We are Legion

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my original characters and works, if you recognise it from somewhere else, surprise it isn't mine.

Betad by morde24, Atrius ( formerly OoalGown), Hermes, Priapus, Old man of the mountain and TheDonFluffles

The Guild of Gamers: The Nightmare

Chapter 02: We are Legion

Gotham is apparently hell to live in because it's been carved up by the different gangs and supervillains, with the police either ineffective or outright corrupt.

My computer has access to my new world's internet, apparently untraceable due to guild tech, and that's given me a lot of time to research and work out my plans.

I want to cause a mass break-out in Arkham, but that's not going to be easy.

Fortunately, the locals seem to have done a lot of my work for me because it didn't take me long to find a group for Gotham residents where they helpfully keep track of who rules where. Turns out there's an entire site dedicated to tracking the actions of Superheroes and Villains, their gangs and other related incidents. Metahuman Online, or MHO to the users, has proven an incredibly effective source of Intel.

I've spent some time reading over the threads, specifically the Gotham ones, and I've gotten the idea that while Batman is definitely respected for what he's trying to do, the general consensus is 'it's nice that he's trying, but he's not actually changing anything.'

Sure, he saves the city three times a week, but anyone he captures will be free again in a month and nothing will change, they'll just go right back to what they were doing.

It seems like things are rather stable at the moment, or as stable as things get in Gotham. The Falcone family used to be the strongest crime syndicate in Gotham, but the Penguin and Black Mask briefly teamed up to bring them down.

The Falcones lost a hefty chunk of their territory, but inevitably the two villains turned on each other, and the Falcones were able to call in some outside help to fortify the rest of their territory.

So now there's something of a stalemate, with the Falcones, Penguin's gang and the Black Mask's gang all defending their territory.

None of them want to be the first to move because if they tried to attack either of the other gangs, the third gang would jump at the opening.

There are countless other supervillains and minor gangs, but they are the big three at the moment, at least in terms of owning territory.

The Joker's band of lunatics took over an old amusement park, but the clown prince of crime is currently locked up in Arkham.

Harley Quinn apparently escaped her prison transport, and people think she's plotting to free the Joker, but she's not exactly taken seriously.

There seems to be a running joke on the boards that Harley must be absolutely amazing in bed because the Joker sure as fuck isn't keeping her for anything else.

I have a few minor plans forming in my head, because I don't want my first major job to go wrong because I rushed things before I was ready.

Now that I know where I am, I need to act more hesitantly. Sure, I could gather some powers and try and kill Bruce Wayne, get him out of his fancy suit, but he's still Batman and right now he'd beat my ass without breaking a sweat.

I could do something crazy like attacking Alfred when Bats is away, with Off-Screen Travel it wouldn't even be difficult to sneak into Wayne Manor. It's definitely something to consider if I want to stick the dagger into Batman's back and twist it.

I'm going to have to fight the heroes sooner or later, because even if the ones don't come after me directly, for one simple reason… they're symbols of hope in this world.

All my efforts will be lessened by the mere existence of heroes for people to look up to, so I either need to kill, break or corrupt these symbols. That's obviously going to be a very long term goal considering where I am.

Even if I could kill Batman, which I almost certainly can't yet, his death would bring the Justice League to Gotham and that's not exactly something I can survive. Best case I run with my tail between my legs, worst case Supes goes all Injustice on my ass.

Sure, maybe I could go for whichever Robin is currently around (Red Hood and Nightwing are both confirmed, and nobody has seen a Robin for a while so it's possible we're in between Robins), or some other sidekick, but I can't kill them without attracting way more attention than I can currently handle.

Barbara is another potential target, but Batgirl hasn't been seen for a long time. Batwoman has been, but I'm sure that's not her. She's probably already Oracle, which I can check by just paying a visit to the clock tower. She'd obviously be an easy victim if she's already crippled, but again that'd bring the full attention of the Batfamily on my ass, maybe even the Justice League itself.

I'm caught in an awkward position at the moment. I need to spread fear to grow, but I can't attract too much attention until I've already grown stronger.

I have some nice powers but I'm a baseline human with no real training at the moment, all it would take is a guy with a gun who doesn't take their eyes off me and my second life would come to a sudden and unpleasant end.

