The Cadmus Web
Chapter 29: Unexpected Help
Peter struggled against his bonds but looking up he could see that the cables he was tied up with were pretty strong. It would take awhile to get free from them, but that wasn't his immediate concern. What did was the giant screens of Times Square that the Joker had set up to show Metallo fighting Supergirl. He could see that Kara was trying her best but with Metallo using the kryptonite to weaken her it wasn't a fair fight. He was taking his time trying to take her apart and he was being forced to watch. He couldn't watch this happen again. Flashes to the tape he found of Doctor Octopus holding up a weak, helpless Kara.
Images of him holding MJ who was dying in his arms, the images of Gwen's funeral also entered into his mind and for a moment he thought of Kara being laid to rest. He had seen so many that he loved die and he couldn't take another death so soon. He wouldn't accept that Kara might get killed and he would be damned if he was just going to hang here and watch this. So he started to struggle even more putting everything he could into it.
Unfortunately the Joker was there and he wasn't going to let him try to get out. He slammed the electric buzzer again into Peter and he shouted out in pain from the electrical energy that was being pumped into his body.
"I don't think so, you're going to hang there and watch the show," Joker grinned at him evilly, then shocking him again just because he could.
"You know I wonder how many more rounds the kid can last," Joker laughed looking at the scene on the screens. "I got to admit she's got spunk but I don't think the kid will go the full ten rounds. Oh look at that vicious right cross there by the main man of steel. I think we're about to see a title change here from the poor kid."
"You know you suck as a colored commentator," Peter said to him. "I mean hell you're pale as a ghost."
The Joker turned quickly and then threw a punch right at Peter's gut. "I do the jokes around here and the last laugh is the one the Joker always gets."
"You mean besides when Batman kicks your ass?" Peter said getting another punch for it. He could deal with it but what he was more worried was about was Kara.
Kara had better days, she had even had worse days but today was defiantly a bad day. When they had gone after the Joker the last thing either her or Peter expected was him to have had some major backup. She felt the cold metal of a fist strike her face as she was knocked back into a car. Her body was strong enough not to die from such a blow and the car curved inward but it hurt. It really hurt, at this level she would guess she was somewhere around Peter's abilities but that wasn't the major problem.
Every time she started to feel better, Metallo would open up his chest and the radiation of the kryptonite hit her. She felt sick and dizzy with that radiation poisoning her, so it was hard to stand. Already the blows she got were aching and her jaw and cheek hurt too. Her body was trying to heal the injuries but with the kryptonite it was slowing things down along with the new injuries she was getting.
'Damn it get up and fight girl,' she told herself pushing out of the car and that hadn't been as easy as it used to. 'I really hate kryptonite. 'I swear why don't we just look and pick up every piece and just throw it into the sun?'
She was in pain and she was weak but there was no way she was going down. Metallo tried to throw a punch and she jumped to the side dodging the blow. She smirked as the lessons in fighting she got from Donna as they trained together came rushing back. Fighting someone like Donna had shown her that brute strength didn't mean much against someone as strong as you. Donna had spent years training to be a warrior and Kara knew that in a fair fight she wasn't a match for the young Amazon. So she wanted to improve and Donna had been training her in fighting arts when she could.
She got up and blocked a punch with her forearm and then slugged him in the jaw with her other. His head snapped to the side and although her hand hurt from the contact she smiled that she was still giving him a fight. But there was a problem, she was feeling pain but Metallo didn't feel anything. His body didn't feel pain or even pleasure and in a fight that gave him an advantage. His head snapped back without a hint of him slowing down and kicked her in the ribs. She grunted as she went back a few feet but was still standing, although her legs were shaky.
"And to think here you are one of the most powerful heroes on the world and you're powerless against me," Metallo gloated dodging a weakened punch and sending a backhand against her head. She fell down although she was trying to get back up, so he put his foot on her back forcing her down.
"I wanted to do this to Superman but you'll be nice practice for me," he opened up his chest again as she cried out in pain from the green energy washing over her. He increased the pressure feeling her being crushed into the ground. "I think after I kill you, I'll take your cape and send it to Metropolis in care of Superman. Something to remember you by and a hint of things to come."
Kara felt her chest starting to burn for air, her chest was hurting from the road digging into it and her back from the heavy weight being driven into it. But she refused to go down, she planted her hands to the side and she fought back as hard as she could. She couldn't die here and not by someone like him, she still had things to do and she knew Peter was still in danger as well. Even if he could take care of herself she didn't want to leave Peter. He had suffered enough as it was and she knew how her death might kill him.
