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Bane rolled his eyes. "Great, another bruja..." Looking back at Sapphire, he said, "I am sorry, but my orders are clear. One last chance, since you have such extigent circumstances."

Grundy looked at Sapphire passively.

((Don't push it, bud. He's calm now . . . and dangerous that way.))

Bane looked at Apex and said, "Good job, scrawny, but I'm earning a paycheck here. Once she's dead, we'll talk." He turned his attention back to Sapph. "So what will it be? Quick, or painful?"

"Died on a Saturday," Grundy added.

Apex immediately snapped his gaze over to Arell and the others, and scowled. Did they honestly have a death wish? If he didn't wind up killing them, Bane and Grundy would. So, he decided to send a little warning of his own.

He unholstered his gun, and returned fire. He knew that he didn't have a hope of hitting any of them at this distance, but that was irrelevant. If they sought to get any closer, particularly that idiotic man in the cowboy hat, he'd end them all. He had just gotten his mood ruined, and wasn't about to let the culprit get away with it yet.

Quite irritated now as the bullets whizzed past him, Apex looked at Bane with a look that said: I'll be coming for you later.

Apex deftly leaped away from his position, taking cover behind a carnival booth. Arell was a good marksman, Apex admitted to himself, but... he was definitely not Deathstroke. And it was because of Deathstroke that Apex had gotten so good with firearms. Sure, he had gone through training as a Marine, but Apex had gotten so much better....

He waited, and then popped up with his superhuman reflexes, keeping his hand steady with lightning-quick adjustments from his enhanced mind, firing some very scarily accurate shots at the Cajun. Intentional misses that went through the boxes he was hiding behind. And then, like a blur, Apex was gone again, this time sprinting to another, closer location. He wanted to get in close and punch Arell's head off of his shoulders...


Even for someone like d**k, it was pretty difficult keeping track of Apex. One moment he was firing in front of them, the next from the left. It was truly rather scary, although he'd faced such situations before against Deathstroke. Still, though...

Sapphire frowned and looked down at Bane. She looked over at Apex and considered her options. If he was really wanting to fight them, she could just take off. But how long could he keep both of these guys occupied? She really, really wasn't feeling like being broken into pieces. She could probably dodge a lot of their attacks. But that's all she'd be able to do.

Kill her quickly....that was probably just snapping her neck. It didn't look like he had any weapons. Could she come back from that one? Blackstone had done it to her before, but she came back with a little help. So....letting herself get killed quickly and then coming back after they left wasn't that possible. Without help, she might actually stay dead. Or...her favorite....wake up in the morgue.

....unless Gossamer did something. Oh....what if she didn't let her die. What if she got her neck snapped and just...laid there?


Then the gunfire came. And for a few moments, she thought she actually had a chance (and good excuse) to high-tail it.

....but then Apex turned and started fighting with the other group. Leaving her and the two heavy weights alone again.

She watched the gun fight for a moment, then turned and glanced back at Bane.

Apex didn't respond. He had no way to verify if Arell's words were true or not, so he didn't waste his breath with a taunt. He took a few moments to remember some things Deathstroke had told him as he trained, months ago:

"People will try to use taunts and jeers to distract you. Don't let them. If you lose your cool, especially in a gunfight, they've already won the mental games and it'll cost you dearly..."

So, he took a few moments to calm himself, waited for Arell to stop, and then went back on the move, going into the shadows where he couldn't be seen. Several long, tense moments of silence as Apex aimed...

Bang. The bullet took Arell's hat off. Apex figured that was as good a reply as any to the Cajun's taunts. Even as the bullet left the gun, Apex was already moving, slinking around to flank the quartet of heroes, still sticking to the shadows.


"Hey Daddy, look! There's a gunfight goin' on!" Carlie said to her father, looking down at the battle far below.