I have plans, I just need to work out how the hell I'm going to go about them.

For one, I want to reignite the gang war. People are getting too comfortable and that's not helping me, I need the three gangs at war with each other and if I ignite it then I can harvest the fear to empower myself.

I even have an idea about how to go about that, because the Falcones seem to have very few (if any) superpowered members.

If I disrupt the Falcones enough, maybe even assassinate all the top figures, then the others won't be able to resist breaking the statemate and trying to grab as much of the Falcones territory as possible, because they can't risk the other doing it first

There's other gangs as well that I'm hoping will take the opportunity, specifically the Lucky Hand Triad, who have bunkered down in Gotham's Chinatown. They're primarily drug dealers, heroin mostly from what I've been able to find out, but they got smashed by Falcone a while back. They tried expanding out of Chinatown, the Falcones didn't particularly like that.

With the opening, I'm hoping that they, and the other minor gangs, will smell blood in the water and go into a feeding frenzy.

The war will heat up again, and while that's happening and drawing attention I'll strike Arkham.

That will free Two-Face who was set to be the fourth major player before he got caught, and with him joining the war and the waves of unhinged lunatics pouring out into the streets of Gotham, terror will be plentiful.

But first I need more power, which means I need to start spreading fear in any way I can.

But again, I've been thinking about exactly how I'm going to do that and I think I've come up with an idea.

I have a dungeon, sure I didn't think I'd have much use for it because I planned to just kill but it gave me an idea.

I don't have to do the killing myself. I plan to do a lot of killing, don't get me wrong, but if terror happens as a result of my actions that still counts.

So, if I was to, say… kidnap someone and force their parents/significant other to commit crimes on my behalf, that would still count.

If they refuse? Well, they'll still be terrified and I'll have a victim nice and safely locked away for me to kill at my leisure.

And that gave me an even better idea. Sure, I can grab some random nobody and have their equally unimportant loved ones kill for me, but do you know who really loves his wife?

Victor Fries, better known as Mr Freeze. It's not like I'd even have to look for him because everyone knows where his lair is. It's the giant ship that's freezing the water around it.

Gotham Villains aren't big on subtlety, which works for me.

Which got me thinking about what I know about villains from DC, which brought me to Deadshot. I'll be the first to admit I don't know a lot about DC, especially basically anything that happened outside of Gotham but I can at least remember a lot of villains' real names.

Zoe Lawton is living with her single mother, Michelle Torres in Star City. I know this because she posted enough pictures and information about herself online for me to work out exactly where she lived.

Floyd is even in some of the pictures, out of costume. It's cute that the hired killer takes his daughter to theme parks, it's heartwarming to know he cares about her.

It'd be a shame if I made a trip all the way to Star City just to find he didn't care about her after all. It's literally on the other side of America after all, a four hour flight.

Deadshot is working in Gotham, but he's very mobile and doesn't often stay in one place so I might want to make the trip sooner rather than later.

Once I get there, I can grab them and bring them here, before I make my way back to Gotham since frankly I know more about Gotham than I do the rest of this world.

And Batman is less intimidating than the likes of Superman, The Flash and Wonder Woman. I like my heroes without bullshit powers, thank you very much.

I intend for people to know there is a mastermind pulling the strings, which should help build my rep and empower me more while other people take the risks on my behalf.

It's not perfect and there's still a lot of risk involved since all it takes is one grab going wrong for everything to go to shit, especially a grab involving a supervillains loved ones, but it's better than risking a bullet before I have something that'll help me survive a gunshot.

I actually made a trip to Victor's Lair, but the fucker doesn't seem to leave.

I got right there next to Nora in my shadow world, but Victor was never more than a few meters away from her, he even sleeps in the same room as the tube she's been frozen in.

That's going to make grabbing her a bit more complicated since it's obviously heavy and fairly complicated, and she won't be much use to me if I accidentally kill her in the process.

And Star City is in California, while Gotham is in New Jersey. It's… a bit of a trip and while there are flights from Gotham's airport straight to Star City, I'm not quite ready for that.

