Punishments (Punisher DC crossover)

Chapter 12

"How are they?" Batman asked Canary, the pair standing outside the medical wing.

"They'll make a recovery," Canary sighed. "Artemis and Wally both have concussions but mild ones, M'gann is recovering from the burns, Robin has a few fractured ribs, while Superboy and Kaldur are recovering from their bullet wounds."

"It was a mistake sending them there," Batman sighed, all while still emotionless.

"Don't blame yourself too much Bruce," Canary told the Dark Knight. "The team has faced many threats before and come out on top, but this person is something else entirely. Besides, we didn't know he'd be there."

"Which brings the question of what we should do now. He's strong, he's fast, he has a goal, and the determination to do it."

Canary thought about it for a second and sighed, "Right now, we look after the team and try to come up with some sort of plan."

Batman nodded slowly, agreeing with the other hero as they stayed outside the medical wing.

...

"I don't know anything!" The man cried, struggling to get out of his bonds. "Please just let me go! I'm just a small crook, I help when the money's good."

"Please," A distorted voice sighed. "You may not know the higher ups, but you know who does. You're not clueless, you've spent time at Bell Rev, I know that place is just a cover anyway, and you were deep in it."

The criminal was breathing heavily, the blood beginning to rush to his head and nausea was starting to rise up in his throat as he spun around. He stopped spinning and stared into the eyes of the masked man holding him captive. The biggest problem for the criminal, the man was upside down as the criminal was tied up and strung up hanging upside down with blood and bruises covering his face.

"Y-y-you," the criminal stuttered, fear filling his entire being. "I've heard of you, The Punisher."

"Glad to see that you know me, it helps my point really sink in," Punisher glared, pushing on the bullet wound in his shoulder causing the criminal to scream in pain. "Now tell me what I want to know."

"Alright! Alright!" The criminal cried. "I don't know where he is, but when I was in Belle Rev, I heard that Icicle Junior had joined Mammoth, Psimon, Devastation, and Shimmer under Queen Bee, the dictator of Byalia. Word has it, Queen Bee has had some dealings with others like Lex Luthor in some sort of large organization."

"Any other names in this organization?" Punisher asked, taking a gun out and checking the mag.

"A few! A few," the criminal answered quickly at the sight of the gun. "Um, Sportsmaster, Cheshire, Raz Al Ghoul, The Shadows, Cadmus. That plant attack a few weeks back, Count Vernon Vertigo from Latvia used diplomatic immunity to get out of going to prison for it."

"You seem  to know quite a bit for some small criminal," Punisher tilted his head.

The criminal remained silent, staring in fear at the vigilante in front of him, "Well this little talk has been very informative, I thank you for that," Punisher sighed.

"What now?" The criminal asked. "I've given you everything I know, all cards on the table."

"Yeah?" Punisher scoffed. "Well then I guess it comes to the end then."

"End? End of what?"

"Our time together," Punisher said, putting the mag back in the gun, cocking it, then shooting the criminal in the face. "I'll let the heroes clean up the mess."

Punisher walked out of the abandoned building he had been in when getting his information. He didn't bother taking of the mask or covering the skull on his chest plate. It was the dead of in a bad part of town, even the scum was too afraid to come out. Punisher walked with confidence, a dark aura surrounding him as he knew he was being followed down the sidewalk. Which is why it didn't really surprise him when a figure covered in shadows came out of an alley and held a knife to his throat.

"For such an impressive killer, it was surprisingly easy to find you," an overly cocky and feminine voice chortled stepping into the dim street light.

Punisher raised an eyebrow, studying the assassin. She was short and lean, dark hair sticking in all directions with a green kimono cut to her midthigh and a white cat mask with red and black stripes.

"Cheshire I assume?" Punisher said, no emotion in his eyes. "Glad you came to me before I had to hunt you down."

"Oh such sweet words," Cheshire said, talking a step back from the anti-hero keeping her blade to his neck. "But sadly, I already have my eyes on someone else. Besides, you'll be dead here soon, you're getting a bit to close for some people's liking."

"Good, nervous is good, more mistakes for me to pick up on," Punisher nodded. "I'm going to hope and assume that you know more than that now dead idiot in the warehouse. So it begs the question; are you going to had over information the easy way, or the very painful way?"

"I don't think you understand what's going to happen here," Cheshire spoke, pressing her blade more into his neck.

"No, I don't think you understand, so I'll make it a bit clearer for you," Punisher glared at the assassin.

Punisher's left hand shot up and grabbed the blade, pulling it away from his neck. His right hand was quickly raised up and brought down onto the blade, snapping it in half. He kicked the woman in the side, causing her to drop the hilt and the force made her slam into the wall. Punisher ran at her, a hand wrapping around her neck and squeezing, cutting off her air.

"Now tell me everything right now," Punisher ordered. "Your life is quite literally on the line."