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YJ: Origins (Ep9 - Ravager) Epilogue

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Hall of Justice
June 13th, 2017
5:26am EST


The rest of the team recooperated, as Batman briefed them all on a job well done. Whatever that was worth. Given that the team was now rather distrustful of his methods, in light of what had happened. Batman didn't blame them, this mission went down badly because of his decisions. He was taking bold risks like this, and it was in no small part because he still can't get his head back in the right place. Because of Jason.

Aquaman and Mera were transporting his treacherous brother into custody, to join his imprisoned cohorts of the Light. They should be happy to see him. Before the king of Atlantis left, however, he gave his sincerest thanks to Rose for all that she did. Especially knowing what Mera and Kaldur told him about her parentage.

Steve Trevor co-ordinated with Guardian over the Hall's main computer. There was no sign of the Fisherman.

And meanwhile, the senior members of the Team and of the League had to deal with the constant news feeds. That area of Washington had been closed off to the public and to the media, in light of the fact that the Team had just been exposed live on television. Would have been ten times worse if their identities had been revealed, but this was just as bad and was on every channel and every viral site or streaming service. Some enjoyed the battle, others now feared and questioned the League for employing "sidekicks" like some covert Seal Team 6.

As all this went on, Rose was somberly sitting on the roof staring out to the coming sunrise. She realized now how futile her destructive and murderous thirst for revenge truely was. The man she called father... he saved her and her mother and married her. Raised Rose like his own daughter. Then in twisted karma, she watched as her real father murdered the both of them. He didn't even know the truth when he took her eye, gave her that mark.

A one-eyed Wilson. Talk-about a birthmark to cement her true lineage. It haunted every fathom of her being.

Just then, she turned to see that Kaldur, Artemis, and the doofus who's half of Firestorm had joined her. She didn't reply. She turned her head in shame.

"I wasted my life..." she then said with a single tear, "on... revenge. I had it in my grasps and lost it all... to help you guys. Heh. I killed... all those people... to avenge a man who wasn't even my father. How did I... how did I never put it all together, I mean look at me! I was wearing his goddamn mask, I revelling in murdering and maiming people... just like... I'm... I'm everything that I ever hated about Slade Wilson. And all along, I've had his blood in my veins and on my hands"

She buried her head between her legs and bawled into them. She was a complete wreck. Kaldur and Artemis quietly and slowly sat down beside her. Ronnie just stood his distance with his arms crossed.

"Deathstroke may have the same genetics as you... but that does not make him your father" Kaldur said, which gave the teary-eyed Rose a stunned look.

"This Bill Wintergreen, he sounded like a pretty okay guy all-things considered" Ronnie spoke up, humbly opening up to Rose of all people. "Got you and your mom out of a bad situation, loved the both of you's like his own. Whether or knew he knew you weren't his didn't change what he was. He was the one that raised and cared for you. And speaking from personal experience, that's truely matters"

Rose was about to call both of them out before she remembered... that Kaldur found out under similar circumstances, that his blood father was actually a villain known as Black Manta. And while she didn't know it at the time, Ronnie had a stepson with Raquel Evans (Rocket). Far as Amistad should be concerned, Ronnie Raymond's the only dad that kid has ever had.

"They don't decide your destiny, only you can do that" Artemis then reiterated. Rose remembered what Artemis had told her about Sportsmaster.

"I know this is probably the hardest time for you right now. Unbearable pain that makes you question everything... including the sins of your violent past"

"Anyone ever tell you guys that you kinda stink at cheering people up?" Rose then told them, in a sense of sad and joking.

"Bear with us... I'm not so good with pep talks, but then again we've all had to grow up real quick in this business." Ronnie half-heartedly said in defense

"But what you have to hold onto is the good memories. Those of your real father. The ones that make you a Wintergreen... and not a Wilson" Artemis explained.

"If you truely want to honor your father, than you can start down a more noble path. Helping us could let you atone." Kaldur put a soft hand on her shoulder. He was a little touchy, Rose thought. And though he retracted it, once he caught a faint look from Rose, she wasn't... mad... she... she smiled. A genuine smile was something the two never thought they'd see. Ronnie nodded to Artemis. "That's a... start" he mumbled to himself

The light began to catch Rose's face as it started peeked from the purple dawn's sky. All four of them basked in the sunlight.

"You think I change... just like that?"

"I wouldn't expect you to instantly change. That kind of instinct and training doesn't go away" Artemis hoped to reassure her. It wasn't what she wanted to hear, though.

