DC Genesis

"Sounds like a plan to me," Neal said quickly as they began to go up the stairs. Zoe was the last one to move up, as she was still using her gun to keep whoever was at the door from coming inside. She fired off two last shots before turning and quickly making their way up the stairs. After some time climbing, they made it to a door which Neal quickly pushed open. "Well, that's interesting," Neal said as they came out on to the roof of the whole building. Apparently that was what the stair case lead to.

"Neal, Rose, get on to the sides of the door and get ready to attack him. Neal, remove your illusion from me. He may not be the same man he was....but he doesn't want to kill me. He would have otherwise," Zoe admitted as she walked away from the door. "When he sees me, he'll hesitate. That's when you two can strike."

Things were quiet for some time. The darkness from outside was making it harder to see, but it was still bright enough to see what was in front of them. They could all see the roof clearly, so Deadshot wouldn't have any where to hide. Finally after a minute, they began to hear footsteps outside of the door. It opened up and a man quickly walked out of it with a fully automatic weapon in his hands. He was wearing the same suit that he had been wearing in the videos threatening the Gotham Underworld, but now he seemed to wear a mask that covered the entirety of his face.

As soon as he saw Zoe he hesitated. "Zoe?"

When Zoe did not answer, she made a mistake. When Rose moved to throw the cinder block, Zoe's eyes darted to the side of Deadshot that she was on. It was enough of a giveaway for the gunmen to turn just as the cinder block was to make impact. His hands moved up, causing him to drop his weapon, and suddenly caught the block within his hands. "Cute" was all that Deadshot said before throwing the block to the ground where it promptly shattered. The man than raised up an arm, where a tube was now aiming directly at Rose.

At that moment, Neal quickly moved in from behind and grabbed Deadshot's arm to move it. This action seemed to catch the man by surprise as his shot seemed to barely move to the side of Rose and land in the ground next to her. Deadshot quickly moved his head backwards, causing the helmet to crash in to Neal's face and knock him back. Before Deadshot could move to attack Neal or Rose again though, Zoe fired a few more shots and forced Deadshot to move farther away from the two of them. He seemed to be on the defensive, but there was a problem. The surprise attack hadn't worked, and now the roof barely provided any place to hide or to have cover.

Deadshot wasn't going to be pushed back that easily though. He raised up both arms, quickly taking aim and firing. Each block that Rose threw was quickly shot in to pieces and destroyed in a moment. For the knives he quickly began to move to the sides to dodge them. His reflexes seemed to be extremely good. He turned to aim at Rose again, only to find that she wasn't standing where she had been previously. He blinked for a moment, clearly confused. However, when he looked around no one seemed to be there. Deadshot quickly raised a hand to his head and seemed to press a button. The piece of metal over his eye suddenly seemed to glow red. His attention now immediately turned to Neal who was the closest. Neal had tried to get closer in order to surprise him, but as Deadshot looked right at him he knew that he was caught.

Zoe quickly rose her weapon and began to take a few shots at the man. They hit him in the shoulder area and caused him to stagger backwards and miss Neal. The boy quickly took the opportunity to get away from where he had previously been. Neal didn't really have a way to sneak up on him, so he would just have to hope that Zoe and Rose would be able to come up with some kind of a plan.

Rose's offensive strategy seemed to work. The long range attacks from Zoe, and the distraction that Neal provided seemed to give Rose the perfect opportunity to attack Deadshot up close. As she got closer Deadshot heard the footsteps and quickly turned to fire at the girl. She was too close by now though, the punch to his shoulder caused him to wince in pain and move his arms out by accident. The roundhouse kick sent Deadshot to the ground, accidentally causing his hand cannon to go off as he landed.

No one even noticed what happened until the yell filled the air. It was a scream of agony more than a yell. As everyone turned to look. They would see Zoe where she had been standing only a moment ago. However, now the upper left part of her torso was covered in blood. She was looking down at the wound, as if she could hardly believe what was happening. She was breathing rapidly as she tried to cover the wound with her hands. It was already too late though.

Zoe's eyes eventually shut and she slouched forward with her face hitting the roof of the building. The misfire from her own father, had hit her directly in the heart.

"You bitch!" Deadshot shouted as he suddenly turned his head towards Rose and aimed both of his guns at her. HE began to fire, first with the intention of just pushing her back. Once he got to his feet though he began to aim for more vital areas. "I'm going to kill you, your friends, AND your family!" Deadshout shouted as all of his attacks were now aiming at Rose only.

"...Zoe?" Rose uttered, looking towards her just as the girl slumped to the rooftop. A sudden bolt of panic ripped through her, everything seemingly slowing down while her body went numb. That... hadn't just... happened. Right? It couldn't have... happened... She didn't even hear Deadshot yelling at her, and actually didn't even realize she was running towards Zoe until about halfway there, falling to the girl's side and rolling her over, eyes darting around the bullet wound to the chest. There was so much blood... fuck there was so much blood.

