Alex Mercer looked out at the coastline city known as Gotham with all its almost blinding lights, skyscrapers, and decadence. In the distance he heard the wailing of police sirens, shouting, crying, and even a small fit of maniacal laughter. All the things he had heard and seen were true; the city was a cesspool of crime, debauchery, and chaos.

"I'll show them," Alex promised himself. "I'll show all of them that I'm not just a murderous walking disease." He jumped off his vantage point to the ground and slowly began walking toward the city that he would save from destruction. He would show the whole world that Alexander J. Mercer would be something that didn't fill the hearts of whoever saw with fear and despair, but hope and a sense of freedom and safety. He had heard rumors and tales of the one they called the Batman. Alex respected the borderline vigilante, but he saw him as weak. Batman didn't kill, and that meant his enemies could return and murder even more innocent people. Mercer didn't take prisoners and rarely showed mercy. He wouldn't allow the villains that desecrated this town to harm it any further once he got his hands, or more likely his Claws, on them. But unlike last time, unlike Manhattan, he would try to refrain from Consuming as many civilians as possible. He didn't want that much innocent blood on his hands again.

As he walked through the somewhat empty streets, he paid no mind to people looking at him, unlike he did in New York. Back there, he was so paranoid that someone would recognize him that he panicked and killed anyone who looked at him for more than five seconds. But here, they wouldn't see a bioterrorist or murderous berserker; they would see a simple man dressed in common shoes, jeans, a white button-down shirt, and a brown hoodie with the hood never leaving his head all topped off with a leather jacket.

As he walked past a random alley, he stopped after hearing a cry of fear. He stepped back slightly and pressed his back against the edge of the wall. He looked back to see a woman in her twenties being held at gunpoint by a man in his mid-thirties. The woman had on a fur coat over a dress, and the man had on nothing but ragged clothing.

"Gimme yer cash, and I'll help myself to tha' necklace too," he said in a hoarse voice as he cocked back the hammer of his revolver.

Alex sighed to himself, but then made his arms transform into his Claws. And just to be safe, he made a black banadana cover his face from on top of his nose down. "Gotta start somewhere, even if it's the bottom," he said to himself. He ran up to right behind the mugger and grabbed him on the shoulders and spun him around. The guy was surprised by what he saw, and even more shocked when the man who had spun him on his heels grabbed him by the neck, and lifted him up onto the air as if he weighed no more than a feather. Alex could see fear in the crook's eyes, but not just the fear of him. The mugger was scared of the entire situation even before Mercer had made his entrance. He was afraid to do this, to try and rob the woman. Alex didn't know if he was homeless or desperate or what. He considered Consuming him for a moment, but forced the thought out of his mind. This man was just an average guy who needed money for a reason only he knew. He wasn't a super-villain who would put the lives of thousands at risk.

Mercer let out another sigh, and dropped the man. "If I see you again, I really will hurt you," he said in an indifferent voice.

The mugger took one quick look at Alex's Claws, and ran off for dear life. Alex watched him sprint out of the alley, and turned back to see the woman standing like a statue, staring at him. Feeling rather awkward, Alex allowed his arms to return to normal, and began to walk off. But then the woman called out to him.

"Thank you!"

That stopped Alex dead in his tracks. No one had EVER said that to him. He turned around and saw that she was smiling at him with appreciation. "Uuummm... you're welcome?"

"I am so grateful for your being here. Another hero in Gotham. I do love Batman, but I admit that he cannot handle all this on his own."

"That's partially why I am here."

"Well it's so comforting to know that you decide to use your gift to help rather than torment." Mercer pondered on that. He had never thought of his powers as a gift. "So what are you called?" the woman asked with curiosity.

Alex at first thought about saying 'Mercer' but he stopped and remembered the codename Blackwatch had given him. He then decided to go by that name here. No longer would people cower in fear and run for their lives away from...

"Zeus," Alex said. He turned around and leapt off into the dark evening.

XXXXXX

The next morning, Bruce Wayne was sitting at home watching the news. For once it wasn't about Batman. The text at the bottom of the screen read 'New Hero In Town?' and a young woman was almost prattling on about a man who made his arms into spiked black and red gauntlets and grew small swords for fingers.

"What's up?" Damian Wayne asked as he strolled into the room and dropped himself into the couch next to his biological father. He also read the words at the bottom of the screen. "Let me guess. We're going to go and find out as much as we can about this..." He stopped to listen to the woman being interviewed to say her savior's name once more. "Zeus guy right?"

Even though Damian was his son, Brice was still surprised at how much they thought alike.

XXXXXX

Late the next night, Mercer was calmly walking down the street looking at the tall buildings and bright lights. It was all so similar to what Manhattan had been before he had come along.

"If I didn't know for a fact that this place is a cesspool, I'd say it was almost normal." He strolled along with no place to go nor any destination in mind. But that didn't bother him much; from what he had heard, he simply needed to wait about an hour before someone set off a bomb or took the city hostage or some other insane scheme. As he passed an electronics store with several televisions in the window, he heard something on them that caught his ears. He stopped in front of the store to see what was so horrid.

"We have just received word that three of Gotham's most dangerous outlaws have escaped from Arkham Asylum. Harvey Dent, aka Two-Face, the Joker, and Victor Zsasz are now lose in the city. People are all advised to stay indoors at night, and to never be alone."

"You should heed that advice, little piggy," a creepy and empty voice said right behind Mercer. The next thing Alex knew, a hand was over his mouth and a knife was at his neck.

