Hello everyone, here is Chapter 15. The gang war for Star city continues but now Spider-man and his allies understand the cause. Someone's using Prowler to make a play for the Maggia's money and Hammerhead is not happy about that at all. The war has been brutal already but now it will get even worse. Spider-man has two sides of a war to stop, but can he? Enjoy!
The Spectacular Spider-man: The City that Never Sleeps Part 2
February 2015: Star City
Another night in Star City seemed like any other night with the majority of the public blissfully unaware of the shadow game being played with the criminal underworld in the Glades. And not the Yu-Gi-Oh anime shadow game but the power struggle between two opposing forces for control of the Glades. The two parties were Hammerhead and his Maggia resurgence against the Stokes Crime Family, the Russian Bratva, and the Chinese Triad along with Prowler and whoever was the power broker for this new alliance. Caught in the middle were Spider-man, Team Arrow, and the police who were working overtime to keep the fighting contained and ending it as soon as possible. With the fighting primarily relegated to the Glades, most of the city was kept safe besides the occasional robbery or mugging but that wouldn't last. With the Stokes, Bratva, and Triad or as some were calling the triple alliance, stupid name, but with them and Prowler now upping the game it wouldn't be long before Hammerhead retaliated, and he wouldn't care who got hurt be they cop of civilian.
They feared the escalation because it seemed as though the power broker or whoever was really leading the triple alliance was going after Hammerhead where it hurts and that was his money. Lieutenant Yuri Watanabe discovered a new lead that finally gave them pieces that connected the facts and explained why this war was going on. The Maggia had secretly hid most of their fortune years before they were taken down by the FBI. It was a general collection of money, resources and kept secure and encrypted in an accounting database in an off-shore bank but all of it was communal, that way one family couldn't wage war on another without a loss of their own fortune. And no one family could steal it all since each family was given a special flash drive that acted as electronic keys. It took all five keys to open the account, so each family was given one for safekeeping. Only now Prowler has taken two. The Manfredi's family electronic key must have been hidden in the Maria painting Prowler stole awhile back from a Manfredi depot. They weren't able to confirm that but given what they learned and how Prowler only took that instead of the other expensive contraband, the flash drive must have been hidden in the picture. He then took the key from the Cicero family hidden in a statue. With two keys down, three were left in the hands of the Costa's, Karnelli's, and Libri's. The only problem was they had no idea where the keys flash drives were hidden but Prowler did. How he knew they had no idea and they needed to find out soon or else they'd continue playing catchup.
Unfortunately, it didn't help that they were also dealing with the gang war between the two sides. Will was dealing with one of those instances at the very moment, taking out several armed thugs of both Hammerhead and the Stokes who thought it'd be smart to shoot it out in a parking lot. Clearly Cottonmouth's crew was orchestrating some kind of deal in the parking lot when Hammerhead's guys showed up in force and greater numbers turning things into a shootout which is when he showed up a few minutes later.
Spider-man swung up into the air into a gainer flip and then dodged a barrage of bullets with a quick web zip to the side. He spun into a corkscrew spin through the air dodging more gunfire and made a three-point landing where he quickly web zipped forward. He slid forward on the ground, leg tripping one of Hammerhead's goons onto his back where he then backflipped and landed on the guy's stomach feet first.
"ARGH!"
"Sit this one out, would you?" Spider-man quipped before punching the guy across the face. He then grabbed the guy's assault rifle, broke it in two, and front flipped high into the air where he threw both pieces at two more goons belonging to Hammerhead. They were hit square in the nose, cradling their broken appendages as Spider-man slid between them shooting webs at their feet and tripping them to the ground. He webbed them in place when his spider-sense went off, so he quickly dive-rolled to the side and shot web globs in the shooters faces, obscuring their vision temporarily as they tried to remove the webbing. He moved from his dive roll into a series of backflips dodging more gunfire. He backflipped into a triple backflip tuck and roll where he fired two globs of impact webbing. One pinned one of Stokes' men to a car while another pinned two of Hammerhead's goons into a larger web ball. Spider-man landed on his feet and shot a web at the two webbed Hammerhead goons and pulled, spinning them around his body like a he was a spinning top until he let go and they slammed into more from their group, essentially making a giant web ball of goons. It was comical seeing all these grown men stuck together like something out of a cartoon, but Spider-man was a little too preoccupied to laugh and moved on to the next bad guy who needed his teeth kicked in. Which is exactly what he did as he vaulted over a car and landed a tornado kick to one of Cottonmouth's goons before rolling forward and kicking a goon into the air only to web pull him down and slam him into the ground.
