JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE SPIDER
CHAPTER 33: SMOKE AND MIRRORS
-Watch Tower-
Shayera was waiting patiently outside the medical ward waiting for the doctors to do their work. It had been over three hours now and the waiting was killing her. She wanted to know how things were doing but she wasn't allowing in. She didn't move from her chair in the small waiting room area. She noticed a few of the staff looking at her and even given her a few sympathetic looks but she didn't care.
She couldn't get that image of him beaten so badly on the floor out of her mind. It took her fifteen minutes to wash the blood off her hands. She had scrubbed her hands raw and they were a bit reddish and a bit sensitive but she didn't care about that either.
All that she cared about was that John would be okay. She had never been like this, back home she had lost people before so why was she like this now? Why did she feel this ice cold dagger in her heart? The people she had lost either a few friends or even just people she had served with had always hurt in some way but this was more…Personal to her. She closed her eyes as her head dropped a bit.
She knew the answer she loved John deeply and with him like this it was like someone had just took a hammer to her world all over again. Just when things start going well something comes alone, first her life on her home world engaged to someone she thought she was in love with and then sent undercover here to a strange alien world. Then she met the League her first real friends, then of course her people came and all the trouble that caused. Now just when she had a great relationship and was starting to gain some trust again this happens. It was like her life was just some comic joke and the people around her suffered for it.
Shayera lost track of time as she felt like she was being swallowed in a world of emptiness as her life felt like she was about to lose the best part of her life. She considered what would happen if John didn't make it. She didn't think she could go on, he was the one that always believe in her and stood by her. Without him she didn't think she could continue on with this. She might just give up on being part of the League and just go back to her city and just be alone. She was sick and tired of all the hurt of all the pain.
"Miss Hol?" She looked up at a woman there in the usual Watchtower uniform with what looked like a medical patch on her arm.
"How is he?" She asked her without missing a beat her heart hammering in her chest.
"We stabilized him, but he's still unconscious."
Shayera stood up then she was determined to see him no matter what. The medical officer tried to tell her that he was resting and she should go in but she didn't listen. She needed to see him and if they knew what was good for them they would let her through. Lucky for them no one really tried to stop her, when she came into the room where he was resting she just stopped and looked at him.
His arm was in a cast as was a leg, his neck had a support around it, there were bandages all over him. She hadn't seen him this bad since that affair with the nuclear powered robot in China back when the new League started. She walked over to him and sat down seeing him like this was just so hard on her. She took his hand as she just sat there with him listening to the heart monitor and seeing him with wires and stuff hooked up to her.
"I swear John I will find who did this to you and make them wish that they were in your place at this moment." She quietly told him. Now that she knew he would live she would haunt down whoever did this to him and there would be no force on heaven or Earth that will stop her. She sat there holding his hand feeling the warmth of it in hers, it was strange how his strong hands were so limp and weak in hers at this moment.
The door opened and she saw J'onn step in, "I heard he was out of surgery."
"Thanks for coming…Do they know when he'll wake up?" She looked back at him.
"They said he received some pretty bad head trauma so until the swelling goes down a bit they won't know. Maybe in two to four days at best." J'onn looked down at his friend and even though on the outside he seemed emotionally detached he wasn't. He was moved by this just as much as anyone else, John and the other core members of the League were his closest of friends for years on Earth they were the only ones he had been with the most and to be honest seeing one of them like this was painful to him. It reminded him too much of the war on his world against the invaders. How many of his friends and comrades did he see like this during that time? Those were horrible times to live in and being the last of a dead race was a large burden and pain to bare.
He looked at Shayera and saw the tired and weariness in her face and in her body, she looked physically tired and he wouldn't be surprised if she was emotionally tired as well. "Shayera why don't you get some sleep."
"I'm not tired."
"I think otherwise," He said placing a hand on her shoulder.
She snapped her head towards him and glared, "I'm not tired and I want to find out what the hell happened here!"