She used that to fuel herself, to give her the strength to push. She pushed and kept on pushing no matter how much her body protested and how much it hurt. She cried out pushing with everything she had and managed to find the strength to throw him off her back. She heard him fall and rolled away gasping for air. She knew she didn't have plenty of time, no matter how much she wanted to just rest she willed herself up.
There was no way she was going to let this guy get the better of her. She looked around for something that she could use against him. She remembered how Peter had used his webbing to rip the kryptonite core out of him, so maybe she could do something similar. If she had something that she could jab into this chest piece and smash up the rock he'd lose power. It would leave pieces of it on the ground totally exposed but while he was most likely worrying about that, she could get far enough away for her body to recover.
The only problem was that she couldn't find anything that was good enough for it. Either things were too large to fit or not strong enough. She needed something like a metal pole from a street sign or something but she was in the middle of the street at the moment.
She dodged another punch and tried to throw herself to the side but he caught her cape and threw her back to where she was. She tried for a kick from the ground but he caught it and drove an elbow into her knee. She cried out in pain, it wasn't broken but with a little more force it would have been. She had forgotten that before Metallo became a cyborg he had been a mercenary, he had more hand to hand combat experience then she might ever get.
"Well this has been fun but I think it's time to end this," Metallo said as he picked up a car. "It's been fun and don't worry as soon as I'm done I'm sure the Joker will be sending your boyfriend up there to join you soon enough."
Kara glared up at him wishing she had enough energy for her heat vision but she was too weak.
'Peter...I'm sorry,' she thought. She didn't want Peter to see this, to see another person he cared for die. She felt like such a failure at this moment as she watched Metallo raise that car over his head. She prepared for the blow to come. But just as soon as the car was coming down it was suddenly pulled up and out of Metallo's hands.
"What!?" he looked up and Kara saw the car used to bat away the killer cyborg.
"Well...this is unexpected," Kara muttered to herself.
Peter hurt all over, his muscles were strained from trying to get out of the cables and he hurt all over form the Joker's shocks from him trying to get out. Plus he was getting a major headache from his laughter too. If he got out of this he swore he would never like any clowns again in his life.
"I swear when I get out of this I'm going to wipe that grin off your face," Peter told him.
"Ha, that's a good one. But it looks like your little girlfriend won't last much longer so what do you say? Should I spare you the poor sight of you seeing her killed or just kill you here and now?" The Joker grinned at him holding up a gun to his face.
Peter gritted his teeth under his mask as he glared at the clown. Normally he would have some kind of com back line or something but honestly he just wasn't feeling like it at the moment. Well he didn't until he managed to catch sight of something and he grinned under his mask.
"Hey Joker what's black and blue and about to kick your ass?" He asked him.
"Don't you mean black and white and red all over?"
"No he meant what he said," a new voice called out.
Joker turned around quickly and got a pair of feet slammed into his chest. The Clown Prince of Crime was sent across the hard surface, rolling until he hit a railing. He shook his head to see who it was and groaned.
"Oh great the Jr. Batman, I thought you'd be too busy being in the Bat's shadow to come here." He said.
Nightwing looked down at him, after Alfred was able to get in touch Dick had been the one to quickly get to New York as fast as possible. He figured that Peter would need the help personally and he was right. He had been on his way to Peter and Kara's place when he caught the TV broadcast that was going out all over the city. He rushed here to get here as fast as he could and by the looks of things he managed to get there in time.
He never did like the Joker, the guy always gave him the creeps and also he was a royal pain in the ass too. He saw Peter hanging there looking worse for wear and decided that with the two of them they could get rid of the Joker faster and then help Kara out sooner. He got a few of his razor sharp boomerangs that were based on the baterangs and with one hand threw them at Peter. They cut into the cables, they didn't cut through the entire way but when Peter saw it he tried to start pulling again. The cuts had weakened the cables as they started to give out and he grunted as he gave one last large pull and they snapped as he fell to the metal ground.
"You okay?" Nightwing asked him.
"I'll live," Peter said getting up.
Joker sighed, "You know you weren't invited to this little party but since you're here I might as well enjoy myself, actually I usually do enjoy myself."
