Post by The Wonderful Wachter on Jan 26, 2012 0:23:35 GMT -5
Ultimate Brave and the Bold #5
Real Heroes Wear Pink Pt 2
Flamingo is Here
”<Eduardo,>” barked Brutale, fruitlessly slashing at incoming whip strikes with his only remaining knife. ”<You’re a long way from home.>”
The man in pink, the infamous Flamingo, did not utter a single word in response. He didn’t need to. He was the only man in the world who could wear such garish colors and still strike fear into the hearts of the Cartels, Royal Flush Gang, and anyone else who dared deny justice. Took courage for a man to walk out in pink. Took an I-don’t-give-a-crap attitude to stand up to criminals while in the same colors.
The whip slapped out again and again until it finally succeeded in knocking the knife away. Brutale turned to flee yet with strength only a man who had watched his family skinned alive before him could muster, Flaming snapped the whip out again to wrap about the killer’s legs and yank him off his feet, Slowly, surely, he pulled butcher of his kin closer.
The tell-tale whistle of an incoming RPG drove past Más’s pain. Drawing on the brief bit of the Speed Force he could touch, he leaped to his feet and tackled his hero just outside of the blast radius. The pair flew head-over-tail, Diego’s back on fire and shrapnel bouncing off his hyper-extended muscles. They crashed down atop an SUV, the speedster taking most of the impact and probably saving Flamingo’s life even as it stamped out his burning back.
Stumbling upright, Flamingo spared his savior only a glance before he searched the wrecked street for Brutale. Nowhere. Just as he expected. Instead, a line of Pips of Spade appeared out of the smoke; some carrying heavy weapons and others needing none. The Royal Flush Gang had shown their hand.
Flamingo laughed and reloaded his sidearm as they approached. Research had been done. The American Spades and Clubs had some sort of honor code to them. They’d give him time to defend himself before their superiors ordered their deaths. And death it would be. There was no love lost between Flamingo and the Royal Flush Gang.
“No,” mumbled Diego weakly. “Don’t… don’t kill them.”
Never taking his eyes off the eight pips that stood between him and the object of his revenge, Flamingo grunted a denial. It had turned into a standoff. The pips waited uneager, knowing they were there only to kill time as Brutale escaped. Flamingo on the other hand considered the most efficient way to take them down.
Blam! Blam!
He fired off two shots for six take downs. The first high caliber round went straight through the head of 7 and into 8. The second hit the foot of 9 who in turn accidently misfired another grenade straight into the chest of the muscular 5. They were scared stiff then he exploded like a pile of meat with a firecracker stuck inside, showering the others with gore and taking down 2 and 3 with him. The 4 of Spades turned tail and ran. 6 went to follow him. Whipping his whip back and forth he smacked a gun into the back of the former’s head, halting him, and shot the other.
The sound of a new arrival caused him to spin around, gun raised but small arms fire would do nothing to the flying tank and Booster Gold. He holstered his weapon as Blue Beetle dropped from the Bug while the floating robot and his owner checked on Más’s health. More heroes come to play. More heroes to interfere with Brutale’s Just Deserts.
“<Eduardo Flaming,>” Ted said with intense venom in his voice. “<You’re not welcome in my city.>”
Flamingo ignored him and turned to walk away. A great force of concussive energy slammed fully into his back, lifting him clear off his feet and threw him into the gore of his making. Pink suit stained with blood, he twisted to stand, baring his teeth in a snarl.
“<Your predecessor knew better than to interfere with another man’s business, Beetle.>”
“<Yeah? Well, you’re interfering with mine. My city. My people. My team. Obviously it makes it MY business.>”
“<Brutale is my kill,>” growled the man in pink. “<I will not have that taken away from me.>” he pointed the gun straight at Blue Beetle’s goggles. “<Understood?>”
Ted looked around at the carnage then back at Más and back to Flamingo. “<Work together then. You saved Más, he saved you. I help you, you help me by no more killing.>”
A snort of derision. “<You help me? This can only end with a bullet to Guillermo’s skull. And what will you do then, hero? You’d be obliged to stop me.>”
“<Of course,>” Ted holstered his beetle-gun and held out his hand. “<But we’ll come to that when we get there. Until then, no more killing. No more wasting time discussing ethics. We stop Brutale first then go on from there, deal?>”
“Deal.”