Sneaking onto the plane is an option, so is just buying a ticket since I have a passport.

My background here is pretty solid, I was born in Gotham and graduated from a local High School with good grades (the same ones I got in my original life), before attending college in another state. My 'parents' were killed in a gang war a few years back and I'm now back in Gotham.

I even have a bank account with a small inheritance from selling my parents house, and a small crappy apartment.

I've not been using it because frankly my lair is so much nicer but I should at least show my face and maybe even consider getting a job to stop myself from drawing any unwanted attention.

Just something part time, to not take up too much of my time, but just enough to to seem 'normal' on the outside.

Besides, it'll be good to be among the common people to see how they react to the events I'll be setting into place.

But for now, I have work to do. First things first, I need weapons to supply my soon to be 'friends' with.

And I know just where to get them.

You'd be surprised how much you can find as an invisible spectre that can move through walls.

— Oswald Cobblepot (The Penguin) —

"Sorry, I must have something in my ear because I could have sworn you just said my guns were missing," Oswald said with a false calm that nobody who was acquainted with him believed for a second.

"I- yeah, Mr Cobblepot, sir. I went down to the armoury to grab some guns and ammo for our guys but the place was emptied," the thug whose name he didn't know said, wringing his hands together as the Penguin forcibly calmed himself.

"Well, did you check the cameras?" Oswald asked, making the thug shuffle awkwardly.

"Yeah, boss. Nobody went into the armoury, it's just empty," the thug said, making Oswald clutch his umbrella tighter. Candy rested her hand on his chest to try and calm him as she pressed her body against him.

"Obviously someone went into the fucking armoury. We have a rat, someone messed with our cameras so some fucker could just raid my guns. I owe some of them to my clients, you think they're gonna accept that I just misplaced them all?" Oswald ranted, before he took a deep breath.

Black Mask or Falcone, they were the only ones with the balls to pull something like this off.

Fortunately he only kept some of his weapons under the Iceberg Lounge, most of them were hidden in various warehouses across his territory (and some outside of Gotham). This wasn't a disaster, but getting robbed at his base of operations was a slap to the face.

It was practically a challenge, and he wasn't going to back down.

"I want my guns back, call everyone. It's time we found out who our little rat is," Oswald said dangerously.

Nobody robbed the Penguin and got away with it.

— Markus Gray —

I just robbed the Penguin, and got away with it.

The Penguin is an arms dealer, and he kept a lot of guns under his club, being able to just appear inside the sealed armoury, make a portal to my lair and loot the place worked wonders.

There were cameras of course, but he didn't have any actually inside the armoury, just a bunch outside it.

My house helpfully added an armoury for me to stash my considerable amount of loot. Enough guns and ammo to cause quite a bit of mayhem.

I actually kinda like the Penguin, but I don't know where Falcone or Black Mask keep their guns. I've already started to build a map of important locations for each gang, suspected villain hideouts and other noteworthy places but the Iceberg Lounge was just the obvious target.

The Penguin is wanted for arms trafficking, amongst a great many other things so I hoped he'd have a lot of guns at his main lair, and while I know for a fact that's not all his guns it's enough for my purposes.

If I was wrong, no harm was done. I never even went near the Iceberg Lounge myself as I just had to get within a mile, and it's in a fairly busy part of the city so me being there wouldn't draw attention.

I even picked an alleyway with no cameras around it to teleport from, so nobody could notice I went into one end and never came out of the other side.

Can't take any risks with Batman after all. Any slip could fuck me over especially since I can't keep Recordless up in public.

Because I don't need to accidentally get caught in the background of a picture or by a traffic camera as a big blur and draw attention to myself like that.

All it takes is for one person to see the weird effect I leave and remember me, which frankly is quite likely since I'm a fairly good looking guy, and then boom I can't go out in public.

I actually went clubbing after my heist, not at the Lounge obviously since I don't want to place myself there any time soon but at another smaller club in the area.

Say what you want about Gotham, but it has an active nightlife. Plus, my apartment is actually fairly close to the Iceberg Lounge, not on the same street or anything but easily within walking distance since I'm only a few streets away.

And yes, that means my apartment is balls deep in Penguin's territory.

