Chapter 13
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Howdy! Just a quick Authors Note right quick.
For those of you in my Discord, you already know this, but for those of you who aren't (Link is posted literally every chapter, and for you folks on Spacebattle, it's in my signature) I am in the process of writing a new story. This does not mean I am giving up 'This Power? Not Completely Awful.' It just means that I'm also working on a separate story and as such my updating schedule may be a bit different. Probably not, but I figured I'd warn y'all ahead of time.
Anyway The Discord code is JtsBGHP and again, I have a Pa tree on under the same name as what I use here. The Nameless Scribe. So go check both of those things out!
Here ya go! Chapter 13.
/
"Are you sure this is the best spot to keep her?" I ask Aqualad out loud as we stalk the area around our new hideaway for the Good Doctor.
Note to self, get money and build for myself a new safehouse that we can use for situations like these, because a restaurant on the docks is kind of bullshit. Useful in a pinch, but utterly bullshit if the Shadow's send more assassins after us.
Which inevitably, they would.
Especially considering one of their assassin's was tied up in said hideout and Cheshire was completely disarmed thanks to Miss Martian and Artemis.
"The last location was compromised, this was the only other option." Aqualad replies as he pauses next to a tree, I was across the street near a van that was parked in front of the safehouse.
'Stop it, both of you.' Aqualad mentally chides Artemis and Kid-Flash. Both of which were inside the building protecting Doctor Roquette.
'What?!' they both exclaim.
'I could hear you glaring.' he smirks.
Rushing forward, he stops in front of another tree and glances around while I quickly climb the building and keep an eye from above.
"Miss Martian, stay in camouflage mode and make a wide perimeter sweep." He orders out loud.
'I really hope this plan works…' I mentally mutter as I crouch low and let Spite camouflage us to match the roof.
'Wait… do you hear that?' Spite asks.
'Hear wha-' I start before Aqualad gets thrown out of the treeline and into a van that was parked at the curb, nearly tipping it over and leaving a sizable dent in its side. Leaping out of the treeline after him was a man with a massive Hook attached to where his right hand should be.
"Well then… There's Captain Hook. Now, where's Smee?" I mutter under my breath.
'Behind you!' Spite warns as soon as the words exit my mouth.
Rolling aside and twisting around, I stand face to face with my stealthy opponent.
"You have to be kidding me…" I grin as I eye the person crouched behind me, watching me warily. The assassin was dressed in a skintight purple and black suit with orange bug like eyes. He looked like an evil Spider-Man if I was honest. "The Black Spider."
"Aah… So you've heard of me!" The Spider-Man lookalike replies with a smirk in his voice. "So nice to be appreciated. And since I know who you are, it seems only one more introduction is needed before we kill you."
"We?" I ask in confusion before Spite senses a presence behind us.
Ducking out of the way of a thrown knife aimed at the back of my head, I turn to look at the newcomer.
Frankly, he looked like a psychotic mime.
Black and white striped sleeveless shirt, black and white facepaint, white gloves. If it weren't for the knives strapped across his chest and his belt, I'd have thought he was a regular mime who just got really, really lost.
"And who are you supposed to be?"
"Oh! That's Razorburn. Don't mind him, he doesn't talk much." the Spider-Man ripoff answers as he stands up and looks at me. "Now that introductions are out of the way, how about we get down to business, shall we?"
Shooting a webline at the knife that was thrown at me earlier, Black Spider whips it around and throws it at me with enough force to make a whistling noise as the blade speeds through the air. From the other side of the roof, Razorburn dashes at me much faster than I was expecting. He was no Speedster by any means, but he was obviously well trained.
Grabbing the swung knife out of the air, I absorb it into Spite for storage before lashing out at Razorburn with a tendril, slamming into his chest and throwing him at the hook handed assassin fighting Aqualad.
"Well then, it looks like I have you all for myself. Don't I feel so special." Black Spider quips before diving at me with a punch aimed at my face.
Ducking aside, I enlarge my fist to be as big as he was and throw a punch at him, slamming into him and throwing him back.
"Oh, that's a neat trick." He groans as he flips midair, landing gracefully on his feet. Charging forward, he jumps over my next punch and lands a solid punch in my face.
