Of Owls and Hats

by Malcolm Merlyn

Chapter 11

"And you see Mr. Queen? Production of venom has increased by nearly 2000% ever since we established our business here in... Equestria at it is colloquially referred to by it's denizens." Dr. Pierce assured as the black bowman sat himself down. Instead of his standard black hood and garb, Oliver Queen was wearing a suit and tie, taking a peek at the Syndicate's income from the time it had taken. Only days, and business was booming. As it turned out, when horses were bright, colorful and cheery looking, instead of dog food and glue, they could provide dog food, glue and venom.

"I should get Thea one of these for her birthday." The dark archer commented as he took a look at several of the equines locked in the various cages.

"I am certain your sister will greatly appreciate her older brother giving her a gift." Dr. Pierce nodded as he grabbed his clipboard. "Now then. Thomas currently has asked for... um... these are very odd orders."

"What is it?"

"You are to sever off the horns of every unicorn you see and give them to him."

"And why do I have to do this again?"

"Then have some of those thugs to do it instead. That's assuming Mr. Queen, you have better things to do other than contemplate your memories of Starfish island."

"I do actually. I have had my eyes set on several members of the syndicate I intend to bring over. As well as a job application that was sent out, it was accepted by a very reputable assassin."

"His name?"

"William Randolph Wintergreen. He prefers Billy though."

"Before we start." Slade began as he somehow changed from a two piece suit into his gear just by walking behind a car door. "I should remind everyone that the moment we get in, y'all have about ten seconds before you find yourselves in pieces.... if you don't react quite enough."

"Kindly be more specific?" Widow asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Roughly speaking, every man here was given orders to kill anyone... yeah. Anyone. Connect the dots from there." Slade continued as he watched Clint put on his shades and flip out his bow.

"What kind of people are we dealing with?"

"Just your average street thug who was offered a substantial fee." Slade replied watching as Clint gave a small nod and fitted his arrows to his bow. "When you start finding yourselves surrounded by elite assassins, you might want to start taking it seriously. If... you are that type of man."

The archer gave little reply as he readied himself, watching his partner flip out two pistols. From beneath their coats, Sanya and Eila readied their guns. Slade gave them all a nod, before producing an explosive pouch from his pockets.

KNOCK KNOCK.

The fact that there were a bunch of bodies in some of the sacks of "gold" gave much indication to what type of men they were dealing with. The type that Barton liked just enough to put an arrow through. As his projectiles sang through their air, he took a look to Nat who like him, was finding this to be a rather easy operation. Why Slade was even concerned in the first place would have been a mystery to him, if he hadn't mentioned some band of ninjas and highly trained assassins. Seeing how they still have not yet arrived yet, the situation was as of now still, under their control.

"Is... is he...?" Widow asked as she took a look at Slade.

"Fighting men with guns with one hand behind his back? That is indeed what he is doing." Barton nodded as he watched Slade perform his magic on a mob of five men. Speaking of magic. "Okay. I am seeing things. I definitely am. Are those...?"

"Cat ears?" Widow nodded as she watched the blue disk float in the air, covering Sanya and Eila from harm while the former carried a gym bag to the large door on the other side. "Yep."

"30 seconds!" Slade called as the sounds of a man hitting steel at lethal speeds hit the air.

"Until what?"

"Oh wait... I am late."

"Late?"

The black arrow that flew through the air described exactly what he meant. If it hadn't been for fast reflexes, Clint would have had an arrow right in the chest. Instead, there was a broken black arrow on the ground, severed in two by the one Hawkeye had fired from his bow.

The man in the black hood was quite hard to miss. From behind him, as though he had split into three people, two more men of eerily same height stepped right out. Bows and blades in hand.

"People on my level huh?" Hawkeye mused as the three men rushed at him. Swerving and weaving to avoid the arrows, the archer fired off another at one of the men. As predicted, he would avoid the arrow, but hitting him wasn't the point. Because the moment it passed his head area, a massive bang flashed throughout, causing him to cry out in pain. If someone couldn't see you, they sure as hell couldn't fight you. The two arrows in his chest would be testament to that statement as the rest of the assassins closed in.
Good thing Hawkeye was quite a good CQC fighter. A pistol shot from Nat would mean he only had one man to worry about, while Widow herself would have to worry about the woman in the red and black grab with the sword who swung at her viciously.

