Work Text:
Been doing some revisions on this story after neglecting it for a few years. I forgot to mention this in the previous version of my RavenxRose story but this scene is based on the Black Widow fight scene in the first Avengers film.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the DC characters
Gotham City
"I've done it! I finally captured Deathstroke!" The Penguin announces and his two henchmen laugh with him while Deathstroke the Terminator is tied to a metal chair. "And here I thought you would be a challenge!"
Deathstroke stares at the Penguin with boredom while his wrists strained against the leather bonds that tied him to the arms. His legs aren't tied though which will be a huge mistake later on. Once he gets what he wants, he'll easily break free. It's Oswald Cobblepot. He has to know everything that happens in Gotham City.
"All this because I killed one of your associates and emptied your entire bank account?" Deathstroke asks.
"You caused me money, Deathstroke," the Penguin grits his sharp teeth angrily. "You steal from me, kill my colleagues and humiliate me. You made me look weak. And even after I paid you accordingly."
"So this is all about your ego being crushed. Pitiful."
"I still wonder. Why? Why go out of your way to do such a thing? When we both agreed to be on good terms. Unless you lied and this was all a trick."
"I don't lie. I simply don't tell everything to everyone. I asked for what I wanted but you denied the amount of money that corresponded so I decided to take it. Simply, it wasn't necessary for you to know."
The Penguin growls. "It doesn't matter anymore, does it? I will make you pay for this."
"Don't be so confident, Mr. Cobblepot," Deathstroke says menacingly. "You and I both know that I'll get out of here soon enough." He seems more flattered than insulted which catches the Penguin off guard. Of course, that's all part of the plan. "I've escaped places like this before. Arkham Asylum. Bell Reeve. This is just a toy box compared to the places I've been held before."
He's in a warehouse, the most typical of all places. Honestly, these people are so predictable nowadays. Cobblepot should have been more creative than this. The Artic sounds like the perfect place to imprison someone. He's the Penguin for fuck's sake.
"So, if you plan on killing me, please do. Because this conversation is becoming dull." He's praying to god that Cobblepot doesn't actually kill him. He's just testing the fat bastard.
"I could," the Penguin says as he points the sharp end of the umbrella at the assassin's masked face. Deathstroke glares back but doesn't blink an eye. After a moment of silence, the Penguin lowers his umbrella. "But it would be too quick and I wouldn't be having as much fun as torturing you until you tell me where my money is. I'll tear you limb from limb until you tell me. Once I get my money back, I'll put your head on a spike for everyone to see. And then everyone in Gotham will see that I, the Penguin, has killed the most dangerous assassin in the world. Even the Batman will fear me."
Is this guy doing a monologue? He's seriously doing a monologue? The fuck?
"But first, I will remove your mask," the Penguin says, "So, I can see the pain and fear in your eyes as I kill you slowly."
The mercenary gulps nervously and takes deep breaths. "Let's negotiate first." This is definitely not the plan. He didn't plan on getting unmasked. He only planned on getting intel and bailing out immediately. If Cobblepot unmasks the mercenary, he's in for a real shock.
"I'm done negotiating with you, Deathstroke," the Penguin says. "And clearly, you're done being a mercenary."
The mercenary stiffens as the bird-looking man reaches out for the black and orange metal mask, and is about to pull it off when a phone rings.
The Penguin and his henchmen look around to see where the sound of the phone is coming from. It turns out it's coming from the mercenary's boots. The ringtone is playing Highway to Hell.
Thank fuck I didn't put it on vibrate. Literally saved by the bell.
The Penguin snatches the phone from Deathstroke's pocket while the mercenary maintains his glare. He then answers the phone.
"Who the hell is this!?" the Penguin yells into the phone.
"The bitch who's going to shoot your fucking brains out with a sniper in five seconds if you don't pass the phone to my friend sitting in front of you," a woman's voice can be heard on the other side of the line with a threatening hiss.
The Penguin looks around once more, his eyes darting in every direction, searching where the woman is located. Sweat begins to bead his forehead as nervousness overcomes him. He had no idea Deathstroke had a sniper with him. He thought Deathstroke worked alone.
Still, the Penguin decides to be stubborn in order for his men not to see weakness. "You're bluffing," he snaps.
"Am I?"
One of his two henchmen suddenly drops to the floor with a loud thud and blood along with brain matter gushes from his head all over the floor. The Penguin gasps and jumps back with a startle.
"Put my friend on the floor, please. Or you're next," she says.
The Penguin looks at Deathstroke with wide fearful eyes before putting the phone between his ear and shoulder.
The mercenary answers. "Hello?"
"Hey, any luck yet?"
"Are you fucking kidding me?" he says. "This asshole won't even let me ask him a simple question. He just keeps monologuing his villain speech like an idiot about how he's going to kill me and shit."
"So, you got captured? You owe me five bucks."
"Shut up. I'm literally sitting here listening to this moron who won't give me shit."
"I'm not a moron," the Penguin says.
The mercenary raises his eyebrow behind the mask. "Really?" He then returns to his conversation with the woman. "Listen, Cheshire, you can't do this to me right now. I'm working."
"Thanks for giving away my identity, bitch," Cheshire says.
"Seriously, what is it?"
"The Penguin doesn't know anything. I also scanned the city. He's not here. In fact, no one knows where he is."
"So, you're telling me I'm wasting my brain cells sitting here and listening to this fish stick-scented meatball."
"Pretty much."
Shit, the mercenary thinks to himself. And just when I was going to bore myself to death. Oh well.
"Fine," he growls. "Mr. Cobblepot, would you mind holding the phone for a second?"
The Penguin takes the phone.
