CHAPTER FOUR: THE SPIDER MEETS THE LEAGUE
Ivy headed to her home as quickly as possible to avoid both the law and any further encounters with gangs. She had taken a flower out of a nearby flower garden in case she needed it. However her concerns were unfounded when she finally arrived at the hideout she shared with Harley Quinn. She quickly went inside and found her blonde lover inside lying on the couch watching TV.
"Hey Red how's it going?" Asked the bubbly blonde looking up from the TV at her green skinned lover. She saw that Ivy was holding herself rigid like something was wrong and immediately went over to her. "Hey Ivy what's wrong? You look like you saw bats on your way home." Harley asked concerned for her friend and lover.
"No nothing like that Harley. I was just chased by a group of local gang members who didn't realize who I was. Before you ask, no they didn't touch me." Ivy said stopping the question she knew was on Harley's mind. Harley was every bit as protective of her as she was of Harley. "I didn't meet Batman but I did encounter someone else who helped me a little. Apparently there is a new hero in town, he had no idea who I was and just let me go after he beat up a half dozen of the idiots that tried to attack me." Ivy explained to Harley.
Harley was amazed that someone was dumb enough to attack Ivy of all people. That was almost as dumb as attacking Mr. J. Ivy wasn't known for being forgiving of people who attacked her. Then a thought struck Harley. "Wait what did you say about a new hero in town, and that he helped you and then let you go?" Harley asked.
Ivy took a deep breath and sat down with Harley on the couch. "Yes Harley there is apparently a new hero in town. He is obviously very inexperienced since he didn't recognize me. Here is what happened, I was heading back here after my meeting with Penguin when suddenly this group of about ten or twelve thugs came after me with pipes, I didn't have any of my normal things with me and I knew I couldn't take all of them by myself so I ran for it. I got about three blocks when I took a wrong turn into an alley and then I heard someone talking to the thugs telling them when a woman said no it meant no. I headed back towards the mouth of the alley and saw this man in a black and red spider themed costume fighting the thugs. He completely manhandled them, and after a few went down with him not even getting touched the rest wised up and ran for it. The guy in the costume proceeded to tie up the ones that he had knocked out and then came over to the alley to tell me everything was okay. I came out of the alley and we talked for a few minutes before I came here. I learned a few things about him, he calls himself Aracnid for one, and he is incredibly strong, I looked over at one of the thugs he had tied up and his hands were bound with a lead pipe shaped into handcuffs. That's all I know about him."
Harley looked at Ivy's face while she was explaining what happened to her. Harley could see the gambit of emotions that Ivy went through as she was explaining everything. Anger at the thugs for chasing her, a touch of fear as she thought about what they might have done had they caught her, and some slight desire when she was talking about the newest cape in town. Now normally Harley was extremely jealous when Ivy expressed even the slightest desire in anyone else, but usually those cases the person is another woman. Harley had always thought that Ivy was a pure lesbian and had no interest at all in men. However looking at Ivy's slight blush and the way her voice changed slightly with suppressed desire when she talked about this man made Harley more than a little curious as to what it was about this man that had caught Ivy's attention.
"So Red is the new cape in town hot?" Harley asked with a giggle at the look on Ivy's face. Ivy looked a little like a fish out of water.
"Well I couldn't see his face he was wearing a full face mask and a suit that covered every inch of his body. Although I will admit his body was nice to look at. The suit he wears is skin-tight and doesn't leave much to the imagination in the way of what his body looks like. Kind of like your costume Harley only somehow even tighter." Ivy said with a slightly dreamy look on her face.
All Harley could do was try her hardest not to laugh at the ridiculous look on Ivy's face. 'Man she has it bad for whoever this new cape is. I've never seen her get that look on her face except when she is thinking about me.' With that thought in mind Harley leaned over and caught her green skinned lover in a searing kiss. Ivy immediately began to return her kiss with equal intensity. Ivy's tongue slid into Harley mouth and the two fought for dominance. Once air became an issue the two women broke their kiss and went into the bedroom on the far side of the hideout.
Dom had just returned home from his evening patrol still thinking about the red headed woman that he had saved tonight. She was easily one of the most beautiful women he had ever met in his lifetime. She was so exotic looking with her brilliant red hair and her slightly green tinted skin. AC noticed his host's thoughts and determined that Dom was very much infatuated with the green skinned woman that he had saved this evening. 'So Dom how do you intend on seeing that woman again, you do not know her name or anything about her?' AC asked his human host.