I didn't stay for too long, just a couple of hours of some light drinking and dancing before I called it a night, but I want to get the locals used to me.

Strangers attract attention, so I'm working on making people see me as just another local. I'll make more 'appearances' to continue the act of just being a regular civilian who is new to the city.

I've set my apartment as a return location in my lair. It has a rather useful function where I can decide where to go when I leave. I can either go back to where I opened the portal or to a place I've 'set'. It still means I have to travel to new places for the first time myself, but essentially I can set a fast travel spot in a nice secure place when I get there.

So as I reach my apartment and lock the door, I smile to myself darkly.

I have work to do tonight, my little heist was just the start.

I've collected the tools my agents will need to fulfil my work, but now it's time I make sure they have the right kind of motivation to see things my way.

My first kidnapping itself is hilariously easy given my powers, moving from house to house until I find one that suits my needs.

I've moved to the nicer part of town, which actually has the occasional police patrol moving around since we're closer to the GCPD station, but it's still far too easy as I find my first target.

A middle-aged couple with a single daughter, probably no older than twelve. The pictures on the wall tell the story of a happy family, and while they might not tell the entire truth it's close enough for me.

Standing over the sleeping couple, I calmly uncap one of my bottles of sedatives and drop it between them, moving back so I don't breathe it in myself.

I have questions about how a bottle that small managed to make a cloud of pink smoke that large, covering the entire double bed easily but I shrug and put it down to superpower bullshit as the cloud fades a few seconds later.

Pulling the quilt off the couple, they show no reaction as I grab the mother and lift her out of the bed, throwing her over my shoulder and carrying her to the wall.

Opening the portal to my lair, it takes a minute to have the older woman tossed into one of the cells, and with the father deep in his beauty sleep, repeating the process with the daughter is equally easy.

Neither the mother or daughter wake up during the kidnapping, and I'm honestly not sure how long the gas lasts but at the very least it's enough for my purposes.

Taking pictures of both of them unconscious in their cells, I print them off in my computer room along with a note for the father, before I leave it on the bedside table.

Right next to a loaded pistol and a mask.

With my work done, I disappear once more. I could do this to multiple people in a single night but this is more or less an experiment to see how this goes, if he goes through with my orders then I'll keep my word and release his wife and child, if he refuses or goes to the police, I have two victims to draw more fear from.

Essentially this is a win-win because I get something no matter how this ends, and I know this will result in gaining Batman's attention, but I've made my decision.

I'm going to try and build a reputation as a shadowy mastermind, behind a string of horrific crimes. No face, no name, no leads, just a series of victims forced to dance to my tune.

Of course that doesn't mean I won't do any killing myself, but this is more than a one man job, so I'm simply enlisting some assistance.

— Bruce Wayne (Batman) —

"You wouldn't have called for me if it was simple," Batman said simply, making Commissioner Gordon nod with a sigh.

"Nothing is ever simple around here, but you're right," Gordon replied, handing over the interrogation transcript.

He'd been woken up for this, because he was rarely awake during the early day. Some criminals thought they were clever by acting at that time, but he was hardly the only hero Gotham had and he usually arranged for the rest of the Batfamily to be more active while he was sleeping.

Of course, Carrie was far from ready for solo patrols, the only reason he agreed to take her is because he knew she'd try to go alone if he didn't. It had also been a long time since Jason had listened to him and Dick wasn't in Gotham since he was overseeing the team of former sidekicks. At least Tim and Cassandra could solo patrol as long as Barbara was assisting them.

Fortunately, crime was far rarer in the light of the day, which was why it came as a surprise when he heard of the tragedy.

Reading the transcript, his trademark frown deepened.

"I take it you visited his home?" Batman asked, getting a nod.

"His wife didn't show up for work, his daughter was marked as missing at school. We found the note and a couple of empty bottles by the two beds, we put them both into evidence, along with the mask," James confirmed, gesturing to a piece of folded paper and two small bottles . "Looks like he might be telling the truth, the gun he had matches the weapon linked to a couple of murders we suspect Penguin's men committed."

This didn't feel like the Penguin, it wasn't in any of his rival's territory and there was no money in it.