---
Lady Shiva stepped nonchalantly over Helter Skelter’s corpse. Her face was that of contempt, of shame and disappointment in her former student. There should be no need to prove one’s self before a national venue. All one needed was to seek a foe, and strike them down with their bare hands. A true fighter did not need the confirmation one’s skill by anyone short of their master… or their student.
“Master,” Cheshire whispered softly and chose her words carefully. The snoopies could hear and see all. “What are you doing here?”
Slow, calculating steps, Lady Shiva came ever closer. “Can one not come to check on the progress of her Grinning Cat?”
Experience kept Cheshire’s sais at the ready. She stood strong, aware and waiting. The cameras watched the encounter between master and student. Not something she was sure she wanted to be in the public eye. Certainly not one that might end up with more than one broken bone on her part.
“I’ve been here for months. Why now?”
“I saw how you fought without your cheats. Shameful.”
“Mo-Master…”
“Never could say no to that smile…” Shiva was almost upon her now. Any closer and she’d be able to strike. “Another student of mine has come to call this city home. I would like to find him to decide if he is worthy to continue his so called mission.”
Lady Shiva attacked low, her blow aimed to disable in one of the most painful ways possible. Eyes widening behind her mask, Cheshire flipped a sai down in the same instant Shiva’s fingers met flesh. Their tips sank a few centimeters and a pained-filled hiss escaped Cheshire’s lungs. It would have left most people, even most fighters, paralyzed in agony but not a student of Lady Shiva. Pain meant nothing to them. Cut an arm off, you still had one left. Lose that and you had your legs. When it came down to it, you’d always have your mouth… if you were still alive.
Phasing free, Cheshire pivoted around and solidified in time to a miss a rib-bruising blow with the bottom of her sai. A roundhouse from nowhere connected with Cheshire’s mask, smashing circuitry and opening a wound her forehead. A follow up and she caught pant leg on the tip of her blade. Enough of a distraction for Shiva to back off and her to activate her camouflage mode. Slipping aside, she followed the slice with a kick of her own.
Shiva dropped down, her uppercut clacking teeth together. Before she could recover, an elbow met the Cheshire mask, forcing a portion to fall free into pieces. Green eye watered over as cutting wind bit into her skin. It brought her down to her knees. A retaliatory slash to the thighs resulted in Lady Shiva twisting her wrist backwards.
A flicker and the whole world saw Jade’s pain.
Whistle in the wind.
Beep……Beep…..Beep…Beep!
A flashing batarang buried itself in the street between Shiva and Cheshire. By the second beep, Shiva backflipped free and dove free. The second brought with it Batwoman swooping in with her glider to grab Cheshire by the back of her shirt and lift her free of damage. The final brought with it…
BOOM!
Smoke and rubble exploded in the air, showering the broken street with even more rocks and wreckage, adding a new pothole to be fixed with BatB money. Cheshire was set down none too gently out of range and Kate leaped below as she commanded the glider to circle above.
Lady Shiva walked boldly through the smoke, brushing dirt off her collar. “I recognized who trained you, girl.” She crouched into a ready stance. “But I’m better.”
“Not the way I hear it.” Kate’s eyes narrowed with unspoken threat.
A feeling of crumbling glass pressed into Shiva’s foot. She looked down to find a second batarang planted in the midst of the explosion. “Damn.”
Ice spread up her leg, freezing her in place.
---
Unbeknownst to Brutale, a baby-bug had attached itself to him, leading his enemies straight to his location. It was a nice hotel. Wait, Ted rechecked his information and noticed that it had been downgraded to only three stars in the recent months. More research led to the revelation that most of the rooms were booked by a series of false-IDs over and over again. Perhaps they had found the base. But that was unlikely. Brutale had to be smarter than to lead them straight to the heart of the Royal Flush Gang operating in Seigelville. Nevertheless, didn’t mean it they shouldn’t expect a trap.
The hotel was in semi-darkness, a result of the powergrid going down two blocks away as Kaldur fought tooth and nail with a being that absorbed electricity. Still smelled like a trap to Ted. The feeling was mutual in Flamingo. Both men had their guns ready.
The elevator was very obviously off limits. The stairs likely rigged. Ted elected for the direct route to follow Brutale. Shifting the setting on his beetle-gun, he a laser-thin beam cut through the ceiling, leaving a circle through which they could go. He reset his gun back to concussive and knelt with his hands out. Flamingo saw where he was going with it and sprung off the hands to land on the second floor. A zip-line later, Ted followed.