Dom was stunned for a few moments as AC's question really sank in. He hadn't even considered meeting this woman again, but once AC mentioned it, he realized that he did want to see her again. Dom had AC transform back into normal clothes and thought about his predicament for a while trying to figure out how he could see the exotic red head again. 'I'm not sure AC, like you said I don't have any info on her so it's unlikely that I'll ever see her again.' With that rather depressing thought Dom went to bed.
The next morning Dom went to work at the diner like normal and met Gabi at her apartment so they could walk to work together. "Good morning Dom. I'm going to Metropolis this weekend for my five-year high school reunion. I know you're new in town so I was wondering if you wanted to come with me and be my date for the reunion? You're one of my only close friends here in Gotham and I want you to meet some of my high school friends." Gabi asked Dom as they were heading towards the diner.
Dom was a little surprised by the offer. He had only known Gabi for a few weeks since he had started at the diner. "Umm yeah sure that sounds like fun. How long will it take to get to Metropolis, and how long are you planning to stay?" Dom asked. He was excited by the prospect of going to the city where the famous Superman made his home.
"Well it will only take us a few hours by train to get there, I was planning on staying in a hotel for the weekend and heading back Monday morning." Gabi replied to his question.
"Okay, what time do you want to go to the train station?" Dom asked his strawberry blonde coworker.
"You can meet me at my place at around noon on Friday, we can take the train to Metropolis and get ready for the party. Make sure you bring something nice to wear, not formal just something nice. You should re-dye your hair, it's starting to fade out." She mentioned to Dom.
Looking in the glass window of the diner at his reflection Dom noticed that Gabi was right. His usually bright green hair had faded a lot and was now looking more like his natural blonde color. That night after getting his paycheck Dom did as Gabi suggested and re-dyed his hair again, but instead of bright green he changed it to jet black. He also used his newly acquired laptop to search the Internet for information on Metropolis. He decided to see if he could get a layout of Metropolis so that he could get around better. Thankfully AC had perfect recall so if he got lost that would help out.
The rest of the week went without incident for both Dom and his alter ego. The lesser criminal element had realized that Batman was not the only cape in town anymore and decided to slow down their usual activities, and most of the super criminals were either locked up in Arkham or also deciding to keep a low profile.
When Friday finally came Dom showed up at Gabi's apartment at the specified time. He brought a Duffel bag with him, though it was mostly for show as his symbiote provided him with clothing, and had his laptop in a case he carried across his shoulder. Gabi met him outside her apartment and they headed towards the train station. The two friends chatted on their ride to Metropolis about the things that they would do. Gabi saying that she would introduce her to some of her friends from high school.
Once they reached Metropolis they went and got their rooms at the hotel where they would be staying. The two had rooms on the same floor but they were not adjoining. As they got out of the elevator Dom looked over at Gabi. "So what time do we have to be at the Reunion?" He asked her glancing at his watch.
Mary looked thoughtful for a few moments. "Well the reunion starts at like eight, and its only two-thirty now, so we have a few hours to kill." She explained to her friend.
"Well I think I'm going to go take a nap. I didn't get much sleep last night. Come get me at around seven-thirty and we can head towards the reunion." Dom said to his blonde friend as he walked towards his room.
Once he got to his own room he hung the Do Not Disturb sign on his door and locked it. 'Well AC, what do you say we go have a look around town before the reunion?' Dom silently asked his alien partner. In response AC started morphing his clothes into his super hero costume. With that completed Dom quickly opened one the glass doors to his small personal balcony, leapt off the side of the building and started web slinging through the steel canyons of Metropolis' skyscrapers.
Elsewhere in Metropolis
Sinestro was not happy. He was currently attempting to release the villain Kalibak from the experimental prison cell he was being kept in, while his associates dealt with the guards and security systems of the high tech prison they had broken into. Bane was currently smashing the drones that were being sent to stop the group of villains, Killer Frost was freezing all of the guards that came in their direction, and Devil Ray was attempting to hack the security system, with a device given to him by Lex Luthor, to disable the lockdown of the facility. Sinestro knew this was going to be a long day, however he used his yellow power ring to create an item that looked like a giant sized version of the "Jaws of Life" and used them to open up Kalibak's cell.