He webbed a gunman's gun out of his hand and hurled it to the side, hitting another of Cottonmouth's crew. A quick web zip forward and he knocked out the guy with a flying side kick. The last guy standing tried to rush Spider-man from behind to stab him in the back with a knife. He got close and was about to drive the knife through his back only for Spider-man to backflip over him. A web hit the man in the back and when Spider-man landed he yanked it, causing the guy to stumble back into his path. Spider-man dropped onto his back and kicked the shooter up into the air before shooting a web to slam him into the ground.
Unfortunately, he couldn't rest as he heard the screeching of tires and three SUVs arrived. Out came several Triad enforcers armed with guns.
"Reinforcements. Great, I was getting sick of these other guys." Spider-man quipped as he quickly web zipped into action.
Elsewhere in the city…
Roy and Diggle were geared up and out in the city. The two were hiding in the van, parked around the corner from 42nd street and Adam's Avenue where a car bomb had been called in to the police. When First Responders arrived, there was nothing more they could do but tend to the burning wreckage. The Fire Crew put out the fire in time to give the police and by circumstance, Team Arrow a chance to figure out who the target was.
"One seconds guys. Almost got it." Felicity said to them, working from the computers in the bunker and nearly done with the search. "Got it. The car belongs to one Frederick Alexander Montgomery which is an alias and actually the person is one Alexei Kristoffgon, Russian national with a long rap sheep back home."
"Russian Bratva. This was a hit against them by the Maggia." Diggle theorized.
"Dig is right. The car bomb is the signature of the Costa family. The current head is Luigi Fernando Costa, who took over at his dad went to jail. Luigi decided to stick and fit the Italian mobster stereotype complete with the rap sheet. Racketeering, blackmail, attempted murder and Costa's father was arrested and charged with over a dozen car bombs back when he was the head. Looks like car bombs are a signature of the family but it was never just to the FBI and police files, there would always be multiple car bombs in an area." Felicity told them.
"Just one went off so there could be others in the area. The police seem to think so." Roy said as they saw the police bomb disposal unit carefully examining the cars in the surrounding area and using their tech to clear the area. "Think we could lend a hand?"
"With one of Will's new toys we can." Felicity said as Roy opened up a small case to reveal one of Will's newly made Spider-Bots curtsey of STAR labs. Cisco and Dr. Wells finished five that Will came back with and he kept one on him with his suit. If he kept all five on his person, then it'd be too much and a waste as a bad impact could destroy them. The others could use them with Felicity remote connected to it which she was doing now to control it. The Spider-Bot powered up with its eyes lit a faint blue and it stood up on its eight articulated legs. The circuitry, sensors, and interface on the bot was some of the best on the planet with Cisco and Dr. Wells having the best tech that STAR labs had. The bot climbed out of the case and jumped down to the floor of the van to the door. Roy cracked it open slightly and the drone jumped out, quickly moving across the street over to the car wreckage.
The street had little to no car activity with the police sending cars away, so Felicity was able to pilot the bot across the street. It was a fast, mobile, and articulated bot so she could move it sort of like a remote-controlled car that had legs with 360-degree view thanks to the high-grade lenses in the faces and equipped with various sensors and vision modes. The bystanders on the street didn't notice the bot as they were too focused on the police presence with the car bomb and the police were too focused on that as well. This allowed the Spider-bot to quickly crawl in closer, right underneath the wreckage which allowed Felicity to use the bot's sensors and scanners for data collection.
"Fairly rudimentary components the bot is picking up. Remnants of primer cord, piping like casing, and it was rigged to the ignition circuit so the second the car turned on it triggered the bomb, and they used thermite. Luckily the scanners in the bot allow me to reconstruct the bomb from the fragments and I can now track down the other using the detonation frequency…" Felicity quickly ran the scans, and it picked up three more bombs in the area. "Ok, let's find them."
