sorry for the delay chapter
The journey from Metropolis to Gotham took around five hours. As a result, Yukri's whole back and neck were aching from doing absolutely nothing but sitting in her seat.
Okay technically the neck pain was because she slept at a terrible angle, but that wasn't the point.
How the hell did it take five hours? she thought as from the every reddit post she'd ever read said it should be a three-hour trip. Even if they were wrong, the bus company had promised four hours on their website.
Liars.
Fucking lying pieces of shit.
Rubbing a hand down her face, Yukri stepped out of the bus station. meeting with not the sunshine and rainbows which were present in metropolis but dark colourless clouds that look like it could rain at any second.
An as if in queue rain began a not just light rain but heavy rain. These resulted in yukri mood to plumbed even "Why couldn't I just take a plane…" she muttered, rolling her stiff shoulders as she glanced left and right.
Of course, she knew why she couldn't take a plane. The reason was her body mainly the pair of cat ears which were now neatly hidden under the blue cap she had "borrowed."
just don't ask her where and how she had borrowed this cap as she couldn't be able to answer that question.
But now, back to the main topic her cat ears were the real problem.
To get on a plane, she would've needed to explain to TSA why she was wearing cat ears that couldn't come off no matter how hard someone pulled. And from her quick search on the internet, metahumans hadn't made any big public appearances yet. So she had no excuse she could invent that wouldn't end with her being dragged off to a little windowless room where she'd never see the light of day again.
So Yukri did the only reasonable thing she could: She took the bus.
It's not like she could take a cab all the way to Gotham, and there wasn't a train route either.
Damn American opinions on public transportation really sucked ass.
Letting out a sigh, she continued scanning the street, searching for a cab that could take her to the SCP's location.
After a few minutes of searching, Yukri finally spotted a cab that didn't look like it was two dents away from collapsing.
She raised a hand, waving it down.
The driver pulled over, rolling his window down to reveal a man who looked to be in his early thirties, with brown hair and a bit of stubble. He glanced at her through the open window, his brown eyes lingering for a moment before he offered a small smile
Probably noticing the odd way my hat's sitting on my head, Yukri thought as she opened the back door and slid inside.
She never liked sitting in the front especially not with a stranger. The last thing she wanted was a surprise conversation with some random guy.
The seat was as comfortable as any cab seat could be. When she looked toward the man, she saw him typing something on his phone without looking at her. He quickly tucked it away, leaving Yukri unable to see what he'd been typing. Still, she wasn't concerned. She wasn't the type to intrude on someone's personal business superpowers or not.
She believed in privacy.
"Uh-Gotham outskirts. Near the old oil station, here," she said as she opened her phone and pointed at the map before adjusting herself back on the seat.
"Alright," the man said before starting the car.
She never liked sitting in the front especially not with a stranger. The last thing she wanted was a surprise conversation with some random guy.
"Alright," the man said before starting the car.
The engine hummed as the cab pulled onto the road, merging into traffic. Buildings passed by tall, unfamiliar structures where modern skyscrapers mixed strangely with the gothic, medieval architecture Gotham was known for. Yukri leaned her head against the window, watching the scenery blur past like fading phantoms.
Her mind drifted back to the mission.
SCP-2000… buried somewhere beneath a rusted, forgotten oil station on Gotham's outskirts.
If it really was SCP-2000, then she was heading toward a place capable of restarting humanity from extinction.
The driver glanced at her through the rear-view mirror.
His mouth slowly opened before he finally asked, "First time in Gotham?"
The sudden question jolted Yukri out of her train of thought. She turned her eyes toward the man fully.
"Yeah," she said, her voice a little sharper than she intended. Woken abruptly from her internal spiralling. I am definitely giving this cab one star, she thought in the back of her mind while trying to form a pleasant smile.
"Yeah, you look like it," the driver said with a silly grin as the car kept rolling down the road.
"Oh? And what part tells you that?" she asked, raising a brow.
"Oh, just a hunch," he said casually, then added, "but I should let you know the area you're heading toward? That's the territory of one of the villains, from what I remember." He glanced at her through the rear-view mirror.