It was quiet. Empty. He brought up a hologram schematic off the projector built into his wrist. The icon indicating Brutale’s bug was about a hundred feet south in a large room rented out for dining occasions. Before the double doors, he slipped a camera underneath to find a darkened room filled with what looked like mannequins.
He showed Flamingo.
Flamingo shrugged and kicked the doors open.
Glowing eyes activated, turning to face the heroes.
Androids. Great.
A stream of concentrated fire erupted from Gatling-arms, littering the wall with bullet holes. Flamingo and Ted threw themselves to the ground as the high-caliber rounds tore through everything above them.
“Great… The 100.”
“100?”
“Androids with a shared consciousness by an organic director I’ve never been able to find,” explained Ted as calmly as he could while screaming. “The first Blue Beetle ran up against them a few times back when they were The 10. Minor then. Now their master rents them out to the highest bidder as cannon fodder.”
“Ah,” Flamingo exclaimed, abandoning his native tongue. “Then I can destroy them.” Pulling out a grenade Ted didn’t know he had from his belt and tossed it into the room. The resulting explosion blew the machines to pieces and what little remained were crushed as they fell to the floor below. “Easy, Eh?”
“None too subtle,” Blue Beetle said as he stood. He clicked on his nightvision while Flamingo took care of the survivors. “Found him. Escaped through the vents.”
Line extended, Ted climbed first while Flamingo covered him. Then while the pink man crossed, Ted was forced to fire off a shot to end the existence of one last robot.
They clambered through the vent shafts, often forced to take side trips around traps and one time fight another batch of the 100. They were coming upon the signal when metal folded beneath them, steel twisting and prying at their costumes.
This room was lit with blinding light as the setting sun shined through a floor-to-ceiling mirror behind them. It allowed them to see the monsters around them. Dressed in some sort of gender-neutral blue tunics with Raggedy Ann hair and monstrous faces, the beings stared at them from the wings. Armed with more knives, Brutale waited for them.
“<Guillermo, making new friends I see.>”
“<I’ll kill you this time, you pink bastard.>”
Flamingo made as to ready his gun but instead he reached for Ted. Surprised, Beetle had no time to react before he crashed through the glass and dropped several stories below. From the snoopies in the room, he heard the words of Flamingo. “<This is for my family,>”
Arms caught Ted before he could splatter on the concrete. Booster Gold had arrived. “You really should look into flying without the Bug.”
“I’ll get on that with the next Blue Beetle suit.” He responded sarcastically. “Quick we need to get back up—“
An explosion rocked the building’s foundation and smoke funneled out the broken window…
---
Kord Electronics… Three hours later.
“Eduardo Flamingo is not dead,” stated Amanda Waller without missing a beat.
Ted stared at her like she had just said Superman crossdressed in his alter-ego. “I saw it. I went over the crime scene. Forensics is still there. For god’s sake,” he screamed, “I found pieces.”
Waller’s expression did not change. This meeting was done with almost the utmost secrecy. Checkmate had vetted each and every hero within the Brave and the Bold but they didn’t appreciate being seen as associates. She had requested – read: ordered – Ted’s presence in his office back at the local Kord Electronics manufacturing facility. Important matter according to her.
She did not sit down. Standing, she definitely brought to mind the nickname others had given to her. “Be that as it may, he is not dead.” Her voice cooled. “Do you understand?”
Ted eased his tie free of his neck. He put his hands together on his desk and tapped his fingers in defiant behavior. Waller watched with arms folded and in complete silence. A long silence. One that went on far too long for his liking.
“No. I don’t. Explain it to me.”
“Fear of Flamingo is the only thing keeping the Latin America Cartels in check. Especially those who deal in meta-drugs. Checkmate can’t have them suddenly realize they can expand unhindered. We simply don’t have the numbers.”
“I see.”
“Then you also see that I’m going to have to commandeer all your footage of Flamingo, anything mentioning him, and your little robotic adventure.”
“And his sacrifice.”
“What sacrifice?” Her voice was steady. “Flamingo did not die. We’re taking the footage and you’re deleting everything from your mainframe.”
“Go to hell.”