He didn't react to her outburst he knew she was just lashing out, "Batman is already in John's apartment looking things over. And if you want to help you can't do it if you collapse from exhaustion. Get some rest or at least try to, we'll call you when we have any information and then we can go from there."
She wanted to argue with him, to basically to tell him to go to hell but deep down she knew he was right. She did feel drained and when they found something if she was too tired to hold up her mace then what good would she be? Besides with Batman looking things over if anyone could find a clue he could. She slowly sat up feeling the tiredness starting to really seep into her body.
"I'm sorry…Maybe a few hours sleep will do me good…But you better wake me when you go after this guy I want a piece of him." He gave him a look that told her if they left her out of this they would regret it.
He nodded to her, "Understood."
Her face softened and turned back to John, he gave him a slight kiss on the cheek and left for her room on the station. She wasn't sure how much sleep she could get at this moment but even a little might be enough for her. When she was gone he looked at his friend.
They would call her but he wanted her to rest up, so now he would try his own way to find out who did this. He looked at John as his eyes glowed signaling that he was using his telepathy. Green Lantern's mind was slightly mixed up from the trauma to the head but it wasn't too bad it took him a little longer to find the memory. It was of that day, he was in the main room and saw Shayera then…What he saw next shocked him.
He saw the attack and the things that were said. He quickly pulled out of his mind uncertain of what he just saw as he looked towards the door that Shayera just left through. He didn't want to believe it but then again she had strong mental shields, after two years he never once had the notion she had once been a spy for her people. But then again that other personality could be hidden as well and not just from her.
He tapped his communicator, "Batman…We have a problem."
-West Coast City-
James Blonc AKA Cyber-Spider was currently ripping the safety deposit boxes out of the walls. There already was a pile of them in the corner and a sack the he was filling with, money, jewels, he found a couple of cases of diamonds, bonds, and anything else that was worth enough to carry. Thanks to the metal arms he could carry a large load but he still have to move quickly.
The guards were unconscious on the floor as the people working there and the patrons were too scared to move as he said he'd tare the legs off of the first person that tried to run off. But still he wanted to hurry up and be gone before the police showed up they would just be a major annoyance to him anyway. The visor in his helmet picked up major movement behind him and he quickly turned around.
He didn't see anything there but he got a feeling something was wrong. You didn't get to be a profession thief for this long unless you learned skills, patience and above all instincts. At the moment they were screaming something was wrong but he didn't see anything. Then it hit him, it had gotten pretty quiet as well, too quiet. Normally there were some spineless people who cried or whimpered or something in jobs like this but all of a sudden those sounds stopped. If they had run off he would have heard it so he used his arms to gather up a couple of bags of loot as well as a few pieces of metal just in case.
He walked out of the ruined vault and looked around the bank with the high class look to it. Marble floors and polished dark wood all over the place. But what he really noticed was that there was no one there. "Oh hell this isn't good."
"Got that right," Came a voice from above as webbing hit him. "It's payback time."
"Didn't I leave you under part of a building?" Cyber-Spider asked as he had fire a laser to cut the webbing off his chest, "Next time I'll have to drop a whole one on you."
"Yeah well this time I brought backup." Spider-Man said as three others came in Flash zoomed in after making sure all the people inside had been taken out of the area. Cyber-Spider knew the odds were not in his favor so he'd just have to make a break for it. He threw the bags he had and metal pieces at the heroes. Vigilante shot the smaller metal pieces out of the way while Black Canary used her sonic cry to stop the rest of it. Flash and Spider-Man were moving on Cyber-Spider at the moment as the villain tried to make a getaway.
Flash got in front of him as he had been trying to get to an exit, "I don't think so my buddy here has a few questions for you." Wally grinned but the metallic armed villain didn't pause he just gripped a table with the limbs and threw it at him. "Whoa!" Flash dived to the side as Spider-Man swung in for a kick but the man grabbed the ankle of his leg and threw him aside.
