If only to answer your mental challenge, a concussive blast suddenly slammed into your sides, knocking you off your feet before you could even register what was happening.
Smoke trailing from your cape, the concussive blast launched you high in mid-air, before gravity ultimately took its toll. Landing on the floor with a sickening thud, you slid across the floor thanks to the rush of momentum before bumping against a broken down conveyor belt.
“Of the entire Justice League, they send some nut in a bat costume to bring me in? I’m almost insulted,” came a snide, almost sultry voice, as footsteps neared towards you.Still clutching your sides, you craned your neck back to see a new adversary emerge from the shadows.
Wincing heavily, you quickly regained your center, albeit very groggily. Your head still spinning, you nonetheless recognized the energy blast from anywhere. It came from a weapon of Apokoliptian origin, wielded by the likes of Big Barda. And there was only one person on the Society capable of attaining such technology.
Knockout.
A former Fury from Apokolips, Knockout was by far one of the Society’s more...depraved members. Born and raised on the war torn, hellish planet, she belonged to a group of sadistic female warriors known as the Female Furies, the “heralds of death” of Apokolips, and Darkseid. Her time with the Female Furies had sharpened her to a fine point, removing any semblance of compassion, mercy, or even sanity. Once she had left Apokolips, she’s continued her brand of villainy and sadism here on Earth. The Secret Society had only been a crutch for her, a way of keeping out of Belle Reve. But now, you were personally putting her under lock and key herself.
“Oh well, I suppose I’ll have to make this interesting for both of us,” she smirked, brandishing her weapon.
She wore a light green armored corset that stretched from her hips all the way to her breasts, while a spiked shoulder pad was fastened to her left shoulder. Her arms and legs were bare save for identical green gloves and boots. A dark green domino mask fitted her eyes, while a long mane of fiery red hair hung down from her shoulders. She sported a very muscular, almost Herculean build, indicative of her warrior background.
Towering at more than 6 feet tall, she twirled around a strand of hair in one hand, while in the other, she held a Mega-Rod, smoke trailing from its muzzle. A double-ended weapon, the Mega-Rod was capable of firing consecutive bolts and other functions.
“You’re a long way from Apokolips, Knockout. I thought interfering in our mortal affairs was beneath you,” you growled, rising to one knee.
“On Apokolips, I killed for glory, the chance to be exalted by my peers and adversaries,” she smiled, before her grin grew even wider as she continued. “But now, I get paid for it.”
The slits on your cowl narrowed as you unclipped a Batarang, hiding it from common view behind your cape.
“I’m giving you one chance to stand down before I put you down. It’s not a bad offer,” you growled, standing up slowly.
She merely scoffed at your threat, an amused look on her face. “You made a mistake, Batman, when you thought you could take us all by yourself.”
You tightened your grip over the Batarang as you retorted, “And you made a mistake thinking that you were in my league.”
Her lips curled into a vehement snarl as she leveled the Mega-Rod at your face.
“I’ll make you eat those words.”
The second her finger closed around the trigger you lept into action, throwing yourself shoulder-first to the floor just as the concussive bolt whistled past you into a red blur. The blast took a huge chunk out of some processing equipment behind you, buying you enough time to reemerge on one knee.
Without hesitation, you flung the steel Batarang at her, before racing towards the former Fury at a breakneck pace.
With ease, she deflected the projectile off-course with her metal wrist bracelet, but that bought you a few precious seconds to get within punching range. Locking on her target, she managed to squeeze the trigger, but you were right there to adjust its trajectory.
Grabbing the muzzle of the weapon with your left hand, you quickly moved it upwards just as she fired, the blast disintegrating a chunk of the bottom of the metal railing a whole level above.Before she could get the opportunity to fire again, you decided to go on the offensive with a momentous uppercut to the jaw. Just as your metal-capped knuckles came into the vicinity of her mouth, she expertly brought her forearm up, and in an age-old tactic, hooked your wrist underneath her armpit.
Now with your arm literally tied, you found yourself the unwilling recipient to a downright brutal headbutt from Knockout, her forehead smashing into your cowl with the subtlety of a brick wall!
As soon as her forehead smashed into yours, you naturally staggered back, your knees growing wobbly as you attempted to regroup.
A confident Knockout grabbed your throat with one hand as you started to buckle, her superhuman strength enough to crush your windpipe without even applying that much pressure. As you began struggling for breath, clawing desperately at her closed fist, she began aiming the Mega-Rod at you in point-blank range.