Where Spite grabs his fist before he can pull away.
"Okay, now that's cheating!" He grunts as he tries pulling away, only for Spite's tendrils to slowly crawl up his arm. "Fine, now it's my turn to show off my tricks!"
As soon as he says that, he takes his free hand and points at me with a finger gun.
"Bang!" he says with a smirk under his mask. As soon as he says that, a bullet flies out of his web shooter and hits me in the side of the head, inches from where his hand was stuck.
And that bullet did absolutely nothing.
"And you're bulletproof."
"Yep. I'm bulletproof."
"Well… That sucks."
"For you, yes it does."
Grabbing his free hand, Spite wraps around his arm until both his arms are covered up to his elbows.
As he's doing this, Spite slowly takes apart the web shooters on his wrists, disassembling them and reassembling them, with some modifications of course, on my own wrists.
"Shiiiiiiiit…" Black Spider mutters as he realizes what happened. Grunting, he tries pulling back against Spite before I just let him go, watching as his backwards momentum makes him trip and fall over backwards.
Pointing my new web shooters at him, Spite forms a web and pins him to the ground.
"Okay… That's just not fair." Black Spider mutters as he struggles against his new bonds.
"Thanks for the new tricks… They'll prove useful in the future." I say with a grin.
Alright, one enemy down and two more to go.
Glancing towards Aqualad, I watch as Aqualad forms his water-bearers into a pear of Maces and slams them into the Hooked handed assassin, knocking him back and into the van he knocked Aqualad into earlier. While he was distracted, Razorburn attempts to charge in and stab Aqualad only for Aqualad to judo flip him into Captain Hook's fallen form.
Well… It seems our plan is working thus far.
"Are there any others?" I ask once I jump down from the roof and walk over to Aqualad, webbing up the two assassins in the process.
Raising an eyebrow at the webbing, he shakes his head.
"I believe that was all of them. Were you able to handle your opponent?" Aqualad asks as he sheathes his water-bearers
"I was, we even got a new gadget out of the encounter. Sorry for throwing Knife Man at you by the way. I thought being thrown off a building would have been enough to knock him out."
"Do not trouble yourself, what's done is done." He replies simply. "Come. The Doctor is almost done with the virus. Once she's uploaded the virus, the mercenaries will have no reason to attack her."
"Except for personal vendettas, having too much knowledge about the Shadows in general, etcetera, and etcetera." I try to point out.
"Hmm… You may be right." he says out loud before mentally adding on. 'At least we have Screech keeping an eye on her. Miss Martian's shapeshifting is impressive, but someone with enough skill could potentially see through our ruse. I am glad that thus far, that hasn't happened.'
As soon as the words were out of his… Mouth? Mind? Whatever.
As soon as he finished talking, Miss Martian cries out in alarm.
'Guys! Cheshire's escaped!'
"And there's the other shoe…" I mutter.
"We've been duped!" I hear Cheshire cry out before the clanging of metal on metal is heard.
Sending another blob of webbing at the fallen assassins, Aqualad and I charge into the restaurant to see Cheshire fighting Artemis, Kid-Flash, and Miss Martian at the same time, though she was obviously losing.
Glancing over and seeing me, Cheshire flips away from the trio of heroes and lands on top of one of the many tables in the restaurants.
"Hmmm… It seems I underestimated you last time. That won't happen again." She says, her voice like steel instead of the purring she did at the high school.
"And what are you going to do, it's five against one, and you lost against just one of us last time." Artemis taunts as she points an arrow at Cheshire.
"Hmm… Maybe, but that was because I didn't want to show off all my tricks last time. A little birdy showed me this one." Cheshire says before throwing a pair of shuriken at her feet.
SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!
The effects of the sonic attack were instantaneous, forcing me to my knees in pain as I clutch my ears, my screaming and my pain bleeding through the Psychic link we have.
"'RRAAAAAAAGGGGHHH!'" I scream. I couldn't help it, it was like nails on a chalkboard, but inside my brain. It was like someone was driving a stake into my skull through my ears.
And It was so much worse now than when Sportsmaster did it, as if I could hear the sound better now. Like the sonic puck was being held up to my ears!
