Legendary Scorpio

Chapter 4

The Choice

[2 months ago; a day after the attempted takeover of the Justice League]

"Well guys, I'm here." I was summoned a while ago to the JLA meeting room. I suppose it had something to do with my forced retirement. "Jake, thank you for coming." Diana said to me. "We wanted to talk to you about your um… 'forced' retirement." Clark continued. "Yeah… about that…" I started to say. "Maybe this retirement shouldn't be so forced." Bruce raised an eyebrow. "I mean, yeah… the Tornado saved me by removing my name from the roster, but after thinking about it, it's a good thing. The world has all of you, right? What's one Scorpio more or less?" The Big Three and the other four founders all looked at each other. "I've been fighting since I joined this team, and the world won't miss me. Not as long as they have you guys." "Well Jake," J'onn began. "It has been an honor fighting with you." "Whoa, J'onn, this isn't permanent you know. I just need a vacation. I'll always be Scorpio, but Jake needs to rest once in a while." I walked out of the meeting room, and J'onn gave me a psychic message. 'Eric has contact me.' I heard him say. 'He told me once he gets another lead, he'll contact me again.' 'Thanks J'onn.' I replied, then swung down to the teleporter room with Karen behind me. "So what'd they say?" She asked me. "They didn't have to say anything," I replied. "I could tell what they were thinking."

The next morning, I woke up at Karen's place to the smell of something really delicious. "Good morning, Jake." Karen said to me when she looked over here. "Well Karen, I didn't know you cooked." I said to her, slightly teasing. "I live on my own. Gotta cook on my own too. But I never thought I'd cook for two." She placed a plate of eggs on the table, and I sat down. "So this is our first morning together." I gave her a confused look. "You know? Scorpio was always off doing something heroic. I was always off doing something heroic. But only one of us has to be the hero now." "Well as long as I'm not your damsel in distress, I'll be fine with that." She gave me a playful shove and kissed me.

After breakfast, I was going for a drive around the city on my motorcycle when I heard a cry for help down the street. 'Well, like I said, I'll always be Scorpio.' I parked the bike and ran into an alley, pulling the costume out of my backpack.

After climbing to the roof of one of the buildings, out of sight of the passersby on the street, I swung towards the sound of the scream in time to see a guy run from a lady with her purse. I then landed in his path and let him run into me. "Why do you have to pick on women, man?" I said to him. He got up, so I webbed his feet to the ground to keep him from running. "Can't go anywhere, pal." "What the hell, man? These are my favorite shoes." He pulled a gun on me and threatened to shoot me.

"Are you kidding me?" I said mockingly. "Do you know who I am?" "Of course I know you. My friend's brother knows you." I crossed my arms. "Good, so you should know that trying to shoot me will be a waste of time." The thug pulled the hammer of the gun back. "Wanna bet?" Before I could react, the bullet left his gun and entered my shoulder. I wasn't able to jump out of the way to dodge his bullet. Honestly, I thought he was bluffing. Boy was I wrong.

I put my hand on my shoulder and felt red sticky blood. "I'm going to pass out now." Was the last thing I said before I passed out. Thankfully, I had enough energy to shoot a ball of web into his gut, knocking him down before I passed out.

Next thing I knew, I was in the Batmobile. "Great… the Bat bails me out again." "I didn't exactly bail you out," He replied. "The computer intercepted the 911 call the guy put out. I was there in 10 minutes." I looked at him with a cocked eyebrow. "I thought you brooded in Gotham City." "I was following a lead with the Question and–" "The Who?" I interrupted him. I've never even heard of anybody who calls himself the Question. "He's another leaguer, extremely paranoid. But he's as good a detective as I am." I noticed his computer monitor, which showed a blood sample and an antidote for some kind of poison. "What's that have to do with me?" "Under any other circumstance, nothing. But the bullet the mugger shot you with was coated with a poison." I felt like my face went pale. "You have every reason to worry. After all, this poison is extremely deadly. It enters your bloodstream in 15 minutes." "So… the sample on the monitor there…" "It's your blood. Fortunately, I was able to synthesize a cure in the nick of time, or you would've been dead for sure."