With that he threw out several playing cards, both Peter and Dick knew well enough to stay clear of the razor sharp cards as they flew past them.
"We can't drag this out," Peter told Dick, "Kara still needs our help."
Nightwing nodded as he knew what Peter meant. They charged the clown who was still grinning at them. Just as they were about to reach him he jumped up, normally that wouldn't be a problem but somehow he managed to put springs on the bottom of his shoes. He laughed as he launched himself into the air and landed above them.
"Piece of advice, metal is a bad place to be at the moment," Joker said slamming his joy buzzer against a metal pole.
Peter's spider-sense kicked in and he was able to notice that the metal that Joker was touching was connected to where they were standing. Peter yelled out to jump and Nightwing jumped off the building as he used the gliding material he had to glide off the building. Peter however could jump up to meet the Joker.
"Uh oh the angry boyfriend," Joker said backing away.
"I'm really going to enjoy this," Peter said jumping to grab Joker. He didn't care about the jokes or anything else that he normally did. All he knew that the sooner he could beat him and sooner he could help Kara. He would be there right now but leaving the Joker to shoot him in the back wasn't a good idea, no matter how much he wanted to help.
He had to avoid a punch of what looked like candy balls although the buzzing in his head told him they were anything but that. He jumped out of the way as they exploded, at that moment Nightwing was able to glide back to them and rushed at the clown. Joker took a punch but he kneed Nightwing in the gut and then kicked him away. He ducked as Spider-Man jumped at him and then over him.
Peter had to dodge a punch and so he threw a left hook at the Joker, but he caught that hand and Peter felt pain as the Joker's palm had that damn joy buzzer again. He pulled back his hand cradling it in pain as the Joker saw a tool box that had been left behind. He picked up a large wrench and hit Peter in the shoulder with it. Peter stumbled to his feet grunting as he felt the pain flair up in his shoulder.
Joker raised the tool over his head ready to swing down when Nightwing jumped and slammed into the Joker's torso. They both hit a railing but the explosion had weakened the bonds to the building. Both of them started to fall as the railing gave way as they tried to hand on. Dick to the railing that was only hanging on by a piece and the Joker to Nightwing.
"Come on you bird brain can't you pull us up any harder?" Joker said to him.
"I could just kick you off and save my own ass you know," Nightwing said.
"Hey now no need to get nasty, we're all friends here," Joker said smiling at him. Although Nightwing knew as soon as they got up the Joker would backstab him as soon as he could. Although that was a moot point as the railing started to make metal shrieking sound as it finally tore itself off the building. Both Nightwing and Joker started to fall down to the streets below.
Peter had seen them go and forced his body to move, he wouldn't have much time as they weren't that high up but they were sure enough high enough for them to go splat when they hit. He jumped off and saw the two of them heading quickly to the bottom. He breathed a sigh of relieve when Nightwing managed to get a grapple hook free from his equipment and managed to stop his descent. So that left the Joker to Peter. He fired his webbing and managed to snag the Joker on the way down as his webbing started to wrap all around his body. Peter stuck his feet to the side of the building as the Joker hit the walls and bounced a few times.
"Well you just hang here while I go help out Supergirl," Peter said sticking the webbing to the wall and jumped off to help Kara.
"Hey you can't just leave me hanging!" Joker shouted at him trying to get out of the webbing but it was too tight and too strong as he struggled twenty feet over the ground.
Kara looked up surprised to see a boy her own age in a black costume, she remembered him from that Gemini team that Cadmus made, the one that had been giving her strange looks. Although she wasn't sure what to think about this team, at the moment she was glad to see anyone that was trying to help her out. She managed to pull herself up into a standing position, although it was on shaky legs as she favoured her injured one.
Powerboy looked down at Metallo as he glared up at the teen.
"Who the hell are you?" He demanded. This wasn't in the plan there was no mention of anyone like this in New York.
"Powerboy, not that you'll be around long enough to remember it," Powerboy said as he quickly flew into the cyborg and smashed into him. They both hit the road hard making a giant impact as material and a cloud of dirt shot up from them. There were sound of fighting but Kara couldn't see anything through the dust. Then there was an eerie sounds as energy was seen by her and Metallo's form came flying out of it looking scorched.
Powerboy flew out of it as he kept on hammering the ex-mercenary. Metallo hadn't been expecting someone like this, he seemed to have powers that rivalled that of Superman or at least those in that kind of league. But he wasn't Kryptonian and he wouldn't be affected by his kryptonite and for some reason he seemed furious with him.
