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The Guild of Gamers: The Nightmare by The Dark Wolf Shiro

Cartoon X-overs & Justice League Unlimited Xover Rated: M, English, Adventure & Horror, Words: 121k+, Favs: 3k+, Follows: 4k+, Published: Jul 27, 2022 Updated: Feb 17

2,048Chapter 1: Hack and Slash

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my original characters and works, if you recognise it from somewhere else, surprise it isn't mine.

Betad by morde24, OoalGown, Hermes, Priapus, Old man of the mountain and TheDonFluffles

The Guild of Gamers: The Nightmare

Chapter 01: Hack and Slash

I was told there would be a bright light but apparently I was fucking lied to, because this is neither bright nor is there a light. As I pick myself up off the dirty floor, my hand moves to cover my nose to try and ward off the rank stench surrounding me.

I did die, right? This definitely isn't my hospital, and I can't feel any of the pain that's become my life for the past few days. Turns out getting stabbed twenty seven times by some batshit crazy junkie is bad for your health. Luckily he missed most of the important stuff so instead of dying immediately I had the joy of dying slowly and in agony.

Yay.

Oh shit, am I in hell? Looking around the room I've found myself in, I take a moment to consider that yeah, this might be hell.

The stench of death and decay fills my nostrils despite my best efforts at stopping it as I look around the dilapidated house.

It looks like it hasn't been lived in for years, all the furniture is in ruins and there are piles of garbage everywhere.

To make it worse, there are suspiciously red stains on the broken floor and walls, and as I take a step out of the ruined bedroom, the floor creaks ominously.

I don't weigh that much, but the floor sounds like it's moments away from just breaking under my weight as I slowly move forwards.

Are those broken needles on the floor? Is this hell or a crackhouse?

If this is hell, I was definitely lied to. Where's the fire and brimstone? The demons with oversized forks to poke me with? The only torture here is the smell.

Also the fuck did I do to deserve this? I've lived a mostly good life, never broken a single law (except maybe jaywalking). Was it the pre-marital sex?

It was probably the pre-marital sex, wasn't it? If that's the case, I suppose the entire student body of my college will be joining me eventually.

Moving through the house that I'm increasingly convinced is a crackhouse, and not in fact hell (unless hell is just a giant crackhouse?) I frown as I try to figure out what the hell is going on.

Finding a very dirty mirror, I stare at myself in confusion. I look the same, but none of my stitches are in place.

Lifting my top, which is noticeably not my hospital gown, I stare at my pristine stomach and chest in confusion. I had almost a dozen scars on my stomach from the lunatic's knife when I fell asleep in my hospital bed, so where are they?

Instead of my hospital gown, I'm just wearing a pair of dark jeans and sneakers I don't recognise, along with a plain white t-shirt and a black hoodie.

I don't own any of these clothes- well maybe the t-shirt- but the rest are completely unknown to me.

This isn't some weird out of body experience either, as it's my own green eyes that stare back at me, almost covered by my somewhat messy blonde hair. It's normally neater than that, but I've not had much reason to take care of it in the hospital.

Unfortunately as I move on, I find the source of the worst of the stench, my eyes widening as I finally get downstairs (worried the stairs are going to break under me with every creaky step).

In the middle of what was probably once the living room, now covered in trash and graffiti, lays a figure.

A part of me briefly thought, or perhaps hoped, that it was just some homeless man sleeping, but the fact that his arm is sitting on the top of the coffee table while the rest of him is on the floor kills that thought.

I should run, but he looks like he's been dead for a while given the flies buzzing around him and the fact that his severed limb (make that limbs as I spot a second leg on the couch), isn't bleeding at all, a massive and dried blood stain under him.

I should be afraid, but as I approach him and kneel down for a closer look, I don't feel anything. Finding a broken chair leg, I use it to push him onto his back as I stare down.

He looks filthy, long matted hair and an unkempt beard. He probably was homeless, but I suppose he doesn't need to worry about housing or employment now.

He reminds me of my killer, and that makes me scowl briefly. Just some homeless junkie, he won't be missed. It's a dark thought but one I don't regret as I go back to looking around.

The front door is locked, preventing me from leaving so easily, and the windows are boarded over, stopping me from looking out and working out where I am just yet.

I do need to get out of here, if he was just dead from overdose or something I wouldn't be worried, but he was covered in blood and his limbs didn't move that far by themselves.

I don't need whoever did this to come back and find me standing over their handiwork.

With the front door locked, I move towards the back of the house, entering the kitchen as I pause.

Okay, I definitely need to get the hell out of here because it turns out there isn't a body in this place.

There's a lot of bodies, because while the bodies are cut into pieces and it's hard to work out just how many corpses I'm looking at, I can count at least eight different heads.

One of them is in a pot on the stove, another in the oven and one in the microwave, the others are on plates around the table in the centre of the room, their bodies positioned in the chairs presumably in front of their missing heads, but I'm not gonna try and work out which head goes to which body.

Male, female, old and young. There doesn't seem to be any particular type at first until I notice something.

The ones that have clothes (noticeably the male bodies), are dressed like hobos, and none of them look even remotely clean, even without the blood and wounds. I'm pretty sure they were all homeless, or at least very down on their luck.

I definitely should be panicking at this point, but I'm not. I don't know why, but I'm entirely calm as I move around the macabre display and towards the back door.

I have a general 'I don't think I should stay here' vibe, but I'm not even remotely panicked or disgusted by the corpse party, even though I never did particularly well with horror in the past.

Sure, I liked horror movies and games, but I also sucked at them. I was easily disturbed and scared, now I'm moving through what can only be a serial killer's house in complete tranquility.

Something is wrong, and it's more than just my suddenly healed wounds. What that something is, I haven't got a fucking clue.

I don't know where I am, how I got here or what's going on but I intend to find out.

The back door is also locked, but I'm fairly resourceful and not all the windows were boarded up.

Heading back upstairs, I find the bedroom I started in and head to the window, looking out. I can see a grim looking street outside and while the rest of the buildings seem better kept, they're not that much better. It's very late, even the street lights don't seem to be on as the street is pitch black. Thanks to the occasional moonlight, I can make out some things, but the clouds quickly cover it up again.

It's a pretty big drop as I open the thankfully unlocked window and look down, but as I said, I'm resourceful.

The mattress makes a nice noise as it hits the ground outside. It isn't exactly perfect, but I climb out of the window and hang down from the ledge before I let go and drop, landing on the mattress with a grunt.

Ow.

I don't think I actually hurt anything, as despite the mattress not exactly being the soft landing I had hoped for, it did the job. I stand up and quickly decide to be anywhere but here.

With no streetlights and such heavy cloud cover it's hard to move around such unfamiliar streets but I make do, deciding to move through some equally dark alleyways on the off chance someone is following me.

I don't think anyone was home but I don't want to take any chances, given the hobbies of the homeowner.

So, now what?

I have nothing on me, no wallet, id or phone and I still have no idea where the hell I am.

To make it worse, I can hear sirens in the distance and the occasional gunshot or shout, so I decide that I don't want to go that way.

[Quest Complete: Escape]

Objective: Escape the kill house before its owner gets home

What the fuck.

Not bad, the last guy spent so long freaking out he got home. Imagine failing the tutorial lmao. If he hadn't died in agony, I'd have dealt with him myself.

The decidedly male voice in my head sounds far too amused as I look around in confusion.

Who said that?

Irrelevant, you're right by the way. You died, your life cut short by the whims of some hobo with more drugs in his system than most people could make.

I figured as much, but I'm pretty sure this isn't hell.

Also correct, it's- well, your new home. I'm a member, a founder actually, of a group that takes the souls of people we find interesting and gives them a second chance at life. Your world didn't have an afterlife anyway so your soul was destined for the void.

Congratulations, you're one of the lucky few I decided to give a chance at a new life. We even give those we pick amazing powers, beyond anything they could have dreamed of before.

That sounds amazing. Too amazing, so what's the catch?

Heh, smart kid.

The catch is that I'm not as nice as the other founders, and you need to prove you deserve the 'system' I picked for you.

If you fail, you die and off you go into the void for eternity.

How am I supposed to prove that? I have no intention to die a second time, been there done that, 1/10 would not recommend.

That's easy. Every system has a theme, some are based on Sins, some are based on mythical creatures or fantasy 'classes'.