Felicity piloted the Spider-Bot around a two square block area from the original bomb site and managed to find the three car bombs. One was underneath a car, the second was in a delivery truck and a third was underneath a dumpster in a parking lot. She disabled them using the stingers on the bot which produced a small but concentrated electric charge that shorted out the bombs. "I'm really liking this thing. The bombs are taken care of and I'm going to use the Palmer Tech satellites to scan the rest of the city for more." Felicity told Diggle and Roy. "You guys can get out of there."
"Nicely done, Felicity." Diggle replied, starting the van up and driving away.
"I'll let Will know what we found in case he runs into any." Felicity called him and heard some grunting and groaning when she answered. "Will, you there?"
"Yeah, one second! Alley Opp!" She heard several grunts of pain and a loud impact along with the distinct thwapping of his web shooters.
"Should I call you back?" Felicity wondered.
"No, just dealing with some more bad guys, unless you're just nuttily dressed paparazzi? Yeah, I didn't think so!" Will quipped as she heard him fighting over the phone. She wasn't worried about him as from the sounds he was clearly winning. If anything, the others needed help. "I can multi-task. What's up?"
"Dig, Roy, and I just dealt with some car bombs in the city, set by the Cicero family. They took out one of the Bratva Lieutenants." Felicity told him.
"Car Bombs? Hammerhead's going old school. Hey!" He shouted and Felicity jumped a bit. "Can't you see I'm having a conversation?! Manners! [Grunts and groans of pain] Sorry, go on."
"Well, it wasn't just one bomb but four in total. We used your Spider-bot to disable them. I have the detonation frequency and I'm using the Palmer tech satellite to find any more. Just wanted to let you know in case you run into any." Felicity told him.
"Thanks. Drop a quick anonymous tip with Captain Lance about the other bomb locations and let him know if any more bombs show up. They can handle the bombs while we focus on Hammerhead and Prowler. Any updates?" He wondered, grunting a bit as he backflip kicked a Maggia goon and then flipped into a butterfly twist, knocking out a Triad enforcer with a punch to the solar plexus.
"No, nothing yet. The FBI are finally getting involved but with all the federal jurisdiction crap they're not any closer to closing this then we are." Felicity pointed out.
"Got it. Let me know of any updates." Will said, before hanging up.
Back with Will…
He slid underneath the last Maggia goon and threw him up into the air before slamming him straight to the ground with a web throw. "Whew, that was a fun workout." He said, having beaten and webbed a total of 112 goons. A mix of Maggia, Stokes, Triad, and Bratva goons mostly recent recruits but with a few veterans thrown in. Suffice to say the parking lot had turned into a large trash dump for idiots with guns who thought they could take on Spider-man.
That's when he heard some sirens and turned to see several black Federal SUVs and SCPD police cars. "Hey! The boys in blue are here! I got them all giftwrapped for you!" He told them as an eager and idiotic FBI agent walked over and aimed his pistol at Spider-man.
"Spider-man, you're under arrest! Put your hands up now!" He shouted.
"Are you serious?" Spider-man put his hands up.
"Who are you?" He shouted but Spider-man just put his hands down and relaxed.
"You really don't grasp the concept of the mask, do you?" The agent opened fire, shooting several bullets but Spider-man easily swerved and ducked. He dodged them all like a regular person would dodge a wadded-up piece of paper. He then side flipped over the agent and swiped his gun. The agent quickly held his hands up in fear, but Spider-man just waved it at him.
"I just did 80% of your job and that's how you repay him? That's how it's done? All you Feds are shoot first and ask questions never! No wonder no one likes you!" Spider-man quipped tossed the handgun over his shoulder and sinking it into a garbage can without looking.
"HEY!" The other FBI agents rushed over so he took off running. "HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!"
The SCPD arrived on seat, securing the area and saw Spider-man running down the street. "SPIDEY!" They cheered as he gave them a wave before jumping up onto the car's roof. The driver looked up and smiled and he gave the driver a thumbs up before jumping onto the side of a truck and crawling up to the top before firing a web and swinging away. "All right, that was fun!"
