Defeat

Adon called several of us to Sanctum earlier. It was me, Lazarus, Onre, Lasciel, and Mute, along with five other Timberwolves I didn't know. It seemed no one else was available.
“I've received word from Ren,” Adon said. “He has given us the location of both Daniel Ferris and his acquaintances.”
“What?” I asked.
“Please calm yourselves,” Adon said. “I do not want you facing Daniel again yet. Lasciel and I will confront hi and his accomplice, Tony Helioson The rest of you shall visit the home of Hiroshi Isamu, where the rest of his friends are. If Lasciel and I fail to reason with him, then they will serve us well as hostages.”
I almost objected to this plan, but I stopped myself. I was ticked I wouldn't be able to fight Daniel, but Adon's plan was logical. Get to him through his friends. It made sense.
We all set off and made it to the house. Onre and Lazarus took their positions outside the front door, with their weapons drawn. Onre held his long rifle with a bayonet attached, and Lazarus had a dart gun in his hand and a grenade launcher across his back. Me and Mut stood behind them and to the side, with the other Timberwolves waiting behind us.
Onre was about to kick in the door , but it swung open before he could.
“If you're looking for Mr. Helioson, he isn't in right now,” the man inside said. He then glanced over us quickly, taking note of the Twin Triangles we were wearing. “Unfortunately,” the man said, “He would not do business with Timberwolves either way, so I'm afraid I must ask you to leave.”
“I'm afraid we aren't here for him,” Onre said, lowering his weapon calmly.
“We've been assigned to capture you and anyone else residing here,” Lazarus said.
“Ah, I see,” the man said, turning around. “Hey, Kelterry, you hear that? They think taking us hostage'll work in their favor!”
“That's classic!” said a voice from inside. “Please, let them in!”
The man at the door stood aside, confidently, and allowed us to pass. We could all see that something was up, but we entered anyway. Once inside, we could plainly see the man sitting behind the desk. He was Japanese, it looked like, and though he appeared to be in his late 20s, I got the sense that he was much, much older.
“You must be Hiroshi Isamu,” Onre said.
“There's only one person I know who still knows me by that name,” the man replied, leaning back in his chair. “Tell me; how is Ren doing?”
“You've set up a trap for us, haven't you?” Onre asked.
“Not really,” Hiroshi said, standing up. Now that he was on his feet, I could see the medium length Japanese sword in his hand. “But we do not intend to lose against the lot of you. Right, Moss?”
“Right,” said the other man, loading a revolver.
One of the new timberwolves started laughing. Onre I exchanged knowing looks. This guy was gonna get himself killed.
“Is that all?” he asked. “A cheap handgun and a fucking katana?”
“It's a kodachi, you ignorant prick,” Hiroshi snarled, gripping the hilt of the sword. “Katana are longer.”
I barely saw him move after that. The next thing I knew, his sword was drawn, and he was standing on the other side of us, with the corpse of that dumbass on the floor at his feet Then the fight broke out. Onre and Lazarus charged at Hiroshi, who took up a fighting stance against them. Two of the other Timberwolves went after Moss, but I didn't get to see what happened with that fight, because two more opponents appeared out of nowhere before Me, Mute, and the remaining two Timberwolves. Both were girls. One was wielding a pair of miniature scythes attached by cords to the gauntlets she was wearing, and the other wielded a cutlass in one hand, and her other hand was radiating a bright red light. You take the one with scythes,” I told Mute. “I'll handle the other one.”
Mute turned to one of the other Timberwolves and gestured for him to follow, and they both began fighting scythe-girl, leaving me and the last Timberwolf to deal with the cutlass girl. She shot some kind of light from her hand, which I dodged. The other Timberwolf wasn't as lucky, and got blasted out the door by the force. I charged her and we clashed blades.
“Puppy Dog, right?” she asked me as we continued to fight. “Daniel mentioned you. He says you're an asshole.”