You, my little friend, are the host of the Nightmare system.

Sounds lovely.

Your powers are based around dread and horror, those horror movies you liked? Congratulations, you're in one, and you're the antagonist.

You want to prove you deserve it?

Kill someone.

You want me to… kill someone?

Yes. Doesn't matter who, I want blood.

Are you surprised? My group are literally the worst villains in existence, we're responsible for the death, torture, rape and enslavement of trillions of souls. Shit, I've probably hit the trillions of victims myself, I lost count a long time ago.

And if I don't, I die instead. A life for a life.

Exactly, of course that's just the start. Your powers will only grow when you embrace your new role and act befitting of the Nightmare.

You can decline of course, and I'll just kill you here and now to save us both the time. Actually, my wife wants a new toy so you can entertain her for a few years before you head to the void.

Somehow I doubt I'd enjoy entertaining your wife.

Oh, you absolutely wouldn't. She makes me look kind and fluffy at times.

As I said, I have no plans to die again. Actually, did this system I'm hosting change my mindset?

Somewhat, it does make you more willing to indulge in nightmarish acts, but only partially. You died on a whim, and that changes a person. If you'd had the chance, you'd have killed your attacker before he could hurt you, wouldn't you?

Of course, why should I die because of his bad choices? I'd have gutted him with his own knife without batting an eye. I had a few days to stew in my rage and disgust towards him and people like him.

Exactly, that made it easier for your mind to accept the Nightmare system. So yes, it changed you, but you changed too.

I suppose it doesn't really matter in the long run, I will not die again.

Then I wish you luck, because this world is one of the more dangerous ones. Grow strong, little nightmare, and amuse me.

So that's what he gets, amusement? A more than fair trade.

Quest Added

[Prove yourself]

Objective: Take a life

Bonus Objective: Drive the victim to the brink of terror before you kill them

Time limit: 24 hours

Reward: Varies depending on your performance

Starter powers added

[Off-Screen Travel]

As long as you aren't observed, you can ethereally travel to any spot that is not being observed within your range.

Range: 1 mile

Cool-down: 5 minutes

[Don't look at me]

You have an innate ability to sense when people are watching you, both directly and indirectly. This does not tell you where they are, only that they exist.

[Recordless]

While active, you cannot be recorded, appear on camera or be picked up by scanners. You leave no trace on any electronic device. Any audio recordings of you become a garbled mess, you appear as an indiscernible blurred figure in pictures and videos. In addition, you also leave no fingerprints or other physical traces.

While that's all well and good, none of my new powers actually help me with the killing aspect of my new role.

I suppose that's the test.

I already know who I'm going to kill, well not the specific individual but the general target. My last life was ended by some junkie so it's only fair one of them helps me secure my new life.

Plus, I need someone who isn't going to be missed and if the lunatic who owned the house I woke up in could get that many kills without anyone finding their kill house, I should be able to get one myself.

But first, I need to get some equipment and with how late it is, it's the perfect time to strike.

After all, I have a ticking deadline that I can't afford to ignore, so I should get to work immediately.

Activating Recordless immediately, I pull my hoodie over my head and frown as I head down the street.

I occasionally get a ping from 'Don't look at me', because despite the late night I'm not the only person up and active, but it always goes away quickly and it's usually just a homeless guy or another equally hooded figure trying not to draw attention to themselves.

The area I'm in seems mostly industrial with some low-income residential, but eventually I find what I'm looking for, a hardware store.

Assured by my new powers that nobody is watching me, I use Off-Screen Travel for the first time as I vanish from the alleyway across the street, surrounded by darkness as I move forwards at incredible speeds.

I misunderstood how this power worked, I thought I'd need to be able to see my destination, but that's not how it works.

Once I use it, I enter a shifted version of the world, covered in darkness and shadows with spots of night light that I can't enter because someone is looking at that spot.

I pass through the wall and enter the store easily, there's a camera but it doesn't seem to be giving a bright spot.

I avoid appearing in front of it anyway, and reappear inside the store.

I try to avoid the camera at first until I notice something. It's not plugged into anything. The power cable leads down the wall but it's not even plugged into a power socket, it's just a decoy.

There could still be an alarm, which prevents me from trying to open the tills (which are probably emptied overnight anyway), and instead I move onto what I actually came here for.

Grabbing several tools, a hammer, a box cutter and some other bits and pieces like rope, duct tape and various other things that could be helpful, I wait for my cool-down to be finished and vanish again.

I can move freely through walls in my power as long as I don't go into the light spots or try to move more than a mile from my starter spot, so using this I move from building to building.

I can still see in this form, sure everything is shrouded in darkness but it's still strangely visible and I can use the light to know where people are.

I wanted to find a more general store, but with no real luck I decided to try my chances with an actual house.

Appearing in the living room, I bide my time as I remain very still, well aware that there's three people sleeping just above my head as I wait for my cool-down to come back, just in case.

Searching the house very slowly, I smile as I find an old backpack under the stairs, it has some personal crap inside it which I take out since it's nothing I need, just a dirty t-shirt and a water bottle, and put the backpack on. My tools are just in a plastic bag at the moment and I quickly move them into my new backpack.

Secondly, I move to the kitchen and help myself to all their sharpest knives (and an apple), I'm sure they'll wake up confused but that's their problem to be honest.

After some debate, I take the risk and head upstairs, pausing briefly as one of them creaks loudly, but after a minute passes with only some light snoring, I head further upstairs.

Moving into the first bedroom, I don't risk taking the cheap looking jewellery or the phone on the bedside table, it can probably be tracked and I don't need that.

Sleeping in the bed is a teenage girl, probably around 15 at a look and I decide this room is a bust since I doubt she has anything I want.

Plus her room is a mess, and I couldn't find anything in this tip even if I wanted to, looking down at the clothes covered floor, rolling my eyes as I have to shake a bra off my trainers.

The next room is more profitable, a middle aged couple sleeping in the bed. I could kill them, the idea doesn't particularly bother me but I already know who I want to kill first, so they are spared as I move around and slowly check the drawers.

Stealing a couple of t-shirts and jeans, that are probably a little too big for me to be honest, I move onto the wardrobe and smile as I find a rather nice leather jacket. Don't mind if I do, throwing it on over my hoodie which fits nicely thanks to its larger size. I also find a pair of leather gloves, taking them as well.

My eyes have adapted to the darkness, which helps me search for anything else I can use (including a roll of paper bills stashed in a sock at the bottom of the wardrobe) but as I hear something I turn around quickly, a knife in my hand as I prepare for the worst.

To my worry, one of the figures in the bed slowly rises, yawning as the mother of the family gets out of the bed and stands up, exposing her nudity.

I expect screams, but with how dark it is, she misses me in the corner of her room as she stumbles towards the door. As I hear her go into the bathroom, I slowly move to a different corner of the room and stay very quiet as I hear her coming back a few moments later.

I should just teleport away, but as she enters the room again, I just stay very still and watch her walk back towards the bed.

Was my decision influenced by her frankly amazing ass? Maybe, and as she lays back down she doesn't quite cover herself with the quilt.

It gives me a nicer view while I wait until I'm sure she's fallen back asleep, a single breast exposed to the room (which I only watch to check her breathing), but after a good five minutes I relax and go back to my looting.

Unfortunately, aside from some nice boots which turns out to be too big for me, there isn't much else of use, so I settle for looting their fridge and make myself a ham sandwich, helping myself to a can of Pepsi.

I should almost stab them for poor taste, if you're not going to drink Dr Pepper, the superior drink, at least have Coke.

Out of spite, I pour the rest of the Pepsi into the sink, because I'm already going to leave them baffled in the morning so I might as well just fuck with them more.

Lining the empty cans up on the side, I finish my sandwich, helping myself to some snacks before I move on, vanishing without a trace.

Fate smiles on me while I move from building to building as I stumble across a rather odd store.

It seems to be some kind of crafts store, but what attracts my attention are some plain white masks made of some crappy plastic.

Grabbing a load of them, I put them in my bag before I get a dumb idea.

They have markers here as well, so I grab some of those too. The masks have two small holes for eyes, and I draw two circles around them to make 'eyes' and then a large almost cartoonish smile on the mouth before I put the mask on.

It covers my face entirely, and while it's hard to breathe and my vision is restricted while wearing it, it's better than nothing as I slip out again.