"So what did you do with it, then?" Rose asked. If she really wanted to start helping, start playing the hero.. she hoped maybe this ruthlessness and anger could be curbed.

"I guess I just... re-directed it. Re-channeled it into something productive."

"Letting off steam on masked men certainly helps in that res..." Ronnie stopped in his tracks after re-thinking that last sentance. A raised brow and odd smile from Rose made it sink it.  "wait, that went someplace horrible" Ronnie muttered with a facepalm.

"It helped that I allowed people in" Artemis tried to drolly get back on point, "Before long the guilt and the anger weren't eating me alive. I had a life to live for. Loved ones worth being with, that kind of stuff."

Rose shook her head, finding it hard to fathom that she could just let go of all that revenge that had driven her.

"We're still willing to offer you the chance" Kaldur told her.

"Even after everything I done, especially after what I did" she looked at Kaldur's wound. For the first time she was truely sorry about the shooting, even if it did save it life. It was for revenge like everything else she's done. His face could ready her sincere apology. "Yes" he calmly told her. He wouldn't have believed it a day ago, but he didn't hold any anger towards her. He and Artemis genuinely thought they could help her down a better path.

"The Team could do you good" Reassured her.

"So long as your willing make us a single promise" Ronnie then stated, and got Rose's undivided attention.

"No more killing?" she guessed. Ronnie looked to Kaldur, who nodded.

She took a deep breath, and started to compose herself. "Fine. You won't be seeing anymore bodies from me... 'cept this one of course" she said, while toyingly eyeing Kaldur. Ronnie cleared his throat, as the four stood up and faced the approaching sunrise.

"I don't think the League is gonna have any trouble approving you for the Team. With all our backing-" Artemis tried to say, before being cut off with a sassy hand from Rose.

"Ah-heh heh heh... who said I was gonna join with those rookies? I'm not exactly a team player"

The three were now greatly confused.

"But I suppose... if they or you need my help ... like I know you will... you'll know where to find me"

That earned a smile from the two heroes. At least her odd sense of humor hadn't been killed. They knew she wasn't a completely changed woman. She still had a lot of issues. "Better go tell the others" Artemis said as they headed back downstairs.

"We're gonna need a bigger Watchtower at this pont" Ronnie said aloud, thinking not just of Rose, but of Lorena, Carl Vorne, and a cadre of others in the last few months. "Teenage superheroes have been oddly coming out of the woodwork latel-"

"Wait" Rose then said.

"I'm not gonna stop hunting him" Rose then told the pair, "I-I know this is major what you're offering me, it's not that I'm ungrateful. Bt nothing's changed about that. I may not be letting anger and vengeance blind me, but I still have to find that man and avenge... my father"

"We know. And we can all help you with that... more importantly so can your new shadow" Kaldur told her.

"My... shadow?" she replied in confusion. "You talking about that Wolf?"

"Actually, pairing her with Wolf would be pretty badass" Ronnie thought for a second.

"I was thinking more of someone of the same species. She has the experience to help you track down Deathstroke" Artemis explained, "But you can think of her more as a League-approved Parole officer"

"It's not that we don't trust you or anything" Ronnie explained.

"Riiiiight. So what's her name?"

Unknown
June 26th, 2017
10:39pm


A moan of beastly grunts filled the echoing chambers, of some abandoned Amusement Park attraction. A hall of (now) broken mirrors. Within the darkened corridoors of glass, a large figure lumbered his way through. Dragging its knuckles with each thundering step. From what could be made out from the shadows, it had something flung over its shoulder.

Suddenly a flash of light caught the monster off guard in a blinding flash. A figure burst out from the remaining fragment of glass in one segment, bounding onto the floor as the creature got on its hindlegs and bellowed a roar at him.

"RAAAARRRRRH, YA SELF!" Mirror Master yelled back in his rough Scottish. He was in no mood, as angrily put the device of his back in his holster.

"I goht a beone tah peick wit you, monkey!" he approached the greast beast, it's yellow eyes staring down the irate Rogue.

Gorilla Grodd was in no mood either, as he growled and stormed his way through the doorframe at the end of the hall.

McCulloch followed right behind him, into a much larger back area filled with mechanical equipment and all manner of "behind the scenes" gizmos for this former funhouse attraction.

"Aftah all the wurk I did fo uew two! Ya repah me with a tip on ah gold heist, wit no gold!"

Grodd slammed whatever it was being carried over his shoulder, onto the ground with a ragged thud, as the ape turned back around and grabbed McCulloch by the collar.

