Babs always enjoyed fighting crime. Ever since she was five, it had always been her dream to be a great superhero and the sidekick to the greatest superhero ever, Batman. And when she was fighting alongside her friends, it (for the most part) was a good time, namely if they were actually doing well at protecting the city. Plus, it was always nice to work with her friends.
And right now, crime-fighting was showing off another perk. Being able to skip out of Math tests you forgot to study for! Hey, playing hooky was okay if you were saving lives.
Right now, she swung from her grappling hook's line, swinging in to try and kick the criminal in the head. However, he ended up grabbing her leg before throwing her to the ground. The hook soon fell down as well, landing on her head painfully.
"Ow," she mumbled, feeling the man stomp down on her lower back. Ignoring the pain caused by the guy stomping down on her, she grabbed her walkie-talkie. "Zatanna! Where are you? You were supposed to be here five minutes ago!" She sputtered into the walkie-talkie.
She heard a laugh from above her. "Heh, you ain't so tough so close up," the criminal sneered. He grabbed the walkie-talkie and crushed it in his hands. "You really think you can take me alone? Me?" He chuckled, applying pressure to her lower back. "Kid, I deal with punks like you before breakfast."
Batgirl looked up to see eye-to-eye with the criminal. Even though she couldn't see his face, thanks to the costume he wore, she just knew he was smiling smugly. "You know, you're pretty weird-looking," she said. "I mean, yellow with black lines all over your body? I don't get it? And what's with those things on your hands?"
The criminal snorted, leaning in to lift her head up and make her look at his gauntlets. "These things? Nothing much? Just some gauntlets they let me shoot my pressurized wind blasts." He threw her down again. "And I don't give a damn 'bout what you think of my costume. The only thing you should be focusing on is this..." His eyes narrowed as he aimed his gauntlets at her head. "You shouldn't had gone and messed with the Shocker."
Batgirl blinked. "Wait, hold up."
Shocker raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"Shocker?" Batgirl looked up at him again. "Why that? Do you have electricity powers too?"
Shocker blinked, looking a little bewildered. "Electricity powers? I... No I do-"
Batgirl sat up. "Static electricity? Ooh, or does the 'shock' part come from shocking people metaphorically and-"
Shocker growled, looking like he was ten seconds away from blowing a blood vessel. "No! All I have is these here gauntlets, ya stupid bat!"
Batgirl folded her arms. "Well, then your name's pretty non-indictive."
This only seemed to annoy Shocker more, and he kicked her in the gut. "You've got a big mouth, kid." He aimed his gauntlets back at her again, just as they started glowing green. "Time to zip it shut. For good."
Batgirl looked past him. There, she saw someone levitating in the air. She smirked. "Oh, really? Look behind you."
Shocker didn't even blink. "Please? You think I'm a yack or-"
Suddenly, a blast of magic hit him from behind, sending him flying over Batgirl and crashing into a wall. Batgirl looked back up to see Zatanna lower herself to the ground. She was holding a bunny in her hands, its eyes still glowing from the laser it shot out.
"Zatanna, you're here!" Batgirl pulled her into a hug. "Bit late though."
Zatanna just chuckled and put the rabbit back in her hat. "What can I say?" She said, doing a little twirl. "I'm fashionably late." She then looked at her, smirking. "Plus, I did just save you."
Batgirl giggled too. "Good point." She turned around, getting out her handcuffs to arrest Shocker. However, much to her shock (pun not intended), he was gone! Quickly looking around, she spotted him running away.
"He's getting away!" Batgirl announced. She quickly got out her batarangs and readied herself to throw them...
But before she could, two lasers carved out a circle around Shocker, causing him to stop from surprise.
"The hell?" Shocker pointed his arms into the air, charging up his gauntlets. "Who's there?"
As if to answer him, a blue blur dashed down and delivered a punch, sending the villain flying across the street. The blur herself, Supergirl, levitated a few feet off the ground, folding her arms triumphantly.
"Just me," she chuckled. "And now, you're going to-"
She stopped when she realised that, once again, the Shocker was gone. Looking around, Batgirl saw him barrelling down the street, using his gauntlets to boost his jumps and make him clear more distance.
Supergirl groaned. "Come on!" She kicked a rock on the ground, sending it flying out of the city. "I totally had him!"
