New Amalgam Universe: The Green Panther #9

(Rated MA due to some violence and spooky stuff. DC& Marvelown half each of this character, though the direction is mine. This was written a while back with @blackarmor who created Black Blade and may or may not still be around on the site)

Star City

Green Panther looked out across his city and smiled; it was good to be home. No jungles, no giant talking panther things…though this possible extradition thing BACK to Wakanda after years of trying legally to go and there and being denied was almost the text book definition of irony. Dinah was handling i…

Oliver’s head turned instinctively as his ears picked up a sound. The weird plants or drinking his own urine or something had changed him to…well something more than your average billionaire who liked archery. He leapt across the rooftops like his namesake, leaps and bounds. His costume improved slightly by Roy who was a better chopper pilot than seamstress but it did the trick. In the last few days he’d even cobbled together some trick arrows. Oliver stopped and sniffed the air, the smells dazzling his senses almost forming three dimensional patterns in his mind, triangulating with the sound of flesh hitting flesh.

Green Panther jumped across a few more rooftops, rolled and peered down into the alley below. There in the dark, his eyes automatically adjusting to the bad light, was a man beating the woman like it was going out of style. He snarled, louder than he meant to, the man looking up at him.

“You can either go to the hospital or the morgue!” said Oliver as he drew back his bow. The man grabbed the woman by the neck and slowly began twisting it, she screamed in agony. Green Panther loosed his arrow at the man’s jugular vein. With lightning speed the man caught the arrow inches from his neck and snapped the carbon fibre reinforced shaft like it was made of sugar.

“Wait your turn meat!” growled the man as he opened his mouth, sharp pearly white fangs emerging. Green Panther quickly notched another arrow and fired again. Again the man caught it, inches before his open mouth.

“You’re eager meat” snarled the man.

“And you’re an idiot!” smirked Green Panther as the phosphorous arrow head exploded in the man’s face, showering the alley in sparks.

“Run lady!” She didn’t need much more encouragement as she bolted away, Green Panther leapt down the four stories and landed cat-like before the dazed man.

“Which nut house did you escape from?” asked Green Panther as he popped the claws on his vibra-mesh gloves that Roy had built him “Just so I know where to send you back”

“RARRRRRRR!” The man leapt forward like he was possessed, grabbing Green Panther by the throat and taking them both to the ground. Green Panther planted his foot in the gut and rolled through, flinging the man off him as he sprang to his feet.

“What are you?”

“I am your better!” spat the man as he got up “I am the last thing you’ll ever see!” Again he shot back at Green Panther with speed and ferocity. Oliver managed to get his guard up mainly by pure reflex, blocking the savage blows the man rained down upon him. “I hate when dinner fights back!”

Green Panther slid forward and raked his claws across the inner thighs and ducked through the man’s legs. “I just sliced open your femoral arteries. You’ll bleed out in a few minutes if you keep this up. Or lay still while I call the cops and an am…”

Oliver’s words were silenced in his throat as the man grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the alley wall “I don’t bleed meat!” The man opened his mouth, fangs protruding. Oliver fumbled and arrow and jammed it through the man’s forearm. The man looked at the wound like it was a minor inconvenience.

“W-what are you?” gasped Green Panther as he struggled to break the hold, attempting to get his bow off his back to no avail.

“I’m going to drain the blood from your body!” snarled the man, his breath smelling like an open, rotting grave. His eyes went wide, then wider as if he was surprised. An electrified piece of steel emerged from his mouth. The man’s eyes widened as the steel kept going almost touching Oliver on the nose.

“God you bloodsuckers love to talk!”

Oliver saw a man dressed in black and red, his body humming with electricity holding a katana, most of which was imbedded through the back of the man’s head. A pulse of electricity surged down the blade, shocking the man into a submissive position causing him to release Oliver. The man held the other man away, like a fish speared on a stick as he turned to Green Panther.

“Did he bite you?”

“What is that?” coughed Green Panther, spitting blood onto the floor.

“It’s a vampire, but what’s important is, did he bite you?”

Green Panther got to his feet to see the macabre sight “Thanks for the save, but killing people isn’t what I’m about” He grabbed his bow “I think you should let the crazy homeless man go!”

“He isn’t people! He’s a vampire! Now DID HE BITE YOU?”

“Let him go!” demanded Green Panther notching an arrow and drawing back, pointing it at the man.

“No!” came the stern reply followed by a backhand knocking the bow away “Last chance Green Panther, DID HE BITE YOU?”

Oliver’s popped the claws on his gloves “NO! Happy now? Now let him go you crazy electric bastard. Vampires, honestly!”

The man withdrew the katana blade from the back of the man’s head and kicked him in the spine, sending him crashing into the wall “He’s a vampire. Vampires are real”

“And you’re what, Bobby the vampire slayer?”

“No, I’m Black Blade, but yes I kill vampires”

Green Panther cautiously went and retrieved his bow “Seriously?”

“Yes!”

“You’re Black Blade?” laughed Green Panther as he did a jumping roundhouse, hitting him in the gut sending him down the alley ‘Did the press name you, I was nearly the Emerald Cat, still might be!”

Black Blade stood up, hands crackling with energy “I thought you might understand, but in hindsight a superhero who can’t spell protector…”

The vampire stood, shaking his head clear, he let out an unearthly guttural growl “Black Blade!” the words almost stung his lips as he said them.