The short but brutish looking alien looked at the assembled villains and was about to speak when suddenly all of the doors near them opened at the same time. "Lockdown lifted, security down." Said Devil Ray and took the small box Luthor had given him and put it into the backpack he carried.
"Very good Devil Ray. Killer Frost takes point, once we make it to the outer wall you and Bane can make us an exit. Devil Ray keep an eye on our cargo here until we make it back to headquarters." Sinestro ordered and the villains took up their positions and they quickly headed towards the outside wall of the facility they were in. They met little resistance from the remaining guards left in the facility, and thanks to Devil Ray shutting down the security system no more drones came after them. As soon as they got to the outer wall of the facility Killer Frost used her Icy powers to freeze a section of the wall. Bane activated the pump on his arm and more of the "Venom" drug he used coursed into his system, causing him to grow even larger as he barreled directly into the frozen section of wall and crashed straight through.
Once they were outside of the actual prison complex Sinestro used his power ring to carry all of the members of this little team through the underground tunnels until they got to a surface exit. He immediately used his rings power to create a massive yellow fist that smashed through the exit and allowed in sunlight. This caused a huge uproar from the people around where the energy fist smashed out of the street in downtown Metropolis. This uproar became even more pronounced as the assembled villains came out of the large hole in the ground and started to make their escape.
At the same time in space aboard the Watchtower
J'onn J'onnz, aka the Martian Man hunter, was currently on monitor duty when he systems alerted him to the disturbance in Metropolis. Seeing the nature of the disturbance he immediately knew that the League had to intervene. Looking over the list of active members currently on the watchtower he selected the ones most suitable for this situation. "Green Lantern, Supergirl, Green Arrow, and Vixen report to the teleport pad immediately. A group super villains have broken Kalibak out of prison and are attempting to escape with him." J'onn said through the communications array in front of him to the selected League members.
In a few minutes those he had selected were assembled on the teleport pad. "Who are we dealing with J'onn?" Asked Green Lantern once everyone was there.
"It appears to be Sinestro, Devil Ray, Killer Frost, and Bane. They released Kalibak from the prison he was placed in and are currently trying to escape Metropolis with him. I am sending you four down to deal with the situation. Beginning teleport sequence." With that J'onn activated the teleport pad and sent the group of heroes down to earth to deal with this latest crisis.
Back in Metropolis
Dom was currently swinging between skyscrapers enjoying the clean air. 'Gotham is not nearly this nice, not even in the daytime.' He thought to himself as he swung around a corner. His musings were interrupted as he saw a flash of yellow followed by an explosion a few blocks away. 'Well looks like it's time to be a hero. Right AC?' Dom asked his partner.
'Correct Dom. Let us show whoever this is just what we are capable of.' Came the symbiote's response.
With that Dom headed in the direction of the explosion and quickly saw the cause. It looked like a group of strange super powered people going on a rampage through downtown. One mans was a hulking individual throwing cars around, he was at least eight and a half feet tall wearing a black muscle shirt, black pants and boots and a black mask with a tube coming out of he back and going to a device on his wrist. Another was a man in a black body suit with reddish skin surrounded by some kind of yellow energy. This man was floating around shooting yellow energy rays from a ring on his right hand. One was a woman in a dark blue body suit and white skin sliding around on ice and shooting energy at police cars, causing them to freeze instantly. Another was a man in a black diving suit with a large helmet with red bug eyes shooting lasers and some kind of stingers from his wrists. Finally there was a short but brutish looking man in a green and gold outfit that was also picking up cars and throwing them around like they were toys.
Dom quickly landed on the side of a building to assess the situation. He quickly determined that the yellow glowing man was probably the biggest threat and decided to take care of him first. With that in mind Dom Quickly used his webs to launch himself into the air and fall back down quickly. Timing it perfectly he used his webs to swing himself directly at the back of the glowing man at full speed and slammed into him feet first. The glowing man went flying into the side of a building before crashing to the ground in the midst of the remaining villains.
"Well what do we have here, looks like the circus is in town. We have the strong man, the guy who talks to fish, the ice queen, and finally the monkey man." Dom quipped as he landed on the ground in front of the shocked villains.
