text: [Themes: fan fiction, drama]
  
  You swing forward, the pipe going in an upward arc before ending in between his legs. Grinning slightly when you see pain make itself known on his face, it takes all of your willpower to keep yourself from laughing when he falls to his knees and fondles his manhood. "Batter," you swing the pipe into his face, "up!"
  
  He goes down, but it takes a few more hits before he's unconscious. Even then, you throw in another hit or two, just in case.
  
  Another hitman tries to ambush you from the back!
  
  > wait until he's up close, then hit him with your pipe!
  As soon as you hear his footsteps right on top of you, you twist around, swinging your pipe right into his arm as he attempts to pull a katana out from a sheath at his side. You hear a nasty crack as the arm breaks, before swinging the pipe into his side. He falls to the ground, and you give his head a quick stomp to make sure that he stays that way.
  
  Huntress finishes up with her batch. You toss the pipe and head out, getting the hell out of this warehouse before more goons show up.
  
  > Continue
  It's been a week. A week of fighting every night.
  
  Nino Panessa rose to the role of Don of the Panessa family following his father's death. His first order of business: releasing a bounty of 500,000 dollars to the person who brings him Huntress's head. Since then, you've had to fight off innumerous hitmen during your nightly escapades to uncover the person framing Huntress. Just now was one of those times.
  
  The two of you make your way back to her apartment.
  
  "What was that, third time tonight?" Huntress asks as she removes her mask.
  
  "Just about," you reply, releasing the adhesive gas and removing your mask. "Those guys though, they were better than the schnooks they've been sending after you in the last week. They're upping their game."
  
  "Doesn't mean we can't take them." She begins to head into the bathroom. "I'm gonna take a shower, see you in a bit, Q."
  
  You nod in reply, taking a seat on the couch.
  
  > Continue
  As she showers, you think about how things have been going between the two of you.
  
  It's all going alright. The two of you are friends, and while you wish it could be more than that, you're happy for what you have. Hopefully when this is all over you'll be close enough to confess your feelings and for her to accept.
  
  Huntress steps out of the bathroom a few minutes after you finish up your bit of self reflection. She grins when she sees you. "C'mon, Vic. Let's get to work." Nodding, you stand up and follow after her.
  
  > Continue
  The two of you enter her secret room through her bedroom, like you have so many times over the course of the week. With Tomaso Panessa dead, you're not sure exactly who is behind the murders, or if it's even connected to the mob at all. Yourself and Huntress have been tracking leads, however, and with the information you uncovered tonight it's time to make your move.
  
  "Alright Vic," she says, leaning against the wall, "We found out that Cassamento is taking over some of Panessa's operations now that Tomaso's dead. This can't be a coincidence," she approaches the table.
  
  "Right. It all leads back to Cassamento. We have to find out what he knows. He might've been the guy behind it after all, leading us on a cat and mouse chase," you reply.
  
  "Exactly. So how do you want to do this?"
  
  > say "We raid his mansion."
  The next night finds you raiding Cassamento's manor.
  
  Huntress will take one path through the front; you'll take the back, through the hedge maze and into the manor proper. The two of you will meet up at Cassamento's study after you've taken out all the guards in your path.
  
  Guards patrol the hedge maze, presumably so they can make sure no one is trying to sneak through it, like you currently are. You've got to take out every one of the rat bastards. Better get started, eh?
  
  How do you want to play this?
  
  > use the firecrackers you brought along; lure them to you, then take them out.
  Pulling out the bundle of firecrackers and your zippo, you light the fuse, tossing them just ahead of you and shrinking into the hedges to hide. The firecrackers go off; you hear curses, exclamations of surprise, all throughout the maze. Then marching footsteps. Showtime.
  
  When they all converge on your position, you leap out, slamming your fist into one's face and breaking his nose. He falls to the ground, and as he does so you grab his assault rifle, swinging it around into another's head and knocking him into the hedges. You pull out your grappling gun and aim at another, firing; your impromptu harpoon gun doesn't kill him, but it pierces his body armor, and you pull him forward and slam the butt of the rifle into his face.
  
  There's more coming. You crack your neck, sighing. This is gonna be loud and nasty.
  
  > Continue
  8 minutes later...
  
  You finish breaking the poor son of a bitch's arm, ramming an elbow into his face and sending him into blissful unconsciousness. That's gonna hurt when he wakes up in the morning. Covered in the blood of your opponents, you continue on to the manor, confident all the bastards on your side are taken care of.
  
  The manor is just like how you remember it: large, foreboding. As you approach, you can tell this is the end of your quest. Cassamento is behind it all. Call it intuition.
  
  You slip in through the backdoor.
  