Reading the note, his frown only grew. It was obviously just written on a computer and printed off, regular plain a4 paper and arial font left at the default size.

'Hello, Mr. Adams.

By now I expect you've noticed that your wife and daughter are missing. Allow me to assure you that they are unharmed, I simply relocated them to a safe location. They'll be released, unharmed and untouched, as long as you cooperate.

My request is simple. You are to go out in public and use the gun I left you to kill at least two people while wearing the mask. Who you kill is irrelevant, I also don't care where you go to do this. You can even choose when to do this, but for every day you delay, your wife and daughter will simply have to entertain me instead. Don't worry, I won't do anything permanent to them as long as you don't take too long.

Once the deed is done, your wife and daughter will be released in a safe location within the next day. If you go to the police, I will kill them both, slowly. They will beg for death weeks before I grant it to them.

If you are killed or captured during the dark deed, they will still be released as long as you got the two kills I asked for. If you happen to get captured after only managing to kill one, feel free to kill yourself to make up for your failure.

I look forward to your swift cooperation, even if I really wouldn't mind you refusing. I'll find my entertainment either way.

Enjoy your day Mr. Adams. I most certainly will enjoy mine.'

The note wasn't signed, unusual for a villain. They often felt a need to have their names linked to their deeds.

There were two pictures attached, printed on photo paper, of what must be the wife and daughter in what appeared to be prison cells.

Very few details could be made out at first glance, the photographer was obviously in the cell with them since there were no bars in the picture.

Gray stone floor and walls, no windows so they could be underground, a single stone bed with no sheets built into the wall and nothing else.

"How bad was it?" Batman asked, making James sigh.

"It could have been worse, but he had no firearms training. He killed one person and wounded two more. One of them is apparently in surgery, but they're expected to pull through," James said, making Batman's eyes narrow. "Detective Montoya managed to take him down safely because he ran out of ammo."

"Does he know that?" Batman asked, making James nod grimly.

"He kept asking how many people he killed, we hadn't found the note yet and he wouldn't cooperate before we answered. I've put him on suicide watch," James replied darkly.

"Then I have work to do," Batman said simply, taking the evidence himself as he set off towards the house of the victim.

He needed to find the kidnapped pair before the villain decided to live up to his threat.

Somehow, he knew this wasn't one of his usual rogues, this was someone new.

Their motive confused him, he didn't believe for a moment that this was purely for entertainment, things were never that simple.

Reaching the house, it didn't take him long to realise there was nothing, and his mind immediately went back to the murder he investigated just a day ago.

There was a speed camera that barely saw the house, but nobody ever showed up and no cars stopped outside it. Oracle gained access to a neighbours security camera and again nobody ever approached the house.

There was just a single hint in the neighbours front door camera, an unnaturally blurry figure walking past an upper floor window.

The same effect he saw before, the video apparently unedited as far as Oracle could tell. Some kind of effect that caused technology to fail to record them?

He was almost sure of it, this was the same person as before. But he thought that was their first kill, were they ramping up so quickly?

Again, there were no traces of the criminal. Nothing whatsoever, except the vials which had obviously been left on purpose.

Nobody was that thorough about leaving no traces only to leave something so blatant behind, which was why he wasn't surprised at the complete lack of fingerprints.

He'd been left without a lead before, but it had been a while since he had so very little to work with. A letter he could go over for more clues, and not a trace of the missing pair.

Disappearing by themself was an impressive trick, but to disappear while presumably carrying a pair of victims is a different matter entirely.

Could it be magic? A scowl crossed his face at the very idea of it, magic spat in the face of logic so often it irritated him, but he couldn't ignore the possibility.

He didn't like calling for help, he liked other heroes coming to his city even less, but two lives depended on finding this villain and he wouldn't let his pride kill them.

"Watchtower, put me in contact with Zatanna."

— Markus Gray —

Hm, he failed.

Not surprising all things considered but he failed all the same.

"Why are you doing this? We've done nothing to you!" the unnamed mother shouts as I turn back to her. "Who are you?"

They woke up a couple of hours after I brought them here, but I left them to stew in their cells since it's a surprisingly effective way of harvesting fear.

