Fear

The Battle for East Gotham quickly turned from a charging in and clearing the villains out to a line in the sand holdout. I remember that I was on the field first and off the field last. I remember the screams of the wounded and the dying that day. It was in short a circus. We engaged with no intelligence, no plans, no nothing. We just rushed as many people in as we could in order to try and take the city back as quickly as we could.

I remember the horrors never ending. They always rolled someone new out. Whether or not they were allied with the villains plaguing the city. But the last thing, the last thing was what truly struck fear into us. For right then we knew that even if we rooted out the villains, something else was there to ensure that Gotham was theirs. And theirs alone.

-From the Journal of the Detective.

The TARDIS landed in the middle of a street in East Gotham. The eleven heroes clambered out out into the street. The Detective looked at them, it seemed like too many characters for an advance party. But he was not one to disagree with Batman's orders, especially since he was trying to earn his trust.

The Detective looked around, Captain America and Wonder Woman stood the furthest from them, trying to determine where they would pour in from. Cyborg, Hawkeye, and Green Arrow were in the beginnings of setting up a firing line. Deadpool stood near them, already annoying them with his wise cracks. Spiderman and Nightwing stood looking around, waiting to fight. Their fingers itched in anticipation. The final ones were Rorschach and the Detective. The Detective pulled his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket. Out of everyone he was going to be relying the most on hand to hand combat.

An explosion from two buildings that had formed a choke point cause them to crumble to the ground. Kicking dirt and debris all around the huddled superheroes. The Detective coughed trying to get dirt out of his mouth before looking up to see bullets fly less than three inches from his eyes.

The sound of two gatling guns filled the air as Cyborg laid suppressing fire down on the incoming forces of evil. The first wave so far had seemed to be mostly ex-police officers. All those who had been bought off by the Kingpin and Black Mask.

Their submachine guns and assault rifles pounded into the small piece of cover that the Detective had ducked behind. He flashed his sonic screwdriver, it prevented the two closest police officers from discharging their weapons. Leaving them vulnerable to a smack by Captain America's flying shield, their heads snapped back and they fell to the ground unmoving.

Deadpool fired at the cops, laughing insanely as he shot them down with an M16, where it had come from was a mystery. He continued his barrage of bullets, pausing long enough to reload occasionally.

"Yeah! DIE BACON I'M GONNA EAT YOU FOR BREAKFAST!" he yelled loudly at the oncoming police forces.

The Detective watched as dozens of police officers charged his position. He looked around quickly, noting a crane that had a giant steel girder attached to it. He aimed his sonic screwdriver at the crane hook causing the hook to fall off and the girder begin to roll right over the police officers. The Detective smirked as he went back to rejoin the main group.

As he ran the Detective felt something attach to his back and pick him up into the air. He felt himself being wrapped in some sort of black webbing. He was pulled further and further until he was face to face with Venom.

The Detective tried to wiggle free but the webbing was like steel. Venom looked into his soul with those blank eyes. His large tongue moving back and forth even running up the side of his face.

"Hungry, so hungry!" Venom roared as the symbiote that composed his body began to engulf the Detective.

The Detective tried to grab his sonic screwdriver but he remembered that he had dropped it when he was yanked up into the air. There was nothing he could do.

A red fist crashed into the side of Venom's face. Causing him to release his grip on the Detective, allowing him to plummet head first towards the ground.

Another web wrapped around the Detective, this time it was white, and he was pulled back up. He looked to see Spiderman had taken him and swung him down to the ground. He helped the Detective get out of the webbing and handed him his screwdriver.

"If you're done playing yo-yo can you zap some more people now?" Spiderman asked as he swung off back into the fight.

The Detective ran back to the heroes defensive line. Cyborg was on the ground, every major system was malfunctioning in his armor. Hawkeye and Green Arrow stood over him trying to slam falling parts back into him like an undertrained army medic.

"Stand aside, honestly you're just killing him faster," the Detective told them as he began to fix Cyborg'ss inner parts.

Soon the Detective had Cyborg back up and running, and to a greater effect since he entered battle. His gatling guns and energy pulses pounded out of him and into the oncoming villains that had joined the battle.

One that took the forefront of the battle was the Joker, who danced and swirled like a mad man on crack. His smile growing wider and wider as he shot at Hawkeye, the bullet catching in his shoulder. The Detective grabbed a strip of cloth out of his pocket and made a make shift tourniquet around the injured shoulder.

The situation was growing bleak as the heroes were becoming surrounded. It seemed as though every time one person was taken out twenty more would show up. Rorschach and Deadpool did not notice this as they both had high caliber machine guns, their origins still unknown, pounding into the oncoming crowd.

Captain America attempted to protect Cyborg and Green Arrow with his impenetrable shield. "Unless we get help now it looks like the fat lady is warming up," the Captain grunted in-between bullets that pinged off his shield.

A stray bullet took the Detective's fedora off of his head. He ducked down behind the small concrete wall that stood between him and them. The Detective looked around and saw a pistol lying on the ground. He grabbed it and aimed at the oncoming forces of villainy. Carefully attempting to aim his shots though many went astray as they moved at the last second and his marksmanship was subpar.

When the battle seemed darkest, when all hope was lost, a streak of fire burned across the field. The Detective looked up to see a convoy of heroes descend from the sky. Leading the charge was an angel by the name of Zauriel. He waved a flaming sword in one hand signalling the charge,.

The Detective watched as Green Lantern and the Human Torch went around burning and smacking villains, stopping them dead in their charge. A blur passed by the Detective's eyes as the Man of Steel made his appearance in the battle. Punching the fallen cops and super villains to send them flying across the battle field. Behind him was the girl Kara. She began to act similarly to Superman causing the Detective's eyes to widen in shock.

Over the battlefield came a giant plane that let loose a barrage of rubber bullets. After knocking several of the oncoming villains over it landed where Batman and a small boy that was none other than Damian Wayne emerged from the cockpit.

The heroes mustered one last charge on the faltering wave of evil. The Detective punched and shot his way through. He was followed by Rorschach and the Captain, the trio fanning their way through the crowd until no one was left except for the cowards who retreated back into the city.

The heroes afterwards met up at the top of the hill that had made their defensive location. A few minutes of cheers and congratulations had passed before another voice that had always chilled the Detective to the core spoke out.

DELETE, DELETE, DELETE!

"Oh no." The Detective said quietly as he turned to face the beings that he only could pray were not here.