Greed God chapter 50

January 14th 2016 Gotham City 6:00 PM EDT

Once  we had Roy all fixed up and closed his brain off I gave Jade a call to  arrange a meeting. The phone only rang twice before she answered. "What  do you want? I'm in the middle of something." Probably trying to put her  kid to sleep, judging by the crying in the background, but I didn't  much care. She'd need to find a sitter. I assumed that getting someone to watch your kid when you were an assassin required another level of trust entirely.

I  chuckled. "It's Mammon. I found and retrieved Roy Harper." There was a  stunned silence on the other side of the line, so I kept talking. "He  was in a temple in Tibet, now he's here. Same deal we agreed on? I hand  him to you, you tell me who's taking kids and why?" I was honestly  mostly just curious at this point, though I intended to interfere  anyway. They were taking the teens for something, and if I got them  instead I'd get some nice points and fuck over some competition.

She  gave a long, sultry laugh. "You know, I honestly didn't expect you to  manage it. I figured it was just an excuse to get my number so you could  try to fuck me." She sat in silence for a minute before sighing.  "Alright. Fine. You give me the kid I give you the info. But I don't  want to wait on this. I want him in my hands as soon as possible. Let's  get this done." She sounded almost annoyed at the prospect of having to  follow through.

I  chuckled. "Fair enough. Meet me at Gotham Park, near the towers. I'll  have him with me." I didn't bother telling her to come alone. If I did  she would just bring someone who could snipe me, and I'd rather deal  with whoever showed up head to head. once I hung up I turned to Roy, who  was sitting in the passenger seat of the car. "You're not worried about  this? Cheshire is League of Shadows, whoever they are, not the Justice  League. She could want you for a not so nice reason. We could drag this  out to figure out what they want.

He  shrugged. "I doubt they went through the trouble to kill me, and if  they kidnap me they'll find me much harder to hold than the last group  that tried it." Which I believed. most people don't expect a kid to spit  poison bullets at legit sniper speeds. Hell, without my mask and  regalia Roy would scare me shitless if I didn't have absolute control  over him. We had already been heading to the park before the call, since  I assumed anyone as agitated as Jade would want to make the exchange  immediately.

It  took us about fifteen minutes to make it there, I had Waylon transform  and he, Whisper and Bonebreaker spread out to hide nearby. I doubted  Jade would fail to notice, but she didn't seem like the shy type. I was fully expecting to get paid tonight. This was the kind of agreement that  was easily gone back on so I didn't plan to hand Roy over until I got  my compensation.

Roy and I,  after everyone was hidden, waited at a statue in the middle of a  clearing, surrounded by enough trees to be out of sight. We waited there  for about ten minutes before a pair of people slipped from the shadows.  The first was Jade. Dressed in a pair of jeans and a jacket, she had  that same baseball cap on as last time and her hair in that same wild  ponytail. The girl next to her was sexy too, blonde, asian, and with a  tight little body and nice perky tits. She also carried herself like  someone who could fight.

Blondie  looked at me suspiciously, glancing around to check for an ambush. She  seemed to spot my people, but when they didn't move she dismissed them  and followed Jade forward. I smirked behind my mask. "Jade, and who is  your lovely companion? I admit, if I'd known I was going to be  entertaining such breathtaking ladies I would have worn something a bit  nicer." That was a lie, my regalia was pure swank but it sounded good.

The  blonde rolled her eyes. "You have no shot with me. My sister has  horrible taste so you could probably manage something there, but I'd  appreciate if you waited until I wasn't around to try to get in her  pants." She turned to Roy, her face softening into a smile. "Hi...you  don't know me, but I kind of know you. I'm Artemis, it's really nice to  meet you again for the first time."

Roy,  being fifteen and being talked to by a sexy girl, flushed slightly, and  being Roy, clicked his tongue dismissively and looked away, trying to  hide his embarrassment. Far from being offended the girl smiled. I  turned to Jade. "Alright, well, you got your payment, now I want mine.  Who is taking the teens off the streets, and why? They've been poaching  in my city, and I've let their insolence go on for far too long."

She  looked at Artemis, who shook her head. "Don't look at me. I agreed to  play backup in exchange for the same info you're giving him. It was the  only reason I convinced Wally to watch Lian. At least you know my info  will go to the League, and not to some random thug who will probably use  it to steal a bunch of money from whoever it is." I raised an eyebrow  at that. So Artemis was a Leaguer. I hadn't heard of her from Bar- wait.  Yes I had, and the other name she mentioned, Wally, I'd heard too. Back  at the Ace of Clubs.