Cyber-Spider guessed that if he wanted out he'd have to fight his way out. A few shots rang off his arms from Vigilante's guns and he used the limbs to shield himself. "Well an here I thought only armadillos and turtles could do that," The Western hero said trying to hit the thinner weaker areas of the arms but whatever they were made of seemed to be touch stuff.
He kept on using the arms to deflect or just block the shots as the others were used against the other heroes keeping them at bay from him but he had to get rid of that cowboy that was for sure, he didn't know just how much punishment these limbs could take since he never really asked or tested them out for that.
So when the villain had an opening he raised his arms and used the lasers in the gauntlets on the hero cowboy. Vigilante had to quickly duck behind one of the few pillars in the lobby of the large and lavish major bank, "Damn that varmint is packin'. What else can that critter do?" He asked himself as a loud crash was heard when one limb punched through the top of the pillar causing him to cover his head a bit from the debris as the end of it opened up into a three prong 'hand' with a glowing 'eye' in it. It looked down at him seeing him there.
"Well that will show me ta open my big yap like that," He rolled to the side to avoid getting his head crushed.
Peter was busy as he was pinned by two of the arms on a table as he held them each with a hand trying with all his strength from having them impale his body. Flash started a run at Cyber-Spider's front but then the villain used the limb in the pillar to rip it off and throw it at the fastest man alive. Flash just barely dodge it as it rolled and bounced across the floor smashing through the teller stations.
"Damn…I hope this place is insured." Flash muttered to himself.
Vigilante fired a few rounds at the arms giving Spider-Man some trouble making the thief lose just enough mental control for Peter to get out of it. At the moment Dinah was running alone the place trying to stay ahead of the laser shots coming at her. She was also running out of room as a wall was in front of her. She kicked in a little more speed and took a few vertical steps up the wall and pushed off turning in the air and landed in a roll behind a remaining pillar. She took a look and saw that the others were too close for another sonic cry of hers so she guessed the next option was to get right in there.
"Okay I've had just about enough of this guy," Dinah said blowing some of her blond hair out of her face. She raced towards the criminal and when he sent two arms at her she jumped and landed on the thicker part and used that to jump off and kick him in the helmet. He staggered back as she then did a spin kick to his mid section and then dodged to the left in a cartwheel to avoid the metallic arms. Flash came in with a few lighting fast punches and had managed to unclasp the harness of that kept the backpack linked to the suit.
Flash gave Peter the thumbs up as he leaped behind Cyber-Spider onto a wall and fired a web line hitting it and pulled as hard as he could taking it right off of him. James fell onto his back with a grunt and noticed that he was lighter now and that the HUD on his visor screen showed the arms were no longer functioning. He looked up as he saw the heroes standing over him and he knew he was beat now.
He signed a laid back down on the ground and groan in frustration, "I hate superheroes."
Peter took a breath, now that they had him they would send him to the cops for a moment as he went to the mechanical legs. He was going to take this back with him to the Watchtower to take a closer look at it's technology. There were just too many similarities on the surface to something he had seen in his own universe. He had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach and he got the feeling that something very bad was on the horizon.
-Watch Tower-
Shayera was in her room looking up at the ceiling, she had been sleeping on and off but she kept waking up. She kept on having nightmares of John and it was starting to take a toll on her. She wanted to do something, anything at the moment but she couldn't and she just felt so frustrated feeling so helpless and not being able to do anything. She knew they would find out who.
Meanwhile Batman was walking the halls with J'onn as they headed over to Shayera's room. He had still been in the middle of his own investigation. He had been looking for a few things, like forced entry. The door was still intact but he would need to look at the lock more closely to see if it had been picked though. Batman had been looking over the place looking for anything, shoe prints, anything out of place or stolen.
Although he doubted it was a simple robbery, this had to be the work of someone who knew that the place belonged to the Green Lantern, because there was no way anyone could have done that without having an upper hand. But something bothered him about it, from what he saw there was no sign that John fought back which was unusual to him. So either that person had somehow taken him by surprise which ruled out the more, less then subtle villains and narrowed the list of possible suspects. Or he had known his attacker someone that he would have dropped his guard around. That only led to more questions.
