Scorpion Warrior
Chapter 38
"So… you three junior-grade "heroes" thought you could stop us?"
[9 hours earlier]
"Her name is Selena Gonzalez." I was briefing the Team at Café Sugar about what was going on. "My dad got a call from her this morning telling him that she had some attempts on her life." "Why would anybody put a hit out on a total hottie like her?" Wally asks me. After an awkward cough, I blew that question off and continued, "Uh… anyway… I'm… not exactly sure why…" "I know why." Robin interrupted. "Jake's dad told Batman, who then told me." "Since when were they so buddy-buddy?" Wally asked Robin. "Well, my dad has a connection to the Justice League through me." I still haven't told anybody about my dad yet. "Batman asked him to be liaison. The reason he isn't helping is because there's nobody there who can handle a high-profile case like that." "Okay… two things, One: How can nobody there take the case? Two: Why didn't he tell you?" Wally asked me. To answer the first question, I turned the picture of Selena over and there was a note on the back. "It's not anything a regular cop could handle." "The attempts were quite a bit…" Robin wasn't sure about what words to say. "Let's just say I've heard of worse. As for my phone… it ran out of power over the night." I didn't want to tell them that I broke it attempting a parkour stunt I haven't tried since I became Scorpion Warrior.
"Can we continue?" Aqualad asked. "Yeah. After looking through some of Batman's files, I found that there have been a few targets. At first, they seemed unrelated, but I cross-referenced that with a lot of other data and I found a pattern." "You realize he's gonna kill you when he finds out you hacked into Batman's files, right?" I said to Robin. "Anyway, I think she might be next. The other hits were arranged to be accidental, such as messed up muggings." "So Batman wants me to look into this, and you guys are gonna help." I sat down and took a sip of my hot chocolate. "And what makes you think we're gonna go along with you?" Wally said with a cocky grin. "Oh, is there anybody else here who's Justice League?" I matched Wally's grin with one of my own. "You still aren't mad about last week, right?" "Wally, putting three whole jalapeños on somebody's hamburger is not funny." Aqualad said while Wally took a sip of his drink. "3… 2… 1." And Wally shot up out of his seat yelling about his mouth burning. "But the juice of five freshly squeezed jalapeños in somebody's coffee is." He was running all over the place looking for something to drink, then rushed over to a fountain in the park next door. I wish you could've seen the look on my face. Robin and I were laughing as much as we were back in the batcave when I finally got that lead on who killed my mom. I fell on the floor laughing it was so funny. But the look on Wally's face when he walked over was amazing.
After all that passed, we had to get back to work. "What are we going to do about Conner and Megan?" Kaldur asked. "Last I heard, Megan went to visit her family on Mars with J'onn and Conner… I don't know what he's doing." I replied. "Anyway, how do we know all of these accidents and muggings are hits? How are they related?" Aqualad asked again. "Cadmus?" I suggested. "At first, I suspected it was Cadmus, but none of the evidence pointed to them. But it seems like these "accidents" were executed by the League of Shadows." Aqualad and I exchanged confused looks after Robin explained all that. "Who?" I asked curiously. "You've never heard of the League of Shadows?" Wally said in exasperation. "How long have you been a hero for?" I held up five fingers then, while making sure nobody was looking, sprayed some web into his hair.
"Can we concentrate?" Robin seemed a bit annoyed. "The League of Shadows is a deadly organization with their dirty hands in a lot of stuff all over the world. Killing isn't above them. Since they're just accidents, nobody can prove anything." "So, just to make sure I heard right, we're glorified bodyguards to stop an attempt on a person's life?" Aqualad asked with a confused look.
"So… she's still working, isn't she?" I was laying down on the roof of the building across the street from the building Selena Gonzalez was working, extremely bored. Robin was still spying on her, Kaldur was standing there, and Wally was eating a bag of chips. "Stop chewing so loudly Wally." Oh yeah, he was eating way loudly. "I wish he could feed with a filter system like a humpback whale." Aqualad said. I looked at him with a strange look on my face. "I'll never understand your species Kaldur…" "Very funny…" Wally added. "Guys, keep it down." Robin scowled at us. "Well sorry, I'm just bored." Wally cried out. "How long have we been sitting here?" "Few hours, give or take." I replied. "See? That's hard for me to do. And I need to eat." He let out a loud groan as he fell backwards. "She's been there all day… all of the employees went home already. She's by herself. If they were gonna go after her, wouldn't they have done it by now?" That gave me an idea. I cycled through all the vision settings my mask gave: Telescopic, infrared, x-ray, and none of them found anything. "There! There's movement below the window." Aqualad pointed out. There was somebody crawling up the side of the building. "Is that another Spider-Man?" I asked. "I don't know." Robin said. Before anything else was done, Wally sped off the building and Robin jumped off the building giggling like he did when we first fought Blockbuster. I decided to follow suit, but Aqualad stayed back.
