly to herself as she rubbed the arm that she fell on.
Harley looked at her with an annoyed expression before flipping her off "It's your fault we got caught so maybe I should gag you!!!" Harley shouted as she shoved her.
Killer Frost scowled as she shoved Harley back "I didn't do shit! It was you who tried to steal some of the products while we were trying to escape!" She shouted.
"Pfffft tried? Bitch I don't try anything, I did steal it!" She said back with a cocky laugh before putting her finger in her mouth, without gagging she stuck it inside deeply, The girls looked quite disturbed as they saw her throat muscles expanding and contracting and a moment later she removed a small black box-like item that glowed red.
"That's disgusting..." Giganta said as she saw Harley's spit drip off the box.
"I'm sure there are some people who might appreciate that skill," Kate said with a smirk on her face.
"Thank you!" Harley said with exasperation.
"What is it anyway?" Killer Frost asked.
Harley shrugged "I'm not sure but it looked valuable," she replied.
"Stop with this foolishness we have more pressing issues right now!" Giganta shouted at them. Just as she said that the collars around their necks unclamped and fell to the floor.
Giganta, Killer Frost and Kate all felt their powers return to them and Giganta immediately started to grow, she then slammed her fist into the ceiling as hard as she could but she underestimated the strength of the material that it was made out of and she felt her bones crack at the impact. She growled as she recoiled in pain and slowly shrunk back down to the floor "Are you an idiot? Did you think they'd give you your powers back if you could use them to escape?" Harley asked as she laughed at the tall woman.
Giganta scowled as she looked at the blonde woman and took a step towards her "Maybe it won't work on the ceiling... but it will against you!" She said threateningly as she started to grow again.
"We have bigger problems than you twos pissing contest!" Killer Frost said as she stepped between the two freezing the air as she did.
"This beast will be easy to kill since we have our abilities," Giganta stated as she started to walk past Harley and the others.
"I will go and dispatch the creature, once I do I'm coming back for you jester," she said threateningly as she looked back for a moment before turning back around and walking down to the corridor turning around the corner. She wasn't the only one who was gone, Harley, Cassandra and Killer Frost quickly realised that Kate had managed to slip away too.
*ROAAAAAAAAR*
"We should probably go..."
"No arguments here, Cass?"
"..."
"Alright time to run!!!"
———————————————————-
Mark walked through the corridors of the place disguised as a soldier, his mind was still reeling from the influx of information that had been poured into him but it had gotten better and now that the information had settled he did think it was pretty amazing that he was able to pluck that information out of the soldiers head like that and learn a whole other language in an instant, he just wished it hurt less.
Mark knew he was getting closer as his ears started to twitch, he could hear the loud sounds of shouting and cheering letting him know he was getting close to the main auction room 'Hopefully I can slip right in without them noticing,' he thought to himself as he started walking faster quickly getting closer to the source of the noise.
He spotted a large pair of wooden doors and carefully opened them, if the large stage didn't give him a hint that he was in the right place then the large crowd of people certainly did. He slowly edged around the crowd as he tried to locate Superboy and Wonder Girl 'Maybe I shouldn't have cut myself off from them,' he thought to himself as he tried to spot them through the crowd.
"AHHHHH NO PLEASE!!!"
Mark heard the screams of a woman with a deep voice, it was accompanied by the groans and disappointed sighs from the crowd. Looking towards the screen he saw a giant red-headed woman being eaten by a red-skinned dinosaur-like creature while she was still alive, her intestines were being torn out of her body eventually sending her into shock 'These people are sick...' Mark thought to himself as he pushed his way through the crowd.
"Such a shame, Giganta really should've taken me at my word when I said this creature was a superman-level threat, that's one down and four to go!" Bruno shouted from the stage.
The screen then switched to something that made Mark's blood run cold. He saw Harley and two other women running down the pure white corridors as they had looks of horror on their faces, he didn't know how long he watched the screen but he was snapped out of it when someone grabbed his arm.