"Oh? Thanks for the warning. If I may which villain would that be?" Yukri asked. As most Batman villains were manageable if you had superpowers. Joker? Man-Bat? Even Bane? As long as she touched them, well… they wouldn't be walking or talking anymore.
In her hands, she had the power to kill them easily.
Huh.She blinked, a faint shiver running down her spine as the realization hit. The moment the idea of killing them popped into her head, she froze for a second.
When had that become an option in her mind?
How could someone as well-adjusted as "basically a normal person" as her so casually consider killing people?
Before she could linger on the unsettling thought, the driver cut through her train of worries again.
"Well," he said, tapping the steering wheel with his thumb, "that part of the outskirts? People say it belongs to Black Mask these days. He's got warehouses and drop points scattered around there. And no one likes messing with his stuff… or with any villain's, really."
"Black Mask, huh…" Yukri muttered. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she thought. Did Black Mask even have superpowers? She barely remembered anything about him besides cool name, boring guy. He wasn't exactly a character she'd paid much attention to.
The driver chuckled. "Yeah. People usually avoid that whole stretch unless their life depends on it. You planning to meet someone out there?"
She shook her head immediately. "No."
He raised one eyebrow at her through the mirror clearly curious but didn't push it."Alright then."
Yukri exhaled slowly and leaned back into the seat, practically wishing it would swallow her whole. Her fingers tapped restlessly against the back of her phone.
Okay. I can work with this, she told herself. I have my powers. I just need to get in, secure SCP-2000, and see what happens after that.
What could possibly go wrong.
Her cat ears twitched beneath her borrowed hat.
like she had jinxs herself of something bad happening.
just as she thought about that the cab suddenly slowed.
Not stopped.
Not braked hard.
Just… slowed.
it couldn't had been suspicious if not for the fact that the location was till a km away from where the car was slowing down.
Yukri's ears twitched under her hat. The driver glanced into the rear-view mirror too quickly to be casual, too brief to be friendly.
"Uh…" Yukri straightened slightly. "Why are we slowing down?"
The driver gave a lazy smile. "Ah, nothing. Road's a bit rough here."
There was no rough road.
They were still on smooth asphalt.
Her fingers tightened around her phone.
Okay. Think. Don't panic. Not yet.
The driver continued, too conversationally:
"You know… most people heading to the outskirts? They're either crooks, desperate, or stupid."
Yukri forced a thin smile. "Guess I'm the fourth category, then."
He chuckled too loud, too forced.
"I wasn't gonna say it. But maybe."His eyes flicked up again. "You sure you aren't meeting anyone out there?"
Her stomach tightened.
That was the third time he'd asked.
This man wasn't curious. He was fishing.
Yukri's taped her fingers as her brain shifted gears, instincts clicking into place.
He texted someone earlier… before hiding the phone. He's slowing down. He keeps checking if I'm alone.
Oh great. I got into a kidnap-taxi. what the fuck did I expected this is Gotham Afterall this place is cursed by a demon
"Well, there might be someone waiting for me," she said, readying herself to jump the man in front of her, maybe even blind him for life if she had to.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
As the car came to a stop.
Before the driver suddenly sprang into action. His hand shot into his coat likely to pull something out from there.
But Yukri couldn't let that happen. She lunged forward, slamming her hand down onto his wrist, stopping him mid-motion.
Just as expected, the driver didn't appreciate that.
He jerked forward and headbutting her straight in the face.
The impact sent a sharp burst of pain through her skull. She staggered backward, momentarily dazed. Yukri was not immortal, not invincible, and definitely not used to her new body yet. Pain still hit her like a normal human.
Her grip loosened.
And that tiny opening was all the driver needed.
He ripped his hand free a metallic click following a split second later as he revealed exactly what he had been reaching for.
A gun.
"Fuck," Yukri muttered, clutching her nose in pain as her eyes locked on the weapon pointed at her.
Yukri's pupils narrowed into thin feline slits as adrenaline spiked through her veins.
Even if I have regeneration, I really don't want to test it. The limits in a game and the limits in real life could be completely different.
"Hey, man, let's talk this out," she said, raising her hands to show she was surrendering.
"Ha, No." The driver's lips twitched into an ugly smile as the door to her right was yanked open.
