Fan Fiction: Crossovers
Shadow of the Warrior
Epilogue
Itchy's apartment
As the sun rose the morning after the shootout Itchy scratched his leg while he frantically packed his bags to leave town. Behind him Itchy heard the lock on his door turn and the door swing open. He turned to see a man with a Tommy Gun standing in the hallway. Itchy opened his mouth, "Wai…" Before he could finish the word his midsection was ripped in half from the barrage of bullets that assaulted him. As he fell to the floor, Itchy looked up, blood oozing from his mouth. Michael Sullivan looked down at Itchy, "You never should have ratted on Big Boy, Itchy." With that, Sullivan put a bullet through his head.
Sullivan sighed. His shoes were covered in blood and he would have to stop on the road to Perdition before arriving home. He didn't want his kids to see him track blood into the house.
As Sullivan was walking out of Itchy's apartment, Cliff Marsland opened his morning paper. He looked down at the headlines: BRUTAL SHOOTOUT OCCURS IN MUESUM. Cliff shook his head as he looked at the article. All that he accomplished by aiding The Shadow was to incite a bloodbath? Cliff forced himself to read the rest of the article, and his thoughts began to change. He read how Flattop and the majority of his gang were killed as well as those of a new gang which had sprung up. Both the police and the press thought the violence that night would ultimately lead to a reprieve of crime and murder in the city. That with Flattop gang's diminished and the new one seemingly disbanded, the police would finally be able to take control of the city back from the gangsters. Cliff fell to his knees holding the paper in his hands and he began to cry. He had made a difference. It took several hours for him to fully realize what truly had happened, if he had not lost his life years ago, he never would have been in position to help The Shadow give the city its life back. Cliff knew the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few. If losing his life helped the city, he could live with that. Cliff once thought of The Shadow as a dark angel. He then smiled as he reminded himself that God worked in mysterious ways.
Two days after the shootout Flattop, who the newspapers believed
was dead, arrived at Big Boy's night club and explained to him what happened.
Big Boy stood behind his desk and began shouting at Flattop, "Whadda you
mean giant mummy ….," when the door to his office opened. Ubu entered the
room. Big Boy ranted, "I DON"T CARE WHO YOU ARE. YOU DON'T COME INTA MY
OFFICE WITHOUT AN INVITE. FLATTOP TAKE CARE OF THIS GUY!" Flattop turned
around, Tommy Gun in hand, as Ubu drove a sword into his flat skull splitting
it in two. Ubu stepped aside as a well-built man with a green cloak on stepped
into the room carrying a sword at his side. Big Boy yelled, "WHAT THE F…….."
He was cut off as Ubu slapped him across the face. "Infidel! You do not
speak to the master unless spoken to!" Big Boy glared at Ubu. The cloaked
man spoke "Mr. Big Boy as you foolishly choose to call yourself. I am Ra's
Al Ghul, the man who contracted you to retrieve the coffin. You have failed
in this endeavor. In ancient times when an agreement was broken between
two warriors, a duel was held to right the wrong. The loser forfeited his
life. There is a gun on the top of your desk reach for it and we will settle
this." Big Boy glared. "You bet I'm gonna reach for it and blow your smug
head off!" As Big Boy reached for his gun, Ra's thrust his sword into Big
Boy's throat. Big Boy fell back into his chair. His hands reached up and
grabbed the sword embedded in his neck. Big Boy looked into the eyes of
Ra's Al Ghul as he choked to death on his own blood. After Big Boy stopped
twitching Ubu turned to his master. "Master, forgive this unworthy one but
what do we do now that the coffin has been lost us?" Ra's replied, "Gilgamesh
was but one aspect of a universe of possibilities, one weapon in an arsenal.
We may have lost this particular weapon but the key to the arsenal has become
available to us. Come, we must travel to California to study the warrior
Zorro. Hopefully he will prove a greater challenge then this so-called Big
Boy."**
Several days later the police would be called to Big Boy's night club, and his death would be attributed to a rival gang.
Tracy's gun shot wound was a painful blessing in disguise. It forced him to take several months off to recover during which Tess gave birth to his first son Dick Tracy Jr. Sam Catchem and the two officers who were buried under the rubble survived. After they spent a few months in traction they made a recovery to a normal life. Pat Patterson and the fallen officers where listed as killed in a shootout with rival gangs and given a heroes' burial. Tracy, Sam and the remaining officers decided to keep what really happened between them fearing that others would think they had lost their minds. Tracy's injury forced him off the street but he was promoted to Chief of Police after the previous Chief retired. With Big Boy's death his gang dispersed, so Tracy did not mind taking a position that would assure Tess and Dick Jr. he would come home every night.
After several months, The Shadow had tracked the missing hand to a government lab. Apparently the US government had taken the hand, melted it down, mixed it with various steroids, and was going to use it create an army of super soldiers. The Shadow hid in the rafters of the lab as the scientists injected the serum into a feeble young man. The Shadow loaded his gun to fire on the man when he looked into the young man's heart and paused. The Shadow watched as the serum made from Gilgamesh's hand transformed the frail man. His body expanded and rippled with muscles as the man grew in height. The serum had worked it had made him a super soldier, but despite the physical strength the man now possessed it was the strength of the man's heart that stopped The Shadow from killing him. The good will and strong moral fiber that made up this man separated him from other people. The love in this man's heart equaled the hatred in the heart of the evil being he sensed at the air strip. The Shadow watched as the man was dressed in a suit made out an American Flag and given a shield that boasted the US colors with a star placed boldly in the middle.
The Shadow could not kill this man. The Shadow could sense that this man would fight evil wherever he found it and in a way The Shadow never could. He could fight in the light, in public, in front of others not from the darkness as The Shadow had. This man could inspire people to rise above their problems and seek to better the world in their own way. He watched as the man finished donning his suit, he turned around as one scientist turned to the others and said, "Ladies and gentlemen I give you Captain America!" The people cheered.
The Shadow took the opportunity to fire on the lab itself destroying the lab and the serum. While The Shadow was willing to let Captain America exist, he could not trust others with this power. Captain America rescued all of the scientists, but he would remain the only super soldier ever created. The Shadow returned to Shambala knowing that the world would have a protector until he was needed again.
THE END
**See Lineage for Ra's clash with Zorro!
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