“Tell you what,” I said, parrying her attacks. “I'll work on my attitude once he's burried in a six foot hole!”
The battle royale continued, and eventually spilled out into the street I'm surprised we didn't draw any attention. It took a while, but we managed to gain the upper hand. Moss and Hiroshi were both knocked out, the scythe girl ended up bound by her own cord thingies, and then Mute and I managed to duel the magic cutlass wielding girl into submission. We though we had won. But none of us expected what came next.
A man, or maybe a monster, appeared. He had sunken, red eyes, and large batlike wings. He held an odd sword in his hand, resembling a metal pole with a hilt. He swung the weapon, which collided with Onre's skull, creating an impossibly loud clang, and knocking him out. Lazarus charged at the newcomer, and they began fighting. As they did, a dozen remote controlled helicopters appeared and starting dive-bombing the rest of us. Two of them exploded, killing another of our comrades.
“Shit!” I said. “Bombs! Mute, you're up!”
Mute took control of a couple of them with his power and forced them to detonate. I scanned the area as he blew up a couple more and I spotted  a man sitting on the roof, operating a really complex remote control. He was controlling them.
“Mute!” I called. “Up there!”
I pointed to the man and Mute nodded. He seized control of the six remaining helicopters and sent them flying at the guy, intending to detonate them within range of him. The man nonchalantly yanked one of the joysticks from the remote and tossed the remote into the middle of the helicopters before dropping from the roof. He landed on his feet, without taking any damage, and the remote blew up, taking the helicopters with it.
“What the?” I asked.
The speaker on Mute's belt switched on and began speaking for him.
“THE REMOTE CONTROL WAS A GRENADE. THE ANALOG STICK WAS THE PIN.
The man stepped closer to us. He wore a mask in the shape of Pacman, and he drew a familiar looking sword from across his back.
“Is that...,” I said.
“THE MASTER SWORD FROM THE LEGEND OF ZELDA SERIES,” Mute confirmed. “AND THE HANDGUN'S AT HIS SIDE ARE REPLICAS OF EBONY AND IVROY FROM DEVIL MAY CRY. HE ALSO WEARS THE LONGFALL BOOTS FROM PORTAL.”
“Great,” I said. “We're fighting a nerd.”
Me, Mute, and the remaining Timberwolves surrounded the newcomer.
“Well, well,” he said. “I like these odds.”
Suddenly, another girl appeared out of a portal. She had a mad look in her eyes, and I could make out Operator symbols painted on her fingernails. I knew right away that they were Proxies.
“Yeah,” she said. “This looks like it'll be fun!”
“Ugh,” the guy said. “Who invited Psycho Bitch?”
“She invited herself,” said another girl from behind me. I turned to see her there, with long blonde hair and a mask on resembling a butterfly. She held a longsword in one hand.
“Without warning, they attacked. The butterfly girl went after me, while the other two went after Mute and the other Timberwolves. I held my own against the butterfly girl for about a minute before she knocked me to the ground.
“You just got your butt kicked by a blonde chick in a sparkly butterfly mask,” she said. “How does that make you feel?”
“Annoyed and slightly aroused!” I replied, kicking her in the knee and jumping back to my feet. I swung my khopesh at her, continuing our fight. As I did, I caught a glimpse of the others. One of the Timberwolves was dead, and the crazy chick's twin short-swords were stained with blood. Damn it.
I  kept fighting the butterfly, but she managed to regain the upper hand again and kicked me in the gut. I fell to the ground, wheezing, and she gently placed the edge of her sword to my throat.
“Checkmate,” she said, calmly.
“STOP!” Onre's voice rang out. She froze.
I looked up and saw Onre was back on his feet, focused angrily on her. He snarled and put more power into his words.
“Kill yourself,” he said.
She began to obey. She raised her sword to her throat, about to draw it across. But before she could, the sword disappeared abruptly. Then a young man, wearing a tranchcoat and holding her sword, appeared behind her. He swiped his free hand at her head, knocking her out.