Yukri turned her head to see another man, this one also pointing a gun straight at her.
Yukri's eyes darted between the two guns, her heartbeat steadying despite the tension clawing at her nerves.
There weren't just one kidnapper—there were two, and both had guns pointed directly at her.
Curse my luck, she thought bitterly as she rapidly cycled through possible ways out of this mess.
But as the seconds ticked by, every solution she imagined ended with her getting shot.Even with her powers, even with her reflexes, this was an awful position to be in.
The driver sneered."Get out. Slowly."
Yukri lifted her hands even higher, teeth clenched. She could probably take one of them. Maybe even both.But not without getting shot point-blank. And a small, stubborn part of her still very much wanted to avoid pain especially since she had no idea how strong her regeneration actually was. She wasn't eager to find out whether it worked fast enough to stop a bullet from scrambling her brain.
So she stepped out of the car.
The moment her feet hit the ground, the man outside slammed the back of his gun across her face. The impact was so sudden that it rattled her skull, sending her crashing onto the pavement in a dazed heap.
"I told you my instincts were right she's one of those freaks."
The moment Yukri heard those words, she froze mid-motion, her hands pressed to the ground as her vision swam.Her eyes landed on the cap lying in front of her her hat, knocked off in the attack, no longer hiding her ears.
Her cat ears.
Fuck it. I'm killing them," she muttered, right before twisting her body a full ninety degrees and grabbing the man closest to her.
The man's eyes widened in alarm, his gun jerking upward as he tried to fire—But he was already dead.
The moment Yukri's hand touched him, it was over.
He felt his head swell unnaturally, like a balloon filling far too fast—And then, in less than a second, it burst.
Pop.
That was the sound right before his skull exploded into a thousand pieces.Bone fragments, blood, and brain matter splattered across the street, coating the pavement—and the second man.
The remaining kidnapper stared at Yukri in pure horror, fear twisting into desperate rage as he raised his gun and fired.
Bam.
The gunshot exploded right beside her ear. Yukri had tilted her head at the perfect moment just a tiny movement, almost lazy yet more than enough.
The bullet hissed past her cheek, grazing the air before burying itself in the wall behind her.
The realization settled in her chest like a surge of electricity.
Her reflexes were faster and heightened.
As long as she paid attention, her body moved before fear could even register.
And with that, the terror of being shot dropped several notches.
The man cursed, panic flooding his expression as he fired again, and again
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Yukri sidestepped each shot, her movements fluid, almost lazy, as if she were dodging raindrops instead of bullets.
"Seriously?" she muttered, irritation sharpening her voice. "I'm angry at myself for being scared while when you guys were just ants"
The man's eyes were wild with panic as he kept firing at the "monster" in front of him. Bullet after bullet tore through the air—each one missing by inches.
Click. Click.
Empty.
His breath hitched. Hands trembling violently, he fumbled to reload.
That was all the opening Yukri needed.
In a blur, she closed the distance between them.
Her fingers brushed against his wrist—just a light, almost gentle touch.
It was enough.
His scream tore through the alley.
A raw, animalistic howl of pain as the space where his wrist once existed simply vanished, flesh and bone erased cleanly, like it had never been there.
The gun clattered to the pavement with a dull clink, spinning once before settling beside the stump of his forearm.
He collapsed onto his knees, clutching the bleeding end with his remaining hand, choking on his own breaths.
"AAAAH—! M-MY—MY HAND—!!"
Yukri stood over him, chest rising and falling slowly, her expression a mixture of disgust and cold fury.
The man scrambled backward on his heels, leaving streaks of blood as he tried to create distance, but his legs gave out beneath him. His eyes were wide, the kind of fear that stripped someone down to their soul.
"P-Please—p-please don't—don't kill me—"
Yukri stepped toward him—slow, deliberate, almost lazy in her movements.
She stopped just behind the man, placing a hand under her chin as if she were genuinely considering whether she should let him live. Then she smiled at him wide, and cruel.
The man's heart dropped.
"Nah," she said simply.
She stepped closer, crouching slightly as she reached toward his leg."I hope your next life is in a nice place," Yukri murmured.