"Zoe! ZOE!" she screamed. Fuck, fuck fuck! This wasn't happening!

A second later, three shadowed figures swooped in from above. Two of them went straight for Deadshot: Nightwing and Batgirl. A combination of smoke, batarangs, and good old fashion martial arts should have had him on edge. The third figure meanwhile, Batman himself, appeared at Zoe's side. He pulled out a small pellet from his belt and cracked it open directly on top of the wound. A quick hardening foam instantly encased most of her chest.

"What the hell is that?" Rose asked, heart fluttering in her chest.

"It'll stop the bleeding," Batman said, holding a finger to his ear. "But she still needs surgery immediately. Alfred, send word to Gotham Central, tell them to send an ambulance to the address right away."

All Rose heard in response was a muffled voice from the man's ear piece. "We... we should have come here... we shouldn't have..."

"Not, you shouldn't have," Batman muttered. "You weren't ready."

At first Deadshot seemed ready to fight Nightwing and Batigrl. However, right before they got to him it seemed like he screamed in pain and fell to his knees. The two bats would probably be greatly confused by what happened as the man seemed hardly able to put up a fight as they took him down with ease. Course, no one was watching Neal. He had seen what Deadshot had done to his own daughter and Neal had been filled with such anger that he had tried to do the one thing that he had never tried before.

He had succeeded in using an illusion to make Deadshot feel an extreme amount of pain. The man had crumbled down from Neal's illusions and the strength of Nightwing and Batgirl. The man's tears weren't coming from the pain though, it came from the knowledge that his daughter might not survive the night. She wasn't supposed to be involved, not in the slightest. This wasn't what was supposed to happen.

Neal quickly moved over and looked down at the barely breathing Zoe who seemed to have lost consciousness from the blood. He didn't know what to say, he had never really seen someone dying in front of him before. "Is there....is there anything that you want us to do?" Neal asked as he looked at Batman.

Neal just gave a nod before looking down at the still breathing Zoe. She looked so weak, so helpless. Neal had been so mad at her before, and yet now he felt nothing but pity for the girl. She didn't deserve any of this. She was a good girl and had even volunteered to try and stop her father. "I'm sorry Zoe," was all that Neal was able to get out of his mouth.

----

Epilogue

"You know Lawton, you're pretty damn lucky that Batman found you and placed you in a public location. After all, if we would have found you first I'm not sure if you would have made it to a court house to say your side of the story," the cop sitting across from Lawton said in a low voice. He held a shotgun and his eyes never left the man that was handcuffed across from him.

Floyd Lawton stayed silent as they traveled in the back of the police transportation vehicle. He was being taken to court, so that his fate would be decided. He didn't much care though, nothing really seemed to matter right now.

"But hey, I guess you got what you deserved after all," the cop continued to speak despite Lawton's refusal to answer. "After all that's karma right? You take lives, and your own daughter dies painfully from literally a broken heart....fired by you last I heard," the policemen said with a smile. "Guess now you know what it feels like to lose the last family you have left.....piece of shit," the man muttered.

Lawton just closed his eyes as another tear ran down his face. He still couldn't believe that he had accidentally shot Zoe of all things. First his own brother, now his daughter....it wasn't fair.

Meanwhile, the vehicle seemed to be stopped at a red light while traffic crossed over. It was on the very street corner that a young woman stood. She watched the vehicle closely before pressing a single button on her phone. With that she smiled and slowly walked away from the scene. She didn't want to be seen anywhere near here after all.

As the vehicle went on, there was a rumbling heard overhead as something seemed to draw nearer. At first it seemed like nothing, but it was getting constantly louder with every passing moment. "What the fuck is that?" the cop asked as he tightened the grip on his shotgun that he was holding. Lawton was also looking up, but there was a clear smile on his face.

Without any further warning, suddenly the van was shaken violently. From outside, a helicopter had taken location just above the car. It had slowly lowered down a device that seemed like a large hook which quickly sank in to the sides of the car and refused to loosen its grip. The helicopter began to rise and soon, the vehicle was rising with it. The police in the vehicle had no control, and they couldn't shoot at an enemy that was flying above them like this. Soon, the helicoptor moved over near the river that was closest to Gotham before dropping the vehicle completely.

The car hit the water with a crash, causing the driver, the escorts, and Lawton to nearly smash their heads in to the walls of the vehicle. That was the least of their worries though. The water began to fill in to the car, and there was nowhere to go. Lawton quickly took a deep breath of air, knowing that he was going to need it. It was only a few seconds later that the backdoor of the police vehicle seemed to be cut in to. Two men in scuba gear were swimming outside of the door. One of them raised a harpoon gun and shot the officer in the chest, causing him to die instantly. The other man moved forward and placed a mask over Lawton's mouth, giving him several fresh gulps of air. Afterwards, they began to take him out of the water and towards the surface.