I landed on the wall in front of this new wall crawler and stood up just like I was standing on the ground. "Hey, this city's only big enough for one Spider-Man, and I just so happen to fill that spot." He just blew off my comment and sprayed some webbing at Wally while he was running towards us. "Hey Ninja Dude!" The webbing wrapped around his ankles and tripped him up. Literally. "Name's Black Spider… Fast Dude." He said. 'Well he talks at least.' "Hey, don't ignore me in the middle of witty banter!" Wally called out for someone to help, so I had to crawl over there, then I snagged him with a web as he fell, and Robin rammed into the building beside the Black Spider… lame name for a lame costume. Robin was able to dodge Black Spider's web, but it hit my legs above them, causing me to lose my grip on the wall, which in turn made us fall and land on Robin. We both threw lines towards parts of the wall, he the grapple gun he and Batman use to swing around, and me a web. "Great… that worked out swell." Wally moped. "Yeah, us taking out that other Spider-Man turned into quite a sticky situation." I added. "Looks like Hook will have to finish the job then." We turned to see someone who looked like a human Solomon Grundy with a giant metal hook for a hand holding an unconscious Aqualad.
My little spider sense buzzed right before he launched the hook, and Aqualad, at us. Robin and Wally dove out of the way, but I stayed and tried grabbing him. That failed. It slammed us into the building, knocking me out like Aqualad was. I woke up again in time to see Wally get KO'd by the knock-off Spider-Man. I got up weakly and got into a fighting stance, ready to try and take down the Black Spider and Captain Hook. But I was too weak from being smacked into a wall and Hook smacked me in the face with his hook. I was knocked out again.
I woke up again dangling upside down tied to Robin, Aqualad, and Wally. "So guys, how's it hanging?" "So… you three junior-grade "heroes" thought you could stop us?" The Black Spider asked us mockingly. "What were you guys thinking trying to challenge a coupla pros like us?" Hook said. "Well, we thought about trying to protect this young lady from a coupla top-tier League of Shadows hitmen." I wonder if me mocking a person who can easily gut me like a flounder is a good idea. "I wouldn't go throwing around names of deadly groups like that if I were you kid." The Black Spider was holding his arm around Selena. 'One wrong move and she might get hurt. We can't go all crazy on them…' "Why are you going after her?" Robin asked him. "You realize we don't have to answer your question, right? Seeing as how… y'know, we have the upper hand. How did you know we'd be here?" The Spider said. 'Why don't the bad guys ever make it easy…?' Hook held his hook up to us and demanded we answer. "Wait, how does that work? You don't get to answer but we have to? How come we don't get the same pleasure?" Hook grinned. It's not like the Spider could behind his mask. "You're a funny one. But you screwed up. And got caught by us. How badly would the great Batman's sidekick's reputation's reputation be if that news got out?" "Well, we did stop you from hurting her, right?" Hook started laughing a little and turned to Black Spider. "Can you believe these guys Spider? They're hilarious!" He turned back towards us in time to get Robin's foot to the face.
"That was awesome Robin!" I called out while I slid between Selena and the Spider's legs. But he was a step ahead of me. He swung his free hand around behind me once I got up and backhanded me in the face, then stuck me to the floor with his web. "Oh gross! What is this stuff anyway?" While I was struggling with Black Spider's web, Hook threw his hook through the wall and KF and Robin split up from Aqualad. Again. Wally used his speed to gain the upper hand on Hook but Spider trapped him like he did me. Then Robin tried to jump Hook, but Spider saw it coming and warned him. "Close but no Moby Dick, Ishmael." "Maybe not, but don't forget about Spider!" Aaaand… the Black Spider traps Robin and Wally in that weird web stuff up on the wall. Hook was about to repaint the wall, and I couldn't free myself in time, but Aqualad was there instead and made a shield with the water from the tank behind Hook. "Go Aqualad!" I called out as he freed us all. I immediately got up and stared down Spider. "Crap… can't hurt Selena…" All of a sudden, there was a bunch of smoke bombs and I heard Wally save her. "Perfect!" I cycled through the visions my mask gave me until I got to one that let me see through this smoke. Then I dashed towards the Spider, preparing to hit him with a knee uppercut, but he must've seen me coming and threw himself backwards. I didn't get a chance to react before he threw himself up and kicked me right in the back.
