The Magic of Friendship, Love, and Guns

“Destroy him!” Grodd ordered as his gorilla troops opened fire at Red Hood but they barely did anything as Red Hood lunged forward and dug his claws into one of the troop’s chests and tore it open like a tin can. His tendrils flew out and stabbed four more gorillas and lifted them up, tearing through their bodies like the blades of a chainsaw.

"They’ll keep coming after your family. They'll keep trying to hurt your loved ones." The unknown voice whispered. The voice continued to feed the darkness inside Jason as he went ballistic, tearing into the gorillas like a savage monster feasting on his prey. Grodd watched in awe and horror at the power Red Hood showed. One Gorilla tried to jump Red Hood from behind but the tendrils quickly shot up and wrapped around the gorilla;s throat, squeezing and snapping his neck in a flash. Spike was too frozen from fear to even blink as he watched Jason’s slaughter. During the blood massacre, Spike heard the distinct sounds from a little device on the floor. His eyes panned down to see what looked like an earpiece. With a shaky claw, Spike slowly picked it up and held it to his ear.

“Hello!? Jason!” Spike heard a familiar voice come through. After trying to think about it, he recognized the voice as one of the strangers Jason met and he spoke over the holo device from his car. “Jason! Talk to me! Your helmet readings are going off the fuckn’ chart! What the hell’s going on over there!?”

“RRRAAAAAGH!!!” Red Hood’s voice changed, becoming deeper and more…animalistic.

“I-Is this A-Axel?” Spike managed to ask.

“Spike?! That you?! What’s happening to Jason?!” Axel demanded.

“It’s Jason, something’s wrong! H-He…H-He lost control!” Spike called out to Axel.

Jason pounced on a gorilla and slammed his head repeatedly on the ground, cracking his skull open like an egg. Suddenly, a portal opened up right beside Spike, and Axel himself stepped through. One look at Jason was all he needed for him to summon his digital armor and unravel his chain.

“Jason…what happened to you?” Axel said. “Get back, kid, this is gonna get messy.”

“Never again, never again, never again, never again!” Was all Red Hood muttered as he turned and growled at Axel.

His hair stood up and blew in an unknown breeze as he roared. Using his tendrils to lift the corpses of four gorillas and hurled them at Axel. Axel used his Neon to easily dodge the flying corpses, only to be met with Jason’s boot mere inches away from his face. Axel barely had time to dodge as he wrapped his chain around his waist and swung him in the other direction. The force sent Jason hurdling right through a wall and he crashed into it. In the corner of his eye, he saw Grodd and the surviving gorillas trying to make a cowardly escape. Axel quickly flicked his hand to make several digital swords and pinned them all on the ground and floor.

“Not so fast, big guy,” Axel said with a glare. “You made your bed, and you’re sure as hell are gonna sleep in it.”

“Hehehehe.” Grodd chuckled as he looked at the newcomer. “A newcomer? I must admit your powers are quite fascinating. I will take great pleasure in studying you once Red Hood is finished tearing you and himself apart,” Grodd said. As Red Hood was collecting himself, Axel snapped his fingers to discharge a powerful shock through the swords holding Grodd and his minions down.

“Shut the fuck up and stay put,” Axel spat and readied himself for another charge from Jason. Suddenly, Axel was hit from behind by a powerful burst of energy sending him flying right into Red Hood’s fist as he punched him, slamming him hard into the ground.

“About time you made yourself useful,” Grodd said as he looked over at Enchantress, the woman had on ancient-looking robes with bits of armor while her hair was an oily black color that reached down to her shoulders and her eyes glowed green.

Axel shook his head and stood back up as Red Hood stood next to her and glared at Axel. Axel glanced between the two and immediately put together what was going on.

“Now I get it,” Axel said with a slight smirk. “The puppeteer makes her evil appearance. You got some nerve pulling on my buddy’s strings, bitch.”

“Such a foul mouth on you,” Enchantress giggled. “We saw your powers, but do you truly believe you can win this fight, boy?”

Enchantress formed two magic circles and summoned two creatures from the ground; they looked as if they were made of mashed flesh with glowing orange eyes that stood at 7’2” feet tall. Red Hood roared as he charged at Axel before suddenly getting blasted by two batarangs that sent him flying back. He skidded on the ground before looking up to see Nightwing and Robin running in and stood over two knocked-out Gorillas.