I felt the Batmobile slow to a stop. "How long were we driving for, Bats? We're in your cave." He walked over to his giant computer and sat down, then I decided to walk over and join him. "An hour." "Ah, Master Jacob." I turned around to see Alfred holding up a BLT. "So I see the cure worked." "That it did, Alfred. But I'm not hungry." "You should eat, Jake. The cure empties your stomach." Without realizing it, my stomach growled loud enough to send an echo throughout the cave. "See?" "Well… the stomach doesn't lie. And apparently, neither does Batman." I took the plate and started eating the sandwich. "So what're you researching?" "The poison." Batman replied. "I've seen this composition before… but I can't place it." I decided to take a look at it, then almost dropped the plate in shock. "It can't be!" "Jake?" Batman said. I swung over to a private part of the cave and took my phone out of my backpack, then called my dad. "Hey Jake." "Great! Dad, are you home?" I asked him in a rushed tone. "Yeah. I'm getting ready to go to the airport with Martha. Need anything?" "Do you still have those pictures I took from STAR Labs? From the assignment Perry sent me on?" After a moment of silence, and some rustling, my dad told me he found the pictures. "Yes! Thank you so much! I need you to send them to my phone."

A few minutes later, I got the pictures I asked my dad to send me. "Hey Bats, think fast!" I swung back over to Bats and Alfred and threw my phone to them. Batman caught it and looked at the pictures. "I knew that composition looked familiar! Perry White sent Eric and I on an assignment once about 5 years ago and it was a tour of STAR Labs' R&D center. One of the pictures I took was this composition and the scientist in charge told me that they were researching a way to reverse engineer this poison in order to find a to eradicate it. I guess they didn't find the antidote in time, because about a month later, the poison was allegedly misplaced…" I lost my train of thought and Alfred snapped his fingers in front of my face. "It can't be…" "What do you mean?"

"J'onn! Are you there?" I contacted J'onn on the comm because I finally figured out the conspiracy Eric faked his death for. "Yes I am, Jake. Do you need anything?" "Tell Eric he can come out of hiding. I pieced everything together." Batman looked at me. "Well? What'd you figure out?" "Did you get a good look at my shooter?" I asked him. "Yes. He's a street thug working under a mob boss named Andrew Zagino." My eyes went wide. "Before Eric faked his death, he was investigating something. He did it a little while after this poison was stolen. That must've been what he was investigating!" "Are you sure about this, Master Jake?" Alfred asked me. "It is pretty solid evidence," Batman added. "It's the best lead the Question and I have." He got up and walked towards the Batplane. "Well Jake, what're you waiting for?" My eyes went wide again. "Are you saying that I'm gonna team up with the two of the world's greatest detectives?" I walked towards the Batplane. "No, just me. The Question's following up on one of his other million cases." I was almost taken aback. "Why Batman… did you just make a joke?"

About half an hour into the flight, I decided to break the silence. "We're going to one of Zagino's warehouses, right?" "That's right." He replied. "With the way you deduced the thievery, I figured we should follow up on that lead. I traced the poison the mugger shot you with and it led to one of his warehouses." We stopped flying, so it looked like we were going to jump. "Can you make a parachute, Jake?" "I can indeed, Bats." "Good." He opened the cockpit and we both jumped out. He used his cape to glide down and silently landed on the roof of the warehouse. I jumped out and caught the top of a water tower with a web, then used the momentum to launch into the air, then I spun a parachute and landed softly on the roof. "Huh… I would've thought they were gonna operate outside of Metropolis." I mumbled out loud. I turned on my mask's telescopic vision and started looking around. I didn't see anything, so I quietly opened the skylight, turned on the stealth function in my suit, and climbed in while keeping to the shadows.

'Time to go infrared.' Soon as I thought it, my vision went light red and I saw darker red figures moving. People. They were pretty scattered but grouped together in front of different wooden crates. "Hello… what do we have here?" I used the telescopic vision to zoom in on the crates as they were opening it. I saw the labels on one of the vials, then crawled out of the skylight before they were able to see me.

"It's called CL-91." I mouthed to Batman. He nodded. "We need to get one of them and tell them where Zagino's warehouse is." I nodded back to him. "Do you have any chloroform?" He pulled a bottle and a rag out of his utility belt and handed them to me. "I'll never understand you." I just put that thought out of my head and started crawling on the ceiling towards a guy who was hanging out in a corner.

I silently lowered myself on a strand of web after loading the rag with the chloroform, then put it over his mouth. He tried struggling, but he eventually passed out, then I picked him up and crawled back over to the skylight, although really awkwardly. After I got the guy onto the roof, Batman handed me some smelling salts and that woke him up.