Zatanna just rolled her eyes. "Well, standing here won't fix anything. Let's just go-"
Before she could finish, Batgirl spotted a luminous green rope wrap itself around Shocker's waist. In just a second, the rope was pulled back, with the criminal soon stopping while being dangled over Zatanna and Batgirl. Looking up, Batgirl saw another one of her teammates floating and holding the rope. Green Lantern.
"Good job, Green Lantern!" Batgirl called out. Green Lantern smiled and lowered herself down, the rope dissipating as she touched the ground. She glared at Shocker, folding her arms.
"Well, time to take you to jail," she said, forming a set of handcuffs with her ring.
Shocker suddenly whipped his head up. "Not on my watch." His gauntlets began glowing green again as he raised them up to Green Lantern's face. Batgirl quickly ran up to him and was about to tackle him, when something odd happened. The gauntlets' green glow dissipated quickly. Shocker blinked, staring them in confusion.
"What?!" He asked aloud. "How did that ha-"
Before he could finish his sentence, a yellow light emerged from one of the them. And in the centre of that light was a small armoured figure. Bumblebee grinned.
"I disabled them!" She announced. "So don't even try to use them!"
Shocker, for a brief second, looked like he was about to just up and swat her. But, if that was really what he wanted to do, a shield hit him on the back of the head. As he fell to the ground, the shield's owner touched the ground. Wonder Woman stood triumphant.
"Fear not, sisters! I have subdued him!" She announced proudly.
Bumblebee turned back to normal size. "Thanks." She looked at the Shocker. "Do any of you know exactly who this guy is?"
Batgirl stood up. "Oh, I know something!" She said, starting to talk faster as she went on. "He's called the Shocker, which is a really bad name, because he doesn't have any electric powers and only has wind blasts, so really something related to wind would be better for him. Like maybe The Hurricane! Or-or even-"
Supergirl interrupted her by placing a hand over her mouth. "Yeah, yeah, I don't care what his dumb name is." She raised an eyebrow. "All I want to know where he got his dumb costume from. Like, seriously, that's the dumbest thing I've seen in my life and I've seen Kal's vacation photos."
Wonder Woman just pulled out her lasso. "Well, perhaps these questions will be answered." Just as Shocker got back up, Wonder Woman wrapped the lasso around one of his arms. "Where did you come from?"
Shocker didn't respond at first, still seemingly trying to regain his bearings. Eventually, he looked at her, glaring daggers at her. "Heh, please. I don't have to say anyth-"
He couldn't even finish his sentence before the lasso glowed bright yellow, causing him to tense up. "Ack! Okay, I'm from New York, and my name's Montana! I'm here to lay low and avoid the police." His glare seemed to grow more intense. "And I was tryin' to draw you out. Someone wants you dead."
Batgirl's eyes widened. An assassin? Now that she thought of it, they hadn't faced an assassin before. Before this, the only one she had faced was Deathstroke. And even then, it was a solo affair.
She ran up to Wonder Woman. "Ask him who sent him! Was it Joker? Ooh, I bet it was Joker!"
Shocker turned his head to Batgirl. "It's Lex Luthor."
Almost instantly, Batgirl felt the excitement of the possibility of facing Joker to just shock. "Wait... Luthor?"
Wonder Woman stepped closer to Shocker. "Care to elaborate?"
Shocker just scoffed. "Not particularly." Suddenly, he dropped something to the ground, something that Batgirl spotted out of the corner of her eye. A smoke bomb. In an instant, a cloud of black smoke burst forth, engulfing them all. A cloud of black, terrible-smelling smoke. Like, it honestly felt like it was also half stink bomb. Once she was done coughing and hacking, the smoke dissipated. However, the lasso now just lay on the ground. Shocker had escaped.
"Oh, come on!" Zatanna groaned. "He escaped! Just our luck, I guess..."
The rest of the heroes grumbled to themselves in annoyance as well. Well, except for one. Green Lantern just scratched her chin, which Batgirl noticed.
"What is it, Jess?" She asked. Jess snapped out of her thoughts and looked at the rest.
"He said that Lex wanted us dead," she said. "I mean, don't you find that a little... odd?"
Kara just scratched the back of her head. "Well, Lex is a bad guy. Remember the whole 'Book of Destiny' thing?"
"But that's just the thing!" Jess folded her arms. "Even after we foiled his plan, Lex hasn't tried something like... secretly hire a mercenary to take us out."