“Suicide is whack, yo,” he slurred, in a fake rapper accent His eyes were completely bloodshot, and he reeked of whiskey, despite looking too young to drink.
The fighting stopped. Everyone seemed taken aback by this man's arrival. We all just stood still for a while. One of the remaining two Timberwolves was the first to move. She raised her gun and fired a bullet at the man. He vanished before it could hit and reappeared behind her. He moved quickly, and I barely saw it when he twisted her head around, breaking her neck.
“Stop this at once!” Onre ordered, putting power into his voice again.
The man seemed to sober up instantly, and glared angrily at Onre.
“Did you just tell me what to do?” he demanded.
I felt a chill go down my spine, and for a second, I saw an image of a black mask with a question mark on it flash across his face, before it was gone again.
“Only one man tells me what to do,” he hissed. “And he's GONE!”
The man vanished.
“Onre!” I cried out, trying to warn him, but it was too late. The man had appeared before Onre, and stabbed the sword through his torso.
“Fuck you, Apostle,” he said, pulling the sword back out.
I stood there in stunned silence, unable to wrap my head around what had happened. I was lost for words. I was totally blanking out. That's probably why I didn't notice Ren's arrival. I just know that suddenly he was there. He had lost his coat, and tree branches were growing from his arms and shoulder blades, growing wildly and lashing out at the new guy and the proxies. The proxies were knocked unconscious quickly, but the newcomer held his ground, chopping through the branches before they could get close to him. Ren kept up the offense for a few minutes bbefore slowing down A look of recognition seemed to cross his face, and he stopped everything, opening up a portal to the Path. His branches shot out, picking up Onre and wrapping around his wound to stop the bleeding. He stepped through the portal and turned to us.
“We're leaving,” he told us. “Come on.”
“But we can't just leave!” I said.
“Come with me, or stay here and let him kill you,” Ren said. “I don't care either way.”
“But-” I said.
“You can stand up to him if you want,” he said. “But a punk like you doesn't stand a chance against the Black Joker.”
Lazarus stepped throught eh portal and turned to me.
“He's right,” he said. “We have to go.”
Mute and the remaining Timberwolf girl went through as well, and I reluctantly followed. As I did, Hirsoshi spoke up, seeming to regain consciousness.
“Ren?” he said, weakly, looking through the portal at him.
Ren stared at Hiroshi for a few moments. I could read his expression. The Black joker guy just stood there, calmly.
“Please,” Hiroshi said. “Stop this. You're only going to make your pain worse.”
“It will all be worth it,” Ren said. “As soon as I get the chance to tear him apart. Tentacle. By. Tentacle.”
Ren shut the portal behind us and lead us through the Path. He eventually opened a new gate, leading into what seemed to be an abandoned hospital. He set Onre down on a table and grabbed a syringe from a shelf. Onre looked up at him weakly.
“Tell me, Metatron,” Ren said. “How desperately do you wish to survive this?”
Onre clutched his stab wound with one hand.
“I need to live,” he said. “For... the Apostles. For... the Archangel.”
“Very well,” Red said. He then jabbed the syringe into Onre's arm and pushed the plunger down.
Onre cried out in agony and began writhing on the table.
“What did you do to him!” I demanded.
“I've either healed him, or I've killed him,” Ren said. “It's up to him whether or not he lives.”
Onre continued to writhe in pain for the next hour, before passing out. He's still alive. Thankfully.
“What was that stuff?” I asked.
“Medicine,” Ren said. “It's effective, yet dangerous. Only to be used in emergencies.”
“Pardon me,” Lazarus asked. “But what is this place?”
“Shady Lawn,” Ren said. “What's left of it.”
“But this is Oathbreaker territory!” the other Timberwolf girl said.
“Used to be,” Ren said. “Until I took it from them. Now rest up. We'll be heading back to Sanctum once numbskull here wakes up.”