The moment he does so, Deathstroke kicks him in the groin. The Penguin yells in pain and leans down to cover his privates. Deathstroke takes the opportunity to kick him in the bird-like nose with his steel-toed boot, cracking it. The Penguin yells even more. The last standing henchmen points a gun at Deathstroke but he then drops dead to the floor as his head basically explodes and splatters on the floor just like his colleague. Deathstroke throws himself back and crashes onto the ground, using his weight to break the chair. Any other assassin would be unsuccessful in this attempt but not for the mercenary, not with his kind of blood in his system. The metal chair snaps in half.
Two other henchmen barge in with guns.
Fuck. And they confiscated my guns and my fucking sword. I'm gonna have to improvise.
Deathstroke jumps back onto his feet, his arms now free. They're still strapped to the arms but at least he has more freedom after breaking the chair. He just needs to use the broken pieces as his weapons until he gets proper ones.
Bullets fly as the men shoot. Deathstroke brings up his guarded arm to block his face and chest. He untied the broken armrest from his forehead before flinging it hard towards one of the shooters. The sharp edges of the broken armrest jam themselves into the shooter's throat, slashing it. Blood gushes out of his mouth and he drops to the floor. Deathstroke does the same with the other broken armrest, killing another shooter, as he ducks and rolls towards the Penguin's umbrella.
The Penguin sees this and tries to crawl towards the umbrella. "That's mine!"
Deathstroke punches him in the face, breaking his nose even more and making him cry out even more.
As more enter the room, Deathstroke grabs one of the henchmen's dead body, as well as the gun, and makes a run for it, using the body as a meat shield as more bullets begin to fire at him. He hides behind one of the crates, panting heavily.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
"I could use a hand, Jade!" he shouts.
"Two assholes about to ambush you from both sides," she says. "Closest one is behind you."
"This is going to be a threesome gone wrong scenario, isn't it?"
"Like you ever enjoyed threesomes anyways."
Deathstroke runs to the back where he shoots another bodyguard in the face. He then shoots the other one just as he jumps from the other side.
"Threesomes are messy. You're always fighting for dominance over the other," he explains as he keeps shooting his attackers, "And while you and that bartender chick were making out, I had to go to the other side of the bed and fuck myself."
"Okay, I'll admit, that was a bitch move," she says.
"And let's not forget that creep from Kyoto."
"Come on, that wasn't so bad."
"The asshole put drugs in our drink, tried to steal our wallets and wanted to do some necrophilia shit on us before stealing our kidneys."
"Yeah, that was bad," Cheshire says. "How about we not talk about threesomes anymore and just focus on not getting you killed."
"Good idea," Deathstroke says as he jumps onto one of the goons' shoulders and stabs him right in the eye with a knife. He then slices another one's throat. "How many of these assholes are left?"
"Ten."
Deathstroke sighs and stabs another good through the jaw up to his brain. He pulls the knife out, leaving a sheen of red coating the blade. That leaves nine. "Can you help me out here? It's getting really boring and I'm exhausted."
"Sure, babe."
Next thing he knows, the rest of Penguin's goons fall one by one as their head seem to explode and they drop dead to the ground. Compression bullets. Always useful.
Deathstroke gives a thumbs up to Cheshire, wherever she might be hiding.
Once all of the men are dead, Deathstroke approaches Penguin, tilting his head as he looked down at him unimpressed. Black blood pours from the Penguin's broken nose and mouth. Deathstroke gives him a harsh kick on the ribs and he groans in pain.
"Why?...Why are you doing this?" Penguin asks.
Deathstroke silently kneels next to him on one knee. "I came here to ask you a question, Cobblepot."
"What do you want?" he asks fearfully.
"Where have I been for the past 3 weeks?" Deathstroke asks in a stern hiss.
Cobblepot looks at him in confusion. "What!?"
Five minutes later, Deathstroke casually walks out of the warehouse, cleaning off blood from his mask, leaving a mess of dead bodies and a wounded Oswald Cobblepot on the floor with his umbrella skewed through his stomach.
"I'll get you for this, Deathstroke!" Cobblepot yells in agony.
Deathstroke gives him the middle finger while keeping his back turned to him. "Go fuck yourself and thanks for nothing, douche."
Once Deathstroke is far from the warehouse, he sighs in frustration and takes off his metal mask.
However, it's not Deathstroke. It's a girl with white hair that's tried in a bun and wears an eyepatch where her left eye used to be. Only one brown eye remains. She unties the bun from behind her head and lets her white hair cascading down her shoulders. The football pads she has been wearing almost all night are beginning to itch and weigh down on her body underneath all of Deathstroke's armour. It's suffocating. It even made it somewhat difficult to fit Cobblepot's men. She can't wait to take them all off when she returns home.
She sighs in relief as the cool breeze hits her face.
Then her phone sins Highway to Hell once more. She quickly picks it up.
"What?"
"Good thing I told you not to put it on vibrate," Cheshire chuckles on the other end teasingly.
"Haha, very funny," she says, though her tone sounds anything but amused.
"Hey, you should be thankful I decided to come here and save your stubborn ass in the first place."
"Okay, yeah, maybe you're right. Thanks. Where are you, anyway?"
"I'm two buildings away. This sniper rifle is fucking epic. I can almost see my house from here."
"Did you get any more information while I was gutting Fish Face and his men?" she asks.
"Sorry, Rose. But I don't think your dad is in Gotham. No one has seen him for three weeks."
"Someone has to know. Otherwise, I'll have to search outside of Gotham."
"Listen, Rose. You need to stay calm. We'll find him. Just come back and we'll make a plan."
"Fine," she groans in frustration. "Meet you at Big Belly Burgers? I'm starving."
"Sure. I'm game."
"Meet you there." Rose then hangs up on the phone and sighs. She looks down at her father's mask in her hands. Come on, Dad, where the fuck are you?