"DON'T TAKE THAT TONE... WITH ME! YOU THISTLE-ARSE CRETIN!" the genetically altered ape's intellect had grown to the degree that he was able to speak like any human.

"Watch it, Magilla! It wahs your psychic gobblty goop daht pointed me towahd that shipment, so I think I'm owed-" just then he realized he'd been insulted by the talking ape. "Aye! What'd ya jhust call meh, ya damn dirty..."

McCulloch bite back as the ape angrily pulled the villain off his feet. The two were about to come to blows, as Evan reached to grab a device in his pocket, while Grodd's eyes began to glow (the precursor to his psychic abilites). But just then... another figure stepped out from the shadows and fired a shot over their heads. The atmosphere was silent now after that round.

"Enough" the white-beared, one-eyed, man said with great disdain. It was like dealing with children, these two. "Put him down already, he have more important business at hand!"

Grodd obliged and set Mirror Master back down, feet first. Slade holstered his gun and sat down on a workbench stool next to a long metal table.

"You're not worth the trouble" Grodd said with a snort from his nostrils.

"Dah sentimehnt is returned!" McCulloch then approached Slade, slamming both fists on the table. "And as foh uwe, I'll tell yah dah same thing I toll 'em. Dhat payment ove urs, for meh services on whatevah scheme uwe got brewin, it got me best girhl and me Rogues..."

"Arrested by the Justice League?" Slade knew where this heated conversation was going, as his remaining eye hatefully squinted. Mirror Master nodded. "They're constantly preying on all of us, now that the Light no longer occupies them"

"I'd had tought uwe were dweblecrosshin me, til Flash told me otherwise. Punk's nowh always a steph ahead of us!"

If there was one thing Mirror Master and Grodd could agree on, it was their shared hatred of the Flash. McCulloch had his personal history with him thanks to the Rogues, but Grodd personally held the former Kid Flash responsible for his downfall. After helping save his mate and child from the clutches of the Brain, the Flash then (in his eyes) betrayed him by thwarting his coup of Gorilla City, through the use of weapons bought from the Cult of Kobra.

Banishment from his family and his colony of apes has fed into the rage that drives him to seek revenge against Flash, and the entire Justice League. This hatred makes him a perfect counterpart and partner-in-crime to Slade Wilson.

"Very intriguing development to say the least" the intellectual-evolved Grodd growled with suspicion. "I'd personally love to dissect that hairless runt to see what heightened his abilities."

"Whatevah... pohint is, uwe owe meh big to mayke up for dah gold. Ahnd tah help get me pals outta jail!"

"Time and place, McCulloch" Slade reminded the Mirror Master of priorities. "However, if Grodd was successful on this evening's hunt... you may not have to worry much longer about the Flash."

Eyes turned toward the ape, as he let out a smile with his massive fangs.

"Well?" Slade asked, as he kicked the lump of unconcious vagrant lying on the floor. Grodd took a massive palm flipped the figure he abducted over on his side. The long black-beared man was starting to come to whilst on the cold floor.

"So you found dah mystehry man, eh. Where wahs he?" McCulloch raised a brow of suprise. These two he had joined up with had been searching for this specific man since Deathstroke escaped Corto Maltese.

"Gotham City" the ape said with disgust. It would take forever to get the stench of that town out of his fur.

"You'll never find a more wretched hive..." Deathstroke admitted.

Slowly the raggid vagrant's eyes opened, and the man moaned as he tried to pick himself up. Grodd's psychic attack (to knock him out for transport) took quite a toll on him.

But the bum soon awoke to his full senses when he looked up to see the fearsome visage of Gorilla Grodd. He screamed aloud and crawled backwards in sheer terror.

"Rheal people pehrson, ain't ya?" Evan mocked the ape.

Just as the bearded man was reacting to this fright, something else terrified him much worse. Slade flipped a switch on the side of the wall that turned on the lights in this backroom (dimmed however so not as to attract attention). As these bright lights flickered on, the hum rang in his ears like hellish wails. His eyes were nearly bursting out of his skull and he was turning pale.

He screamed louder than before, and ducked straight under the metal table for cover. Like a terrified dog, fleeing the hand of an abusive owner. He was whimpering like one too... the grown man was literally whimpering.

"Oh yeah... ouh troubles ahre over" Mirror Master rolled his eyes at this pathetic display of a man. Slade peered down and stared into the sheepishly petrified eyes of this vagabond, he's hunted down people with more spines that this sorry man.