“Uh…can someone tell me what’s going on?” Nightwing asked as he looked over and saw Spike, the two vigilantes immediately running over to the small dragon.

“Small version, the witch screwed with Red Hood’s mind and now he’s gone feral,” Axel said. “First of all, hi, big fan. Second of all, you lot handle Enchantress. I’ll handle our possessed boy here.”

“It seems that the children have come to play, I’m going to enjoy sending Batman your corpses,” Enchantress said as she ordered her abominations to attack. They growled and started marching toward the vigilantes.

Jason roared as his body started convulsing, his eyes turning green as it looked like his body was turning black. His tendrils shot out towards Axel as Jason ripped apart a chunk of the ground and hurled it at him.

A bright flash blinded the room and the rock was instantly smashed to pieces. When the light died down, Axel dawned his digital power armor and stood his ground.

“Time to take a nap, bro,” Axel said in a digital voice.

The tendrils wrapped around Axel’s arms and lifted him up, slamming him through a wall as Jason charged after him to continue the fight

“And that leaves us,” Enchantress said as the two abominations attacked Nightwing and Robin. Nightwing looked at the mutilated gorilla bodies and sneered at Enchantress with a vengeance.

“It was you…” Nightwing snarled as he unsheathed his shock batons. “Red Hood may have his issues, but he’d never go this far. You bewitched him!” Enchantress laughed while looking over at the carnage created by Red Hood.

“Do you like it? As much as I would love to take credit, it wasn’t all me. He has a powerful darkness inside of him. A power I wish to…nurture,” Enchantress said sadistically.

“You’re gonna have to get through us first!” Robin barked.

“With pleasure!” The two abominations lunged at the two vigilantes, one of them raising both fists and aimed to crush Robin but he quickly slid under the abomination and sliced at its Achilles heels, but they just quickly regenerated.

“They have a healing factor!” Robin shouted as he ducked under a massive swing.

“It just couldn’t be easy, could it?” Nightwing said as he flipped back as the abomination tried punching him.

Each strike hit the ground and cracked the ground, leaving a large hole with every hit. Nightwing quickly dodged to the side and whacked the abomination in the jaw. The abomination stumbled as its jaw was practically dangling by a thread, but it quickly fixed itself and roared at Nightwing as it bashed into Nightwing, sending him flying back.

“Damnit! This has blown way outta proportion!” Nightwing grunted.

“How the hell are we supposed to put these things down?!” Damian yelled after narrowly avoiding a swipe from the abomination.

"Just keep fighting!" Nightwing said as he attacked the abomination.

Meanwhile, in the other room

POW!

Red Hood wheezed as Axel slammed his fist into his gut and followed up with a haymaker across his jaw. The heavily armored Conduit then clasped his metallic hands together and hammered down on Jason’s back before kicking him hard, sending him flying.

“Snap the fuck out of it, Jason!” Axel yelled. “You’re better than this! That witch is twisting your mind! You’re Jason Todd!”

“RAAAAAH!!!” Red Hood roared once more as his tendrils wrapped around Axel and lifted him up, slamming him into the ceiling and down on the ground over and over.

“Fuck! Get off me!” Axel grunted and summoned two digital swords. He sliced the tendrils off him before landing on the ground and made his swords disappear. “Fine…you asked for this!”

Axel bent his knees a little as he activated Neon and his body glowed a fluorescent light. Before Red Hood could wrap his regenerated tendrils around him, Axel sprinted off to the side at blinding speed and connected his fist to the side of Red Hood’s head. Red Hood staggered and was met with another strike from Axel, and another, and another until Axel was running in different directions, hitting Red Hood each time he ran by.

“STOP IT!” Red Hood shouted as he was suddenly surrounded by a ball of shadows before it exploded, sending a shadowy shockwave all around him and blasted Axel back a bit before he could punch Red Hood again. Red Hood roared as he slammed his claws into the ground, one of his eyes turning to normal while the other was green and emitting purple smoke.

“N-No! Get away!” Red Hood shouted to Axel.

“Jason?!” Axel shouted. “Jason! It’s me! It’s Axel!”