"Hey, where am I?" "You don't need to know that," I replied. "I, however, need to know where Zagino is." He simply smirked. "You don't need to know that." Batman came up from behind him, then picked him up by the collar and dangled him over the roof. "Hey! What're you doing?" "I'm looking for Andrew Zagino." Batman glowered at him. "If you don't tell us, then maybe you'd like to tell the asphalt." The guy looked down while clutching Batman's wrist. "You're bluffing." "Wanna bet?" Batman released his grip on the guy's shirt. Too bad he was hanging on to Bats' wrist, or he'd plummet. "OKAY! OKAY! I'll spill everything! Just don't let me fall!"

Batman grabbed him again and threw him at my feet. "Don't forget, you promised to spill your guts. Don't let my partner here make the phrase more than just a phrase." He looked like he saw a ghost. "Okay! Just don't let him touch me!" I stood up and crossed my arms. "I do work for Andrew Zagino, but I don't know where he hides. All he gives us are addresses to his warehouses to ship his products." "Can we have his most recent one?" I asked him. "Thing is… I would, since I'm more afraid of your partner than anything else, but he changes places every two hours, and he waits an hour to send us the latest one. He changed addresses ten minutes ago, so nobody knows what to do for the next 50 minutes." I looked at Batman. "You're lying." He simply grunted. "No I'm not! I swear!" "One, I can tell. I'm the world's greatest detective. Two, if what you're saying is true, he'll actually be sending you his new address right about now." Just about on cue, his cell phone beeped. He took it out, but I snatched it up with a web. "It's an unknown number, Bats." "Obviously. He doesn't want to be traced, because the cell phone's busted now." Batman tossed the phone to the thug's feet. "He has a master technician. I think he sends us the addressed, then waits a few seconds for us to memorize it, then hacks the SIM card and blows it up." He grabbed the guy's collar again. "Whoa, Bats! He told us everything!" "Not everything. You failed to mention the fact that this technician sent you a partial address." I heard another ring. This time, it was a call. Batman reached in his pocket and pulled out another phone. "This is my personal phone. Zagino only let's us have them if we only use them with the rest of the crew."

Batman answered it then put it to the guy's ear. "Hey Nick. … My part of the address? … 221." A moment later… "He hung up." Batman stuck the phone back in the guy's pocket. "Well that sucks, we didn't get anything out of that." "Hey, uh… what about me?" The guy asked us. "Before we let you go, you aren't done talking." Batman stared at him. The guy looked like he was about to piss his pants. "Zagino has a hostage!" I gave him an intense stare. "Yeah… for the past three days." Three days? I last talked to Eric three days ago. Then I started to feel angry. "His hostage… was he about 6'? Shaved head? Tattoos on both sleeves?" The guy looked at me like I was crazy. "Yeah, that's exactly him. Do you know him?" I punched his lights out, then rushed over to the Batplane. "Jake! Where are you going?" "Zagino has Eric, Batman! I'm going to get him!"

I took off in the Batplane in no time at all. It was until about 20 minutes into the flight that the only thing we got from the guy was 221. "Jake," I heard Batman's voice over his intercom. "You flew off the handle before you could learn the address." "So… what? You're gonna put the plane on autopilot, send it back to you, then kick me out? I have to save him, Batman! I can't lose him again!" "If you would shut up and listen to me for a minute, I could tell you that you're almost right. I'm going to put the plane on autopilot, but I'm sending you to the address. I can get you there in less than the time Zagino waits until he moves again." That cheered me up, if only a little.

Less than an hour later, the plane flew over the warehouse, but I didn't wait for it to stop. I jumped out of the plane and landed on the roof. "Alright Batman, I'm here. Now what?" "I have a schematic of the property up on the batcave computer. Are there any air ducts on the roof?" I looked around and saw a couple. "Yeah, I see them." "Go through the one on the far right." I did what he said, and the rest of the instructions came through. Eventually, I found my way to the room they were holding Eric in. I was about to open the grate until I heard the door open and another goon come in holding a tray of bread and water. "Time for dinner, kid." I heard the goon say. I heard the door open and close again, then I peeked in through the slits in the grate. Poor Eric was forced to eat like an animal. It was infuriating to see him like this. So much so, that I squeezed the grate by accident, and it made a noise which attracted Eric's attention. "Who's there?" He called out.

I removed the grate from the opening and lowered myself on a strand of web. "Wow, man, you reek." I said as I took off my mask. After taking a look at me, he rushed over to me and gave me a big bear hug. "Man! It is so good to see you, Jake!" "How do you think I feel? I've been looking for you ever since I figured out the conspiracy." I joked to him. "Come on, let's get you outta here." I turned around and saw a big dude with bigger muscles. "Well you certainly aren't the monopoly man." "What do you think you're doing with my hostage, young man?" The muscley guy said. "You must be Andrew Zagino. You look too dumb to be his technician." He smiled. "You're funny. I don't like funny. Now, I don't know how you got in here, but I'm sure you didn't see my operation. Now get out of here before I crush you like the bug that you are, Scorpio."