The faintest smiles crossed Waller’s lips, eyelids closing a fraction. “You and your heroes operate only because Checkmate allows it.”
“I call that bluff. You can’t take us off the air and revoke our credentials. It’d look bad.” He spread his arms wide, harmlessly. “Besides, I’d stop outfitting your people with that fancy gear of yours. I really don’t need your contract.”
“Then you leave me no choice,” Waller made for the door, “I’ll simply have to go public with what you have hidden in the basement. I’m sure your fellow heroes and darling fanbase not to mention investors will look well upon you after that.”
All color drained from Ted’s face. He had thought he kept that a secret. Quickly, he ran the scenario that she was bluffing again. Entirely possible. He was a super scientist. They always had something hidden away in the basement. Though of course his wasn’t literal. And it obviously wasn’t the scarab. Checkmate knew that secret.
“Your mentor would be rolling around in his grave…” She was almost to the door. “Oh wait. What grave?”
“Take the goddamn footage.”
Ted slouched in his chair, a defeated man.
---
Three figures hovered below the surgical lamp blinding him. One was a scarred face he recognized, that made his heart beat with rage and leap to his feet. Though he couldn’t leap to his feet. He couldn’t feel anything below his neck. “Guillermo…” he croaked through a scorched throat.
“Eduardo.” Brutale smiled. “<I’m happy to say you’ve brought me out of retirement. Had my surgical equipment shipped in just for the occasion.>”
The second figure snorted. He was overweight and smelled of blood and sweat. But neither feature could explain the pig mask that covered all but his mouth.
The third glared the other two into silence. He wore black from head to toe. Including the party mask above his nose.
“<Don’t worry, you won’t remember a thing.>”
The light from the lamp reflected off a scalpel in Brutale’s hands. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw what was as much at home in the tool shed as they were on the surgical table. The saw buzzed. The drill spun.
Eduardo Flamingo knew only pain.
---
The criminal underworld talk in whispers about a man they feared named Eduardo Flamingo. A good man who fought the mob until they cut his brain apart and took away everything human. They made him return home and kill his wife, his children, and everyone and everything he’d ever loved.
And on that day Eduardo Flamingo took his place as the King of Killers, the Ace of Assassins. On that day, Flamingo became Death.
And so Death leaves Seigelville… for now.
Real Heroes Wear Pink Pt 2
Flamingo is Here
”<Eduardo,>” barked Brutale, fruitlessly slashing at incoming whip strikes with his only remaining knife. ”<You’re a long way from home.>”
The man in pink, the infamous Flamingo, did not utter a single word in response. He didn’t need to. He was the only man in the world who could wear such garish colors and still strike fear into the hearts of the Cartels, Royal Flush Gang, and anyone else who dared deny justice. Took courage for a man to walk out in pink. Took an I-don’t-give-a-crap attitude to stand up to criminals while in the same colors.
The whip slapped out again and again until it finally succeeded in knocking the knife away. Brutale turned to flee yet with strength only a man who had watched his family skinned alive before him could muster, Flaming snapped the whip out again to wrap about the killer’s legs and yank him off his feet, Slowly, surely, he pulled butcher of his kin closer.
The tell-tale whistle of an incoming RPG drove past Más’s pain. Drawing on the brief bit of the Speed Force he could touch, he leaped to his feet and tackled his hero just outside of the blast radius. The pair flew head-over-tail, Diego’s back on fire and shrapnel bouncing off his hyper-extended muscles. They crashed down atop an SUV, the speedster taking most of the impact and probably saving Flamingo’s life even as it stamped out his burning back.
Stumbling upright, Flamingo spared his savior only a glance before he searched the wrecked street for Brutale. Nowhere. Just as he expected. Instead, a line of Pips of Spade appeared out of the smoke; some carrying heavy weapons and others needing none. The Royal Flush Gang had shown their hand.
Flamingo laughed and reloaded his sidearm as they approached. Research had been done. The American Spades and Clubs had some sort of honor code to them. They’d give him time to defend himself before their superiors ordered their deaths. And death it would be. There was no love lost between Flamingo and the Royal Flush Gang.
“No,” mumbled Diego weakly. “Don’t… don’t kill them.”
Never taking his eyes off the eight pips that stood between him and the object of his revenge, Flamingo grunted a denial. It had turned into a standoff. The pips waited uneager, knowing they were there only to kill time as Brutale escaped. Flamingo on the other hand considered the most efficient way to take them down.