"YEAH SPIDER-MAN!" The civilians on the street shouted and cheered for him as he swung by. The FBI watched him leave, outpacing their agents on foot and how the civilians weren't afraid but instead treated him like they would a celebrity.
"You agents clearly haven't been paying attention to what's been going on in Star City." One of the SCPD detectives told them.
"Hello pedestrians!" Spider-man swung low to the ground and high-fived a few people on the sidewalk before zipping up onto a light pole, swinging around the top a few times and launching himself up high into the air and swinging away. The SCPD and FBI called in for transport vehicles for all the criminals they had under arrest. The FBI were quick to take credit for this but despite their delusions they were not close to solving the case or getting any of the low-level morons to flip on their higherups then the SCPD were. The only difference was that the SCPD were fully aware of what was going on in their city and just needed the additional manpower and funds to mount better actions against the Maggia and the triple alliance.
[Phone ringing]
Will was swinging through the city when his HUD alerted him to a phone call from Yuri. The reason he knew it was Yuri was because of the caller ID which he playfully labeled as Yuronica Maranabe, a twist on Veronica Mars. Not his best play on words but it would do.
"Hey, Yuri. What's up?"
"Word over the radio has it that you assaulted an FBI agent?"
"Whoa, I did not assault him. The FEDs and police backup arrived after I took down all the goons, but one trigger-happy FBI agent tried to arrest me. I took a step to the right and he opened fire with four shots which I dodged, thank you very much and then I yanked his gun out of his hand and dumped it in the garage. There was no assault." Will assured her.
"Relax, I was just messing with you." She promised, chuckling a bit. "Some of the officers told me what happened, and it also helped that we got the parking lot security camera footage. Clearly shows the FBI agent try to arrest you and shooting while unprovoked. Pretty much squashed the Fed's attempt to take you down for now."
"Thanks, Yuri. I know it's wrong for me to say this, but I thought the FBI would be much more helpful. We could use the help." Will admitted.
"To be honest, the only thing the FBI usually leads to is the SCPD being put on the sidelines and getting iced out of our own investigations. Thankfully the Mayor and Commissioner kept that from happening as we've been the ones dealing with the Maggia and triple alliance for two weeks now while they've just arrived." Yuri told him, watching the FEDs scramble around the SCPD from her office window.
"I hate how that triple alliance nickname is sticking. It's just lame." Will pointed out. "Sorry, go on."
"Anyway, you're right in that more help would be good and the FBI has good intentions, but they have no idea what they're dealing with. Don't ask me how he knows but according to Captain Lance, the only reason they were brought into Star City was because the FBI chief for the region was embarrassed at a meeting when he had no answers to the resurgence in Maggia activity in the region." Yuri told him.
"So basically, they're covering their butts. Oh great. As if we didn't have enough problems to deal with, we've got amateurs who think this is a garden variety gang war and not a super one with advanced weapons and the Prowler. Ugh…" Will flipped through the air, shaking his head in annoyance before firing another web.
"But I do have some news on Prowler. It's part of the reason why I called. There was a recent burglary and eye witness testimony says a caped figure was seen jumping from the rooftops shortly after."
"Prowler. Send me the location. I'm on my way." Spider-man headed there as fast as he could. If he could get onto Prowler's trail, then he might be able to figure out where he's going next and find out who's really behind all of this.
After some swinging, he dropped down onto the rooftop of a building across the street from the robbery. SCPD robbery division was on the scene along with a paramedic van. "All right, if Prowler was here then it has to be about another drive. If I can pick up the trail, I can follow him." Will scanned the area when he saw an EMT tending to a guard on a gurney. "Let's see what happened."
He shot a web and swung down, landing down next to the gurney, shocking the cops and paramedics but they saw it was Spider-man. "What happened here?"
"Spider-man, uh…I heard someone stole a rare book or something." The Paramedic told him.
"A book? What happened to the guard?"
"He'll be all right, but he's got a pretty bad case of photokeratitis—basically a flash burn of his corneas but he'll recover." The paramedic answered.