I could feel the fear his actions caused, but it was too small. The people of Gotham are too used to shootings, sure the ones who were unlucky enough to be at the scene were scared but then they moved on.

I'm hoping that as these attacks become more regular, while growing bigger and more horrific, they'll have more of an effect.

Still, even the small amount of fear that this fed me had an effect. The range of my off screen travel increased to five miles, which should be useful. It's good to know my powers can improve like this.

I can feel the fear building up to something, and even now I have three sources of fear slowly feeding me and slowly moving me closer to the threshold.

"Who I am doesn't particularly matter," I finally say, I've been ignoring them until now and my response makes her freeze as I turn to her, my masked face staring blankly at her. "What matters is the task I gave your husband, once it was complete you would have both been released safely. He failed."

She freezes at my cold tone, I've put them in cells opposite each other, so they can see the other. It actually calmed the daughter but increased the mothers fear. Something to experiment with later.

"Well, that's not quite true. He did half of what I asked, and he still has time to finish the job. He has until tomorrow to complete his task. If by midday tomorrow he hasn't managed that, well then things get unpleasant for you both," I say calmly, making her shudder as her fear grows.

Moving out of the cells, I hear the mother trying to comfort the crying daughter as I get some food for them, bringing it back and opening the slit in the cell door to push it through.

"Eat well, you'll need your strength if he fails," I say simply, turning and leaving as I ignore her desperate questions.

I'm a man of my word, if by midday tomorrow he manages to kill himself, I'll spare them.

Because if I'm going to be doing this again, I don't want to get a reputation of not keeping my word. I want people to follow my orders in the hope that their loved ones will be safe.

You're fitting into your new role well.

Well, to be honest. It's a lot more fun than I expected. I'd never have done stuff like this in my old world but the villains have always been cooler than the heroes, and with my new powers I can do so much more than I could in my past life.

It's been fun to watch you scheme, honestly I thought you'd go around stabbing people at random and get captured or killed immediately. It was a bit of a surprise.

In Gotham? No thanks, I'd like to live long enough to enjoy my new powers, thank you very much. Honestly I thought you were some omnipotent being, I didn't know you could be surprised.

Oh, I am but have you any idea how boring omnipotence actually is? Imagine if every time you started a movie, someone paused it and told you the entire plot. It's fun at times but honestly it's a killjoy so I keep it suppressed.

Fair enough, I can definitely see how it'd get boring to never be surprised, pleasantly or otherwise.

Anyway, I actually have a little offer for you.

You see, I have a little tweak I can make to things to make them more interesting. Normally I decide based on how active the Gamer has been. If they're trying to stay out of everything and being boring, I use it at full power to make them act.

I kinda like you, so I'm giving you the choice of whether you want it or not.

What exactly does it do?

Essentially, just think of it as something that increases the random encounter chance.

You'll be more likely to run into 'important' characters or have fate try to drag you into the 'plot'. You can still ignore them of course, it's just harder.

I see it as accepting higher risk for higher rewards, because the encounters can be good or bad.

Hm, so essentially with this I could have run into an out of costume hero or villain at the club last night?

Yeah, you pretty much got it.

It doesn't affect your free will, just tweaks things to make you occasionally have encounters that wouldn't have happened otherwise.

Heh, why not? This entire world is high risk, high reward so why stop now?

Good choice, I knew I liked you for a reason.

Perk Added

[May you live in interesting times]

Makes things more interesting, for better and for worse.

Well, I guess I'll just have to wait and see how this works out.

I'd tell you to have fun, but you seem to have that under control already, so just continue what you're doing and you'll do just fine.

Will do, boss man.

With Shiro gone, or at least no longer talking, I go back to thinking.

I have almost certainly got some heroic attention at this point, I wouldn't be surprised if my letter is in Batman's hands already especially with two still missing people.

I was never going to fly completely under the radar, not in Batman's backyard, so I might as well embrace this.

It's why I had Adams wear the discount Legion mask, that grinning mask is all I plan to leave behind as my identity, something of a calling card.

Hm, I have nothing to do while I wait to see what Adams does.

I said they'd be untouched until tomorrow, and I meant it, but that doesn't mean I have to sit on my hands and wait around.