"Well, there is a... resemblance." Slade was trying to sound skepitcal of the validity of this man's identity. The quarry Grodd believed him to be.

"Please. Don't insult my intelligence, Slade!" Grodd said with great annoyance towards the one-eyed human. "This doesn't lie..." tapping his fingers on the cerebral lobe of his hairy skull. "It's him alright. It's just that the Martian, she did quite the number on him"

"Miss Mahtian, eh?" McCulloch was now intrigued, given all the bad press he'd heard about her while working with Deathstroke and Grodd. "She usually lohbotomized croohks and left 'em as vehgetables, though... guess he musta been ah vehy bad boy"

"You have no idea" Slade scratched his beard, while McCulloch let that last comment settle in. He was now a little disconcerted.

"It'll take some time to mend the damage she's done" Grodd explained to Slade, it wasn't going to be easy. Even with his abilities. As he did this, he took the table the vagrant was hiding under and flipped it aside with tremendous strength.

He gnarled his teeth at the still terrified bum, as he thrashed and yelled, trying to hide from the lights above. Every time he looked into them, intense pain and flashes of some evil monster burned into his retinas and sent him into a panic. He sat cowering in Grodd's massive shadow, hiding from these visions that have driven him onto the streets a deranged lunatic.

Eventually Slade stepped forward and then crouched down on his knees. He took his hand grabbed the bum by the chin, forcing his head upright so he could have a discussion with him.

"Do you know... who you are?"

Nothing, just petrified shaking and the sweat of fear coming over every little pore in his face. Cold eyes of a frightened animal, meeting the cold eyes of a predator looking for revenge.

"Don't worry. You're in good hands now" Slade reassured, him with a sinister tone, as Mirror Master and Grodd stood beside him. "We'll help you to remember everything. Help you find and kill the monster that did this."

The monster... it flashed before his eyes again. But now this man's words were seeping into his thoughts. He could... he could make it go away. He could finally kill... her?

"And then together we'll be the ones instilling fear, making the League suffer like we have" Slade continued, as he lent a hand and helped the mentally disturbed man to his weakened feet.

"It won't be long before everyone knows your name... Arthur." Slade could see that hit the right cord, within the fractured mind of this scared pathethic man. His eyes lit up, but without the knowledge as to why exactly.

Deathstroke would have his revenge on Batman and the Justice League, once Dr. Arthur Light was back to his old insidious self. Armed with every dirty secret the heroes had up in that Watchtower.

Starting with the Martian.

Tropidor
June 27th, 2017
11:17am PST


All things considered, the Fisherman was taking the complete and utter collapse of his terrorist organization rather well. His trusted lieutenant was dead, he was duped by the damned Atlantean turncoat Orm, and all the thugs he recruited (and the villains he brought together out of hiding) were now arrested or being hunted. Picked off by ARGUS... and by the Team.

On that thought he laughed and took a cold sip.

The sun, the beach, the pleasureable company this small tropical nation had to offer managed to take his mind off things. But sitting back in the shade with a drink in hand, on a vista beachfront house he bought through shell companies, was nothing compared to the warm pleasure of watching the Justice League twist in the wind.

They brought down the Mariner's Watch, but thanks to his video message... their little black-ops group of teenage meddlers was now exposed to the world at large. Everyone was now aware that they've been engaged in quasi-legal operations into sovereign territory. Whether it was in part of their mission to bring down the Light or not... the fact that these trusted heroes allowed the sidekicks to do all their dirty work. It was extremely disconcerting.

The press was eating it up, as Fisherman saw the constant news streams. The pundit shouting, the late night jabs, the polls, the updates identifying each of these young heroes. The further they dug into their operations, the more dirt was brought to the surface.

Fisherman knew this was sweet karma, rewarding him even more than he already was now. Sitting in paradise, and out of the clutches of the government, the Atlanteans, or the Justice League. They had enough to worry about right now... than the fish that got away.

As the older gentlemen stretched his joints, sitting up in his cozy chair under the shade... he took a look out at the vista and sucked in the atmosphere. Then he sucked down another sip of his drink, then scratched his scarred-up chest and walked over to the porch of his posch beach house. His money and his pseudonym got him all that he'd need. Fisherman figured he could use a little retirement, at least until the heat blew down.

As he stepped up onto the porch, a buzzing could be heard in his pocket. He stepped inside and put his drink down, then with a smile pulled out the smartphone (which he bought pre-paid and off the grid of ARGUS). It was the number for the private "massause" he hired for the evening. He stepped back down off the steps of the porch, onto the sand as the wind blew in his face with a light but invigorating breeze.