Jade  groaned. "Fine. But once I give up this info I'm getting out of dodge,  and I'm taking my daughter with me. This town is probably going to get  very hot very soon." She looked around furtively, clearly worried about  being overheard, and hesitated. "she glanced from me to Artemis before  swallowing. "It's the Reach. They're running experiments on metahumans,  or rather, kids who are going to BECOME metahumans. Don't ask me  anymore. It's all I know." She looked around in fear before turning to  leave, only to be cut off by a gunshot.

The  shot didn't hit her, just intercepted her path, forcing her to stop,  but she looked up and around in fear and anger. I heard a slight rustle,  and about a dozen people melted from the shadows. A man in a hockey  mask, a woman with short cropped black hair in tight red clothes, a huge  woman with a spiraling thorn tattoo down one arm, and ten or so  faceless men and women in ninja clothes.

The  man in the mask clicked his tongue in a chiding manner. "I'm so  disappointed baby girl. I thought you were smarter than that. I  convinced them to leave you alone because I thought you knew to keep  your mouth shut, but you just run off and blab to the first rent a thug  in a mask who offers you a price. What a waste. Don't worry though, I  won't let them kill you. We're going to take you back to the Shadows and  get your head straight. Psimon can get that nasty stubborn streak  ironed out."

I...did  not like this person. He seemed like a dick, and he called me a  rent-a-thug. I glanced lazily at Roy. "Shoot him." He grinned and then  spat. There was a loud crack, but despite the speed and ferocity of the  expectoration, the woman in red saw it coming. In one smooth motion she  drew her sword and intercepted the shot. It was fast, but there was  plenty of wind up, and whoever this woman was, she was very good. Also  kind of milfy. I frowned behind my mask. "Now now, no need for things to  escalate."

I  sent a command to my backup, and all of them stepped out of the trees.  Fafnir looked particularly imposing at ten feet tall, with Bonebreaker  on one side and Whisper claiming air superiority on her hummingbird  wings as she hovered above us. The woman frowned. They'd known someone  was around, but not who, and certainly hadn't expected Waylon. She  stared me down. "The girl is of no concern to you. You have your  information. Leave her to us, and be grateful we decide to allow you to  leave with the knowledge you possess."

That  was...tempting. Mostly because I'd just used appraisal on them. The  woman Lady Shiva, was the first vanilla human being I'd ever met in H  rank. I was under the impression that wasn't even possible, but  apparently she was literally peak human, and VERY dangerous. A master  martial artist for the Shadows. "I'm afraid, Miss. Wu-San, that I cannot  allow that. If it gets out that I allow people to suffer for sharing  information with me, how will I convince anyone else to do so."

Her  eyes narrowed at the use of her name. Which was good, because the  fucking F rank walking tank next to her was not someone I wanted to go  up against, team or not. Devastation was apparently some kind of  metahuman bruiser of Amazon origin, a subordinate of someone name Queen  Bee. I wasn't sure who that was, but any F ranked being would be a  fucking nightmare to fight, and I wanted no part of it.

She  stared coldly at me. "You will surrender her to us, or you will die, as  will your associates. I assure you, we are not people to be crossed  lightly. Stand in our way at your own peril." Which was fair. If I had  an F rank bruiser with me I'd be pretty confident too. I didn't, but I  did have something that would take care of her. Devastation was, as far  as I could see, completely leaned toward physical combat, which was a  problem, if we wanted to fight her head on.

I  sent a mental command to Whisper, who was floating above the clearing,  and had her hurl a massive spherical blast of prismatic glassflame at  the large tattooed woman. She saw the flames coming, frowned slightly at  the odd look, and braced herself for impact at the last moment. She  didn't have the time to dodge the burst at all, but she clearly expected  to be able to tank it.

She  was...incorrect. She took the blast head on, arms crossed in an X to  disperse the flames, but it just hit her and melted right through her  flesh. The woman had been expecting physical fire, not mental  incineration, and her body did nothing to stop the prismatic flame from  crawling inside her head and burning her psyche away like and oil soaked  rag. She looked almost stunned at the impact for a moment, before she  registered the pain and her brain started to slowly melt away.

The  flames danced and flickered around her, consuming her form but not  actually burning her flesh. She lasted much longer than Mammoth, much  longer. Something about being F ranked may have given her some  resistance or she may have just been tougher than he was, but she lay  there rolling around on the ground, desperately trying to extinguish  flame that no earthly force would quench.

As  the bruised screamed agonizingly on the ground I focused on Lady Shiva,  whose face looked...perturbed, in the flickering light of her  companions burning mind. I spoke up, loud enough to be heard over the  screams. "As I said, Miss. Nguyen is coming with us. Should you take  issue with that, feel free to attempt to prevent it. I have to warn you  however, without your bruiser over there getting past my associates is  unlikely at best, and fatal at worst." I spread my arms in an invitation  to decide. "So, what'll it be then?"