I've prepared enough, the first hour and a half has vanished and I want this done before morning comes.

Thankfully it's still very late, around 3am if I had to guess and as I move through the streets, I find my target.

Still awake as he rocks back and forth, an older man with a stained bearded and dirty hair sits on the steps of a building, a bedroll in the building's alcove. What drew my attention was the two empty bottles by his feet, and the third in his hand. I can't identify a junkie immediately but he looks the type, and if he's homeless why is he spending his money on booze anyway?

Appearing in the dark of an alleyway opposite him, I wait for my cool-down before I move into the alley opening and stare towards him with a knife hanging from my hand as I simply stand there.

It takes him almost an entire minute to notice me, but it's obvious when he does, freezing in place as he stares at me, his already pale face losing what colour it still has as I steal a move from the greatest serial killer and slowly tilt my head at him.

Michael Myers was always my favourite.

His eyes move from my grinning mask to the knife in my hand, and he immediately makes his decision as he jumps to his feet and with a stumble, starts to run.

He ends up falling as he looks over his shoulder back at me, seeing that I've moved out of the alleyway and am now standing in the middle of the street slowly walking towards him.

But as he faceplants, I disappear.

Rising to his feet he quickly spins back around, staring at the spot I was in merely a second ago, eyes widening in fear as he sees the empty street.

But he's not taking any chances, and immediately sets off running as best as he can given his drunkenness, but he makes a mistake as he turns the corner, ducking and weaving through the streets as I follow him in the shadows.

He tries to duck into one of the many alleyways to lose me, and as he turns around to see if he is being chased, I reappear at the other end of the alleyway.

My teleportation is silent, and he doesn't realise he's moving towards me until it's too late, turning back around just in time to realise I'm barely a meter away from him as he comes to a stumbling stop.

I step aside as he stumbles and falls again, and despite the pathetic display, it isn't sympathy I feel for my victim but disgust. Moving quickly, I slash at him with my knife, not hitting anything important as I cut at his legs making him scream in pain, several bleeding cuts along his legs and ankles as I move back, watching him scramble to his feet and try to move again.

They're amateurish cuts but they slow him down as I watch him hobble away desperately, tilting my head again as he runs.

Moving to the alleyway entrance, I have to wonder… Why is nobody investigating the sound? I expected to have to run, I've already planned my route in my shadow world to buy time before I could teleport…

He even shouts for help as he turns back and sees me just standing there staring at him, and while I see some curtains move, they almost immediately are pulled shut the moment I glance their way. Even my power tells me that nobody but him is looking at me, I'd even say they're trying to ignore what's happening.

I'm sure they've at least called the police, which means I don't have that much time.

He turns a corner again, and I deliberately head back into the shadows of the alleyway. I've noticed something interesting about how my power works.

I have a five minute cool-down, but it starts when I enter the shadow world, not when I leave. If I spend five minutes in that world, I'll be able to teleport again immediately.

It only takes me a couple of minutes before I can teleport again and he hasn't gotten far given his wounds. It takes me seconds to catch up to him again, following him in the shadows as I wait for the right time to strike.

He constantly checks every corner, expecting me to be standing there, but as he sees nothing he makes another mistake as he ducks into an empty building site.

Maybe he thought he could hide, but he just sealed his fate as he moves through the site and hides behind some machinery.

I appear behind him, and he barely has time to scream as he turns around and sees me descending upon him. I'm almost sure I can taste his fear as he tries to ward me off, the tangy taste in the air pushing me forwards as I stab at him over and over again.

He tries to block the stabs with his arms, which is ironically exactly what I tried when I was attacked, but much like me he fails as my blade finds his stomach, sinking into the flesh as he screams in pain.

I don't settle for twenty-seven stab wounds as I keep going until his screams fade to silence, working out frustration over my death that I didn't realise I was still carrying as I mutilate the body beneath me.

Standing up as I stare down at my victim, I feel nothing but a brief satisfaction, before I vanish once more.

I'm sure someone will investigate sooner or later, and I don't plan to be here when they do.

Honestly, the power boost as his life ended was a nice feeling but aside from that he was just disappointing. It's not that I wanted him to put up a fight, but the complete lack of a challenge was a let down.

I'll have to diversify my victims, I don't want to form any particular modus operandi people can use to try and predict where I'll strike next. I'm an equal opportunity serial killer.

I'm covered in blood, but that's why I stole a change of clothes and despite my slight reluctance, I slip through the floor and reappear deep in the sewers almost a mile away from my crime scene.

Thankfully there is a small concrete path so I don't need to appear in the sewage itself, but that doesn't help with the smell.

Stuffing my bloodstained outfit into the plastic bag from earlier (I stole a few for this very reason), I get changed into the stolen, oversized clothes and start to walk through the sewers.

Every five minutes, I jump again as I move further from the scene of the crime, but I'm getting tired as the adrenaline wears off.

Having travelled far enough away that I'm sure I got away with my crime, assuming anyone even investigated, I find an alcove and nestle up inside it.

The smell is awful, I'll probably have to burn the clothes to get rid of the stench, and it's not the best first night's sleep in my new world but it will have to do.

At least this place seems incredibly empty, I saw no bright spots aside from the occasional camera at entrances, so nobody else is down here within a mile of me.

It takes me a while to fall asleep, the concrete not exactly designed for comfort, but eventually I drift off.

Not a bad bit of work for my first time, I know my system is messing with my morals, more than the mysterious voice said, but I can't complain.

It's better than dying.

…oh yeah, I still haven't got a clue where I am. A problem for another day.

— Bruce Wayne (Batman) —

Finishing his investigation, Bruce scowled to himself. The police had been called in response to someone fleeing the street screaming for help, but they arrived hours too late.

This wasn't a fight between two homeless men, as was unfortunately common here, someone had hunted this man.

People had reported seeing him running for almost fifteen minutes, and Bruce had easily worked out the route he took from his abandoned bedroll to his final place of rest, someone had been toying with him.

The first attacks were aimed at his legs, to make the prey easier to hunt, then they let him go. They wanted the chase to continue, for the enjoyment of it perhaps?

Another psychopath loose in Gotham, unless this was one of his regular rogues, maybe Victor Zsasz? It didn't quite match his handiwork but it certainly fit his personality.

No, the cuts were too sloppy for it to be Victor, too amateurish for such a professional and talented killer.

This was the killer's first victim, unless he was mistaken (which could happen despite the opinions of some of his more rabid fans).

But that didn't answer everything, starting with where did they go?

There was only one entrance to the building site, which had a camera. Only the victim ever entered and nobody left.

There were also traffic cameras he'd gotten access to, and they only ever showed the victim.

He'd gotten one video where the killer was in it, taken from some brave teenagers' crappy phone camera and posted online.

It showed an extremely blurry figure calmly walking towards the fleeing man, but everything else was at least identifiable. He couldn't even work out if it was a man or a woman, old or young.

It was only the figure that was blurred, the killer's surroundings were clear (or as clear as the phone camera got), and yet all the tech he had access to said the video wasn't edited.

It clearly was, but he couldn't work out how it was done or more importantly how to undo it.

To make things more confusing, he left no footprints despite the dirt ground. Literally none, there were only footprints for the victim, not the killer.

So the killer had powers, but they weren't powers he was familiar with.

As much as it aggravated him, the trail had gone cold already. If they struck once, they'd do it again. He only hoped he could catch them in the act next time and didn't have to investigate another crime scene like this one.

His pragmatic side told him that wouldn't happen, he needed more information to find the killer and they seemed to be skilled in leaving absolutely nothing behind. Highly unusual for a new killer, and worrying.

They'd only get better in time, he had to stop this one before they got too good.

— Victor Zsasz —

…who threw his mattress out of the window?

— Markus Gray —

Walking up to a pain in my back and a foul stench in my nose, I slowly rise and focus on the bright side.

That I woke up at all is a victory, the rest are just minor inconveniences.

I do need to find a proper place to rest between my crimes, because it might have worked this time but it won't work forever.

Then it's your lucky day.

Congrats on passing the tutorial, I was going to just give you a cool weapon but honestly, a Guild member sleeping in the sewers is just embarrassing.

Kuro might let his gamers do what they want, but mine need to have at least some style. We're too powerful to not live in luxury.

