POV: Benjamin
Location: Gotham Industrial District
"You have got to be shiting me," I said to myself as I watched Batman get thrown through a wall.
He stood up quickly, but just as quickly and with a painful growl fell to one knee as from the hole walked out was a terrifying man built like a brick house easily and at least double the dark knight's size with dead grey skin and white hair, and smelled so bad I had to cover my mouth and nose but what truly black voids that We're his two eyes.
Solomon Grundy, Aka Cyrus Gold, a semi-immortal zombie or just undead, considering he doesn't eat people.
"...Born on...a Monday..." The gigantic zombie grunted out before suddenly charging Batman, who barely managed to dodge the sudden action.
Batman recovered from the roll and, in an instant, threw three batarangs into Grundy's side. Each blinked twice before exploding, but Grundy walked out of the smoke almost completely unharmed.
Well, unharmed in the sense he didn't or couldn't notice the huge open wound on his side that showed the rotten flesh underneath his dead skin, and from it came flowing out black blood.
"Oh God, that smell," I said, covering my nose and mouth as I watched the battle between the two, and to be honest, it wasn't looking good for Batman.
He continued to bombard the undead from afar, but the explosives had no effect, and any type of physical attack was useless since Grundy couldn't or felt very little pain.
Plus, restraining Grundy was almost impossible considering its vast amount of strength. Hell, some versions of Grundy could go toe-to-toe with Superman, though that could just be because Grundy is magical.
"Could it be this is Batman's first meeting with Grundy?" I asked, and as I continued to watch the fight, I couldn't help but think that was the case as I watched.
Batman never attacked the same way twice and continued to do so using whatever gadgets he could to try and get Grundy down, but nothing that could take him out.
"Christened...on...Tuesday!" he bellowed and smashed his two ham-like fists into the ground, causing a shockwave that not only cracked the ground but caused the buildings to shake and their glass windows to crack or break completely.
Batman was completely thrown off balance. Grundy, in a burst of speed, rushed Batman and grabbed him by the chest. He picked up the dark knight and swung him above his head, only to throw him down hard on the ground with a loud and nasty crack.
"Shit, I gotta do something," I said, but what could I do? I'm just a thief who tried to avoid fighting, or if I had to, at least have an overwhelming advantage in said fight, or have some form of backup.
But that was what the original Bradon Benjamin would have thought, but I wasn't him; I was also Deven, who had a system.
'That I haven't used or tested in combat...' I thought, but quickly took out my deck from my Duel Disk and grabbed a card 'Please work like I think you do,' I thought as I placed the card on the Duel Disk.
---
POV: Bruce Wayne, Aka Batman
I felt my ribs crack, and the radiating burning pain from my back told me my suit had taken most of the impact, but my back was definitely bruised badly.
I tried to move but couldn't 'Dislocated,' I thought as the strange creature lifted me once again.
"Married...on...Wednesday," it growled through yellow and rotting teeth right into my face, only to then drop me suddenly.
I fell only to be caught and, with great speed, pulled back from the creature, and I saw that the creature didn't let me go, but the arm holding me had been cut off.
"Great job, now go deal with the undead," a young voice I didn't recognize said, and I looked to only barely see a dark blue blur rush past.
But the voice came from a teenager, his face was full of worry as he looked down at me, and he was covering his nose and mouth. I wondered why until I looked down at myself and saw I was covered in the black blood that thing was bleeding.
"Ok, um...I don't know first aid," he said to himself more than to me, but I nodded anyway to show I was listening.
Just then, a loud crash echoed, and he looked behind me. I also tried to look, but I had a hard time moving my neck.
Then the blur appeared again, but this time stopped in front of the boy, and what I saw surprised me.
A humanoid being stood wearing a blue and bronze colored outfit with a white chest plate and a bronze scarf that had two tattered endings, but what caught my attention was the four bone-like claws jetting out of its back and the black smoke it had for a head with glowing red eyes that seemed to burn like fire.
As I looked at this humanoid, I noticed my vision became blurry, and I tried to speak, but I only coughed, getting the boy's attention back on me.
"Shit, are you ok, Mr. Batman...sir?" he asked, worried and a bit nervous, but I didn't have the strength to respond as my vision slowly became dark.
---
POV: Brandon Benjamin
I looked down at the now unconscious Dark Knight in front of me, and I couldn't help but wonder how I had gotten into this mess. The answer soon appeared as a familiar white glowing screen.
[Mission: The Light in the City's Shadows]
•The life of a street Rat is not the time for you to change things for yourself and become something more.
-Help in the current disaster that threatens the city of Gotham.
[Reward]
•Scarf of Dread
•Lose the Title: Gotham Street Rat
-5,000- Gems
As the screen disappeared, I felt something wrap around me, and I looked to see a bronze colored scarf that looked exactly like the one Vandred Slayer wore was now around my neck, though this one was resized to fit me.
[Item]
•Scarf of Dread
-The scarf of the Slayer is one of the last few surviving gifts of his lost beloved wife and grants some protection and resistance to the wearer.
Just as I finished reading and dismissed the screen, I noticed Vandread Slayer disappearing, but nodded at me.
"I'll take good care of it," I told him as I nodded back just before he disappeared completely.