“Too easy,” she declared smugly, preparing to finish you, but you merely smirked at her arrogance, despite her holding a vice grip around your throat.
“Then let me spice up things for you,” you replied, before wrenching away from her grip. She must’ve mistook it as a last-ditch attempt to free yourself, and you rewarded her naivety by snapping a crisp roundhouse kick right into her ribs.
“What are you-ahhh!” she cried out as the kick connected, your steel-lined boot making its mark on her corset. Granted, it felt like kicking concrete, but it still stunned her enough to even the odds.
With a grunt, you used the same leg to deliver a hard knee right in her mouth, causing her to stand upright with a vacant look on her face as you did so. Now with her leaning against the ropes, you easily pried her fingers off of your throat, before slinging her own arm over your shoulder.
You then judo flipped over over your shoulder, a feat not accomplished so easily considering her otherworldly body weight plus the armor she was wearing. Still, your suit managed to augment the throw enough to send her barreling to the ground overhead.
Quickly regaining her center, she used the forward momentum to roll right back on one raised knee, before aiming the Mega-Rod at you once again.
“Maybe this will be worth my time,” she smirked, regarding a line of blood trailing down her mouth before glaring back at you with a taunting sneer.
“I know its not worth mine,” you retorted with equal malice, as her mouth contorted into an almost seductive purr. With that, she fired the Mega-Rod yet again, but you were ready.
Sidestepping its initial blast, you regrouped about two feet to the right as the energy bolt barely nicked your shoulder pad, a Batarang in hand. With a cry, you hurled the projectile at her yet again.
Only this time, it connected. Just as she was about to take another shot at you, the Batarang intervened, wrenching the weapon clean off her hands within a nanosecond. Her previous confidence soon degraded into a level playing field as the weapon clattered to the floor behind her,
Turning back to you with a growl, she was met with yet another surprise as you went on the offensive for a change, kickstarting the combo with a flying Superman punch from above.
Your boots briefly left the ground as you aimed the flying fist at her, only for her to parry the blow by sidestepping to the left, her wrist gauntlet briefly skidding across your own.
Landing without so much as a stumble, you instantly ducked to avoid a spinning backfist that would’ve beheaded a gorilla. As she span back towards you, you could only raise your gauntlets in a boxing stance as she lifted her leg and snapped a quick roundhouse towards you, her foot angled so that the top of her foot would connect.
WHACK!! The roundhouse connected soundly against your metal gauntlets, the sheer force behind it enough to smash granite into Play-Doh. But to her advantage, the kick removed any chance of any counterattack, as you had to focus much of your energy in grounding yourself so that it wouldn’t throw you off balance.
As soon as she threw the kick, she continued her streak with a series of lightning quick blows that would’ve turned your skeleton to mush had they connected. Her hands soon became green blurs, each one whizzing through the air and barely missing you by the Kevlar of your suit.
You had to constantly skip backwards to avoid the blows, your feet skidding back in perfect unison with her heavy-hitter blows. Finally, she began backing you up against a vibration wielder, formerly used to clamp parts together.
As soon as your heels began touching the machinery, your eyes narrowed as she approached readily, not even bothering to break into her witty banter.
With a cry, she lunged at you yet again, attempting a left cross that would’ve flattened a truck. As her fist curved through the air in a downward arc, you carefully placed yourself in a strategic place right in front of the machinery, waiting for the opportune moment to lash back.
Just as predicted, she impacted the spot where your cowl had been a mere second ago with her punch, which in turn dented the dusted metal considerably. Now, an oval-shaped dent carved into the metal where her fist had just impacted.Shooting up from your crouched position, you finally retaliated with an upward double-axe handle to the chin, causing her to stumble back in a stunned stupor.
As she lurched backwards groggily, you continued to press your luck by unloading a cross of your own right on her forehead, her neck snapping back as the fist connected.
Now with the upper hand, you tried to finish her off with a strong roundhouse to the throat but she had other plans in mind.
Just as your kick was about to connect, she rebounded in mid-air with a kick of her own, one that intercepted yours. Her ankle easily swatted yours out of trajectory with only a flick before she pivoted her knee so that it would snap instead towards your torso. Your hands raced to catch the kick and reverse its momentum, but her foot maneuvered into a strong front kick that sent you flying.