Oh? I'm assuming the Guild is your organisation, which would make 'gamer' my role. The system is rather game-like.

Yup, anyway. Woo, congratulations you didn't fuck up immediately. You'd be surprised how rare that is.

[Quest Complete]

So what happens now?

You get a lair, a couple of new powers, then you go and do whatever the fuck you want. As long as you're acting like the Nightmare, I don't care what you're doing with your life.

Go wild, have fun, get laid, etcetera.

Sounds like a plan to me. I don't intend to waste this opportunity you gave me.

Good boy, you actually mildly impressed my wife so she told me to be nice to you. She has always enjoyed random acts of violence, which just made her horny. Thanks for that.

Happy to help… so do I actually get a name for you?

Shiro, Guild founder and the strongest being in existence no matter what Kuro says.

Err, sure. Let's just pretend I know who Kuro is.

My best friend, and fellow founders. He's also insanely powerful, not as strong or as good looking as me of course, but that's besides the point. Anyway, horny wife awaits so I'm gonna go. Have fun!

Huh, he seems like a fun guy.

In my hand, a key appears which makes me jump for a moment before I stare at it.

I instinctively know how to use it as I simply press it against the sewer wall, watching a dark portal open up.

Knowing it's safe, I step through it and into my lair. The key vanishes but I know I can call it back with a thought.

Lair isn't the right word to be honest, pocket dimension is probably more accurate as I look around the forest I've found myself in, a natural path with several old fashioned gas lamps lighting the way through the very dense and foggy woods.

Heading up the path as the portal closes behind me, it doesn't take me long to find my actual lair, a Victorian era mansion deep in the woods.

It actually makes me worry about what I'll find inside for a moment, even if it's a damn sight better than my current housing situation.

I expected a dilapidated mansion, but as I enter I realise I was very mistaken.

He wasn't kidding about luxury as I start to explore my lair, starting with the living room.

I expected no tech at all, but this place comes with a massive tv, surround sound and very comfortable furniture. Huh, it even has its own streaming service, which seems to have… pretty much every show and movie I've ever heard of, plus a few million I haven't.

The kitchen is no different, very fancy tech and a very full larder, cupboards, fridge and freezer with a whole lot of neapolitan ice cream for some reason. It even has a food replicator, and pushing a few buttons makes a large double pepperoni pizza appear on a plate, pre-sliced as I take a bite.

God damn, that's good. That's too good, and I love pizza.

The dining room is just as fancy, and I find the equally full alcohol cabinet and wine cellar. Is this what being a Gamer means? I could spend my life here, happily.

No, you couldn't.

The Guild giveth, and the Guild can taketh away if you don't play your part. Enjoy yourself, but remember you have a job to do.

Ha, don't worry. I understand that, I want my powers to grow anyway. They won't develop if I just stay here forever anyway.

Also, I thought you had a horny wife to deal with?

I can multitask, besides getting a boobjob while you work is always the best. You should try it sometime.

Heh, I'll keep that in mind.

Moving on, the master bedroom is just as well decorated as the rest of the house, and there's several guest bedrooms. I guess I could have other people live here, if I ever find someone I trust that much.

The master bedroom comes with a walk-in closet that has just about every style of clothing, in my size of course- and the bathroom makes me immediately strip down and clean myself off in the massive bathtub, cleaning the stench of the sewers off me.

I decided to just bin the clothes I brought here. I'm sure the utility room is just as fancy but the smell of the sewers makes me hesitant to put them back on.

I just got a similar outfit from my closet anyway, which fits me far better than the stolen ones. They served their brief purpose, that's enough for me.

This place continues to impress as I find the game room, another massive tv with a game console I don't recognise under it, which I quickly realise is made by the guild because it seems to have every single game installed, uncaring of 'exclusivity'.

Plus a computer that probably makes my world's super-computers look like potatoes, with access to the internet despite me being in a pocket dimension.

There's also a mini-fridge and cupboard full of snacks. The Guild spoils its members and honestly that makes me suspicious.

Of course, not everything is so nice, as I find my way to the cellar. The dungeon is rather conspicuous, as are the two rooms at either side of it.

The torture chamber, with plenty of implements of pain, should be rather unnerving but I'm past that.

The sex dungeon is more amusing, with far less intimidating 'tools'. I'm not sure it'll see much use but it's nice to have I suppose.

I find a note in my exploration telling me that my home will grow to match my needs, which is nice even if I'm not entirely sure of what that means, but I imagine Shiro timed this perfectly.

[Quest Rewards Added]

[Somebody's watching me]

You can inflict a target with a curse which will drive them to paranoia, constantly hearing footsteps behind them and seeing figures out of the corner of their eyes. You can choose whether the curse will be constant, sporadic or only trigger under specific conditions. You can also modify what the curse will make them see.

[Who do you voodoo?]

With a piece of your intended victim, whether it's a fingernail or a piece of hair, you can craft a voodoo doll from which to torment your victim by inflicting a variety of curses of your own design on them.

[Drug Tinker]

You have gained the knowledge of how to create many illicit drugs, including sedatives, hallucinogens and other substances.

As I get the drug tinker power, which gives me a momentary pause, the house shakes and a new room appears in the basement, a lab made for me to craft my drugs.

It has some supplies, but I instinctively know it's only enough to make the basics and I'll have to get the ingredients myself if I want to make anything truly special even as ideas flood my brain.

I'm hesitant to make drugs given their part in my death, but I'm not making cocaine here, just some goodies to help me with my work.

Deciding to try out my new power, I get to work as my hands practically move by myself as I start making a simple sedative.

I already know how to make it an aerosol, and before long I'm looking at a small glass vial with a pink mist inside it, ready to be unleashed. A fast acting gas that should knock out regular humans fairly quickly. It can be my emergency escape.

I should look into a gas mask, because I'm not immune to my own concoctions, but for now I'll just have to throw it far enough away that it doesn't become a problem.

I spend a few hours making a considerable supply of basic sedatives, it doesn't look like I can run out of the basic supplies thankfully, and after some thought decide to do some research for the rest of the day.

Lounging in the living room with the lights turned off, I queue up a few horror movies, it's basically research right?

You have to learn at the feet of the masters, and Micheal, Jason, Freddy and Ghostface are the masters. Okay maybe not Ghostface, but you get the point.

Let's face facts, Movie Ghostface is a bit of a joke, now Dead by Daylight's Ghostface is a master but that's a different story entirely.

— Next Day —

Waking up, I get out of bed and get dressed before I pause spotting a wallet on the side of my bed.

Figured you could use some legal id in your new world, just remember to not get too comfortable in your new home, I expect blood and dread.

And you'll get them, because it's time to get back to work.

Picking up the wallet, I smile at the driver's license inside it with my face looking back at me for just a moment before I freeze.

Why does it say it was issued in Gotham City?

Suddenly, the warning he gave me about this world being dangerous makes so much more sense as a feeling of dread comes over me before I shake my head.

No, I won't let anything ruin my second life, not even Batman. I need more information, which means it's time to explore my new city.

How old is this Batman, what Robin is he on, does Red Hood exist, does Batgirl exist, is Batgirl Oracle already?

Shit, does the Justice League exist? In most versions Batman doesn't like other heroes coming to Gotham, so Gotham might just be the safest place for me right now.

Does Batman have his infamous plot armour? If so, I need to get out of Gotham. Bruce Wayne might just be a human but Batman has more plot armour than a Shonen protagonist.

I have countless questions and no answers, not yet anyway.

Motherfucking Gotham city, is there anywhere worse to live?

Well yes, hundreds of worlds that are far worse than DC, but damn if I'm not playing this 'game' on hard mode.

System Notice

Killing notable figures, such as established heroes, villains or support characters, provides a far larger power boost than killing random unimportant figures.

Also, successful acts of terrorism will increase your power faster due to the large amount of fear they produce.

Oh really? Well, I get the hint.

Gotham City, huh? How could I cause a lot of fear in Gotham, a city that must be used to terror at this point.

I mean, how many psychopaths has Batman thrown into Arkh-

Wait… does-

Fear caused as an indirect result of your actions also grants power.

…oh, I know exactly what I'm doing.

Quest Added

[Prison Break]

Objective: Stage a prison break to release the worst criminals Gotham has ever seen back into the streets.

Reward: Power.

Oh Gotham, you have no idea what's coming your way.