"I would like to stay… but you know how things are. Business before pleasure and all that." I can barely hear Cheshire say before she bursts through the door, leaving us all writing on the floor in pain.
All of a sudden, the sound seemed to stop, and with it… the pain.
Looking up, I see that Aqualad had smashed both the table and the sonic shuriken with it. Reaching out mentaly, I can sense the mental link between all of us was broken, probably M'gann's doing.
"Guys... " I groan as I slowly start to stand up, Spite slowly reforming around me. "I'm so sorry…"
"Don't. We will discuss this later." Aqualad raises his hand to stop me. "For now, we must make sure the Doctor is safe."
As Spite finishes reforming, I just nod at him. He was right, we could discuss my glaring weakness later. For now, we had a mission.
'Spite… Besides bonding to someone with Sonic abilities, how would you gain a resistance to sound?' I mentally ask the Symbiote as we all go outside. Unsurprisingly, all the assassins were gone. Even the webbing holding them was gone.
"Stay here, Spite. We'll handle the assassins. With Cheshire knowing your weakness, you pose a liability. Once this mission is over, we will need to discuss a way to help you with your weakness to sonic attacks." Aqualad says before he and the rest of the team rush off. Miss Martian sending me a pitying look before they left.
'The only thing I can think of is to either bond to someone with sonic abilities or continuous exposure… Neither option is really preferred."
'Why did it seem like the sound was so much worse this time? When Sportsmaster did it last time, it didn't feel as bad.'
'Connor.' Spite replies simply, allowing me to get the answers on my own.
'His superhearing… You bonded to him, so you have some of his powers. Like his telepathy and his strength. You must have also picked up some of his other powers as well!'
'Among other things, but yes.' Spite replies. 'And in doing so we gained some of the weaknesses tied to those powers. Nothing quite so unique as Kryptonite, but sonic attacks will hurt more. The only way to get rid of these weaknesses of ours is, unfortunately, to bond to someone with sonic abilities.'
'Someone like Black Canary or Silver Banshee.' I list off with a sigh.
'Correct. Though Black Canary would be the prefered option. Her mental state is the more stable of the two.'
Flopping down on the ground, I lean back against the building we just trashed with a sigh. After a moments pause, I speak again, this time out loud.
"Spite… Why me?"
Forming a head from my shoulder, he brings it in front of me and tilts it slightly in confusion.
"What do you mean?"
"Why do you stay bonded to me?" I clarify. "Don't get me wrong, I am absurdly grateful, but why me? Robin, Kid-Flash, Power Boy, Artemis… Not sure about how Martian Physiology would affect you to be honest, but still. Any one of them would be a better choice than me."
"Arguably, you are not wrong. Though each has their own unique challenges. Power Boy is angry, at everyone, at everything. It's incredibly unhealthy, and to bond to someone with that rage for the long term… I've done that before, but unlike the Kryptonian, Erik knew how to control that anger. He knew how to focus that anger and use it against his enemies. Connor… he does not have that same control."
"As for the rest of them, tell me. Why should I? Like I said, each have their issues. With Robin, I'd have to deal with Batman. With the Speedster, well… you've seen how much he eats. He'd have to eat triple that at least to support the two of us. The Martian… I am unsure. Members of my species have bonded to members of the Skrulls in the past, but Martians seem to surpass them in nearly every way. Regardless, she lacks discipline."
"Oh, and I have discipline?" I joke.
"No, but you are… familiar to me. When I first woke up in this world, bonded to you, I had thought you had stolen me from my previous host, or maybe my previous host had abandoned me. You proved to me that neither option was the case. You proved that you cared for me, if for selfish reasons at first." The Symbiote explained. "I don't like bonding with people besides my current host. For most symbiotes, they treat their hosts like you would a change of clothes. For me… I prefer creating a bond with a host. Becoming truly symbiotic."
"So you're staying with me because I'm the one who woke up with you?"