I'm at the cusp of something, I can feel it.

And like I said, I don't plan to do all my killing by proxy.

Grabbing my knife I pause as I look towards the guns. Guns just feel so… eh.

I'll take one, but it's for emergencies. I definitely think I'm a knife guy.

As for who I'm going to kill? Well, I want this grinning mask to become known and feared, so it's time to start the slaughter.

Heading back out into Gotham, I smile under my mask as I get to work.

— Bruce Wayne (Batman) —

…he'd been played for a fool.

It was an unpleasant feeling, but he understood why the still unnamed villain had sent a civilian to kill at complete random.

It was a distraction, to keep him focused on the missing Adams while the villain could act freely.

While he and Zatanna had been examining the Adams house, the villain had acted again.

"How many?" Batman asked gruffly, showing no sign of the anger he was feeling.

"Ten houses were hit, scattered all over Gotham. Seventeen total victims, no survivors," James answered, making Bruce's scowl deepen. "We got reports of screams at some of them, but the killer was always gone before we arrived. Each house has the same thing carved into the walls, a face matching the one drawn on the mask Adams was forced to wear."

"Send me the names of the victims," Batman ordered, there had to be more to this than just random violence. They wanted him distracted for this, focused on the missing pair so they could target these ten houses.

"Sorry, Batman, but no magic has been used here recently. Even the simplest spell leaves a trace, whatever the villain used, it wasn't magical," Zatanna said, finishing her spell with a frown. "I'm going to look for something the missing girls care for, hopefully I'll be able to use it to scry their location."

"…do it, I need to investigate the other houses they hit," Bruce said, his voice deeper than usual as he sent the names of the victims to Oracle.

If they could find the girls, they'd find the killer. He couldn't be 100% sure that this was the same person responsible for the murder at the building site but if it was…

They were escalating far too quickly, and he needed to find them as soon as possible.

— Markus Gray —

Arriving back at my home, I toss my blood-soaked clothes into the washing basket, stepping into the bath with a deep sigh.

Murder is dirty work, but oh so profitable as well.

[Fear Hound]

You have gained the ability to sense fear, being able to locate or track people who are afraid with much greater ease.

[There's No Use Calling For Help]

You can place a communications blackout zone around an area of your choosing, preventing all technological communications within it, both in and out.

Max Range: 0.5 Miles

[The Vermin Lord]

You have the ability to control all rats within your range, sensing their presence, commanding them telepathically, sharing their senses and even possessing them.

Creatures: Rats

Range: 100 Miles

I got the first one after my first kill, but why stop with just one? A single kill is clearly nothing in Gotham, I needed to do so much more than that to make my mark.

I made sure to spread my kills throughout the town, targeting people without caring about race, gender or wealth.

I've carved the face, which I'll admit I stole from Legion's mask in Dead By Daylight, into the wall at the scene of every kill, I want people to know I'm responsible for each and every one.

Hell, maybe I'll get lucky and someone will carve my 'face' at the scene of their murders since that would further the city's fear of me.

I don't mind taking the credit (and blame) for something I didn't do.

This is the dawn of a new age in Gotham- is what I want to say but I'm not sure this will even shake up this damnable city.

Oh well, I need some sleep anyway so I'll just check the response when I wake up.

Oh, and I'll need to deal with my guests, tick tock Mr Adams, you better be dead by the time I wake up or I'm going to be displeased.

Getting out of the bath, I pause and grab the little straw doll on the side of my computer desk and give it a little squeeze.

You wouldn't want to let me down, would you Mr Adams? Because if he doesn't kill himself, I'll just end him myself. All it would take is a few well placed stabs in this little toy of mine.

— Bonus Scene — MHO

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♦ Topic: Gotham's Latest Serial Killer

In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Gotham

Gothamite89 (Original Poster) (Wiki Warrior)

Posted On Sep 12th 2018:

So, I know this is going to come as a great surprise to absolutely no-one, but Gotham has got yet another deranged serial killer, and this one made their debut in style.

Over the course of last night, seventeen people were murdered in their homes (ten different houses, some had multiple people), and at each house the killer had carved the same cartoonish smiley face with two vertical slashes through the eyes.