"I'd be glad to go, Zagino, as long as I get to take the kid with me." He took a step towards us, and Eric and I started walking backwards. "That's gonna be a problem. I've kept the kid with us these past three days so he doesn't squeal to the authorities." "Well, Zagino, that'll be a problem. Cause I found one of your warehouses. You won't be able to let me go because I'll go and squeal to the cops. You have a dilemma, and now I'm gonna kick your ass." "Oh crap…"

Zagino lunged forward and tried to grab me, but I leapt up and blocked the door with a bunch of web, then pulled Zagino backwards with a web. "That's it… you are dead meat." He pulled a dagger from a sheath on his leg. "You know what this is, don't you?" It took me a second to figure out what he meant, and then it hit me. "That's right. It's a dagger dipped in a highly concentrated form of CL-91." I took a step back. My shoulder healed from the first shot of this stuff, but I'm worried about what'll happen now. "So it seems you've had a run-in with this stuff already." He swiped at my chest, but I dodged back. Then he tried again, but I jumped back and on the wall. Then I pushed myself off the wall to tackle Zagino. I was wailing on his face, but I slowed down and felt a sharp pain in my chest.

Zagino grinned and punched me square in the face, sending me back into the wall. He got up and stabbed me on the previous cut. "The difference between this and the unconcentrated form is that the unconcentrated form takes longer to kill you." "This is even more painful too…" I was trying to squeeze my eyes to shut out the pain, but it wasn't helping… considering he was driving the dagger down my chest. The pain was too great and I felt like I was going to pass out. I was holding out, though. I gathered enough strength to kick Zagino back away from me. I took the dagger out of my chest then chucked it as hard as I could right back at Zagino. The last I see was Batman crashing through the window before I passed out again.

After I don't know how long I was asleep for, I woke up in the Justice League Watchtower medical wing. "Jake!" Eric and Karen both called out at the same time. I opened my eyes, it was really difficult to do, and I woke up to Batman, my dad, Eric, and Karen all crowded around me and Karen giving me a big hug. "Welcome back to the land of the conscious Jake." My dad said. "Dad?" I mumbled weakly. "I thought… you and Martha were going on vacation…" "Batman called me and told me what happened. I was gonna come up, but you were still out of it, so he told me to wait." I only caught half of that. "Til I wake up? How long was I out of it?" "Three days." Batman replied. "I tripled the potency of the antidote and it got the concentrated toxin out of your system. Unfortunately, it affected your healing."

It took a second for that to register. When I finally figured it out, I took the bandages off of my torso. Well after three days, my healing should've kicked in and gotten rid of these scars on my torso. "You'll still heal, but it's stunted. Any scratch longer than five inches or deeper than the length of the blade Zagino used on you doesn't fully heal." Zagino… I finally regained my composure and figured out what was going on. "What did happen to Zagino?" "Man, he got busted!" Eric called out excitedly. "The dude's in jail! After getting patched up in the hospital, of course. Thanks to you, his entire operation is in the toilet!" I gave him a high five. "Also, and all thanks to you, Batman gave STAR the recipe to the antidote and they're mass producing it for the entire country." Karen added. "That means anybody dumb enough to have any of it won't be able to use it on anybody." I said to them. "That's right." Batman replied. "And just think, none of that would have been possible if that mugger hadn't shot you." Eric finished.

Eric's comment, although meant to be a joke, did make a lot of sense. How far is too far? Will I have to go to even more extreme lengths to save lives? "I can't…" I mumbled. "Wait, what?" Eric said. "You can't what?" I shook my head then put my hand on my chest. "I can't be Scorpio anymore." The whole wing went quiet. "When Zagino pinned me to the wall and scarred up my chest, I really thought I was gonna die." I looked down at the scars. "I'm glad I didn't, but… I could've. I gotta give up or I might eventually get killed." After a moment of silence, Eric piped up. "That's fine, Jake. We all like you here on earth." We all looked at him. "Oh, you guys know what I mean." Karen kissed me. "He's right. I like you better alive than dead, anyway." "Don't worry, Jake. The Justice League has plenty of newer heroes. Metropolis won't be completely unprotected." Batman said.