"No, you moron. I'm staying bonded with you because you have potential. You may not be as skilled as Batman, or as Intelligent as him either. You aren't even that strong by yourself. No… You have the potential to become better than them. You have the knowledge to use me to the fullest, not simply lock me up, or keep me as an addition to their own abilities. An afterthought. You have the potential to learn, to train, to become better. That is why I stay with you… That, and while you may frustrate me, I have come to care for you, albeit… a small amount."
Chuckling, I lean back and rest my head against the wall behind me, the cool wood soothing what was left of my Sonic induced headache.
"Thanks, Spite… And I care for you too."
/
Somewhere in Africa.
Sometime later.
In a lab, somewhere in Africa, was a Gorilla and his friend.
Neither the friend, nor the gorilla, were normal however, as the Gorilla carried a minigun under one arm and wore a green beret, while his friend…
His Friend was a brain in a jar.
A very fancy jar, one with robotic limbs and many, many, many weapons, but a jar nonetheless.
These two beings were Monsieur Mallah and The Brain.
"Interesting…" An electronic voice came from The Brain. "This substance is like none other that I have seen."
"I agree. It's too bad the League of Shadows failed their mission, but no matter. At least we got this…" Another voice replies. Not from the Ape, but from the Monitors on the wall. Normally showing six unique individuals, in this situation, it only showed two.
The man on the left looked to be only in his late forties to early fifties, but his true age was far greater than that. He wore a black vest with gold trimmings over a white long sleeve shirt. Draped over his shoulders was a green collared cape with gold was fit, though you couldn't tell due to the clothes he wore, and he had greying temples, but his eyes are what showed his true age, revealing the vast knowledge he's gained over the years. This is the Demon's Head, Leader of the League of Shadows. This was Ra's al Ghul.
The man on the right could not have been more different from the Demon's Head. The man was bald, with sharp cheekbones and a look of superiority in his green eyes. He wore a crisp suit that was a deep, dark purple that almost looked black at first glance and a lighter shade of purple tie. This was Lex Luthor, CEO and President of Lexcorp and rival to Superman.
"My operatives may have failed to get all the information we wanted, but they did retrieve the information we needed. That, including the specimen that you and the Brain are working on should more than make up for any perceived failure my operatives may have done." Ra's al Ghul glares at Luthor.
Raising his hands up in surrender, Luthor replies.
"I meant no disrespect, Ra's. I was just thinking of all the things we could have accomplished if they had retrieved all the information."
'It appears as if the substance is symbiotic in nature, bonding to creatures and giving them enhanced strength, durability, and speed, along with a myriad of other abilities…" The Brain cuts in. He has no need for the petty rivalry between his two allies. He had a specimen to dissect. "It also possesses mild mental abilities. If Cadmus can clone this, perhaps we could incorporate this substance into our plan?"
"An interesting thought, though as we've seen with the Superboy, we would need some sort of way to control it." Lex Luthor replies. "Perhaps some sort of mental trigger? Perhaps we could borrow Psimon from Queen Bee to test the viability of that option. If that doesn't work, there are other options."
"I have already come up with several potential options, Luthor. I will send you my thoughts on that matter at a later date." Brain states as he prods a bronze strand of his specimen with an electric shock, watching in fascination as the small blob squirmed under the electric current.
"Very well. Unfortunately, I must cut this meeting short. Running a multi-billion dollar company does have its drawbacks." Luthor sighs before nodding at them both. "Gentlemen."
Watching as Luthor's screen went blank, Ra's followed suit with a short goodbye of his own.
The Brain didn't care. He was far too interested in the specimen he was experimenting on. Soon enough, he will know this creature's secrets and soon…
Soon, it will see the Light.
/
Welp… here's chapter 13. I had planned for it to be longer, but tbh, rewriting the YJ script is a bitch to do.
Which is why I am unbelievably happy that this is the end of familiar territory! You may be wondering, what are you talking about? Why is it the end of familiar territory? Well, dear reader, because after this, Spite and Alan's changes will be coming into play full force! What does that mean? I only vaguely know! I need to recheck my notes if i'm perfectly honest.
Anyway, quick note to recap what I said before I started the chapter. I'm working on a separate story while working on this. So my next story update may be the release of the first chapter of my new story. Not sure about that yet though. Anyway, that is all.
Hope you enjoyed!
The Nameless Scribe!