Then the roar of a loud engine caused me to wipe my head around just in time to see what could only be the Batmobile, but one I didn't recognize. It looked like a mix between the Dark Knight trilogy and the Arkham Knight game batmobiles.
The armored car came to a stop in front of me, the driver's side door opening up and out, revealing the driver's seat empty, but on a screen in the dashboard, a countdown from 3
Three minutes were slowly beeping down to zero.
Taking the hint, I dragged Batman into the driver's seat, and I just barely got him into the car just before one minute was left.
The driver-side door shut quickly, and the Batmobile accelerated with a roar of its engine and a blast from its giant booster on its tail end, which almost threw me to the ground.
"I guess hoping for a thank you was too much," I said to myself as I dusted myself off, only to hear the distant sirens of the police, and I decided to make myself scarce, making my way to the apartment I had awoken in.
It didn't take me long, though I had to make sure no one saw me as I closed the window and shut the curtains behind me.
But just as I shut the window, and I finally relaxed, only to feel my body become heavy and unresponsive, so much so that I almost dropped on the carpeted floor.
But now, as I crawled onto the comfortable bed, I had woken up with my Duel Disk to my side, and my deck spread out in front of me with the system open for me to use while I thought of what I needed to do.
After a bit of messing around, I found the system allowed me to convert my gems for money and vice versa, with one gem being worth 100 dollars, meaning my current 11,000 gems gave me over a million dollars.
I was relieved at the realization that I didn't even need to get a regular job, especially in a city like Gotham.
"But now that I knew I had a way to survive what, was I supposed to do now?" I said to myself, just as a white screen with a new mission appeared.
[Mission: Crossroads]
•Not a full day into your new life, and already some action, but now afterwards, it's time to decide your new path.
{Choose the path you wish to walk.}
Path of the hero.
- Walk the path of Truth and justice, even if it may be your own brand of it.
Path of the villain.
- Walk the path of selfishness and greed, define their meaning your way.
Path of the Civilian
- Walk the path of normalcy even in a strange world like this.
[Reward]
-(Based on path chosen)
Looking at the three options, I immediately decided I didn't like any of them.
I wasn't a hero, or at least I didn't see myself as one, even with the recent assist I gave to Batman. I wasn't going on night patrols intact. I probably want to get out of Gotham as fast as possible.
On the same not I wasn't desperate, deranged, or dumb enough to become a villain in the DC universe, and especially not in Gotham.
And the idea of becoming a civilian I rejected immediately. I just came from a normal life, and on my first day in my new one, I summoned a monster, took down Solomon Grundy, and saved Batman. No way in hell was I becoming a civilian.
Just as I decided none of the options fit me, suddenly a fourth option appeared and was selected, and the mission automatically completed with another popping up right after.
[Mission: Crossroads]
(Completed)
•Not a full day into your new life and already some action, but now, afterwards, it's time to decide your new path.
{Choose the path you wish to walk.}
Path of the Duelist.
- Walk the path of adventure where you decided your next destination.
[Reward]
•A new Gate has been discovered and unlocked.
As the mission screen disappeared, a new notification appeared on the main screen next to the Solo tab, which, last time I had checked, was empty with nothing for me to do inside of it, so I quickly opened it back up to see what these Gates were.
[Gates]
• The Land of Dragons
(Unlocked)
• The Infected City
(Unlocked)
• The Endless Ocean
(Unlocked)
Three new tabs had appeared bit before I could even think about looking any further, my eyes and body suddenly became heavy. I fell back into the bed I had woken up in.
"Why...am...so...tired?" I asked before the darkness surrounded me.
(Hours later)
POV: 3rd Person
Location: The Batcave
"I can't believe you fought a actually zombie and I missed it," said a young man in a red, gold, and green suit with an 'R' on his chest, wincing as he watched the footage of the battle.
The City's security cameras and footage from private businesses, Batman's suits and batmobile provided many different angles to watch the fight.
After Batman's battle and subsequent arrival back at the Batcave, he was tended to by his butler and father figure Alfred, and Robin Aka Dick Grayson, who had just arrived, rewatching what had transpired on the batcomputer.
"I don't think it counts as a zombie, considering he didn't seem really interested in eating my flesh or my brain," he said, lying on the medical bench as Alfred applied bandages.
"I guess, and they're not known for talking, especially rhyming," he said as the video got to Batman being punched through a wall.
Grayson winced, but Bruce kept his eyes on the video, knowing what came next and wanting to see it from the many different angles provided.
Then, as the creature lifted the injured Batman with one hand off the ground, a blur suddenly appeared and sliced off the hand holding Batman and pulled him away to the young man.
Now that Bruce had a good look at him, the young man looked to be about Dicks age, if not a year or so older.
"Wait, how did that kid..?" He began to ask only for his answer to appear a second later.
A figure that Bruce vaguely remembers is the blue and bronze humanoid with four claws sprouting out of its back.
They all watched as the young man gave the humanoid a command, and not even ten seconds later, the zombielike creature was sliced into many pieces.
Just as the footage ended with the young man placing Batman back in the Batmobile, the Batcomputer showed the Young man's identity and information.
"Brandon Benjamin, who are you?" he asked as the video paused on where the young man had left the scene with the blue humanoid having disappeared.