“K-…KILL…!” Jason screamed, clutching his head.

“You’re not killing anyone! I’ll stop you and-!” Axel shouted.

“K-KILL…ME!” Jason screamed.

Axel froze and his blood ran cold. He never imagined he’d hear such a thing from Jason. However, his concern was soon replaced by rage.

“THE FUCK YOU SAY TO ME?!” Axel shouted angrily. “YOU DID NOT JUST SAY THAT, YOU ASSHOLE!”

“DON’T…WANT…TO KILL…! FAMILY…!” Jason grunted, clutching his head. “PLEASE…! KILL…! ME…!”

“FUCK OFF! I’M NOT DOING THAT SHIT!” Axel said definitely. Jason then froze as he just stared at Axel, his eye then changed once more into that dark green color.

“…Then you’ll join his family in the grave.” A feminine voice was heard instead of Jason’s as he suddenly vanished in a puff of black mist before reappearing above Axel and slamming his head into the ground, pouncing on his back while his tendrils tried to pry open Axel’s armor like a tin can.

“FUCK!” Axel grunted as Jason pulled with all his might. “You’re not the only one who can pull a disappearing act!”

Thinking quickly, Axel activated Smoke and dissipated into smokey wisps. He rematerialized afar from Jason and breathed heavily.

“Damnit, I’m starting to run out of steam…” Axel said as Jason prepared for another charge. “One chance. Gotta do it.”

Both Jason and Axel charged at each other and slammed their fists against one another. The shockwave shook the room until Axel quickly grabbed the top of Jason’s head with his free hand and Jason tried to pierce Axel’s armor with his free hand. Axel suddenly unleashed a volley of electric shock right through Jason’s head while Jason’s claws and tendrils dug into Axel’s chest plate.

“FFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKKK!!!” Axel screamed along with Jason’s own wails of pain and anger.

Axel kept electrocuting Jason until the possessed hero’s screams ceased. Axel ceased his power and Red Hood’s body twitched as smoke was practically coming off his cooked body. The tendrils and claws, everything was slowly going away as he went to normal.

“I…sor…” Jason coraked before falling face first and passing out.

Axel fell to his knees and breathed heavily. His power also deactivated and he was sweating profusely as he gazed down at Jason’s unconscious form. Axel then looked down at his chest and noticed a sizable hole in his shirt and a shallow wound that bled a little.

“A hair’s breadth…” Axel wheezed. He raised his hand and used what little power he had left to slowly heal Jason. Jason’s body lit up a little with Neon light and his wounds slowly but surely began to clear up.

“Rest up, bro,” Axel said. “You’ll be back on your feet in no time…”

Nightwing pounced on the back of the abomination and slammed both his batons into its skull, letting out a massive surge of electricity through it. The abomination roared out in pain and anguish before grabbing Nightwing and slamming him into the ground before stomping on his chest, leaving him in a small crater.

Robin slashed at the abomination’s limbs, slicing through them but they just quickly regenerated. The abomination then kicked Robin in the gut before grabbing him and stretching out his arm to slam Robin into the wall, dropping his sword in the process. Enchantress laughed triumphantly as she glared at Robin

“Finish him,” She ordered, the abomination then slowly started crushing Robin as he cried out in pain

“NOOOO!” Spike screamed out as he summoned all the courage he possibly could and rushed at the abomination

The little dragon took in a deep breath before letting out a stream of green flames at the abomination. The abomination roared out loud as it let go of Robin to try and protect itself from the flames. Spikecontinued marching forward while letting out a relentless wave of fire at the abomination, it stepped back as the flames managed to do damage. The other abomination saw this and roared as it stretched out both arms at Spike. Spike glanced over and his eyes widened in fear, his life flashing before his eyes. His first day being hatched by Twilight, playing with Twilight and Shining Armor, the day they first moved to Ponyville, fighting Nightmare Moon, meeting Jason, discovering the multiverse, and now…his death.

Suddenly, in a flash of silver and fire, the abomination’s arms were sliced to shreds, the attack happening so fast that the abomination couldn't simply regenerate. Spike looked up to see none other than Spitfire clad in her Wonderbolt suit holding Robin’s sword in her hands. Spitfire glared at the abominations, a look of pure, absolute rage etched on her face. Her hands gripping the hilt of the sword.