[smileyfaceletter.jpg]

Each kill was performed the same way, dozens of stab wounds.

No name for them yet, or anything since apparently despite brutalising over a dozen people they apparently did it without leaving any evidence at all.

Great job as always GCPD.

I'd tell you to lock your doors at night, but all the victims did and it didn't seem to deter the killer.

(Showing page 1 of 26)

►MissMystery

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

It gets worse

I know a police officer who was one of the responders. All the doors and windows were apparently still locked when they got there and showed no signs of tampering. The police had to break down the doors to get in.

Plus have you looked at where the murders happened? Look

[murder-map.jpg]

The time between the estimated first kill and the latest kill is just over three hours, but look at where the murders happened.

Literally all over Gotham, even driving the killer would have barely had time to get to each house, kill the inhabitants and leave.

Plus, the estimated first kill and last kill were actually weirdly close, literally two streets away from each other. The killer attacked someone, went all over town, only to come back to the same block and attack someone else?

In that amount of time?

My guess, either they're a metahuman or it's a group of people all acting at once.

►Shen

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

So either we have a group of deranged killers or a single one who can apparently just teleport wherever they want?

Wonderful.

►Mane Magenta

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Wasn't that smiley face what the shooter was wearing at the mall yesterday?

► Gothamite89 (Wiki Warrior)

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Good catch, but that leaves a bunch of questions

Maybe it is a group and one of them got the wrong time for the attacks? But that attack was sloppy as fuck compared to the other attacks

►MissMystery

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

I've convinced my contact to pass me some more information

The shooter was James Adams, a store clerk with no prior records. His wife and daughter were kidnapped (and are still missing), and he was given this

[smileyletter.JPEG]

So, a distraction? They didn't seem to care who he killed as long as Adams killed someone.

Unfortunately, Adams bit through his tongue and choked to death on his own blood. Whether the kidnapper will actually keep their word is something we'll just have to wait and see.

Onto the actual murders, the autopsy shows that each victim had some kind of sedative in their body, and that the knife used in each kill was different.

Some of them might have been killed by the same knife, but many of them were definitely killed by various knives, so it lends some credence to the multiple killers theory.

►Batfan

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Do we have a name for this lunatic/these lunatics yet?

I'm not calling them the Smiley killer or anything dumb like that

►M.Gray

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

How about Legion?

► Gothamite89 (Wiki Warrior)

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Works for me, if they don't like it they should have left a name instead of just a smiley face

I'll get to work on the wiki page, with what little information we have on this guy

►Princess

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Hey, why are you calling them a guy? That's sexist

Girls can be serial killers too!

► Gothamite89 (Wiki Warrior)

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Statistically, it's most likely a guy.

That said, I don't want Poison Ivy or Harley taking offence and tracking me down.

►RevUpYourHarley (Verified Villain)

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Nah, I'm too busy to waste my time with you and Ivy wouldn't care if you were sexist, she'd kill you because you're not a tree

Or maybe she'd do it because corpses apparently make good fertiliser.

►Batfan

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

…why do the mods let villains post on here?

►TheOracle (Moderator)

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Because you wouldn't believe how many times they've accidentally incriminated themselves or given away their location over the years

The Riddler is only in Arkham again because he made his location a riddle and we worked it out.

Do you know how many times Harley has accidentally told us the Joker's plans while posting online?

►RevUpYourHarley (Verified Villain)

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Hey! I'm not that dumb

You're all gonna feel stupid for doubting me when I bust Mr J out of Arkham!

►TheOracle (Moderator)

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Case in point.

► Batfan

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Legion won't be a problem, Red Hood will just put a bullet in his/her/their head/heads

►Princess

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Right, Red Hood

The lunatic who has more blood on his hands than most of the criminals he shoots?

What's his kill count now? Certainly more than Legion

Yay, we're saved

►Batfan

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Batman will find them, the police might not have been able to find any evidence but Batman will

►GotHam?

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Yup, that's Batman

He'll throw Legion into Arkham and then when they break out next week, he'll capture them again (after they kill a few dozen more)

Our saviour!

End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 24, 25, 26

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