Karen fidgeted nervously with her fingers. "That's good point, actually. Think he's decided to try and get revenge for it?"
Diana merely placed her hands on her hips. "Well, if that is the case, we must stay vigilant. If more come for us, we will be ready. And we sha-"
She was cut off by the sound of some rumbling. She quickly placed a hand on her stomach. "Apologies, it appears I am hungry."
"I am too!" Batgirl said. "And, since we totally beat that guy..." She smirked. "Sweet Justice?"
The others just looked at each other. And then back at her.
"Yeah," they all said.
"Mr. Luthor..."
Lex Luthor sighed as he lifted his head from the paperwork on his desk. "What?" He spat.
Winslow Schott, his new assistant who was previously typing furiously on a computer, awkwardly cleared his throat. "We got a status report from Shocker. He, uh..." He shrugged. "He failed."
Lex growled as his fingers dug into the soft material of his chair. "Figures." He stood up and walked over to the water cooler. He should have seen this coming, honestly. An unpowered human, whose biggest claim to fame was 'wind blasts' or something stupid like that, going up against a team of superpower heroines? In hindsight, it was like sending a soldier to fight a battalion of tanks. As he got a cup and filled it with water, he felt his mind drift to the 'Super Hero Girls' more.
Though, he didn't really like calling them 'heroes'.
A real hero was someone leagues above those girls. What did they have? Companionship? Trust? Morale? No, none of those traits are what made someone a true hero. They were just that: basic personality traits anyone could have. To Lex, a true hero was defined by three things: power, respect, and the ability to instil control. Yes, that was right. All of which he was in possession of. But the world didn't see him as a hero. They just saw him as a good man. He was thankful for this opinion, obviously, but he wanted more. Nay, he needed more. But as long as people like Superman, Batman, or - yes - the 'Super Hero Girls' were around, he'd always be stuck playing second fiddle. It simply wasn't fair.
"Sir?"
Lex was brought back to reality by that voice. Turning around, he saw Mercy Graves standing before him, her arms folded.
"Mercy?" He said. "What is it?"
Mercy pulled out a tablet. "Didn't you hear the news about one of your facilities?"
Lex narrowed his eyes. "Of course. A so-called 'Spider-Man' made himself known. Just what this city needed." He took the cup of water. "More crazy vigilantes."
Mercy faced the tablet to Lex. "Well, one of your bio-drones-"
"Hey!" Came Schott's voice. "I made those! A little respect would be nice."
Mercy rolled her eyes. "Well, before the guy made contact with the guy who was breaking and entering, one of them got a sample of his blood with a needle. And, after running it through some tests, the results are... interesting."
Lex's curiosity was piqued. Taking the tablet from her hands, he looked at the notes. On the screen was a report:
DNA SAMPLE:
Blood appears to be altered, likely due to some outside force. While not harmful to anyone else, it does appear to have unique qualities. When a miniscule amount was given to a rat, its physical strength seemed to have increased. As well as this, it was able to climb on the walls of its cage and sense when someone was about to grab it. More research may be necessary.
Lex's eyes were wide. "So... would you say his blood can give others powers?"
Mercy folded her arms. "Seems like it." She turned around. "Anyways, I need to get back to work." With that, she walked out of the room. Lex himself, though, was still stuck to the spot.
Wait a minute...
He quickly got out of his phone. Typing in 'spider-man', a load of results popped up, namely news articles from some newspaper called The Daily Bugle. And he read them all. From it, he learned of this guy's achievements. Stopping a man in a Rhino suit. Fighting off a supposed sorcerer who wore what looked like a fishbowl on his head. Saving the head of Oscorp from a man in a flying vulture suit. All of these articles showcased the spider's agility, strength and unique power set.
And the more and more he read, the more ideas began rushing into his head. A rat was able to gain some extent of his powers with just a small sample of his blood, and its power had been increased. But this guy... he was able to knock men twice his size out with a single kick. To say nothing of his ability to seemingly sense things out of sight, according to one, and his wall-crawling abilities. This man, this one man, was able to defeat a group of six superpowered criminals. All thanks to his biology.
And if one man could do all this, imagine the strength of an army. An army under his command. One with the same powers as this man, but trained in the arts of battle. He could be their leader! If anyone deserved powers, it was him! And if he had this power, and an entire army of men with these powers on his side...
The world would finally realize the real hero.
A wide smile crossed Lex's face. "The Spider-Man's blood. I must have it."