“You…bastards… YOU’RE GONNA PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID!” The captain screamed.

Faster than anyone could see, Spitfire dashed in a blaze of fire as she hacked and slashed at one of the abominations, slicing it to pieces so fast that it couldn’t regenerate. It roared out in pain before becoming nothing more than a pile of sliced-up chunks on the ground. The other abomination jumped off and stretched out both arms to try and pin Spitfire down, but she was too fast as she sliced through both arms and made her way up to the abomination. With a single swipe of the sword, Spitfire slashed its head into a thousand pieces. The body dropped to the ground but slowly regenerated. Enchantress growled in annoyance before using her magic to make the defeated abominations combine, the abomination grew quadruple in size and mass as it roared, shaking the temple around them.

Spitfire flared her wings and dashed towards the abomination, using her speed to carve the blade all over it, but it was stronger this time. It formed spikes along its body to try and stop Spitfire but she was able to maneuver around them until it suddenly backhanded her down to the ground, skidding through the floor and landed near Spike.

“What in the Tartarus is this thing?!” Spitfire asked as she sat up, grunting in pain.

“Your demise,” Enchantress mocked with a sinister smirk.

Nightwing and Robin both got up to their feet and looked at the abomination, quickly rushing toward it to attack. The abomination turned around and roared at the two vigilantes and tried stomping on them. Nightwing and Robin threw explosive batarangs at the abomination as it blew up its legs, making it stumble back and fall. However, its legs were already slowly regrowing. Spike watched the fight unfold and gasped as an idea formed in his head

“Spitfire! Grab me!” Spike said as he quickly jumped on Spitfire’s back.

“What are you-?!”

“Fly! Now!” Spike ordered Spitfire was about to argue before immediately taking to the air to avoid a devastating slam by the abomination.

“Okay, you better have a good idea!” Spitfire said as she flew around the room, dodging attacks from the abomination while Nightwing and Robin attacked it from below.

"Just keep us from getting hit!” Spike said before taking in a deep breath and shooting out his flames at the abomination, managing to blast it in the face.

The abomination tried to swat Spitfire away but she was just too fast for it. Spitfire used her speed to slash at the abomination and let Spike’s flames burn it to a crisp. The abomination swung its massive arms again and again in an attempt to swat Spitfire and Spike down, but Robin and Nightwing kept using their batarangs to distract it while Spike used his flames to burn it and Spitfire her speed to slash it. The abomination was helpless as it soon couldn’t continue to withstand the onslaught, and it slowly started to melt into the ground.

Spike took one last deep breath, his eyes silting more as he let out a temple-shaking roar and breathed out the biggest wave of fire he had ever let out. The flames covered the entire abomination and burnt it to nothing. Once the flames did their job, Enchantress merely smirked as she giggled in amusement.

“It seems I underestimated you all. Guess this won’t be as boring as I thought,” she said with a shrug.

“Boring? Boring?! COME HERE!” Spitfire flew towards Enchantress in an attempt to slice off her head, but she was caught in a green aura and thrown into the ceiling before being slammed down into the ground.

“No!” Nightwing and Robin rushed over to help her but were quickly subdued by Enchantress and her magic.

“As much fun as this was, I must go. I already got what I came for. But we will meet again.” Enchantress laughed as she summoned a magic circle and vanished in green smoke. Nightwing and Robin slowly got back up and looked around, not seeing any traces of Enchantress. Or Grodd.

“They got away,” Robin growled in anger.

“That doesn’t matter right now, Jason needs help!” Nightwing said as all of them got up and immediately ran to the hole in the wall to find Jason. The group looked around as they tried to find their comrade and the mysterious stranger.

“Over here!” Spike shouted as he pointed to Jason’s unconscious body. They all ran over to Jason and saw the strange individual sitting next to him.

“Sup…” Axel said, sitting off to the side.

“Who’re you?” Nightwing asked.

“Axel,” Axel answered. “Long story short, Spike called me. That Enchantress did a number on his mind. Damn near used up all of my energy.” Axel sighed and shook his head. “I managed to subdue and heal him as best I could, but I don’t know how he’ll be once he wakes up.”