Zsasz felt amazing as he tore his carving knife across the hooded zombie's neck, freeing him from his pointless, redundant existence. He took his hand away from his victim's mouth, and prepared to carve a tally mark on his stomach, but he stopped when he noticed something very wrong. The zombie was not falling down. Suddenly his victim flexed his shoulders and elbows backwards towards him, and sent him flying across the street and into the wall. As Zsasz picked himself up while groaning in pain and confusion, he looked over and saw his latest victim alive and well and walking towards him. Two things were different about him: his neck looked like Zsasz had never touched it, and his arms looked like they were coated with a black spiked armor that made his fingers look like long narrow daggers.

"You're... you're..." Zsasz struggled to form words. He then remembered that small bit of news he had watched before he escaped. "You're that freak the girly pig was talking about."

"Zeus." Mercer grabbed Zsasz by the neck and lifted him into the air. He had deduced that it was Zsasz because he didn't have two faces, and if he was a clown, Mercer was a happy-go-lucky ball of sunshine. Despite all he had seen and done, Alex was still disturbed by the man he was holding. He had no hair, and was very muscular. His skin was coated with scars made to look like tally marks. Alex didn't know how many there were or what they counted. His eyes were completely empty, as if he didn't care about anything at all. Mercer brought one of his sword-like fingers and placed in on one of the ends of Zsasz's neck. "Do unto others what you wish to have done unto you."

"Zeus," a stern voice said behind him. Mercer didn't pull his Claw away, but turned to look and saw the one person who would dress like the man before him did. "Drop him."

Mercer decided to bend that order. He took the Claw at Zsasz's throat away, and then tightened his grip around the murderer's throat. He dropped Zsasz when he was choked into unconsciousness. Mercer then walked over to the man who was supposed to be the protector of this city. The two of them looked up and down one another. Mercer looked over everything about the Batman, who mostly focused his attention on Zeus' Claws.

"What are you?" Batman asked.

"I am going to be this city's true salvation. I'm going to do what you never will."

Batman easily came to realize what Zeus was planning on doing. "Killing them won't make you better than them, Zeus."

"I don't want to be better than them. Hell, I'm probably worse than some of them. I just want to redeem myself, and the way for that is to wipe out the scum in this cesspool off the face of the Earth."

Batman couldn't figure this man out. He says that he's worse than people in the Rogues Gallery, but he wants to make up for something he did before by killing them and protecting people from further harm by their hands. Everything about him was a contradiction with something else about him. "You need help, Zeus."

"And you need to stop holding back." Mercer began to walk away. "How many more lives are you going to let them ruin?" As he passed the unconscious Zsasz, he have the killer a strong, but not lethal, kick in the ribcage.

XXXXXX

Mercer was on the outskirts of Gotham. He was fairly certain that Batman wouldn't try to track or follow him, not with two of his most dangerous and unpredictable enemies on the loose.

He came across an old warehouse, and decided to lay low for the rest of the night. He tried to open the door, but something was sealing it shut. So after two tries to simply open it, he tore it right off of the building and threw it to the side. The inside of the building had no lights on, but the moon illuminated into the huge room enough for Alex to clearly see. And he was shocked by what he saw.

"Are these... plants?" he asked himself. The room was entirely filled with vegetation as thick as trees. It even covered the walls and some hung from the roof. It sort of reminded him of an Infected Hive. He looked to his right and saw a vine as thick as a mature oak tree prodding out of the ground and going right to the roof. It seemed to be pulsating, and had what looked like a few purplish veins going up it. He curiously got the better of him. He formed his Claws and quickly ran one into the gigantic plant. Nothing seeped out like he had expected, but something much worse occurred. The ground beneath him rumbled like a tremor, and a vine suddenly began to wrap around him. Alex freed himself by making spiked tendril shoot out of him which tore the vine to shreds. A high pitched scream filled the building.

"Batman. I'd have thought you'd be too busy dealing with Zsasz and the Clown to harass me tonight," a sensual female voice said. It seemed to come from every direction at the same time. The thick plants began to move around, and a small tunnel was formed by their adjustments. A woman came walking out of it and into the light. Her skin was green like a healthy flower stem, and she had long red hair that had the same shade as a fresh rose. She had on only an oversized red button-down shirt with the word Arkham on one of the shoulders. The shirt was just barely big and long enough for her to keep her modesty. She looked at Mercer with surprise and curiosity. She then observed his Claws. "My mistake. You're not Batman."

"You got that right. People tend to call me Zeus." Alex didn't like this woman. She reeked of nature and trouble, and he hated both. He flexed his Claws and fanned them out to make himself look more threatening than he already was. "And I won't be as... friendly as your flying rodent."

He made his arm change into his Blade, and with one quick swipe, he sliced the vine he used to get her attention completely in half. Once again the earth shook beneath him and a shriek filled the atmosphere around them.

"The plants don't like it when you kill their brothers and sisters," the woman said with a repressed voice filled with anger.

"You make it seem as if they're alive," Mercer said with a smirk. He swung his Blade to the side and cut another vine down. "Guess that makes me a murderer."

The earth shook more violently this time. The woman put her arms into the air, and a platform of vegetation formed beneath her feet. The platform took her into the air. The plants around suddenly began to move, and several new ones began to grow with lightning speed.

"Zeus, prepare to meet your maker," the woman screamed at him. "At the hands of Poison Ivy, but to you, Gaia, Mother Earth!"

Alex readied himself and formed his Blade back into his Claws. They were just as sharp, but much quicker to strike and slice with. "Bring it on. I've always hated gardening."