Though, I'm going to need more power before I try a job like that, thankfully Gotham is primed with targets.

You know what Gotham has in excess? Criminals, and while Batman might be good at the terror side of things, he never follows through and finishes the job. I won't leave the job half done.

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The Guild of Gamers: The Nightmare by The Dark Wolf Shiro

Cartoon X-overs & Justice League Unlimited Xover Rated: M, English, Adventure & Horror, Words: 121k+, Favs: 3k+, Follows: 4k+, Published: Jul 27, 2022 Updated: Feb 17

2,048Chapter 2: We are Legion

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my original characters and works, if you recognise it from somewhere else, surprise it isn't mine.

Betad by morde24, Atrius ( formerly OoalGown), Hermes, Priapus, Old man of the mountain and TheDonFluffles

The Guild of Gamers: The Nightmare

Chapter 02: We are Legion

Gotham is apparently hell to live in because it's been carved up by the different gangs and supervillains, with the police either ineffective or outright corrupt.

My computer has access to my new world's internet, apparently untraceable due to guild tech, and that's given me a lot of time to research and work out my plans.

I want to cause a mass break-out in Arkham, but that's not going to be easy.

Fortunately, the locals seem to have done a lot of my work for me because it didn't take me long to find a group for Gotham residents where they helpfully keep track of who rules where. Turns out there's an entire site dedicated to tracking the actions of Superheroes and Villains, their gangs and other related incidents. Metahuman Online, or MHO to the users, has proven an incredibly effective source of Intel.

I've spent some time reading over the threads, specifically the Gotham ones, and I've gotten the idea that while Batman is definitely respected for what he's trying to do, the general consensus is 'it's nice that he's trying, but he's not actually changing anything.'

Sure, he saves the city three times a week, but anyone he captures will be free again in a month and nothing will change, they'll just go right back to what they were doing.

It seems like things are rather stable at the moment, or as stable as things get in Gotham. The Falcone family used to be the strongest crime syndicate in Gotham, but the Penguin and Black Mask briefly teamed up to bring them down.

The Falcones lost a hefty chunk of their territory, but inevitably the two villains turned on each other, and the Falcones were able to call in some outside help to fortify the rest of their territory.

So now there's something of a stalemate, with the Falcones, Penguin's gang and the Black Mask's gang all defending their territory.

None of them want to be the first to move because if they tried to attack either of the other gangs, the third gang would jump at the opening.

There are countless other supervillains and minor gangs, but they are the big three at the moment, at least in terms of owning territory.

The Joker's band of lunatics took over an old amusement park, but the clown prince of crime is currently locked up in Arkham.

Harley Quinn apparently escaped her prison transport, and people think she's plotting to free the Joker, but she's not exactly taken seriously.

There seems to be a running joke on the boards that Harley must be absolutely amazing in bed because the Joker sure as fuck isn't keeping her for anything else.

I have a few minor plans forming in my head, because I don't want my first major job to go wrong because I rushed things before I was ready.

Now that I know where I am, I need to act more hesitantly. Sure, I could gather some powers and try and kill Bruce Wayne, get him out of his fancy suit, but he's still Batman and right now he'd beat my ass without breaking a sweat.

I could do something crazy like attacking Alfred when Bats is away, with Off-Screen Travel it wouldn't even be difficult to sneak into Wayne Manor. It's definitely something to consider if I want to stick the dagger into Batman's back and twist it.

I'm going to have to fight the heroes sooner or later, because even if the ones don't come after me directly, for one simple reason… they're symbols of hope in this world.

All my efforts will be lessened by the mere existence of heroes for people to look up to, so I either need to kill, break or corrupt these symbols. That's obviously going to be a very long term goal considering where I am.

Even if I could kill Batman, which I almost certainly can't yet, his death would bring the Justice League to Gotham and that's not exactly something I can survive. Best case I run with my tail between my legs, worst case Supes goes all Injustice on my ass.

Sure, maybe I could go for whichever Robin is currently around (Red Hood and Nightwing are both confirmed, and nobody has seen a Robin for a while so it's possible we're in between Robins), or some other sidekick, but I can't kill them without attracting way more attention than I can currently handle.

Barbara is another potential target, but Batgirl hasn't been seen for a long time. Batwoman has been, but I'm sure that's not her. She's probably already Oracle, which I can check by just paying a visit to the clock tower. She'd obviously be an easy victim if she's already crippled, but again that'd bring the full attention of the Batfamily on my ass, maybe even the Justice League itself.

I'm caught in an awkward position at the moment. I need to spread fear to grow, but I can't attract too much attention until I've already grown stronger.

I have some nice powers but I'm a baseline human with no real training at the moment, all it would take is a guy with a gun who doesn't take their eyes off me and my second life would come to a sudden and unpleasant end.

I have plans, I just need to work out how the hell I'm going to go about them.

For one, I want to reignite the gang war. People are getting too comfortable and that's not helping me, I need the three gangs at war with each other and if I ignite it then I can harvest the fear to empower myself.

I even have an idea about how to go about that, because the Falcones seem to have very few (if any) superpowered members.

If I disrupt the Falcones enough, maybe even assassinate all the top figures, then the others won't be able to resist breaking the statemate and trying to grab as much of the Falcones territory as possible, because they can't risk the other doing it first

There's other gangs as well that I'm hoping will take the opportunity, specifically the Lucky Hand Triad, who have bunkered down in Gotham's Chinatown. They're primarily drug dealers, heroin mostly from what I've been able to find out, but they got smashed by Falcone a while back. They tried expanding out of Chinatown, the Falcones didn't particularly like that.

With the opening, I'm hoping that they, and the other minor gangs, will smell blood in the water and go into a feeding frenzy.

The war will heat up again, and while that's happening and drawing attention I'll strike Arkham.

That will free Two-Face who was set to be the fourth major player before he got caught, and with him joining the war and the waves of unhinged lunatics pouring out into the streets of Gotham, terror will be plentiful.

But first I need more power, which means I need to start spreading fear in any way I can.

But again, I've been thinking about exactly how I'm going to do that and I think I've come up with an idea.

I have a dungeon, sure I didn't think I'd have much use for it because I planned to just kill but it gave me an idea.

I don't have to do the killing myself. I plan to do a lot of killing, don't get me wrong, but if terror happens as a result of my actions that still counts.

So, if I was to, say… kidnap someone and force their parents/significant other to commit crimes on my behalf, that would still count.

If they refuse? Well, they'll still be terrified and I'll have a victim nice and safely locked away for me to kill at my leisure.

And that gave me an even better idea. Sure, I can grab some random nobody and have their equally unimportant loved ones kill for me, but do you know who really loves his wife?

Victor Fries, better known as Mr Freeze. It's not like I'd even have to look for him because everyone knows where his lair is. It's the giant ship that's freezing the water around it.

Gotham Villains aren't big on subtlety, which works for me.

Which got me thinking about what I know about villains from DC, which brought me to Deadshot. I'll be the first to admit I don't know a lot about DC, especially basically anything that happened outside of Gotham but I can at least remember a lot of villains' real names.

Zoe Lawton is living with her single mother, Michelle Torres in Star City. I know this because she posted enough pictures and information about herself online for me to work out exactly where she lived.

Floyd is even in some of the pictures, out of costume. It's cute that the hired killer takes his daughter to theme parks, it's heartwarming to know he cares about her.

It'd be a shame if I made a trip all the way to Star City just to find he didn't care about her after all. It's literally on the other side of America after all, a four hour flight.

Deadshot is working in Gotham, but he's very mobile and doesn't often stay in one place so I might want to make the trip sooner rather than later.

Once I get there, I can grab them and bring them here, before I make my way back to Gotham since frankly I know more about Gotham than I do the rest of this world.

And Batman is less intimidating than the likes of Superman, The Flash and Wonder Woman. I like my heroes without bullshit powers, thank you very much.

I intend for people to know there is a mastermind pulling the strings, which should help build my rep and empower me more while other people take the risks on my behalf.

It's not perfect and there's still a lot of risk involved since all it takes is one grab going wrong for everything to go to shit, especially a grab involving a supervillains loved ones, but it's better than risking a bullet before I have something that'll help me survive a gunshot.

I actually made a trip to Victor's Lair, but the fucker doesn't seem to leave.

