(Davian's P.O.V)

From the corner of my eyes I saw Artemis, who had swung on a line connected to the top of the Cathedral, land on a Gargoyle. She signalled to me that she was going inside before disappearing into the building.

I heard the snow crunch as Raven landed with a captive.

Man Bat was covered in purple glowing chains that tightly bound his huge form. He also seemed to be knocked out, with a green powder substance around his nostrils. Must have been the knockout gas arrows Artemis carried around. I'd seen them in action one time a few days back.

We'd been hitting a crack house and...

"A new friend?"

Raven asked, levitating above Man Bat.

"No. An old enemy."

I answered, thinking about our situation. I wasn't afraid to fight but we couldn't drag this out.

One of us needed to distract Croc while the other ran in to help Artemis rescue the kids.

"I can handle them." I told her confidently.

"Leave Man Bat and Croc to me and go give Artemis some back up."

The sooner we found the kids the sooner we could escape. This wasn't an assault mission, it was a rescue.

Raven frowned but rose into the air.

"Ok. Be careful."

Thankfully she didn't argue, no doubt trusting me to handle it.

"Don't pass out."

She added with a small grin.

"Haha."

I responded sarcastically. Was that going to be a running gag with us?

Croc faced her, hissing before a small rumble begun to rise from his chest. I aimed at him with a finger and released a small blast of Sho. It was weak. Kido spells lost power when one failed to use the incantation.

Despite that, the Hado was still strong enough to make him stagger a little. But that accomplished my goal. His attention was back to me. Anger clouded his eyes. Anger and a bestial hunger.

"Youuu..."

He growled out.

"Flesh. Devouuuurrr. Paybaaack."

Spit flowed down his jaws.

Reikaku registered another movement.

On the ground, Clayface begun pulling himself back into one piece, flowing through the floor to reform behind me.

And just like that, I was caught in the middle by two of Batman's strongest enemies. Something had been bothering me however.

"Chase. Can you sense anything off about them?"

I asked my Zanpakuto while cautiously watching my two enemies.

"I can't accurately say but something tells me they might not be acting of their own accord."

He answered, increasing my suspicions. All this screamed 'Supervillain Scheme.' They all had red eyes and my man Waylon seemed to be missing a few brain cells. The Killer Croc I remembered, while not smart, spoke normally. This one was only concerned about making me a chew toy.

This means that I can't get anything out of them on who was really responsible. I can't waste time here, so no use in talking.

Shunpo threw me at Croc just as Clayface's limbs turned into maces that fell on top of my head. I was behind Killer Croc in an instant, reorienting my form and ducking over another blow. Then I swung out Chesha Neko.

His back arched in pain, a long bloody injury appearing on the tough skin from his shoulder to the small of his back, Chesha Neko's blade barely meeting any resistance. The tail wound up and came at me from the left, only for Chesha Neko to slice the limb apart.

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Blood sprayed out of the wound and Croc released a scream of pain, the severed piece of the tail flopping in the ground. He lost balance, stumbling around.

That was when Clayface lumbered forwards, his form rippling into mud.

"I will choke you out!"

This being the first time I had had his voice, Clayface wasted no time in covering both Killer Croc and I with his body.

But I had known how to defeat him from the start.

"Hado no. 4: Byakurai."

A concentrated bolt of lightning escaped my index finger. The smell of ionized air was followed by a discharge of electric energy that vibrated along the air, landing on Clayface's body and ripping him apart.

I couldn't help but think that this was one of the coolest Kido spells from the bleach source material.

His form lost cohesion and the villain slumped onto the ground once more I'm a viscous liquid state. Croc took that chance to jump at me with his mouth wide open.

I crouched onto the ground. Push and pull...

Little by little I was learning.

My powers hadn't come with a manual. Everything I was doing was based off what I created or copied. But it was working.

This was progress.

My fist crackled with power, reinforcement at max. An uppercut landed on Croc's wide jaw, the impact immediately bouncing his head back. A pressure blast escaped into the air, cracking a few bricks on the ground as his body was lifted, a hulking mass of almost a ton. He flipped onto his back, landing on the cracked ground with a resounding bang.

The street light near me burst apart.

I took a second to inhale. Then I realized that I beat them without even using my Shikai.

A smile worked it's way onto my face. My training was paying off. Now to...