Blam! Blam!
He fired off two shots for six take downs. The first high caliber round went straight through the head of 7 and into 8. The second hit the foot of 9 who in turn accidently misfired another grenade straight into the chest of the muscular 5. They were scared stiff then he exploded like a pile of meat with a firecracker stuck inside, showering the others with gore and taking down 2 and 3 with him. The 4 of Spades turned tail and ran. 6 went to follow him. Whipping his whip back and forth he smacked a gun into the back of the former’s head, halting him, and shot the other.
The sound of a new arrival caused him to spin around, gun raised but small arms fire would do nothing to the flying tank and Booster Gold. He holstered his weapon as Blue Beetle dropped from the Bug while the floating robot and his owner checked on Más’s health. More heroes come to play. More heroes to interfere with Brutale’s Just Deserts.
“<Eduardo Flaming,>” Ted said with intense venom in his voice. “<You’re not welcome in my city.>”
Flamingo ignored him and turned to walk away. A great force of concussive energy slammed fully into his back, lifting him clear off his feet and threw him into the gore of his making. Pink suit stained with blood, he twisted to stand, baring his teeth in a snarl.
“<Your predecessor knew better than to interfere with another man’s business, Beetle.>”
“<Yeah? Well, you’re interfering with mine. My city. My people. My team. Obviously it makes it MY business.>”
“<Brutale is my kill,>” growled the man in pink. “<I will not have that taken away from me.>” he pointed the gun straight at Blue Beetle’s goggles. “<Understood?>”
Ted looked around at the carnage then back at Más and back to Flamingo. “<Work together then. You saved Más, he saved you. I help you, you help me by no more killing.>”
A snort of derision. “<You help me? This can only end with a bullet to Guillermo’s skull. And what will you do then, hero? You’d be obliged to stop me.>”
“<Of course,>” Ted holstered his beetle-gun and held out his hand. “<But we’ll come to that when we get there. Until then, no more killing. No more wasting time discussing ethics. We stop Brutale first then go on from there, deal?>”
“Deal.”
---
Lady Shiva stepped nonchalantly over Helter Skelter’s corpse. Her face was that of contempt, of shame and disappointment in her former student. There should be no need to prove one’s self before a national venue. All one needed was to seek a foe, and strike them down with their bare hands. A true fighter did not need the confirmation one’s skill by anyone short of their master… or their student.
“Master,” Cheshire whispered softly and chose her words carefully. The snoopies could hear and see all. “What are you doing here?”
Slow, calculating steps, Lady Shiva came ever closer. “Can one not come to check on the progress of her Grinning Cat?”
Experience kept Cheshire’s sais at the ready. She stood strong, aware and waiting. The cameras watched the encounter between master and student. Not something she was sure she wanted to be in the public eye. Certainly not one that might end up with more than one broken bone on her part.
“I’ve been here for months. Why now?”
“I saw how you fought without your cheats. Shameful.”
“Mo-Master…”
“Never could say no to that smile…” Shiva was almost upon her now. Any closer and she’d be able to strike. “Another student of mine has come to call this city home. I would like to find him to decide if he is worthy to continue his so called mission.”
Lady Shiva attacked low, her blow aimed to disable in one of the most painful ways possible. Eyes widening behind her mask, Cheshire flipped a sai down in the same instant Shiva’s fingers met flesh. Their tips sank a few centimeters and a pained-filled hiss escaped Cheshire’s lungs. It would have left most people, even most fighters, paralyzed in agony but not a student of Lady Shiva. Pain meant nothing to them. Cut an arm off, you still had one left. Lose that and you had your legs. When it came down to it, you’d always have your mouth… if you were still alive.
Phasing free, Cheshire pivoted around and solidified in time to a miss a rib-bruising blow with the bottom of her sai. A roundhouse from nowhere connected with Cheshire’s mask, smashing circuitry and opening a wound her forehead. A follow up and she caught pant leg on the tip of her blade. Enough of a distraction for Shiva to back off and her to activate her camouflage mode. Slipping aside, she followed the slice with a kick of her own.
Shiva dropped down, her uppercut clacking teeth together. Before she could recover, an elbow met the Cheshire mask, forcing a portion to fall free into pieces. Green eye watered over as cutting wind bit into her skin. It brought her down to her knees. A retaliatory slash to the thighs resulted in Lady Shiva twisting her wrist backwards.
