Blood Ties

Prologue -Where The Demons Hide-

The air was dead, thick, and suffocating. It was dark and foggy, a little lonely if not deadly. The fog trapped the world in a bottle, like there was nothing else beyond the fog, teasing eyes into seeing things that weren't there, like a dream.

The orange and black-clad mercenary crouched on the edge of a roof, he seemed paralyzed, he didn't even look like he was breathing.

He surveyed the street, not a single soul in sight. Gotham's dark night weighed heavy in the air, thick storm clouds low and dangerous. The street lamps were a sickly yellow, casting barely a haze into the foggy atmosphere. It was a place of dangerous things, deceitful, and dreadful.

Deathstroke didn't shift as a shadow dropped silently behind him.

He didn't even blink.

The mercenary continued to watch and wait, his katana safely strapped to his back and his fully loaded gun in one hand resting on his lap. The shadow grew hands, dark gloves reaching out for the unsuspecting man.

The shadow hurtled forward and tackled Deathstroke.

"Gotcha!" A light cackle filled the damp air, adding a new sense of joy to the dreary scene. The mercenary struggled to remain upright as he found a raven-haired boy had wrapped his arms around his neck. The boy was smiling and his masked eyes squinted with laughter, Deathstroke released a sigh.

"Sure kid, sure." Deathstroke rolled his eye to the heavens and focused back onto the street, ignoring the child clinging to his back. But he couldn't suppress a small smile under his mask.

"Admit it, I finally got the drop on you." The small teen said pridefully. Deathstroke could hear the boy breathing loudly next to his ear and a little heart beating against his back through the thick clothes and metal guards both of them wore.

"If you got the drop on me I wouldn't be able to do this." Deathstroke punctuated his sentence with a shrug of his shoulders, the boy gave a small yelp and a thud as he slid of the mercenaries slick metal plating.

The boy huffed with a scowl and crossed his arms as he sat on the ground in a pout. "Well, I wasn't trying to incapacitate you, if I was you'd be out cold by now."

"Would I?" Deathstroke asked, disbelief clearly evident in his tone as his gaze never shifted from the alley they were standing guard over.

"Yeah," The boy said, a grin slipping back onto his face. "especially since Catwoman taught me that one move." The boy stood and slipped into a practiced stance, he jabbed at the air playfully, imagining an opponent he had just nerve attacked.

The mercenary let the boy play as he kept an ever-watchful eye on the ground. It was times like these he wished he had both his eyes so he could watch both. (He, of course, knew that's not how eyes worked but the sentiment was still there.)

"Settle down Ren, our target is coming." The mercenary scolded with a narrowed eye, returning to a whisper.

The boy, Renegade, dropped his stance and scuttled up to the lip of the roof, peering down into the street.

Gotham was as grimy and dark as the boy remembered, dirt and litter lines the streets, the fog made it impossible to see very far but the hazy yellow street lamps signified where the street ended and started. There were some puddles here and there on the cobbled alleyways, nothing stirred in the dead air. It was peaceful almost, like the whole world just paused for a moment.

Until a dark figure slowly got more defined as it exited the fog.

Renegade shifted his footing and kept an eye out at his mentor for any signs, if he were to do anything, Deathstroke would tell him.