But before her fingers could touch him—
PSSSSHHH—!
A burst of smoke erupted at her feet, rolling across the ground in a thick grey wave and swallowing her vision whole.
Yukri narrowed her eyes, scanning the shifting grey fog with sharp, vigilance. She felt like a small fish suddenly surrounded by one big predator lurking somewhere in the haze.
She snapped her head toward where the man had been, ready to finish the job…but he was gone.
Her ears twitched sharply.
then she heard it.
Footsteps.
not just one but more then it .
it was Light, fast like someone had trained for it .
The sounds bounced unpredictably through the smoke, too quick and too clean for her to pinpoint the exact direction.
"Tch—seriously?" Yukri clicked her tongue, dropping into a half-crouch as the smoke thickened. "Who the hell throws a smoke bomb in the middle of my murder session?"
before she could think more about it .
Something small clinked against the pavement near her foot.
Yukri's eyes widened.
Another one?
BOOM—!
A flashbang exploded, flooding her vision with blinding white. The inside of her eyelids lit up like burning magnesium, and her ears rang violently her heightened senses screaming in raw overload as she staggered backward.
"Ah—shit—! That hurt !"
She squeezed her eyes shut, struggling to force them back into focus. With sight compromised, she sharpened her concentration on her other senses, her trying to pinpoint whoever dared attack her.
Swish.
Yukri twisted her body unnaturally, her arm lashing out with razor-like claws aimed at the attacker's throat. A feral grin curled on her lips as she imagined her claws sinking deep
but the moment of savage satisfaction was short-lived.
Her grin collapsed into a startled frown when her hand stopped mid-motion.
Something no, someone had grabbed her wrist.
"You're clearly not from here."
The rough voice echoed through Yukri's mind a split second before she realized—
Her feet weren't on the ground anymore.
She was in the air.
Then—
BAM.
Her back slammed into the asphalt so hard the shock punched the air out of her lungs. Stars burst behind her eyes, and for a split second, flickering images from her past life—back when she was just a child—flashed through her mind.
Those good old days… she thought dimly, before the pain snapped her back to reality.
A low, rumbling growl escaped her throat.
As expected from Batman, she thought, irritation flaring even as her body screamed in protest. I stand no chance against him right now… so I'm running.
Even before she could stand, Batman's fist was already a blur aimed straight for her face. Yukri twisted her head just in time, narrowly dodging the blow that would've knocked her out cold. She rolled to the side, pushed off the ground, and sprang backward into the cover of smoke.
Batman didn't hesitate. A bat a rang sliced through the haze, spinning straight toward her—she darted aside, the blade flashing past her cheek.
"Damn it, damn it, damn it—!"
If Batman caught her, who knew what would happen next?
She pivoted sharply and bolted deeper into the smoke, heart hammering. A sharp thwip cut through the air—she heard something fire and twisted mid-sprint.
"NOPE—!" she yelped.
The grappling hook skimmed her cheek and slammed into a railing behind her. She didn't stick around to see the follow-up—she dashed into the nearest alley, leapt at the wall, and scrambled upward using her claws.
She climbed like a furious, terrified cat, her hands digging into the brick for every inch of height.
At last, she pulled herself onto the rooftop, panting hard.
Her chest burned. Her vision flickered at the edges, exhaustion clawing its way through her adrenaline.
"Just let me go, you sick, mentally ill man!" she shouted, jumping from rooftop to rooftop without looking back.
Batman didn't reply as he continued to throw various objects at her. Some she dodged; others struck her body, causing her to lose blood. But it didn't stop her from running.
Eventually, she was forced to stop. The next rooftop was too far even for her enhanced body. She glanced down at the street far below, then back at the dark figure closing in behind her.
She had made her decision.
Standing at the edge with Batman in front of her and nothing but open air behind, she took a deep breath and stepped off.
Not before raising both hands and showing Batman her middle fingers—
a victorious grin spreading from ear to ear as she stepped off.
into the streets below.
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yo guys and girls . i kind disappointed with this chapter as i forgot what my plan here was and i was not going to released it but i thought that i want to continue this story till the end so i will work hard to improve the next chapter and released more chapter this whole week