"Yes?"

"You don't think we forgot about you, now did you?"
a sultry voice replied.

"Not with the amount I've paid for your services..." he said with a snort "Is there some sort of problem with our appointment this evening?"

"There's been a change of plans. I'm afraid you're the one who's going to be unavailable..."


The Fisherman was now a little confused.

"Who is this?" he realized this wasn't the same voice as the usual receptionist.

Suddenly the old gentlemen's leg gave out as he collapsed backwards, eating a mouthful of sand when he landed. Before he realized what had happened, a bullet had ripped right through his lower leg.

He straggled and writhed in pain, as he tried to drag himself back up. Something was wrong... his whole body felt like it was going numb. NO.

NO. NO. NOOOOOO.

The bullet was tipped in some sort of toxin. It was slowly weakening him. His legs felt like they were gone, as he dragged his whole body towards the porch. His only harpoon weaponry was in the house, but at this rate he wasn't even going to make it to where he set down his drink... let alone the back cabinet in the bedroom.

His leg was bleeding out, as the Fisherman let out another agonizing bellow of pain. Just then, to his shock, a woman steppd out the bathroom. She slammed shot a cheap cellphone in her hand, with an adapter that scrambled the outgoing number.

He was barely on the porch, useless and helpless like a clubbed seal... as the woman clad in a cat's mask approached him. She threw the phone aside, and pulled out two sais in her belt.

"I think you know exactly who I am" Chesire said through her grinning and insidious mask. Leaning down to him, like a cat toying with its captured prey.

"But don't worry, old man... this isn't like how it usually plays out"

"How...." he lipped quite futily to the assassin now lingering over him.

"We managed to track you down by the recent purchases you've made. Funneling what was left of Maxie Zeus' resources through dummy companies? Come on... you should have been expecting us. A beach house and a couple diverting hours, Sloppy work."

The Fisherman flopped off his belly, rolling onto his back as his whole body felt like it was dead all over. Numb and immovable. It hurt trying to move his fingers. In his struggling to maintain bodily control... he limped his neck up and saw something that managed to put the fear of god in him, more than Cheshire.

"I should kill you right now for what you did to my family" Cheshire said while holding her blades closer to Fisherman's face. She wasn't about to forget what he did to Artemis on live televison.

"But I'm not" Fisherman sighed some faint relief at Cheshire's words, "My partner, however, will make you wish I had"

He looked over with a horrified look in his eyes, "Oh god... nooo"

"I think you already know her too, though by another name" she explained, with a smile behind the painted teeth.

A woman began to tretch up the beach, her heavy boots sifting through the sand with every step. She had long hair over her shoulder, dyed white, maximum armor, two high-powered pistols in her belt, and close to four swords slong on her back. It was quite remiscent to the armor worn by her late half-brother, Grant. The color scheme was different.

But the Fisherman was quivering with fear, as best he could thanks to the toxin... at the mask covering the top of her face. Artemis' stealth tech hammy-down had been redesigned, not to mention re-painted in orange and black.

Rose was wielding a sniper rifle in her arm, flung over her shoulder as she approached the Beachhouse.

Suddenly karma had shifted out of the Fisherman's favor, as she plopped the gun down on porch steps and reached behind to pull out a katana blade. It glimmered in the early afternoon sun, making it hard to see as she stepped forward and pointed it down at his bare gut.

She spent most of her life as Rose Wintergreen... but the revelation of finding out she was really a Wilson forced her to embrace her heritage and the awful mistakes of her past. What better way to do that, than take the image of the man she sworn to kill. Corrupt everything he stands for and use his skills and visage to bring him down. To become a hero.

A demonspawn on the side of the Angels, as Rose herself believed it now. Bill Wintergreen was her father, and Slade Wilson was just an abhorrent poor relation that needed to be hunted down.

The legacy of the Ravager would be his ultimate undoing. Not to mention the undoing of Fisherman and anyone else that aided him or stood in her way from now on. She had to be more creative now, since promising Kaldur and the League that she wouldn't kill anymore.

"We were rudely interrupted, last we chatted..." Rose whispered down to the petulant villain at the tip of her blade. Cheshire trotted over his limp codfish of a body, and stood beside her, twirling Sais in her hands.

"You were saying about dear old dad?"
Young Justice: Origins, Episode Nine - Ravager
Story by :iconzor-alov:


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Super-Japan-Rider300's avatar
Awesome chapter, worth the wait!

This is more like a two part special than an extended episode. But still great chapter, guys!