"How old is he again?" Eila grinned as Sanya's shield bounced off a pair of throwing knives. Slade had begun to use his sword, and was currently surrounded by three men who all clove nothing but the air with their blades. It would be quite hard to believe that Slade was confronting some of the most skilled killers on the face of the planet when they seemed to have so much issues in hitting him. Even more so when Slade caused one of them to kill his own comrade. The shocked assassin was only shocked for about a single nanosecond, but that was all Slade needed as he grabbed him by the head and slammed him into the wall. When his still-living teammate attempted to help him, all he did was had Slade's armored foot end up right in his face.

"Too easy." Deathstroke commented as he found himself surrounded by more and more of Ras' men and women. Drawing his blade, he allowed over sixty years of combat experience to be freely used as he drastically thinned about the assassins. Elsewhere, Clint had left his attacker dangling from the ceiling, the arrow that was lodged in was the only thing that stopped him from a fatal drop. While that, Nat was doing quite well despite being in a situation that was rather similar to Slade's.

Time to try it. Slade thought as he braced himself properly. Smashing the staff into the ground, he leaped up into the air look an Olympic pole vaulter, sent himself up into the air as he pressed the trigger upon the staff. The blue beam of light that erupted from below sent quite the blast through the ground as men and women found themselves being scattered in all directions. A few dozen perfectly executed bullets from a pair of SMGS finished the rest of the job.

"There's still more!" Eila pointed two more men in hoods approached Slade. The assassin almost welcomed them with open arms giving them the impression he was telling them to hit him non-verbally. That was not what happened at all.

One of them slumped over. While the other one began to spasm and jerk around as though he was having a seizure. When their bodies fell over, it revealed a man in a green hood with a green bow.

"Slade." The man acknowledged in withheld fury as he fired an arrow with blindingly speeds. The arrow that was fired would have taken out Slade's other eye, except with a expertly aimed shot, Clint had sent that arrow into two pieces.

"Nice shot!" Green Arrow congratulated. "But my friend has a nicer kick!"

Clint would have reacted faster under most circumstances, but he felt as though he had been hit by a cruise ship as he found himself sailing through the air. When he looked up, he saw the sight that would send most mortal men quivering in fear. His excellent eyesight got him an excellent view of the night. The Dark Knight.

Taking off his shattered sunglasses, the archer got to his feet quickly, launching an arrow straight at Batman. His opponent simply caught it, and snapped it in half with his thumb as he approached the archer.

Clint knew how to swing a hefty punch. But he could scarcely believe himself when the guy in the bat costume caught his fist. A flame of pain shot through Hawkeye as he felt his bones being shattered from the man's grip alone. He tried punching him again, only to have his other hand caught, and to have the wind knocked out of him as Batman's knee went right into his gut. He only got his grip on reality back when he felt himself being thrown down the catwalk, hitting the ground hard as the guy in the bat costume turned his attention to Nat who held her guns at the ready.

Slade looked up for a split second at the sight of the one man he respected, watching as Widow's guns went flying out of her hands from the batarangs.

A split second meant a lot to Green Arrow. Right now was opportune for him to shoot Slade with another arrow. Normally, he would use non-lethal arrows, but Slade? Slade was an exception. Aiming straight for the man's gut (to not accidentally kill him), the hood fired his arrow.

A split second still meant that Slade had half a second to move out of the way. Which was plenty. When he moved, Green Arrow got to see it all in slow motion. Instead of hitting a metahuman in the gut with a razor sharp arrow, he was going to take the head off a small girl with silver white hair. His shock could scarcely be contained as his mouth hung open.

His shock was going to be at something else other than infanticide when he saw her hand come up and wrap around the arrow. She looked at the green arrow for a moment and looked back at him before winking rather mischievously.

"Thanks for the arrow!" Eila said as she stuck out her tongue impudently. Finding a piece of loose rubble, she flung it straight at Oliver Queen with such force, that it would have knocked out all the teeth in his mouth had it connected. He only had a few words.

"What the hell?!"

But before he could piece together the fact that some random kid caught one of his arrows, his head snapped at the direction of a now-recovered Hawkeye, who was aiming an arrow straight at his head.

Fortunately, his reflexes were quite good.

There were few people that ever had gave Nat trouble in a fist fight. The Winter Soldier was a good example, but as of now, this man (or monster) underneath the bat costume sent not only pulses of fear throughout her that even the most jarring of all scenes had failed to do, but fought with such skill and ferocity that Widow found herself fighting for her very life. Whatever was underneath that cowl, could not have been human. The way it moved, the way it fought, and the way those two eyes starred into her.