Donna had recognised him as at some point Mark had taken off his face mask 'Mark before you do something rash clear your mind!' She advised.
The cold feeling in Mark's veins had already been replaced with a boiling heat so hot that he thought it might burn through his skin 'Where are they!' He shouted at her.
'He said those tunnels were beneath our feet, that is all I know,' she said feeling a little intimidated at the look Mark was giving her.
Mark immediately turned around pushing people out of the way overtly as he left the main atrium, he started floating above the floor for a moment before he dived head first into the ground digging himself towards the tunnels that Donna spoke of. He wasn't used to digging through rock but it wasn't that hard once he got the hang of it, similar to swimming.
Mark soon hit something that he couldn't dig past and theorised that he had hit the ceiling. Slamming his fist down he scowled as the material didn't even crack, he did it again and again, smashing his fists bloody against the material and yet it did not give way under his strength. Nothing he could think of worked, not his spheres nor his lightning he could not get inside.
'I'll have to use that...' he thought to himself as he thought back to the move that he'd used against his Dad. He hoped he wouldn't have to as combining both red and blue was exhausting, both mentally and physically, something that would disadvantage him when he had to fight that creature.
"I have one more thing I can do before I try that," he said to himself as he held his hands together.
———————————————————-
"Holy fuck!!!" Harley screamed as she ran and jumped over Kate's dead body.
"What the fuck!" Killer Frost shouted as she jumped over a different Kate's dead body.
"..." Cassandra jumped over another dead body with the same features as Kate.
The entire corridor was covered in blood and guts, all belonging to these duplicates of Kate who were now dead "You think she's still alive?" Harley asked.
"No... I don't." Killer Frost replied with a deadpan expression on her face, as they turned the corner they saw multiple Kate all attacking the red monster and all of them getting slaughtered and eaten.
"Back back back!!!" Harley shouted as she started running the other way again with Killer Frost and Cassandra close behind. However, it was too late, the Rognarr after killing the last Kate sniffed the air and started to run down the corridor after the trip.
Killer Frost turned around seeing the Rognarr slowly catching up to them, she turned around and slammed her hands on the ground freezing the entire corridor. The Rognarr slipped and its body slammed on the ground before it slid further down the corridor getting closer to them "Oh wow gee thanks Frosty you helped us a bunch!" Harley shouted as she turned to see what her companion was doing.
Killer Frost turned around and scowled at Harley "I don't see you trying to do anything!!!" She shouted back.
"Cause I don't know how this damn thing works!" Harley replied as he fiddled with the small box that she had stolen.
They all kept running but as they turned a corner they saw that they had hit a dead end "Damn it!!!" Harley shouted as she hit the wall.
Killer Frost seemed more panicked as she summoned up a wall of ice to try and protect them from the approaching Rognarr. But it was in vain as the creature broke through the ice like it wasn't even there and started thumping towards them its claws scrapping against the ground making a sound that made the girls cringe. All three of them placed their backs against the wall as they waited for their impending doom, Harley couldn't help but feel regret that she never got to see Ivy or Mark again before the end. The Rognarr growled as it started to sprint towards them intent on feasting upon their flesh.
*CRACK*
The girls were all dumbfounded as in front of them appeared a man wearing an army uniform, he had electricity dancing around his body and he was holding his hands together as he breathed heavily. The man quickly held his arm up and a stream of lightning shot the creature back down the corridor.
He turned around and his helmet disappeared in a flash of light, Harley couldn't help the gasp that left her lips as she saw Mark standing in front of her with a smirk on his face.
"Hope I'm not too late."
(AN: I don't think it's too difficult to figure out what Mark did, gravity manipulation involves bending space and that gives him another ability. Anyway, I've been thinking of Marks hero suit or at least the one he'll where most of the time when fighting, idk if you guys will like it but i think it's pretty cool. Anyway shit is popping off and it'll all begin with the fight between Mark and the Rognarr, I wonder how a certain someone in the audience will react to seeing the powers of Shazam. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.)
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