I got right there next to Nora in my shadow world, but Victor was never more than a few meters away from her, he even sleeps in the same room as the tube she's been frozen in.

That's going to make grabbing her a bit more complicated since it's obviously heavy and fairly complicated, and she won't be much use to me if I accidentally kill her in the process.

And Star City is in California, while Gotham is in New Jersey. It's… a bit of a trip and while there are flights from Gotham's airport straight to Star City, I'm not quite ready for that.

Sneaking onto the plane is an option, so is just buying a ticket since I have a passport.

My background here is pretty solid, I was born in Gotham and graduated from a local High School with good grades (the same ones I got in my original life), before attending college in another state. My 'parents' were killed in a gang war a few years back and I'm now back in Gotham.

I even have a bank account with a small inheritance from selling my parents house, and a small crappy apartment.

I've not been using it because frankly my lair is so much nicer but I should at least show my face and maybe even consider getting a job to stop myself from drawing any unwanted attention.

Just something part time, to not take up too much of my time, but just enough to to seem 'normal' on the outside.

Besides, it'll be good to be among the common people to see how they react to the events I'll be setting into place.

But for now, I have work to do. First things first, I need weapons to supply my soon to be 'friends' with.

And I know just where to get them.

You'd be surprised how much you can find as an invisible spectre that can move through walls.

— Oswald Cobblepot (The Penguin) —

"Sorry, I must have something in my ear because I could have sworn you just said my guns were missing," Oswald said with a false calm that nobody who was acquainted with him believed for a second.

"I- yeah, Mr Cobblepot, sir. I went down to the armoury to grab some guns and ammo for our guys but the place was emptied," the thug whose name he didn't know said, wringing his hands together as the Penguin forcibly calmed himself.

"Well, did you check the cameras?" Oswald asked, making the thug shuffle awkwardly.

"Yeah, boss. Nobody went into the armoury, it's just empty," the thug said, making Oswald clutch his umbrella tighter. Candy rested her hand on his chest to try and calm him as she pressed her body against him.

"Obviously someone went into the fucking armoury. We have a rat, someone messed with our cameras so some fucker could just raid my guns. I owe some of them to my clients, you think they're gonna accept that I just misplaced them all?" Oswald ranted, before he took a deep breath.

Black Mask or Falcone, they were the only ones with the balls to pull something like this off.

Fortunately he only kept some of his weapons under the Iceberg Lounge, most of them were hidden in various warehouses across his territory (and some outside of Gotham). This wasn't a disaster, but getting robbed at his base of operations was a slap to the face.

It was practically a challenge, and he wasn't going to back down.

"I want my guns back, call everyone. It's time we found out who our little rat is," Oswald said dangerously.

Nobody robbed the Penguin and got away with it.

— Markus Gray —

I just robbed the Penguin, and got away with it.

The Penguin is an arms dealer, and he kept a lot of guns under his club, being able to just appear inside the sealed armoury, make a portal to my lair and loot the place worked wonders.

There were cameras of course, but he didn't have any actually inside the armoury, just a bunch outside it.

My house helpfully added an armoury for me to stash my considerable amount of loot. Enough guns and ammo to cause quite a bit of mayhem.

I actually kinda like the Penguin, but I don't know where Falcone or Black Mask keep their guns. I've already started to build a map of important locations for each gang, suspected villain hideouts and other noteworthy places but the Iceberg Lounge was just the obvious target.

The Penguin is wanted for arms trafficking, amongst a great many other things so I hoped he'd have a lot of guns at his main lair, and while I know for a fact that's not all his guns it's enough for my purposes.

If I was wrong, no harm was done. I never even went near the Iceberg Lounge myself as I just had to get within a mile, and it's in a fairly busy part of the city so me being there wouldn't draw attention.

I even picked an alleyway with no cameras around it to teleport from, so nobody could notice I went into one end and never came out of the other side.

Can't take any risks with Batman after all. Any slip could fuck me over especially since I can't keep Recordless up in public.

Because I don't need to accidentally get caught in the background of a picture or by a traffic camera as a big blur and draw attention to myself like that.

All it takes is for one person to see the weird effect I leave and remember me, which frankly is quite likely since I'm a fairly good looking guy, and then boom I can't go out in public.

I actually went clubbing after my heist, not at the Lounge obviously since I don't want to place myself there any time soon but at another smaller club in the area.

Say what you want about Gotham, but it has an active nightlife. Plus, my apartment is actually fairly close to the Iceberg Lounge, not on the same street or anything but easily within walking distance since I'm only a few streets away.

And yes, that means my apartment is balls deep in Penguin's territory.

I didn't stay for too long, just a couple of hours of some light drinking and dancing before I called it a night, but I want to get the locals used to me.

Strangers attract attention, so I'm working on making people see me as just another local. I'll make more 'appearances' to continue the act of just being a regular civilian who is new to the city.

I've set my apartment as a return location in my lair. It has a rather useful function where I can decide where to go when I leave. I can either go back to where I opened the portal or to a place I've 'set'. It still means I have to travel to new places for the first time myself, but essentially I can set a fast travel spot in a nice secure place when I get there.

So as I reach my apartment and lock the door, I smile to myself darkly.

I have work to do tonight, my little heist was just the start.

I've collected the tools my agents will need to fulfil my work, but now it's time I make sure they have the right kind of motivation to see things my way.

My first kidnapping itself is hilariously easy given my powers, moving from house to house until I find one that suits my needs.

I've moved to the nicer part of town, which actually has the occasional police patrol moving around since we're closer to the GCPD station, but it's still far too easy as I find my first target.

A middle-aged couple with a single daughter, probably no older than twelve. The pictures on the wall tell the story of a happy family, and while they might not tell the entire truth it's close enough for me.

Standing over the sleeping couple, I calmly uncap one of my bottles of sedatives and drop it between them, moving back so I don't breathe it in myself.

I have questions about how a bottle that small managed to make a cloud of pink smoke that large, covering the entire double bed easily but I shrug and put it down to superpower bullshit as the cloud fades a few seconds later.

Pulling the quilt off the couple, they show no reaction as I grab the mother and lift her out of the bed, throwing her over my shoulder and carrying her to the wall.

Opening the portal to my lair, it takes a minute to have the older woman tossed into one of the cells, and with the father deep in his beauty sleep, repeating the process with the daughter is equally easy.

Neither the mother or daughter wake up during the kidnapping, and I'm honestly not sure how long the gas lasts but at the very least it's enough for my purposes.

Taking pictures of both of them unconscious in their cells, I print them off in my computer room along with a note for the father, before I leave it on the bedside table.

Right next to a loaded pistol and a mask.

With my work done, I disappear once more. I could do this to multiple people in a single night but this is more or less an experiment to see how this goes, if he goes through with my orders then I'll keep my word and release his wife and child, if he refuses or goes to the police, I have two victims to draw more fear from.

Essentially this is a win-win because I get something no matter how this ends, and I know this will result in gaining Batman's attention, but I've made my decision.

I'm going to try and build a reputation as a shadowy mastermind, behind a string of horrific crimes. No face, no name, no leads, just a series of victims forced to dance to my tune.

Of course that doesn't mean I won't do any killing myself, but this is more than a one man job, so I'm simply enlisting some assistance.

— Bruce Wayne (Batman) —

"You wouldn't have called for me if it was simple," Batman said simply, making Commissioner Gordon nod with a sigh.

"Nothing is ever simple around here, but you're right," Gordon replied, handing over the interrogation transcript.

He'd been woken up for this, because he was rarely awake during the early day. Some criminals thought they were clever by acting at that time, but he was hardly the only hero Gotham had and he usually arranged for the rest of the Batfamily to be more active while he was sleeping.

Of course, Carrie was far from ready for solo patrols, the only reason he agreed to take her is because he knew she'd try to go alone if he didn't. It had also been a long time since Jason had listened to him and Dick wasn't in Gotham since he was overseeing the team of former sidekicks. At least Tim and Cassandra could solo patrol as long as Barbara was assisting them.

Fortunately, crime was far rarer in the light of the day, which was why it came as a surprise when he heard of the tragedy.

Reading the transcript, his trademark frown deepened.

"I take it you visited his home?" Batman asked, getting a nod.