A flicker and the whole world saw Jade’s pain.
Whistle in the wind.
Beep……Beep…..Beep…Beep!
A flashing batarang buried itself in the street between Shiva and Cheshire. By the second beep, Shiva backflipped free and dove free. The second brought with it Batwoman swooping in with her glider to grab Cheshire by the back of her shirt and lift her free of damage. The final brought with it…
BOOM!
Smoke and rubble exploded in the air, showering the broken street with even more rocks and wreckage, adding a new pothole to be fixed with BatB money. Cheshire was set down none too gently out of range and Kate leaped below as she commanded the glider to circle above.
Lady Shiva walked boldly through the smoke, brushing dirt off her collar. “I recognized who trained you, girl.” She crouched into a ready stance. “But I’m better.”
“Not the way I hear it.” Kate’s eyes narrowed with unspoken threat.
A feeling of crumbling glass pressed into Shiva’s foot. She looked down to find a second batarang planted in the midst of the explosion. “Damn.”
Ice spread up her leg, freezing her in place.
---
Unbeknownst to Brutale, a baby-bug had attached itself to him, leading his enemies straight to his location. It was a nice hotel. Wait, Ted rechecked his information and noticed that it had been downgraded to only three stars in the recent months. More research led to the revelation that most of the rooms were booked by a series of false-IDs over and over again. Perhaps they had found the base. But that was unlikely. Brutale had to be smarter than to lead them straight to the heart of the Royal Flush Gang operating in Seigelville. Nevertheless, didn’t mean it they shouldn’t expect a trap.
The hotel was in semi-darkness, a result of the powergrid going down two blocks away as Kaldur fought tooth and nail with a being that absorbed electricity. Still smelled like a trap to Ted. The feeling was mutual in Flamingo. Both men had their guns ready.
The elevator was very obviously off limits. The stairs likely rigged. Ted elected for the direct route to follow Brutale. Shifting the setting on his beetle-gun, he a laser-thin beam cut through the ceiling, leaving a circle through which they could go. He reset his gun back to concussive and knelt with his hands out. Flamingo saw where he was going with it and sprung off the hands to land on the second floor. A zip-line later, Ted followed.
It was quiet. Empty. He brought up a hologram schematic off the projector built into his wrist. The icon indicating Brutale’s bug was about a hundred feet south in a large room rented out for dining occasions. Before the double doors, he slipped a camera underneath to find a darkened room filled with what looked like mannequins.
He showed Flamingo.
Flamingo shrugged and kicked the doors open.
Glowing eyes activated, turning to face the heroes.
Androids. Great.
A stream of concentrated fire erupted from Gatling-arms, littering the wall with bullet holes. Flamingo and Ted threw themselves to the ground as the high-caliber rounds tore through everything above them.
“Great… The 100.”
“100?”
“Androids with a shared consciousness by an organic director I’ve never been able to find,” explained Ted as calmly as he could while screaming. “The first Blue Beetle ran up against them a few times back when they were The 10. Minor then. Now their master rents them out to the highest bidder as cannon fodder.”
“Ah,” Flamingo exclaimed, abandoning his native tongue. “Then I can destroy them.” Pulling out a grenade Ted didn’t know he had from his belt and tossed it into the room. The resulting explosion blew the machines to pieces and what little remained were crushed as they fell to the floor below. “Easy, Eh?”
“None too subtle,” Blue Beetle said as he stood. He clicked on his nightvision while Flamingo took care of the survivors. “Found him. Escaped through the vents.”
Line extended, Ted climbed first while Flamingo covered him. Then while the pink man crossed, Ted was forced to fire off a shot to end the existence of one last robot.
They clambered through the vent shafts, often forced to take side trips around traps and one time fight another batch of the 100. They were coming upon the signal when metal folded beneath them, steel twisting and prying at their costumes.
This room was lit with blinding light as the setting sun shined through a floor-to-ceiling mirror behind them. It allowed them to see the monsters around them. Dressed in some sort of gender-neutral blue tunics with Raggedy Ann hair and monstrous faces, the beings stared at them from the wings. Armed with more knives, Brutale waited for them.