The large man in black looked at his fallen comrade and then back at this strange looking man in front of him. "You dare to joke about Bane? I will break you just like I did Batman, only with you I will not make the mistake of leaving you alive." Bane yelled at Dom with a slightly Spanish accent. With that the black clad giant rushed at Dom, who just like in his fight with Killer Croc, used his Aikido training and grabbed Banes wrist and flipped him over. He again used some of his symbiote-enhanced strength to slam Bane down on the ground hard. The impact shook the ground and cracked the sidewalk. As soon as Bane hit the ground Dom jumped sideways into the air as a wave of icy energy hit the area where he had been standing, freezing Bane in place.
Dom finished his jump crouched on top of a streetlight looking at the remaining villains. "Hey lady, thanks for the assist but didn't anyone ever teach you it's not nice to attack someone whose back is turned? I guess I'm just going to have to spank you to teach you a lesson." Dom said jokingly at the angry looking woman. The man in the diving suit lifted his arms and shot several trident shaped darts in Dom's direction. Dom flipped lightly down from the streetlight he had been crouching on, and continued to flip and jump to dodge the stingers that were being shot at him.
Finally Dom got close enough and flipped his hands toward the man and flung two sharp slivers of his symbiote suit at him. Dom's aim was good and he hit both of the blasters at his wrists, breaking them. The man stared down at his wrist for a moment before some of Dom's webbing stuck him in the chest and he was pulled straight towards Dom. Dom used some of his symbiote strength to pull the man towards him and when he got close he kicked the man solidly in the chest and flung him into a car. Now it was down to two on one as Dom faced off against the Ice woman and the hairy strong man.
Kalibak had taken the opportunity while the stranger was fighting the others to assess the man's abilities. He was very strong and agile; he also seemed to be able to stick to objects and could shoot some kind of web-like substance from his hands, as well as some kind of throwing knives. The man was good, but not as good as others he had faced. Kalibak looked over at Killer Frost, who did not look very anxious to face the newcomer. "Wake up Sinestro and see if you can get Bane free. I will deal with this one." Kalibak said pointing at Dom.
Killer Frost nodded at the son of Darkseid and started trying to wake up Sinestro.
Kalibak looked over at the man in the spider costume. "What do you call yourself? I prefer to know the names of those I am about to kill." Kalibak yelled at the strange man in front of him.
Dom considered before answering. "Oh I am so very scared of an overgrown monkey." Dom said sarcastically to the brute in front of him. "However to answer your question, you can call me Aracnid, and for the sake of curiosity, what do I call you? I hope your name isn't really monkey man." Dom answered, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
Kalibak's face turned purple with outrage from the man's manner. "You dare to insult me? I am Kalibak, son of the God Darkseid, and heir to the throne of Apokolips. You will suffer for your insolence Aracnid." Kalibak yelled at Dom and charged him. Unlike Bane, Kalibak already had a strategy in mind for defeating this man, and although he was furious at the man's insolence he did not allow it to interfere with his fighting. Kalibak stopped short of Dom swung his massive fist towards the much smaller man.
Dom quickly dodged out of the way of the huge fist coming at him and got inside of the reach of the much larger man. Once inside his reach, Dom used a good portion of his symbiote strength along with his Muay Thai training to unleash an intense series of punches, knee shots, and elbow hits to Kalibak's midsection and face, ending with a devastating jumping knee strike to the underside of Kalibak's jaw.
Kalibak was slightly surprised by the speed and ferocity of this man's attack. He backed off a few feet after the knee strike to his jaw. He could feel his ribs bending under the man's assault, but nothing was broken. Kalibak smiled at the man in front of him. "Not bad, you have some skill. However if you cannot hit any harder than that then you and I are not even in the same league." Kalibak said with a feral grin.
Dom was gauging his opponent's reaction to the blows he had delivered on him. 'This guy is tough. I don't think beating on him is going to be very effective. I think we need to get him on the ground and apply some proper leverage.' Dom thought.
'I agree with you, however I think that we still have a surprise up our sleeves Dom.' AC said to his host. Dom immediately understood what the symbiote meant and couldn't help but smile under his mask.
"Well I guess I'm just going to have to put a bit more effort into beating you Kalibak. I've been holding back some so that I didn't hurt you." Dom said flippantly with a slight laugh.