"His wife didn't show up for work, his daughter was marked as missing at school. We found the note and a couple of empty bottles by the two beds, we put them both into evidence, along with the mask," James confirmed, gesturing to a piece of folded paper and two small bottles . "Looks like he might be telling the truth, the gun he had matches the weapon linked to a couple of murders we suspect Penguin's men committed."

This didn't feel like the Penguin, it wasn't in any of his rival's territory and there was no money in it.

Reading the note, his frown only grew. It was obviously just written on a computer and printed off, regular plain a4 paper and arial font left at the default size.

'Hello, Mr. Adams.

By now I expect you've noticed that your wife and daughter are missing. Allow me to assure you that they are unharmed, I simply relocated them to a safe location. They'll be released, unharmed and untouched, as long as you cooperate.

My request is simple. You are to go out in public and use the gun I left you to kill at least two people while wearing the mask. Who you kill is irrelevant, I also don't care where you go to do this. You can even choose when to do this, but for every day you delay, your wife and daughter will simply have to entertain me instead. Don't worry, I won't do anything permanent to them as long as you don't take too long.

Once the deed is done, your wife and daughter will be released in a safe location within the next day. If you go to the police, I will kill them both, slowly. They will beg for death weeks before I grant it to them.

If you are killed or captured during the dark deed, they will still be released as long as you got the two kills I asked for. If you happen to get captured after only managing to kill one, feel free to kill yourself to make up for your failure.

I look forward to your swift cooperation, even if I really wouldn't mind you refusing. I'll find my entertainment either way.

Enjoy your day Mr. Adams. I most certainly will enjoy mine.'

The note wasn't signed, unusual for a villain. They often felt a need to have their names linked to their deeds.

There were two pictures attached, printed on photo paper, of what must be the wife and daughter in what appeared to be prison cells.

Very few details could be made out at first glance, the photographer was obviously in the cell with them since there were no bars in the picture.

Gray stone floor and walls, no windows so they could be underground, a single stone bed with no sheets built into the wall and nothing else.

"How bad was it?" Batman asked, making James sigh.

"It could have been worse, but he had no firearms training. He killed one person and wounded two more. One of them is apparently in surgery, but they're expected to pull through," James said, making Batman's eyes narrow. "Detective Montoya managed to take him down safely because he ran out of ammo."

"Does he know that?" Batman asked, making James nod grimly.

"He kept asking how many people he killed, we hadn't found the note yet and he wouldn't cooperate before we answered. I've put him on suicide watch," James replied darkly.

"Then I have work to do," Batman said simply, taking the evidence himself as he set off towards the house of the victim.

He needed to find the kidnapped pair before the villain decided to live up to his threat.

Somehow, he knew this wasn't one of his usual rogues, this was someone new.

Their motive confused him, he didn't believe for a moment that this was purely for entertainment, things were never that simple.

Reaching the house, it didn't take him long to realise there was nothing, and his mind immediately went back to the murder he investigated just a day ago.

There was a speed camera that barely saw the house, but nobody ever showed up and no cars stopped outside it. Oracle gained access to a neighbours security camera and again nobody ever approached the house.

There was just a single hint in the neighbours front door camera, an unnaturally blurry figure walking past an upper floor window.

The same effect he saw before, the video apparently unedited as far as Oracle could tell. Some kind of effect that caused technology to fail to record them?

He was almost sure of it, this was the same person as before. But he thought that was their first kill, were they ramping up so quickly?

Again, there were no traces of the criminal. Nothing whatsoever, except the vials which had obviously been left on purpose.

Nobody was that thorough about leaving no traces only to leave something so blatant behind, which was why he wasn't surprised at the complete lack of fingerprints.

He'd been left without a lead before, but it had been a while since he had so very little to work with. A letter he could go over for more clues, and not a trace of the missing pair.

Disappearing by themself was an impressive trick, but to disappear while presumably carrying a pair of victims is a different matter entirely.

Could it be magic? A scowl crossed his face at the very idea of it, magic spat in the face of logic so often it irritated him, but he couldn't ignore the possibility.

He didn't like calling for help, he liked other heroes coming to his city even less, but two lives depended on finding this villain and he wouldn't let his pride kill them.

"Watchtower, put me in contact with Zatanna."

— Markus Gray —

Hm, he failed.

Not surprising all things considered but he failed all the same.

"Why are you doing this? We've done nothing to you!" the unnamed mother shouts as I turn back to her. "Who are you?"

They woke up a couple of hours after I brought them here, but I left them to stew in their cells since it's a surprisingly effective way of harvesting fear.

I could feel the fear his actions caused, but it was too small. The people of Gotham are too used to shootings, sure the ones who were unlucky enough to be at the scene were scared but then they moved on.

I'm hoping that as these attacks become more regular, while growing bigger and more horrific, they'll have more of an effect.

Still, even the small amount of fear that this fed me had an effect. The range of my off screen travel increased to five miles, which should be useful. It's good to know my powers can improve like this.

I can feel the fear building up to something, and even now I have three sources of fear slowly feeding me and slowly moving me closer to the threshold.

"Who I am doesn't particularly matter," I finally say, I've been ignoring them until now and my response makes her freeze as I turn to her, my masked face staring blankly at her. "What matters is the task I gave your husband, once it was complete you would have both been released safely. He failed."

She freezes at my cold tone, I've put them in cells opposite each other, so they can see the other. It actually calmed the daughter but increased the mothers fear. Something to experiment with later.

"Well, that's not quite true. He did half of what I asked, and he still has time to finish the job. He has until tomorrow to complete his task. If by midday tomorrow he hasn't managed that, well then things get unpleasant for you both," I say calmly, making her shudder as her fear grows.

Moving out of the cells, I hear the mother trying to comfort the crying daughter as I get some food for them, bringing it back and opening the slit in the cell door to push it through.

"Eat well, you'll need your strength if he fails," I say simply, turning and leaving as I ignore her desperate questions.

I'm a man of my word, if by midday tomorrow he manages to kill himself, I'll spare them.

Because if I'm going to be doing this again, I don't want to get a reputation of not keeping my word. I want people to follow my orders in the hope that their loved ones will be safe.

You're fitting into your new role well.

Well, to be honest. It's a lot more fun than I expected. I'd never have done stuff like this in my old world but the villains have always been cooler than the heroes, and with my new powers I can do so much more than I could in my past life.

It's been fun to watch you scheme, honestly I thought you'd go around stabbing people at random and get captured or killed immediately. It was a bit of a surprise.

In Gotham? No thanks, I'd like to live long enough to enjoy my new powers, thank you very much. Honestly I thought you were some omnipotent being, I didn't know you could be surprised.

Oh, I am but have you any idea how boring omnipotence actually is? Imagine if every time you started a movie, someone paused it and told you the entire plot. It's fun at times but honestly it's a killjoy so I keep it suppressed.

Fair enough, I can definitely see how it'd get boring to never be surprised, pleasantly or otherwise.

Anyway, I actually have a little offer for you.

You see, I have a little tweak I can make to things to make them more interesting. Normally I decide based on how active the Gamer has been. If they're trying to stay out of everything and being boring, I use it at full power to make them act.

I kinda like you, so I'm giving you the choice of whether you want it or not.

What exactly does it do?

Essentially, just think of it as something that increases the random encounter chance.

You'll be more likely to run into 'important' characters or have fate try to drag you into the 'plot'. You can still ignore them of course, it's just harder.

I see it as accepting higher risk for higher rewards, because the encounters can be good or bad.

Hm, so essentially with this I could have run into an out of costume hero or villain at the club last night?

Yeah, you pretty much got it.

It doesn't affect your free will, just tweaks things to make you occasionally have encounters that wouldn't have happened otherwise.

Heh, why not? This entire world is high risk, high reward so why stop now?

Good choice, I knew I liked you for a reason.

Perk Added

[May you live in interesting times]

Makes things more interesting, for better and for worse.

Well, I guess I'll just have to wait and see how this works out.

I'd tell you to have fun, but you seem to have that under control already, so just continue what you're doing and you'll do just fine.

Will do, boss man.

With Shiro gone, or at least no longer talking, I go back to thinking.

I have almost certainly got some heroic attention at this point, I wouldn't be surprised if my letter is in Batman's hands already especially with two still missing people.

I was never going to fly completely under the radar, not in Batman's backyard, so I might as well embrace this.