An explosion ripped through the foundation of the Cathedral, destroying the entrance and a portion of the ground around it. Only for a huge Raven construct to break through.

I stood there wide eyed as Raven, in the middle of her soul self fought a swarm of Man Bats. The construct held something to it's Torso, protecting it. A black shield bubble of energy.

Inside was Artemis and the kids. I didn't think.

"Come forth from the weave of eternity, Chesha Neko: Release."

(General P.O.V) (With Artemis)

Cages lined the wall of the huge room. At the center of the chamber, a table was set with different chemicals in beakers and containers, bubbling and releasing varying gases into the air.

The overhead lights barely covered the entirety of the make shift lab.

A slim form was leaning over the controls of a large machine that was shaped like a capsule. Inside was a massive incubator with a clear glass exterior. Red liquid swirled inside around the body of a small boy who looked about 10.

Beside the incubator was something horrifying. Stacks of dead deformed bodies. Some had large scaly oversized limbs. Others had tails in place of their legs.

Behind the large incubator were rows and rows of more capsules, these one's were tinted but seemed to contain something inside.

The man straightened up from where he was fiddling with the machine. He ran his palm on the glass exterior of the incubation pod.

"You will become my magnum opus! Using both the Kobra serum and d.n.a from Langstrom's Man Bat formula, I have created something that not even my waste of a father could imagine. Something above his precious Dollotrons. While My human-animal hybrids are a simple combination, you shall be the first with true perfection!"

Jaznoz Valentine, the son of Professor Pyg laughed hysterically.

He wore the same mask his father usually did, the face of a pig. But he considered it a reinvention of the identity. He wanted to beat his father at his own game. To become what Professor Pyg could never be. His eyes flashed crazily underneath his mask. His coat was dirty and his face was covered by a small stubble.

Red alerts started flashing across the computer screen. Professor Pyg turned his attention from the incubation pods and ran over.

"No no no..."

He muttered, seeing the fight going on from the security cameras that had been installed outside the Cathedral.

"I need more time! I can't disrupt the process before it's done!"

He paced around, hands holding onto his head as he thought of what to do. Then he straightened, looking at the over dozen pods lining up the walls behind the Incubator with the small boy.

"Yes...yes that will work."

The genius supervillain ran over to his work station, quickly typing out commands on his computer.

Then an arrow speared through the back of his palm and into the keypad of his computer. A pained yelled escaped his lips, red blood gushing out of the wound into the keyboard. Professor Pyg looked back to see a girl, dressed in a green costume holding a bow that was aimed at him.

"Make one move and the next one goes through your throat."

She warned.

Behind her was a scared group of how about 6 children. They were from the latest batch.

"No no, what are you doing with my test subjects?! I need them! Get them back in their cages or..."

A second arrow whizzed towards him, burying itself into his thigh with a meaty thunk.

Pyg begun screaming as Artemis hurried forward to try and release the kid trapped in the incubator. Anger gripped the villain. No one would need this up for him. Not a stupid little girl playing at being a superhero! Pyg's right hand went to his pocket. To his last resort.

He pressed the dial on the device inside and leaned back onto the table, blood pouring out of his wounds and gathering onto the ground.

"It doesn't matter... now. I've won."

He laughed at Artemis who was trying to open the incubator.

From the speakers installed all over the Chamber, a sonic frequency lower than what a normal human could perceive begun to play.

The kids noticed it first. Their screams of fright caused Artemis to look up, only for her eyes to go wide as the pods behind the Incubators were destroyed from the inside.

Glass shards fell to the ground around them.

Creatures that looked like Man Bat, only with scales instead of mammalian flesh took to the air with loud screeches. Then they dove down towards Artemis and the children.

"All for Leviathan..."

Professor Pyg muttered with a sadistic grin.

(Elsewhere)

"Batman, we have something happening over at Broad Avenue."

Robin's voice came through the comms.

Batman looked at the tracker blinking in his wrist computer and narrowed his eyes. That was where they were going.

"I'm headed there right now. Rendezvous at the location."

He informed his protege then cut off communication.

Zatara sighed from the passenger's side as the Batmobile sped down the abandoned road.

"I'm guessing this is related to our friend? It can't be a coincidence."

Batman said nothing but it was clear he was thinking the same thing.