"Thanks." Spider-man web zipped away to the alley and found the marked off area by a door labeled with CSI tape and a number. The ground had scorch marks, so something burned the area. His HUD zoomed in on the spot and it began analyzing the residue until it identified it as Aluminum/Potassium Perchlorate AKA the chemicals used in a Magnesium flare, the same kind Prowler used against him. "Yup, that's Prowler. And if what Cisco said about the upgrades to my Hud are right then it should allow me to scan the environment for a residue trail."
His HUD began flicking through vision modes before it stopped on one and he saw large clouds of Aluminum/Potassium Perchlorate residue in the area that lead up to a rooftop. "Bingo. Thank you, STAR labs." He web zipped up and followed the flare trail along the rooftops a few blocks away. "Felicity, can you hear me?"
"Yeah, what's up?"
"I might have another lead on Prowler. I was just at a building responding to a tip from Yuri. Prowler stole something from there so it must belong to one of the three Maggia families remaining that has a drive." He told her.
"All right. I'll look into it and let you know what I find." Felicity replied as Will kept running and jumping from rooftop to rooftop until he was about 9 blocks away and the trail went from the rooftops down to a three-exit alleyway where some men were splayed out on the ground, unconscious. There was more scorch marks so Prowler must have used more flashbangs and fought them.
"Wonder what happened here?" He web-zipped to pick up the trail when he heard a tire squeak and saw 6 goons get out of car with crowbars, pipes, or knives.
"Spider-man KO'd Vito! Take him out!"
"Oh, come on! My luck is not that bad." He ducked a crowbar and kicked his attacker in the head before jumping off him and landing a flying punch to another guy. "Ever think that maybe Vito got KO'd for acting exactly like this?"
"Hammerhead was right! Spider-man's working for Wesley!" One of them shouted only for Spider-man to web pull a manhole cover out of the ground and hurled it into the chest of a goon, knocking him out.
"Yeah, I don't know where he got that information, but I do not work for Hammerhead. And I'm kind of insulted that you would even think that." Spider-man remarked as he uppercut one goon into the air before quickly sidestepping a knife to the back and taking that guy to the ground with a hip throw and then knocking him out with a butterfly kick. "And who's Wesley?"
He slid between the legs of another goon and then drop-kicked him in the back, sending him face first into a dumpster before taking out the last guy with a tornado kick to the face that knocked him into a wall. "Crap. Probably should have left one still conscious. Oh, well. Now that they are dealt with better get back on the trail."
He continued following the flashbang signature which was easier since Prowler had used some in his fight. He went another couple of blocks before stopping on the roof overlooking an alleyway. There he saw a guy waiting by a large truck with a book in his hand. "Hmm…" Will's Hud zoomed in on the guy's face and a quick facial recognition identified the guy as Russian Bratva. He then focused his gaze on the truck. "Felicity, I'm sending you a pic of a plate I need you to run."
"Got it. I'll let you know what I find." She replied when Will saw some more Bratva arrive.
"Did you get it?" The lieutenant asked, speaking in Russian. Thankfully, Will's Hud was able to translate.
"Yeah." His lackey replied, handing over the book but when he opened it there was nothing. There was a clear indent for a drive, but it was gone.
"Where is the drive?!" He asked.
"He said he wanted to deliver it to Wesley personally."
"Didn't I tell you to make sure you had the drive?!" He shouted, throwing the book at him.
"Yes, but he gave the others to him, so I just figured—"
The guy was cut off with a punch to the face. "I told you to get the drive. This alliance is temporary and if we're going to come out of it with more than we need the drives! To hell with Wesley and the fat man! I don't have time for idiots like you! Kill him!"
One of his goons walked over and pulled out a pistol. "Wait. Wait! Wait! I DIDN'T KNOW!"
Some webbing snagged the gun and the guy from the back, yanking him into the air as Spider-man swung down. He kicked the lieutenant in the face, knocking him into a wall before backflipping in the air and split-kicking two Russian goons in the face. He landed in a crouch and leg swept them onto their back before trapping them to the ground with impact webbing. He web pulled a guy into a clothesline and then stomped on his back to flip high into the air, tucking into a spin where he took out the final guy with a flying tornado kick to the head. All in all, it took a few seconds as he caught them off guard, but his work did allow one of them to get into the truck and drive away. Felicity had the plates so letting it go wasn't the biggest let down as she could track it.