It's why I had Adams wear the discount Legion mask, that grinning mask is all I plan to leave behind as my identity, something of a calling card.

Hm, I have nothing to do while I wait to see what Adams does.

I said they'd be untouched until tomorrow, and I meant it, but that doesn't mean I have to sit on my hands and wait around.

I'm at the cusp of something, I can feel it.

And like I said, I don't plan to do all my killing by proxy.

Grabbing my knife I pause as I look towards the guns. Guns just feel so… eh.

I'll take one, but it's for emergencies. I definitely think I'm a knife guy.

As for who I'm going to kill? Well, I want this grinning mask to become known and feared, so it's time to start the slaughter.

Heading back out into Gotham, I smile under my mask as I get to work.

— Bruce Wayne (Batman) —

…he'd been played for a fool.

It was an unpleasant feeling, but he understood why the still unnamed villain had sent a civilian to kill at complete random.

It was a distraction, to keep him focused on the missing Adams while the villain could act freely.

While he and Zatanna had been examining the Adams house, the villain had acted again.

"How many?" Batman asked gruffly, showing no sign of the anger he was feeling.

"Ten houses were hit, scattered all over Gotham. Seventeen total victims, no survivors," James answered, making Bruce's scowl deepen. "We got reports of screams at some of them, but the killer was always gone before we arrived. Each house has the same thing carved into the walls, a face matching the one drawn on the mask Adams was forced to wear."

"Send me the names of the victims," Batman ordered, there had to be more to this than just random violence. They wanted him distracted for this, focused on the missing pair so they could target these ten houses.

"Sorry, Batman, but no magic has been used here recently. Even the simplest spell leaves a trace, whatever the villain used, it wasn't magical," Zatanna said, finishing her spell with a frown. "I'm going to look for something the missing girls care for, hopefully I'll be able to use it to scry their location."

"…do it, I need to investigate the other houses they hit," Bruce said, his voice deeper than usual as he sent the names of the victims to Oracle.

If they could find the girls, they'd find the killer. He couldn't be 100% sure that this was the same person responsible for the murder at the building site but if it was…

They were escalating far too quickly, and he needed to find them as soon as possible.

— Markus Gray —

Arriving back at my home, I toss my blood-soaked clothes into the washing basket, stepping into the bath with a deep sigh.

Murder is dirty work, but oh so profitable as well.

[Fear Hound]

You have gained the ability to sense fear, being able to locate or track people who are afraid with much greater ease.

[There's No Use Calling For Help]

You can place a communications blackout zone around an area of your choosing, preventing all technological communications within it, both in and out.

Max Range: 0.5 Miles

[The Vermin Lord]

You have the ability to control all rats within your range, sensing their presence, commanding them telepathically, sharing their senses and even possessing them.

Creatures: Rats

Range: 100 Miles

I got the first one after my first kill, but why stop with just one? A single kill is clearly nothing in Gotham, I needed to do so much more than that to make my mark.

I made sure to spread my kills throughout the town, targeting people without caring about race, gender or wealth.

I've carved the face, which I'll admit I stole from Legion's mask in Dead By Daylight, into the wall at the scene of every kill, I want people to know I'm responsible for each and every one.

Hell, maybe I'll get lucky and someone will carve my 'face' at the scene of their murders since that would further the city's fear of me.

I don't mind taking the credit (and blame) for something I didn't do.

This is the dawn of a new age in Gotham- is what I want to say but I'm not sure this will even shake up this damnable city.

Oh well, I need some sleep anyway so I'll just check the response when I wake up.

Oh, and I'll need to deal with my guests, tick tock Mr Adams, you better be dead by the time I wake up or I'm going to be displeased.

Getting out of the bath, I pause and grab the little straw doll on the side of my computer desk and give it a little squeeze.

You wouldn't want to let me down, would you Mr Adams? Because if he doesn't kill himself, I'll just end him myself. All it would take is a few well placed stabs in this little toy of mine.

— Bonus Scene — MHO

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Topic: Gotham's Latest Serial Killer

In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Gotham

Gothamite89 (Original Poster) (Wiki Warrior)

Posted On Sep 12th 2018:

So, I know this is going to come as a great surprise to absolutely no-one, but Gotham has got yet another deranged serial killer, and this one made their debut in style.

Over the course of last night, seventeen people were murdered in their homes (ten different houses, some had multiple people), and at each house the killer had carved the same cartoonish smiley face with two vertical slashes through the eyes.

[ ]

Each kill was performed the same way, dozens of stab wounds.

No name for them yet, or anything since apparently despite brutalising over a dozen people they apparently did it without leaving any evidence at all.

Great job as always GCPD.

I'd tell you to lock your doors at night, but all the victims did and it didn't seem to deter the killer.

(Showing page 1 of 26)

►MissMystery

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

It gets worse

I know a police officer who was one of the responders. All the doors and windows were apparently still locked when they got there and showed no signs of tampering. The police had to break down the doors to get in.

Plus have you looked at where the murders happened? Look

[ ]

The time between the estimated first kill and the latest kill is just over three hours, but look at where the murders happened.

Literally all over Gotham, even driving the killer would have barely had time to get to each house, kill the inhabitants and leave.

Plus, the estimated first kill and last kill were actually weirdly close, literally two streets away from each other. The killer attacked someone, went all over town, only to come back to the same block and attack someone else?

In that amount of time?

My guess, either they're a metahuman or it's a group of people all acting at once.

►Shen

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

So either we have a group of deranged killers or a single one who can apparently just teleport wherever they want?

Wonderful.

►Mane Magenta

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Wasn't that smiley face what the shooter was wearing at the mall yesterday?

► Gothamite89 (Wiki Warrior)

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Good catch, but that leaves a bunch of questions

Maybe it is a group and one of them got the wrong time for the attacks? But that attack was sloppy as fuck compared to the other attacks

►MissMystery

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

I've convinced my contact to pass me some more information

The shooter was James Adams, a store clerk with no prior records. His wife and daughter were kidnapped (and are still missing), and he was given this

[ ]

So, a distraction? They didn't seem to care who he killed as long as Adams killed someone.

Unfortunately, Adams bit through his tongue and choked to death on his own blood. Whether the kidnapper will actually keep their word is something we'll just have to wait and see.

Onto the actual murders, the autopsy shows that each victim had some kind of sedative in their body, and that the knife used in each kill was different.

Some of them might have been killed by the same knife, but many of them were definitely killed by various knives, so it lends some credence to the multiple killers theory.

►Batfan

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Do we have a name for this lunatic/these lunatics yet?

I'm not calling them the Smiley killer or anything dumb like that

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

How about Legion?

► Gothamite89 (Wiki Warrior)

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Works for me, if they don't like it they should have left a name instead of just a smiley face

I'll get to work on the wiki page, with what little information we have on this guy

►Princess

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Hey, why are you calling them a guy? That's sexist

Girls can be serial killers too!

► Gothamite89 (Wiki Warrior)

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Statistically, it's most likely a guy.

That said, I don't want Poison Ivy or Harley taking offence and tracking me down.

►RevUpYourHarley (Verified Villain)

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Nah, I'm too busy to waste my time with you and Ivy wouldn't care if you were sexist, she'd kill you because you're not a tree

Or maybe she'd do it because corpses apparently make good fertiliser.

►Batfan

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

…why do the mods let villains post on here?

►TheOracle (Moderator)

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Because you wouldn't believe how many times they've accidentally incriminated themselves or given away their location over the years

The Riddler is only in Arkham again because he made his location a riddle and we worked it out.

Do you know how many times Harley has accidentally told us the Joker's plans while posting online?

►RevUpYourHarley (Verified Villain)

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Hey! I'm not that dumb

You're all gonna feel stupid for doubting me when I bust Mr J out of Arkham!

►TheOracle (Moderator)

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Case in point.

► Batfan

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Legion won't be a problem, Red Hood will just put a bullet in his/her/their head/heads

►Princess

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Right, Red Hood

The lunatic who has more blood on his hands than most of the criminals he shoots?

What's his kill count now? Certainly more than Legion

Yay, we're saved

►Batfan

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Batman will find them, the police might not have been able to find any evidence but Batman will

►GotHam?

Replied On Sep 12th 2018:

Yup, that's Batman

He'll throw Legion into Arkham and then when they break out next week, he'll capture them again (after they kill a few dozen more)

Our saviour!