Aqualad was making sure Hook couldn't use the hook. "Get the girl out of here!" Kaldur told Wally. "I can't. Last time, they whooped us bad. We gotta stick together." I got up and ran between Hook's oncoming hook and Wally and Kaldur before the hook hit them, and grabbed it, but it tore me up quite a bit. Then I passed out from the shock of the hit. Robin smacked Black Spider with a flying kick and Aqualad tried grabbing Hook's chain to pull him back, but he saw it coming and kicked Aqualad square in the face with both lunking feet. Wally then smashed him into another wall, then sped over to Selena and grabbed her before Spider sprayed his web. Hook was looming over her and Wally, but Robin caught him with some of his own personalized Batarangs. "We aren't getting anywhere." Robin said, annoyed. "We need a chance to get away." Aqualad replied. Unfortunately, Black Spider stuck the only exit we had and Hook tried shooting his hook with Spider snagging it and mutilating the ceiling with it. Aqualad smashed the floor with some water-maces and Wally and Robin grabbed Selena and I and we all ended up on the lower floor.
"We need to get out of here, like now! Robin called out. "Scorpio's hurt bad!" "If we go outside, we will not be able to survive long. We need to go stealth if we have a chance of turning the tide and ending this." Kaldur replied. Hook's hook went flying through the ceiling and we all split up, with Robin hiding me in the corner as I was waking up. "What happened…?" I clutched my chest and found blood on my hand. "Tell you later." Robin replied while I sprayed my own smaller than Black Spider's web over the wound to stop the bleeding then got up. "Wait, but you're hurt." "Don't worry about me. Worry about the Black Spider and what I'm gonna do to him for cramping my style." Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum came through the hole after us. "The minute we get outside, they'll be on us faster than Wally on three triple cheeseburgers. What do we do?" "We sit here until Aqualad puts his plan into effect." Robin said while making sure they don't see us.
We snuck over behind Hook and Black Spider and got to Aqualad. "So… what do we do?" I asked him, a little pained from Hook's hook. "You stay and rest. We'll do the fighting." He was talking about the wound I got after I saved the rest of them from the hook. "I can take Hook, but the Spider is too quick and can subdue multiple targets with his webbing." "Aw man…! He's seriously cramping my style… I'm the only Spider-Man in this town…" "You can arrest him later." Robin scolded me. "Robin, can you and Kid Flash take him?" "Yeah. I just need five seconds."
Aqualad walked out and made himself a target for Hook and Black Spider. "Hey, look at the human glow stick." Hook said mockingly. "What are you gonna do? There's no water anywhere on this floor." I caught a hint of a cocky tone in Spider's voice. "True, but we are standing right over a bathroom." "Oh… this is gonna be funny." Once Aqualad took Hook out with the water, Wally came out and threw some energy shots at Spider. Not actual energy-based shots, more like shots of energy drinks. But they were blasted away by Spider's web.
"Now what…?" I groaned quietly behind the wall that Robin, Aqualad, and I were hiding behind as I looked around the corner in time to see an explosion around Black Spider and all his web exploded on him. I walked out and grinned right into his mask. "Well, not so fun now, is it?" I looked around and noticed we were the only people in the room. "Uh… guys? Where'd Selena go?"
The next day, I was swinging around after looking for Selena all night and made my way to the mountain in time to hear the end of a news broadcast Robin was showing. "How did I miss it?" Robin asked. "Back in the building, Black Spider said "The minute you get outside, we'll know where you are." Do not be ashamed Robin, I missed it too." Aqualad said, trying to make Robin feel better. "Wait, what's going on?" I asked. "The League of Shadows… they had others outside the building… they were there and they completely avoided our detection!" Robin said to me. It took me a second to realize what happened. "It's not the end… is it? I was out all night looking for her… Maybe the other Leaguers that were there just captured her…" My enthusiasm was short-lived as Wally solemnly shook his head, "The League of Shadows don't take prisoners dude…" And that's when it hit me.