He was looking around for a few things and noticed something else was wrong when J'onn had made that call to him. He had told him what he had found in John's mind and even Batman had to give a bit of pause to consider that. Sure he wasn't sure about her, but then he never really fully trusted anyone it kept him from being surprised or disappointed in people that way.
But so far the evidence he had gathered supported that she had been the one to do it. But he didn't like it, why now after all this time would a hidden personality just suddenly show up? And why not kill him? There was just something wrong about the whole thing. He would go back after this to finish what he started but first they had something else to deal with just in case what J'onn saw wasn't a mistake.
"Something about this doesn't seem right," Batman finally voiced his suspicions to the Martian next to him.
"I know it's hard but I know what I saw."
"Doesn't mean that what you saw was what really happened." That got the Martian's attention so Batman decided to tell him exactly what he meant. "You saw what John thought he saw and what you think you see and what actually happens in my opinion can not be the exact same thing."
"You think it might have been a deception?"
"It's too soon to tell, I just like to not jump to conclusions without all the evidence to prove or disprove anything." He told him in his usual cold and neutral tone of voice. The Martian considered his words carefully, it wasn't right to just jump to conclusions but then again the evidence was strong in that she had assaulted him.
"So we just let her go?"
"I didn't say that, until now we only have the mental images of a man with some trauma to his brain but that's still enough for us to at least be cautious."
J'onn nodded his head, "Agreed, just in case he was right."
They got to her door and both men didn't like what they were going to do. J'onn opened her door as she sat up looking at them. "What's going on? Did you find anything?"
J'onn was a bit saddened because he felt that she truly had no idea what was going on and that she had no clue what really happened to John but they needed to be sure. Thankfully the Watchtower had its own brig just in case and they would have to move her there but that still didn't make this sit right with him. In a way she could be both innocent and guilty at the same time, "Shayera…Come with us please."
-Elsewhere-
The Justice Lords were gathering up as their Hawkgirl came back to their new resident. They have moved to a place in the city this world's Green Lantern lived in thanks to Doctor Octopus. They were in a loft that had been a bit modified with some equipment.
The elevator opened up as she walked in with plain clothing. "How did it go?" Superman asked her.
She smiled as she took off the wig and ran a hand through her shorter hair, "As good as you'd expect he thought I was her."
Superman nodded his head. That was good, now they had the Justice League starting to waver with this. One core member incapacitated the other would most likely be put in chains for their safety. Hawkgirl had to admit it had been a flawless performance. Thankfully this John looked a bit differently from hers so that tiny pang of guilt she felt at the moment she attacked him went away. She was also glad that she used a fake name she remembered from back home. Shiera Sanders had been a woman she knew and of course it would be impossible to find out if she really existed or not.
She walked up to her John and handed him something, "I got you a present."
He looked down and grinned at the Green Lantern power ring there. He slipped on the ring feeling it was nearly fully charged as well. He figured if he needed to he knew where his counter part would have hide his battery for it. In fact he was certain it would be in the same place as he kept it back before the days they became the Justice Lords.
"You know I love it when you spoil me," He smiled as he captured her lips with his own.
Superman turned from this scene, it always reminded him of what he lost with Lois when he saw them. He didn't love Diana just as she didn't love him what they had was just need it wasn't love like John and Shayera had. He looked at the screen with a female form there changing, "How is it going Diana?"
"I had forgotten how this thing was uncomfortable at times, where did you get this replica anyway?" She asked as she fixed things up.
"You'd have to ask the good Doctor about that," J'onn said impassively.
"I just hope your wig doesn't itch like mine does," Hawkgirl said scratching her hair, "It was a real pain in my ass."
"Well this one isn't so bad," She stepped out looking exactly like her counterpart. "So…How do I look?"
"Perfect," Superman grinned, "Now we only have to replace you with the other one and we can really get things rolling along."
NEXT UP CHAPTER 34: SECOND STRIKE
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