  > Continue
  The backdoor of the mansion leads into the dining room. Hands in your trench coat pockets, you continue to walk, keeping an eye out for any danger. And it is danger you find, in the form of a guard patrolling the hallway leading to the stairwell. He only has a baton on him, no pistol from what you see. Just down and dirty brawling with him, it seems.
  
  Alternatively, you can avoid him entirely.
  
  > take him out.
  Your loafers clack upon the floor as you run up to him, and he turns around to meet a punch to the face. He stumbles, pulling out his baton and swinging it at you.
  
  > leap out of the way.
  You jump back, avoiding the baton narrowly and delivering a kick to his left leg. It breaks, and he falls to the ground, clutching at it and screaming at the top of his lungs. Feeling pity for him (though mostly to avoid his screaming alerting any nearby guards), you grab his baton and knock him out.
  
  You drop the baton and continue onward.
  
  > Upstairs
  You head upstairs, eventually reaching Cassamento's study. But he isn't there. But what you do find is an atom bomb.
  
  Cassamento. You old son of a bitch.
  
  It's a laptop, almost identical to Tomaso Panessa's. Except this one has a password on it. You begin to hack in, eventually discovering that the password is Nino.
  
  The laptop you found wasn't Tomaso's. It was a fake.
  
  In this you find the exact same documents, nix the one detailing Tomaso's hiring of the PI to spy on Huntress. It all falls into place. Cassamento hired the PI, gave him Tomaso's name so you'd go after him. Replaced the laptop in the study with a double. This was all part of a master plan of his to topple Huntress. But why? Why go through all the trouble just for her?
  
  You dig deeper.
  
  Deep within the files of the computer, you found a photograph of a man and a woman, no doubt about to engage in, er, 'physical activities'. It was probably a photo taken by the FBI during investigations into Cassamento that he managed to get a hold of. You recognize the man as Cassamento, though much, much younger. The woman you also recognize, but you don't remember from where...
  
  Then it hits you. The photograph in Huntress's apartment. The woman. Her mother.
  
  Cassamento was seeing Huntress's mother.
  
  .... And you thought the last bit of information was a bombshell.
  
  Then you hear a scream from the lower levels of the mansion, it's faint but it still sends a chill up your spine. Dear God, he has her. Huntress. Helena. Your Helena.
  
  You take off in a sprint to the basement.
  
  > Continue
  The lower level of Cassamento's mansion reeks of blood and the strong smell of industrial grade acid. This is where people are taken to to die. Hopefully Helena is alright. You can only pray at this moment.
  
  There are too many guards and too little nooks to hide in to do this quietly. All you can do is head in fast and loud.
  
  There is your first guard right there.
  
  > snap his neck; now isn't the time to take chances.
  His back is too you, and you creep him up to him slowly, like a leopard ambushing its prey. Quickly you rise up to him and break his neck, a quiet snap not leaving the vicinity. He drops to the floor. You take his gun.
  
  From there it's cold, bloody slaughter. You've got to kill every motherfucker you come across. You are death incarnate, and you've come to claim their souls. Oh, sure, you keep a few alive; but only for a few moments, and in the first three cases it's because they wouldn't tell you where Cassamento is. The fourth one, though, he knows. He tells you. And then you leave his corpse slumped against a wall.
  
  > Continue
  You kick in the door, seeing Cassamento standing over a console and Helena dangling over an acid pool from a rope. For a moment you think of secret agents movies and the ridiculous traps the villains use to dispatch the hero, but this thinking is cut off as you dodge bullets. There's only one guard here.
  
  You aim your rifle and fire, the contents of his head splattering across the concrete ground. Cassamento backs away slowly from you as you approach, eyes wide with fear. You relish in it. He's right to be afraid of you.
  
  You fire once, twice, three times into his chest, and he falls over, dead as a doornail. Operating the crane, you move Helena out of the way of the pit and lower her to the platform with the console. She's passed out, no doubt from fear. You pick her up and carry her out of the mansion.
  
  > The End
  A Week Later...
  
  You find yourself on the express train out of Gotham, eyes cold and mouth quirked into an unnerving smile. She rejected you. Said that you were changed. You weren't her Q anymore. That night when you brought her back to her apartment, having gathered the evidence to put Cassamento away, she looked you in the eyes and said that what she saw was different. And she didn't like it.
  
  Whatever. The dumb bitch just didn't know what she's missing out on. You're so much better now, free from your ridiculous attraction to her. What a hypocrite, rejecting you for being a killer when she's no better.
  
  That's why you just so happened to forget to send the evidence into the police; and instead sent the information about her identity to all the major crime families in Gotham. It didn't take too long for the news to get out about a local school teacher brutally shot and killed in her home. Helena Bertinelli. Your Helena. If you can't have her, no one else deserves to have her.
  
  Your mind has snapped. You'll never recover.