As they reached the surface, Lawton noticed a ship in the distance and began to swim towards it. Once he neared it he reached for the ladder and began to climb it. Just before he reached the top, a hand extended towards him and helped him in to the boat. Lawton took a few more deep breaths before looking up at the man that had helped him up. "Hey boss....guess I messed up big huh?" Lawton asked slowly.

The man stood with his hands now behind his back. "That you did, but I hope that you now see the importance that comes from working with us. We would never have allowed something like this to happen. I heard everything after all," the man said as he slowly felt his beard with two of his middle fingers.

Lawton gave a slow nod. "Yes...I never imagined that Zoe would get herself involved. And now she's dead because of me," he said weakly.

"Fear not, one of my men recovered her body earlier this morning. You need not say goodbye to just a memory," the man said before he began to walk away.

Lawton immeidately looked up and smiled. "That's perfect! I can at least give her a proper burial, you know....at least let her be near her mother."

The man stopped and glanced back at Lawton. "I'm afraid a funeral will not be necessary. You see, I actually have bigger plans now than last we talked. You need not say goodbye to your daughter because of death, instead we will help her transcend it," he said with a smile as Lawton looked thoroughly confused. "Do not worry my friend, you'll understand in time" he said before making his way down to the lower levels of the ship.

As the ship began to take off, Lawton just began to look around at the men and woman that were surrounding him. They all gave him nods and smiles, as if welcoming him back like he never left. "Glad to know that they aren't sore about it at least....guess this will be my home," he said as he glanced back at Gotham which was getting smaller and smaller in the distance. "I'll be back soon enough though....we all will."

"Rose?" came a soft voice near the door that lead back to the house. It was Jordan, standing with part of her body outside and another part of her outside. It was as if she was debating walking out towards Rose but a part of her seemed to be afraid about what would happen if she got too close. She gave a nervous gulp and looked away for a moment before turning back to look at Rose. "Dad told me about how your friend got killed by that insane man...I just wanted to say that I'm sorry," she said in a soft voice. "If there....if I can do anything, please don't hesitate."

Jordan quickly moved to the side as Rose came towards her in order to get back in to the house and head out for her jog. Jordan wasn't even sure why she had gone out of her way to say something, just from the way that Rose split that bag it was clear that she shouldn't have said anything. Still, the girl had no idea how Rose was really feeling from all of this. Jordan just felt like she needed to do something, even if it was never going to be effective at all.

As Rose made her way to the front of the house, Neal came from his room and passed to the hall before noticing where Rose was going. He glanced up and made his way closer to the main room where Rose was. "Need some company?" he asked simply as he leaned against the nearby wall. He wasn't sure how Rose was feeling right now, she was just as likely to help him as she was to snap at him. Like Jordan, he knew that he needed to say something though.

Neal just watched as Rose left, only giving a simple no as she responded to Neal's question. He couldn't blame her for how she was acting right now. She went through a traumatic experience, and Neal knew that Rose had some sort of feelings for Zoe. While they probably weren't love, she had probably still considered Zoe a friend of hers. Rose hadn't been the same since the girl's death, and Neal just hoped that he could do something to help her one day.

He glanced up at the phone began to ring. Jordan was outside right now and he was the only one home. He took a deep breath before going over and answering it. "Hello?"

"Neal Anderson?" a calm, male voice asked. "I'm calling about the event that took place several days ago. At the warehouse, where you and your friends attempted to take down the villain known as Deadshot, resulting in the death of Zoe Lawton. Our mutual... acquaintance has asked to meet with you and you friend, Rose Wilson to discuss certain matters."

Neal just listened until the man on the other end of the phone finished speaking. Neal was feeling his heart beating quickly, as if nervous about who exactly was on the other end of the line. He had a few guessed, but there was no point in doing this right now. This person was calm, but they clearly meant business. "And what exactly are these certain matters that are to be discussed?" Neal asked as calmly as he could.

"You and your friend seem to have a knack for getting yourselves into precarious situations," the man continued. "We'd like to discuss the possibility of... making sure you're better equipped to handle those situations. Also, to make sure that something like what happened to Zoe doesn't happen again, to you or anyone else."

Neal nodded despite the fact that the man couldn't see him. He was right after all, ever since meeting Rose, Neal had found himself to be in quite the few sticky situations. As the man mentioned that the point of this was to make sure that another person didn't die, Neal had to agree. They rushed in because of anger, Neal was so focused on taking Deadshot down because of what happened to his father...and because of it a young girl was dead.

"Where do you want to meet and when? I'll make sure that Rose and I get there."

"The abandoned subway station in Crime Alley," he replied. "One hour. Don't be late."