“<Guillermo, making new friends I see.>”
“<I’ll kill you this time, you pink bastard.>”
Flamingo made as to ready his gun but instead he reached for Ted. Surprised, Beetle had no time to react before he crashed through the glass and dropped several stories below. From the snoopies in the room, he heard the words of Flamingo. “<This is for my family,>”
Arms caught Ted before he could splatter on the concrete. Booster Gold had arrived. “You really should look into flying without the Bug.”
“I’ll get on that with the next Blue Beetle suit.” He responded sarcastically. “Quick we need to get back up—“
An explosion rocked the building’s foundation and smoke funneled out the broken window…
---
Kord Electronics… Three hours later.
“Eduardo Flamingo is not dead,” stated Amanda Waller without missing a beat.
Ted stared at her like she had just said Superman crossdressed in his alter-ego. “I saw it. I went over the crime scene. Forensics is still there. For god’s sake,” he screamed, “I found pieces.”
Waller’s expression did not change. This meeting was done with almost the utmost secrecy. Checkmate had vetted each and every hero within the Brave and the Bold but they didn’t appreciate being seen as associates. She had requested – read: ordered – Ted’s presence in his office back at the local Kord Electronics manufacturing facility. Important matter according to her.
She did not sit down. Standing, she definitely brought to mind the nickname others had given to her. “Be that as it may, he is not dead.” Her voice cooled. “Do you understand?”
Ted eased his tie free of his neck. He put his hands together on his desk and tapped his fingers in defiant behavior. Waller watched with arms folded and in complete silence. A long silence. One that went on far too long for his liking.
“No. I don’t. Explain it to me.”
“Fear of Flamingo is the only thing keeping the Latin America Cartels in check. Especially those who deal in meta-drugs. Checkmate can’t have them suddenly realize they can expand unhindered. We simply don’t have the numbers.”
“I see.”
“Then you also see that I’m going to have to commandeer all your footage of Flamingo, anything mentioning him, and your little robotic adventure.”
“And his sacrifice.”
“What sacrifice?” Her voice was steady. “Flamingo did not die. We’re taking the footage and you’re deleting everything from your mainframe.”
“Go to hell.”
The faintest smiles crossed Waller’s lips, eyelids closing a fraction. “You and your heroes operate only because Checkmate allows it.”
“I call that bluff. You can’t take us off the air and revoke our credentials. It’d look bad.” He spread his arms wide, harmlessly. “Besides, I’d stop outfitting your people with that fancy gear of yours. I really don’t need your contract.”
“Then you leave me no choice,” Waller made for the door, “I’ll simply have to go public with what you have hidden in the basement. I’m sure your fellow heroes and darling fanbase not to mention investors will look well upon you after that.”
All color drained from Ted’s face. He had thought he kept that a secret. Quickly, he ran the scenario that she was bluffing again. Entirely possible. He was a super scientist. They always had something hidden away in the basement. Though of course his wasn’t literal. And it obviously wasn’t the scarab. Checkmate knew that secret.
“Your mentor would be rolling around in his grave…” She was almost to the door. “Oh wait. What grave?”
“Take the goddamn footage.”
Ted slouched in his chair, a defeated man.
---
Three figures hovered below the surgical lamp blinding him. One was a scarred face he recognized, that made his heart beat with rage and leap to his feet. Though he couldn’t leap to his feet. He couldn’t feel anything below his neck. “Guillermo…” he croaked through a scorched throat.
“Eduardo.” Brutale smiled. “<I’m happy to say you’ve brought me out of retirement. Had my surgical equipment shipped in just for the occasion.>”
The second figure snorted. He was overweight and smelled of blood and sweat. But neither feature could explain the pig mask that covered all but his mouth.
The third glared the other two into silence. He wore black from head to toe. Including the party mask above his nose.
“<Don’t worry, you won’t remember a thing.>”
The light from the lamp reflected off a scalpel in Brutale’s hands. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw what was as much at home in the tool shed as they were on the surgical table. The saw buzzed. The drill spun.
Eduardo Flamingo knew only pain.
---
The criminal underworld talk in whispers about a man they feared named Eduardo Flamingo. A good man who fought the mob until they cut his brain apart and took away everything human. They made him return home and kill his wife, his children, and everyone and everything he’d ever loved.
And on that day Eduardo Flamingo took his place as the King of Killers, the Ace of Assassins. On that day, Flamingo became Death.
And so Death leaves Seigelville… for now.