Deathsroke's pov
"Good jokes you say?"
"Of course you buffoon! I call myself the bloody Joker for a reason!"
"True justice. It's nothing more than vengeance in another suit."
The Joker face-palmed, "Oh my, the joke could have been good but the delivery! Oh by Edgar Poe's Plutonian Shores it was pitiful!" He sighed, "It did remind me of Batsy though. 'I am Vengeance', he said."
"The Jackal, Joker."
"No, I'm afraid you didn't make the cut." He laughed at his own joke, since I was holding a hand and a half sword (b*stard sword), "If you want to do deals, I gotta be entertained. Boys and girls!" He declared, "One Hundred Thousand dollars for Deathstroke's head in three minutes! Remember, if you're good at something, never do it for free! Hee-HEE~"
Judging by how fast I heard screaming coming down onto me from behind, these psychos didn't need money to motivate them. Joker's gang was lightly armored but heavily armed. They had a code though, they wouldn't all just shoot me at once from the corners of the Lounge with their LMG's. No, many took knives, clubs and machetes before coming down to me. I guess if there's honor among thieves then maybe gangsters have some too.
However, I was confident that I could kill everyone in this room even with their guns. One wouldn't know it, but by the fact that I was so reckless today meant I had a plan. Plus plans for when the originals go wrong.
But forget about that. I had a crazed woman jumping down on me with a knife I'd imagine. Can't keep this mental monologue going while my adrenaline seemingly slowed time.
The crowd erupted in cheers and men and women climbed down to fight. I could see the shadow looming over me. I've stopped faster.
I've stopped the bat.
In an elaborate turntable flip, a front flip with my body turning 720 degrees, my longsword cut her in half. Landing, I swiped at the three goons charging me with one-handed weapons raised so recklessly it disgusted me. Three throats were slashed and I got up face-palming with a laugh as blood showered me.
"This won't do. So unprofessional." I looked up at Joker who gave me an amused smile, or was that his constant rictus smile he wore? "I think I know what you really want! Clown!"
I stabbed my sword into the floor and popped my neck. Let me see… how did he fight. I tried to mimic his stance but it's been so long.
"Oh you spoil me Deathstroke." He groaned erotically, "I recognize Batsy's stance anywhere~"
It's rumored that Batman has learned every martial art known to man. However, I'm the only person who has ever beaten him in a fight. He uses his own eclectic style, no doubt bred by mixing all the martial arts he's mastered into his own. Batman uses Keysi as a foundation. Keysi is a broad style founded in the 80's in Spain. It's main criticism is just that; it's so broad that there are no specialist movements. No hard hitting punches like from boxing. No grapples or clinches from Judo or Muay Thai. However, if one was a master of these other styles already then the Keysi method can be a frightening thing to go against. Perhaps the most unique part of the Keysi method is the use of elbows to shell up and defend against strikes. Often, boxers will raise their elbows to defend against strikes to their head, and Muay Thai fighters also take up a similar stance. However, the Keysi method offers something completely different. Here, its practitioners raise one elbow upwards like a boxer, whilst hugging it with their other arm in a horizontal line across their face.
(Concerning the claim that Slade had beat Batman this was in Identity Crisis. He had almost beaten the entire Justice League in that arc. It was one of the worst pre-Knightfall beatings he's had. Also, Keysi is the 2008 Batman's style while Tim Burton's Batman is thought to use Hap Kune Do, Kickboxing and street fighting. If visual representations are more your thing.)
Using Batman's foundation, I plan to use very different styles and techniques.
Using Krav Maga, the US military's now forbidden LINE, Vale Tudo, Silat, and forbidden Special Sambo as well as anything else I want; I plan to let off some steam. An appetizer for what is to come. I was going to kill as many of them as I could.
(Two of these styles are forbidden and Vale Tudo is another forbidden and underground style. I will try my best to incorporate moves of all but I'm only "formally" a previous practitioner of an eclectic karate using the Black Dragon System as a foundation. I also did not get far lol. For those interested, Krav Maga is an Israeli military style, LINE obviously American and Special Sambo is reserved for Russian Special Forces.)
I took off the trench coat that was over my old gauntlets and greaves. Guess I unintentionally had come to the fight armored similar to a Gladiator. Only a grey long sleeve, my battle belt, my mask and black combats paired with what little armor I wore as I tossed my jacket onto my sword like it was a coat rack.
"He's not using his sword! Get him!"
There was maybe two dozen of them. Twenty-six to be exact. The closest one went for an overhead stab with a knife. Snatching the wrist with my guard hand, I went for a LINE-style eye gouge, similar to a Wing Chun one but not my favorite. With the metal tips of my fingers jabbing quickly even a light poke could dislocate or remove an eye. Which is exactly what happened before I took the ratty man's long hair and delivered a brutal up-knee. A LINE move that was taken from Muay Thai.
I think I crushed the dislocated eyeball on my knee as I went to the next opponent. This time I had another coming in on my flank to the right so I had to finish this fast. This one was using a club. Letting down my guard, I moved into him with offensive intent. Striking the throat, too close for his initial attack, he keeled over and I delivered a Keysi-LINE elbow to the back of his head with a crunch.
Two down. Twenty four more to go.
I sidekicked my flanker's knee. A Vale Tudo move popularized by Bruce Lee to keep distance. Granted, Vale Tudo was a mixed martial art in itself and probably took that from an older style.