She felt herself being tossed like a piece of paper with this... thing as it knocked her straight against the other side of the catwalk, approaching her slowly like a patient murderer. Instead however, the death at the hands of a dark knight was not to be, as Batman soon found himself being pulled down into the same floor with Slade who had a gun ready. Batman however, already had a batarang ready as it sailed into Slade's neck area, giving him a neat nick.

"Batman!" Slade called almost cheerily. "How good of us to meet again."

"Slade." Batman replied as his eyes narrowed. Closing the distance between them with almost inhuman speed, Batman swung a heavy blow at Slade. To say Sanya was surprised Slade didn't lose his head would be an understatement. Instead, his mask broke neatly in two as Slade flew backwards. He got up, wiped his lip of the thin line of carmine and rushed Batman with a scream.

There were few creatures that demanded as much fear as Batman, and Slade knew that better than anyone as Batman's hands locked around his blade. The likelihood Batman would defeat him wasn't high.

Slade laughed inwardly as his headbutt sent Batman staggering back, while the Dark Knight's foot caused him to gasp for air. The chances of even HIM coming CLOSE to killing the bat certainly wasn't high either.

"So, still not killing these days?" Slade asked rhetorically as he faced off against his old friend. Despite beginning to age himself, the guy in the bat costume still hit harder than most superhumans. Then again, when you could cripple a man without much effort, what need was there to kill? Perhaps there was always a motive that Slade never quite understood about the guy in the bat costume, but it's like he ever cared too much to deduce what it was. In the corner of his eye, he spotted Hawkeye squaring off against Green Arrow while Nat busily made her way down. A small fall in rubble told Slade that some of the league's bigger guns were coming in.

After all, the Amazonian was quite a force to be reckoned with.

Sanya and Eila both came from a place that was a dozen times more... strange... then a woman that just broke a hole in a few meters worth of concrete and came floating down. Slade's signal had meant that he wanted some support fire. As Sanya remained on prying open the door, Eila grabbed her pistol and fired a shot. She wasn't exactly keen on killing anybody, but as of now, it's not like morals could be in the way when Slade had described these people as some of the most dangerous men and women in existence. The bullet that flew at her should have cut her through the head. Until she raised her arms and deflected it with her bracelets.

"Wh...what?" Eila asked almost in disbelief as she realized that she now had the very bad attention of a super human. Most bullets never even as much as were felt by Wonder Woman when deflected by her bracelets. Thing was, a magically imbued one certainly made itself felt as the ringing pain remained. She looked at the two children behind the crate.

Bloody brats...

Comments

[Quasar4000]

I'm starting to feel quite confused by this now.

[Malcolm Merlyn]

5387568
Yep. Shouldn't have written this while drinking coffee. I'll make edits later.

-Oliver Queen. There are two Olivers. (One of them is his evil-counterpart from an alternate universe, who... um... is simply a shameless knockoff of putting Oliver Queen in a supervillian's costume).

-Dr. Pierce is Black Lightning's evil twin. (Pretty interesting character. Though I played around with it for a future Gus Fring reference).

-The League of Shadows stole Slade's... diamond that got him to Equestria. He's trying to get it back (they stashed it in the JP Morgan's gold vault underneath Manhattan). This will lead to FUN.

-Crime syndicate is using well... ponies for heinous purposes. Glue. Dog food. And Venom. Owlman has a better idea.

[Danbrixton]

awesome use of musical links as always... but i feel your buildup is going too slow while each chapter is going too fast. does that make sense?

[Quasar4000]

5387742
I get that, but I was talking about the story plot. It doesn't seem to make sense anymore.

[Malcolm Merlyn]

5388467
The song is too slow? Or is the writing slow but the progression is fast? I am sorry, I don't understand

[Malcolm Merlyn]

5388515
OH OKAY. Well here's what's really going on.
Two storylines.
The first one is the one with the entire TF2 team. Gray decided to sell hats to Equesrtria, and the guys are here to stop him. Mostly written for satire.

The second one is where Slade and everyone else is concerned. Owlman is going to do.... stuff that will not be said. Slade... deciding he likes being alive. Is going to stop him. (A big difference I am highlighting is that Slade is not stopping him because he wants to play the hero, because he HAS to do it unless y'all want to forget about living.)

[Danbrixton]

5389189 the events happening in the story feel a bit rushed while progression of the story all together seems to be going too slow

[Malcolm Merlyn]

5390505
Okay thank you.