“Where’s the rest of your cell?” barked Black Blade.

Green Panther couldn’t believe his eyes “Hang on you just got stabbed. In the head?”

“Bah!” The vampire crouched and leapt into the air. Green Panther and Black Blade watched then looked back at each other.

Green Panther scratched his chin “What was that?”

“A vampire”

“There’s no such things!”

“Okay,” replied Black Blade sheathing his katana “I’m about to go chase after nothing”

“Seriously vampires?”

“They’re like cockroaches Panther; when you see one, it means you’re usually infested” Black Blade leapt up onto the fire escape and started after him “Now either you can try to stop me or…?”

“This is like those really bad vampire movies!” groaned Green Panther as he fired a grapple arrow up to the roof after the fleeing vampire “If a wolf man shows up…”

Green Panther looked down on the massive scratched on his costume “Roy’s gonna kill me” he muttered as he turned back to Black Blade interrogating the vampire on the rooftop. The vampire was cuffed spreadeagled to a billboard on the top of the Star City Gazette. They’d caught the fleeing vampire after a fleeting ten minute rooftop chase and a hectic twelve minute fight.

“Where’s the rest of your cell?” growled Black Blade as he kicked the vampire in the chest.

“Better tell him” said Green Panther.

“I am over two hundred years old meat!” spat the vampire “I don’t answer to food!”

Black Blade fired a short sharp burst of electricity from his fingers into the vampire’s temple “But you will answer to me! You are actually lucky my green friend is here, normally I’d of chopped your head off by now”

Green Panther tapped Black Blade on the shoulder and whispered into his ear “How can you tell he’s a vampire? Just looking at him he looks like a crazy homeless man with really bloodshot eyes.”

Black Blade turned to his ally “So him leaping four stories up to the rooftop wasn’t enough to convince you he’s the undead?”

“You’ve got lightning fingers, I can see in the dark, there’s a woman running around with a hammer who is some sort of Amazonian Norse goddess and there are people like Dark Claw, Super Soldier, Platinu...”

“So he can’t be a vampire, because he can leap tall buildings in a single bound!?” asked Black Blade.

“I’m just not convinced he’s a vampire is all!” said Green Panther “Besides killing them isn’t the answer…is it?”

Black Blade looked at Green Panther, trying to see his point “Vampires are evil…”

“That’s like saying all women tennis players are lesbians!” replied Green Panther.

“Yes, listen to the meat” giggled the vampire.

“SHUT UP!” they both yelled.

“Vampires are bad news, they want to enslave the human race like cattle” said Black Blade “I’ve come to Star City to prevent a cell of them taking hold. This thing!” He slammed his foot into the vampire’s chest “Will tell me where they are so I can eliminate them!”

“Okay,” Green Panther stood between Black Blade and the prone vampire “Let’s not go adding assault and battery to any potential charges here. Let’s question your friend here, who may or may not be a vampire, find his friends, bundle them up for the cops and keep Star City safe”

“You don’t bundle a vampire” stated Black Blade.

“You amuse me meat,” chuckled the vampire “I will enjoy sucking the life from your neck!”

“See!” Black Blade pointed at the bound vampire. Green Panther just shrugged.

“Still just a crazy homeless guy”

“Your good cop, bad cop routine is most delightful” as he strained against the cuffs.

“Oh I’m not a cop,” said Green Panther drawing a wooden arrow from his quiver “And I only just met your friend Black Blade, who could possibly be a danger to himself and others. But I do like movies. From what I remember, a stake of wood through the heart will kill you”

“There are many different types of vampire, Panther” said Black Blade

“So will jamming this in his chest kill him?”

“Jamming it into MY chest would kill me!” smiled Black Blade “But yes, that myth is true”

“You wouldn’t!” snapped the vampire, thrashing like a caught shark

“You’re right, I won’t,” Green Panther handed the arrow to Black Blade “But Black Blade on the other hand, this seems to be his job. And he already stabbed you in the head, so either tell him what he wants…”

“Under the stadium!”

“Lee Papp Stadium” said Green Panther pointing “Vampires play sport?”

“Hunting is sport!” stated the vampire, ominously eyeing Green Panther.

Black Blade slammed his foot into his chest again with a sick thump.

“You’re…lucky…I’m cuffed”

“You gotta stop that!” said Green Panther “Did you learn that in an Iraqi prison?”

“This is going nowhere fast. You, stay and guard the prisoner until the police arrive,” Black Blade drew his katana “I’ll go kill some vampires”

“You’re going to need help” said Green Panther, his tone a little double edged.

“Help yes, someone who isn’t willing to kill, no” said Black Blade “You take care of the street scum Panther, I’ll deal with the darker elements” With that Black Blade ran and leapt off the roof.

“Asides from your teeth, how do I know you’re a vampire?” asked Green Panther “Can’t vampires turn into bats and fog and stuff?”

“Come closer meat, I’ll show you what I can do!”

“You’re off your meds!” stated Green Panther “Now I’m going to follow the crazy guy with electric powers and a sword, you are going to stay here until I get back. And just in case you ARE a vampire, it’s three am and sunrise is at seven twenty two today” Green Panther fired another grapple arrow and slid off after Black Blade

"First talking panthers, now chasing vampires!"

To hopefully be continued....

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