“Best we can do is just get him out of here,” Robin said. He looked at the stranger with caution but right now his main focus was helping Jason. Nightwing lifted Jason in his arms to carry him out, Spitfire and Robin went over to Axel and helped him up.

“I got the rest of my men and some royal guards outside, they can help with providing aid to Jason…and finding the bodies,” Spitfire said with a hint of heartbreak in her voice as she said that last bit.

“My condolences,” Axel said and stood up. “If you can take it from here, I’ll be on my way.”

“You’re leaving already?” Nightwing asked.

“Trust me, I’d stay if I could for Jason. But I got my own priorities at the moment. I came here because my friend was in trouble.” Axel used his key to open a portal and looked at the group one last time. “Give my best to Todd, yeah?” With that, Axel stepped through the portal before it closed up.

“…And here I thought the weirdest friend Todd made was the dragon,” Robin said as they all moved on and focused on getting Jason out of there.

“…Are you going to stop them for good?” Spitfire asked them while they walked out of the hole and down the halls of the temple.

“Beyond a doubt,” Nightwing said. “We’ll bring them to justice and-”

“That’s not what I bucking meant,” Spitfire said, clenching her fists hard enough to almost break her skin. “That colt…they slaughtered him.”

“I know, but-” Nightwing tried to say.

“But nothing! They murdered him! He was only a kid! And they murdered him!” Spitfire screamed, glaring into Nightwing’s eyes. “They slaughtered innocents and if they’re all anything like that Bane guy and that gorilla monster, then more and more will die! So tell me, will you stop them?!”

Nightwing kept his stoic face but could tell what she meant. “Ms. Spitfire…we do not kill,” Nightwing said.

Spitfire balled her fists and scoffed, walking off. “How many more need to die until you do?” She asked him. Tears built up in the corners of her eyes as she walked on. Robin gritted his teeth and balled his fists, punching the wall.

“She’s right…” Robin muttered.

“Robin…” Nightwing said strictly.

“No! Look at all the things they had done in OUR home! OUR world! All the innocent lives lost and all the countless times we fought them and locked them away, only for them to break out, and fought them all over again! This endless cycle only brings more and more people into the crossfire and innocent lives lost at the cost of it! Now we have more people from another world suffering the same fate because of us!” Robin shouted.

Nightwing grabbed Robin’s collar and glared at him. “If we kill, we are no better than them!” Nightwing barked. “We do not kill because we represent what it means to have a heart! Do you think I never thought about hunting down Joker for all the shit he’s done?! To Jason?! To Tim?! To Barbara?! I spent years biting my tongue to the point I thought I would eat it!” Nightwing shoved Robin away and continued glaring at him. “You knew what you signed up for when you became part of this team, this family. For your sake, Damian, I highly advise you to keep that in mind.”

Spike watched as this all unfold before him and he couldn’t help but feel so…weak. He looked down at his claws and back up at the unconscious body of Jason and the two other brothers as they argued. The little dragon followed them as he made a promise to himself.

"I won’t be weak. I’ll be strong. I must be stronger!" Spike thought

Elsewhere

Enchantress and Grodd sat in a clearing deep in the jungle just as the witch finished undoing Axel’s restraints.

“There, all done,” Enchantress sighed. “Strange, I don’t sense any magic from these restraints.”

“That is because that human isn’t one of magic, but rather appears to be some form of mutation.” Grodd said. “His body will be the most interesting to dissect, maybe even use it for my army.”

Grodd coldly chuckled before hearing the screams of his troops. He turned around and saw them being drained of their life force by three women with devil-like tails and bat wings. Grodd roared and was about to crush them into the ground before gasping in pain. Looking down he saw a glowing green blade going straight through his heart.

“Y-You…traitor…!” Grodd coughed up blood.

“Oh Grodd, you have to trust someone to be betrayed.” Enchantress smiled before pulling out a black crystal ball.

Her eyes glowed green as she spoke an incantation. Grodd groaned and gasped as he felt his very life force and powers being drained. In mere moments he was nothing more than a shivered-up husk, falling to the ground. Dead. Enchantress giggled gleefully as she held the ball in her hand

“All according to plan,” the witch hummed with dark delight.