Metallo fought back as best he could but the boy was faster than he was and then he had some kind of energy based power that he couldn't see if it had any kind of range on him. He was already getting a pounding but he couldn't think of any way around this boy. He wasn't even sure if his own hits were doing anything to the boy. He was certain that he was hurting this mysterious hero but he didn't seem to care all that much about it.
"Kid I'm going to tare you to pieces and then I'm going to finish of the girl," he said to him.
That was the wrong thing to say to Powerboy, he glared with hatred at the man. Then in a split second he sped forward and smashed his hand right into Metallo's chest. He looked down surprised and then in fear as Powerboy ripped out the kryptonite and threw it away.
"Not again," he muttered looking at the hole in his chest as he fell forward onto the ground.
Powerboy gave him a small kick to make sure that he was out and quickly turned and went back to Supergirl. He saw that she was limping and went to help her to stand. He couldn't believe how good it felt just to touch her even though it was just to help out.
"Are you okay?" he asked her gently.
She gave a small smile to him and he felt his heart increase just by her smile as he smiled back.
"Thanks for the help, I never expected one of you guys to help us out," Supergirl said to him. It was the truth as she expected an entire team of killers and nut jobs given that Galatea was on their team. She had thought that the apple didn't fall far from the tree with them.
"Not everyone on the team is a bad guy," he told her helping her over to a bench where she could sit down properly. "In fact most of us are good guys we're just trying to find a place to fit in with the world."
Supergirl thought that over silently as she sat down and then she shot her head up wondering where Peter was. "Oh god the Joker is still there and he's got Spider-Man I got to help."
"Whoa you're not going anywhere like that, you're hurt." He told her stopping her from standing up.
"You don't understand I have to help him out," Kara told him worried sick about him as her head was clearing up. She felt the fog from the multiple hits to her head fading as well as the pain in her body as her body was starting to heal up again.
"Kara!"
She looked up and her face brightened as Spider-Man came down on the ground next to her. The two of them eager to see the other hugged each other as soon as they could. Powerboy looked on trying his best not to tare apart the red and blue clad hero. It wasn't fair, he was the one that had saved her and he never got that kind of attention. She deserved someone better, someone who would protect her when she needed someone. It was obvious that this Spider-Man couldn't do it so why did she go to him as soon as he arrived?
Powerboy's dark thoughts were interrupted when the two of them looked at him and a third member had joined in while he had been busy thinking on things.
"Nightwing," Kara said smiling at the older man, "I'm glad to see you here. I take it you helped out Peter?"
"Yep, we left Joker up there," He jerked his thumb to where the Joker was still tied up. "I came as soon as I could when I heard he was in town. Batman would have shown up but he couldn't get away so I decided to come and help."
"And man I'm glad that you did," Peter smiled under his mask. Then Peter looked at Powerboy not sure how he felt about the guy. He kept giving him bad vibes but the guy had come and saved Kara so maybe he was just being paranoid with the guy.
Peter came up to him and stuck out a hand, "Hey I know you most likely didn't have to help us but still thanks man."
Powerboy looked at the hand and turned his back to him. "I was just helping out no thanks are needed."
With that he flew up into the sky leaving Peter there with a hand out and looking confused at the sky. He dropped his hand finally going back to Nightwing and Supergirl.
"Well that was cold," Nightwing said.
"Yeah leaving me hanging there, what's his deal? I was just trying to be the nice guy after all." Peter said to him. At any rate he went over to Kara and asked how she was, she told him that her knee was still killing her and she was still weak from the kryptonite. So he picked her up bridle style, not that she complained as they made their way home as the cops were already moving in on the scene. Both of them were too tired and hurting to deal with anything else.
Nightwing smirked watching the two go off and decided he might as well see a bit of New York before he got back. Now that he thought about it maybe he could call up Kory and invite to meet him at New York, it had been awhile since their last date and he had matured a bit since his Robin days. One thing he learned was how to be in a relationship and he knew a few places that Starfire would just love. So he left the scene with a smile and left to find a phone.
Next up chapter 30: Growing concerns
You know I've been thinking about it and with the lack of reviews this will be my last story of Ultimate Spider-Man in the JLU cartoon. Also I had more of the story planned out but with so little people interested I'm just going to end the story without all the extra stuff I had planned.