The kick only bought me a little time for me to turn and see the six bogies on my tail. With things amping up I used Krav Maga's offensive defense techniques. Peerless footwork and execution had me cutting through them with ease. Blocking and attacking at the same time.
There was a yell and an ape of a woman tried to grab me and trip me. Little did she know that Sambo and Vale Tudo have strong BJJ similarities. Sambo being very wrestling oriented. I left myself open so I could reverse her trip while punching her and throwing down more Sambo-style grapple strikes. Flinging our little fight around I noticed how I was getting corned next to a power box. To my enemies, I might have seemed to be having trouble getting her off but I was taking in my surroundings and using her flailing to slow their advance.
"Hey he's having trouble!"
I have been too nice to them. Time to speed this up. I threw her into the power box, her kidneys smashing into the electric hell and making her spasm as the lights flickered. A LINE axe stomp can crush bone and flesh, and crushed the woman's head with ease.
The cheers stopped, but the lights continued to flicker.
"I'm offended, Clown."
"Oh?" The Joker said, "Why is that, Deathy?"
Really, 'Deathy' is a humiliating pet name. I ignored it and said, "You never told your men about the legendary Deathstroke!"
"Oh and that you beat Batman before? Why would I tell them that?"
They all flinched. Me, they didn't know. Batman, they feared.
"Imagine everyone, that Deathstroke here is Batman but is actually willing to kill you." He looked at his watch, "Oops, forgot to set the timer. Silly me. Three minutes."
I underestimated the Joker's men and their hatred for Batman. My opponents doubled in a matter of seconds. Cheers turned into hate filled roars for my head.
Good.
I took off my battle belt. I hated snagging my opponents on it. Closing my eyes for a moment I visualized what I hated most. Despite popular belief, it wasn't the Bat. Sometimes, it was myself. It wasn't Batman who made my family the way it was. At least somewhat. It was the Jackal. He slashed innocent Jericho's throat and is torturing Rose right now. He killed my Lily in the most barbaric manner possible. I was so deep in meditation that I thought I heard a voice command me,
"Kill."
I redirected the first man, a short goon, charging me into my sword in the ground. Using my superior strength he hit the non-moving object so hard the blade nearly cut him in half. Kill.
A beefy but average sized man came at me akimbo with two knives. I batted his attacks away, and performed a Tiger strike to his throat before ripping it out. Next I took his knives from his dying hands and gave him a hook to the jaw. It didn't send his body flying, no, I had just ripped out his throat. It turned his head 180 degrees before he fell on his own accord. Kill.
The lights still flickered as I prepared to unleash my Silat on them. More blood was filling the Lounge. Roars for it spanning the wild cacophony. I imagined the Jackal's mask. Kill.
Silat was very much like Arnis or Escrima. It was even more deadly however. SEALS have said common Arnis practitioners can easily take on a dozen unarmed men. The unforgiving ironwood and blinding speed would knock out and incapacitate people before they even knew what happened to them. Silat knife fighting in the hands of an escrima master? Even professionals would bet on my chances of victory.
I slashed high and low on four opponents. Alternating between the throat, aorta of the thigh and the Achilles' tendon to maximize my chances. On the fifth I stabbed the woman in the gut before elbowing her and disemboweled her as she fell. Kill.
A brute tried to bear hug me. I ducked under his arms, slicing the tendons under his armpits and in his legs before circling back in front of him. Fear filled the immobilized man's eyes as I spun and kicked him into my sword. He fell just before he could hit it though. I fish hooked him, placing a finger in his mouth and pulling him by the cheek and smashed his head into the sword. Kill.
I did another pass through the dense wave of bodies following me. My speed and ferocity hard to decipher in the flickering lights. Next I saw two average men struggling to pull my sword out of the ground before I threw my stolen knives at them.
Practically flying to the next set of scattered blades I charged the next man. Employing the speed of escrima, three hundred strikes per minute, I struck and cut my target with one hundred cuts. Five seconds in he was screaming, seven in and one came in from behind, I twirled and beheaded them and kept cutting. In fifteen seconds, an unrecognizable rag whimpered and screamed as he bled slowly to death.
The lights stayed on, the room was silent and they all stopped. Fear, now in their eyes. I painted a smile in blood on my mask and yelled,
"ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!"
There was a crack in the floor as a brute threw my jacket into the blood pools. He placed his knee on the bodies of his friends and I sighed as he pulled out my sword. Just as he raised it in triumph I pressed a button on my gauntlet and the sword electrocuted him and sent him falling to the ground.
The Joker was clapping after the display.
"Impressive as always and oh," he pointed at his smile, "nice touch. I gotta ask though. Who sent you down here?"
"No one. I'm not taking work right now. This is personal."
"Why don't you just ask ole Ozy for help then Deathy?"
"He can't be trusted."
"But I can?!" He laughed loudly for a good ten seconds, "And I thought I was crazy!"
He knitted his hands together and added, "You must have had a very-very bad day."
That's been the Joker's whole thing here recently after attempting to break the Commissioner. He had shot his daughter in the back and possibly raped her. The man at least undressed her and took pictures but no one has ever been able to get the details. Nor do I care at this point.
"Maybe I should train your men after my personal work is done. If Batman wasn't scared to kill he'd have wiped all of them out by now."
"Oh trust me Deathy, Bats isn't afraid to kill." he leaned forward, "He's much more afraid of something else."
"Is that why it's rumored that he let you out of Arkham?"
The mad man chuckled, "A good magician never tells his tricks. Let's just say that me and Bats share a…" he couldn't help but cackle, "bond forged in blood."