This cocky statement from the small man in front of him enraged Kalibak. 'This insect thinks he can get away with making light of me. I will show him the error of his ways.' Kalibak thought as he surprised Dom slightly with the speed in which he closed the distance between them.
Dom was caught off guard by the speed that Kalibak displayed. The alien brute was able to connect with a fairly solid blow to the symbiote-clad hero and send him flying down the street. Dom was barely able to bring his arms up to block the attack, which saved him from having several broken bones. AC quickly assisted its host by forming a set of gliding wings between the arms and legs of its host from itself to slow the flight (just like the wing suits used for paragliding). Dom quickly recovered his composure and helped slow down his flight by flipping over and putting his feet down so he slid along the ground. Kalibak was amazed when the man he was fighting suddenly sprouted wings from his suit and slowed down. He decided to not let the strange abilities of his opponent and charged him again to continue attacking him.
Dom started to flip and dodge around the hulking alien's angry punches. Kalibak was starting to tire from his relentless assault. Dom quickly took advantage of his opponent's exhaustion and morphed the left hand of his suit into a large hammer, which he brought up into Kalibak's midsection with bone crushing power. This cause him to double over as Dom quickly got behind him and brought his hand down on his back hard. The impact left Kalibak lying face first in the asphalt of the road. Dom quickly capitalized on his opponent's vulnerable position and grabbed his leg, after morphing his hand back to normal, and placed him into a very painful looking ankle hold, using his symbiote strength to keep Kalibak face first on the ground.
"Come on big boy, say uncle. You know you want to." Dom mocked as he held Kalibak pinned to the ground and was in the process of twisting his ankle very hard. Kalibak just screamed incoherently at the pain and humiliation he was being subjugated to at the hands of this insect.
It was exactly at this moment that the justice league members that had been transported from the watchtower appeared on scene. The four heroes had been expecting a fierce fight so all of them were ready to attack immediately. However they were completely unprepared for the sight of most of the villains already out cold, and Kalibak, one of the most physically strong villains ever encountered, was on his stomach screaming in pain with a MUCH smaller man holding him down and twisting his ankle to the very edge of breaking. Killer Frost was just staring at the man that had Kalibak on the ground.
'Dom we have some more company, I do not recognize all of them but I believe that one is the hero known as Green Lantern, and another is Supergirl. I would assume that they are here to deal with this group of villains.' AC informed his partner.
Dom looked over his shoulder at the group of heroes that had appeared and were looking at him with various degrees of shock. "Umm hi. Be with you in a sec." Dom said mildly as he determined what to do. He knew that if he let up on Kalibak the man would just get back up and continue fighting, so Dom decided to finish dealing wit him quickly. With one final jerk of his torso Dom twisted Kalibak's ankle with a very audible crunch as the bone broke. This caused the behemoth to scream even louder, however he did stop thrashing as much due to the pain.
The loud crunch of Kalibak's ankle breaking had a very visible effect on all those present and conscious. The heroes all winced at the sound and the subsequent screams let out by Kalibak. While Killer frost decided that now was a VERY good moment to surrender and got down on her knees with both of her hands behind her head. The heroes noticed the movement and they received their second shock of the day as they noticed the villain on her knees in a sign of surrender. Green lantern quickly used his power ring to contain her in an energy bubble as Kalibak continued to scream at the top of his lungs in pain.
Dom released Kalibak's ankle and walked over towards the large man's head. "You know your screaming is really annoying. Here why don't you take a little nap, I think you need it." Dom said as he punched Kalibak in the side of he head with all of his symbiote-enhanced strength, knocking him out instantly. "Well that's much better. His screaming was really getting on my nerves." Dom quipped to no one in particular.
Now that the fighting was over Dom noticed that they had attracted quite a crowd. Looking around he saw lots of news people and photographers taking pictures of the battlefield and of him in particular. Glad for his mask to hide his blush Dom walked over towards the group of heroes who were staring at him with different expressions on their faces.
The one AC had identified as Green Lantern had used his power ring to contain the remaining villains, making sure to take Sinestro's yellow power ring. When he looked at Dom irritation and respect warred on his face. The young woman AC had told him was Supergirl had a large grin on her face when she looked around at the decimated villains. The other man in green had a bow and arrow on his back, the man reminded Dom of Hawkeye of the Avengers from his own universe, was looking at Dom with a slight grin and a raised eyebrow. The final hero, who was a stunning African American woman wearing a skin tight bronze colored body suit and a necklace of what looked like animal teeth was running her eyes over him in an appraising kind of way.
As Dom got over to the group of heroes Green Lantern walked towards him. "Alright who the hell are you, and exactly what the hell happened here?" Green Lantern asked Dom in a very abrupt manner that took the younger super hero by surprise.
"Umm okay, rude much? Why don't we start this conversation over? Why don't you start with; 'Thanks for taking out those villains.' Of maybe; 'Nice job there guy.'" Dom said to the green suited black man with more than a little anger in his voice.
"Now you listen here, this is not a job for amateurs…" Green lantern started before he was stopped by pressure on his shoulder. Looking back he saw that it was Supergirl and she had an irritated look on her face that was being mirrored by the rest of the heroes as well. Looking around Lantern decided that maybe he had put his foot in his mouth by starting the conversation with this new hero by yelling at him like he was a new recruit that had screwed up. He turned back to the man in the red and black costume with a slightly abashed look on his face. "Ah umm well maybe that wasn't the way to start this conversation." He said sheepishly.
"No really, you think?" Dom said sarcastically earning snickers from everyone except Green Lantern.
Dom turned to leave when he heard a female voice behind him. "Hey wait." Dom turned around to see it was the black woman whose name he did not know. "Look I know John can be a bit of a jerk sometimes but it's just because he doesn't like surprises, and this whole scene here really surprised him. I mean we came down here expecting to have a serious fight on our hands and when we arrive you'd already taken out most of the bad guys and the only other one surrenders without a fight. We were all kind of surprised by it." The black woman explained; the rest of the heroes were nodding in agreement as she threw an angry look at Green Lantern, who continued to look sheepish.
Seeing that look on Lantern's face Dom couldn't help but laugh a little. "Well I guess I can understand that somewhat. You guys are the seasoned veterans with this hero gig and I am just a rookie." Dom said rubbing the back of his neck with one hand.
The green archer looked around at the villains that Dom had taken out and looked back at him with a raised eyebrow. "Rookie? Do you realize you just took out some of the toughest villains on the planet? I mean Kalibak is almost as strong as Superman, and Sinestro has given the League and the Green Lantern Corp tons of problems. Bane once broke Batman's back, and Devil Ray almost killed wonder woman once with hit poisoned stingers. No friend you may be new on the hero scene but I think I speak for everyone here when I say that you are not just a rookie." He said looking around at the rest of the heroes and getting nods of agreement, even from Green Lantern.
Green Lantern was still looking a little shamefaced, but walked up to Dom and stuck out his hand. "Listen, sorry I was acting like an ass before. Names John Stewart, what yours?" He asked.
Dom decided to accept the peace offering and shook John's hand back. "Call me Aracnid, pleasure to meet all of you." Dom said as everyone shook his hand and introduced themselves the green suited archer was Green Arrow, and the woman in bronze was Vixen.
John used his power ring to round up all of the villains and contacted the watchtower so that they could all be teleported to their final destinations. "Listen Aracnid, we would love to stay and chat but we've got to get back to headquarters. You're more than welcome to join us." John asked the black and red suited hero.
"Thanks for the offer but I'm going to have to pass, I have an appointment here in town later and I don't want to be late. It was nice meeting all of you though. Bye." With that Dom quickly jumped to the side of a building, crawled up a few stories and the started to web sling away.
Once the newest hero started to swing away John called the watchtower for teleport back into space. Once they all got back J'onn was already watching footage of the entire fight between Aracnid and the villains. John walked over to his Martian friend. "What do you make of him?" John asked the green skinned alien.
"This man is certainly a force to be reckoned with. Batman sent a report about two weeks ago about this same man. He was in Gotham at the time and took out Killer Croc, apparently without breaking a sweat. After seeing this footage I can certainly believe it." J'onn said to Lantern still reviewing the video footage.
Back in Dom's hotel room
Once Dom left the site of the battle he headed back towards his hotel. He swung inside his room and quickly changed his suit back into normal clothes. Checking his watch he noticed that it was about four in the afternoon. He decided to take a quick shower and watch some TV until it was time for Gabi's reunion. After getting out of the shower, Dom turned on the Television and was stunned to see his face plastered all over the news.
END CHAPTER THREE