He fired a web at the Bratva Lieutenant and another guy. He attached one end of the webbing to the rooftop, so they were hanging upside and dangling around. Both were jostled awake and saw they were hanging upside down with Spider-man webbing up their compatriots before walking over to them. "So, which of you guys would like to talk first?"
"Fuck you, Spider-man." The Bratva Lieutenant said in English with a heavy Russian accent and got a kick to the face in response. It broke his nose, knocked him out, and his body swung back and forth.
"We'll let him cool off for a bit." Spider-man quipped as he looked at the other guy who was starting to get nervous. "So, do you feel like talking? What were you guys doing here? Why are you after the drive?"
"I'm not telling you anything, bug!" He said only to get punched in the face and knocked out.
"Ok, this isn't getting us anywhere." Spider-man said as he began to walk back and forth to figure out a solution. "Now…if I were Oliver, what would I do to get them to talk?"
"Please don't tell me you're gonna torture them like Oliver does?" Felicity asked him.
"No, of course not but we're getting nowhere unless I get them talking. This guy seems more resilient, so I need a new method." He said when he saw a tall skyscraper in the distance. "And bingo was his name-o."
A few moments later…
The knocked out Bratva goon began to slowly regain consciousness after the punch to the face. He groaned in pain when he noticed some peculiar things as the blood was rushing to his head and his arms were dangling up in the air. When he opened his eyes, he realized that the reason for those things was because he was hanging upside down from the top of a skyscraper.
"AHHH!"
He screamed in absolute fear as he jostled around, his arms flailing about as his cellphone slipped out of his pocket and fell hundreds of feet below. The heavy night gusts from being that high up moved him around, making him even more afraid.
"Nice view, isn't it?" He heard so he picked his head up and saw Spider-man perched up on the side of the skyscraper. He had webbed him by his feet and was holding onto it with one hand. "Want to get a little closer to the ground."
He jostled the webbing loose a bit, freaking the guy out even more. "OK! OK! I'LL TALK! JUST DON'T DROP ME! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!"
Spider-man couldn't help but chuckle as the once fierce Bratva soldier was now pleading like a frightened child. "Good. Now what were you guys doing in that alley? Why did you want the drive?"
"I don't know the specifics. All I know is that my boss is getting antsy. He's not happy with working with the others."
"The Triads and the Stokes?" He asked and got a nod in response. "Why? You three going up against Hammerhead and the Maggia? Something wrong in the triple alliance?"
"All I know is what my bosses say and complain about. The alliance is only out of convenience, orchestrated so that Hammerhead and his Maggia couldn't steamroll their opposition." He answered.
"That makes sense. The Stokes by themselves could never go up against Hammerhead on their own for long. And I'm guessing the power brokers for this little alliance are Wesley and the Fatman?" Spider-man suggested and saw the Bratva guy go a little wide-eyed. "Yeah, I heard who. Who are they?"
"I don't know." He answered when Spider-man jostled the webbing. "I DON'T KNOW, I SWEAR! I NEVER MET THEM!"
"Then what do you know?!" Spider-man questioned, and the guy relented.
"All I know is that my bosses are preparing for the future. They know this alliance won't last long and are prepping for when it ends." He said which is when Will began to put it together.
"Your bosses know about the drives the Maggia have for their fortune. Do the Triads know too?" Spider-man asked.
"I'm not sure but I think so. My boss said they've been sending out their guys to try and track down the remaining two drives. That's all I know, I swear!" The guy pleaded.
"And I believe you." Spider-man replied before his hands sparked with his orange bio-electricity which surged down the webbing and zapped the guy until he was unconscious. "Felicity, did you get all that?"
"Yup. Fatman and Wesley aren't exactly a lot to go on, but I'll loop in Captain Lance along with the other stuff. I looked into the place that Prowler stole the book and it's an old book repository that's been in the Karnelli's family for years." Felicity informed him.
"So, the Maria painting from the Manfredi's, the statue from the Cicero's and now the book from the Karnelli's. That's three Maggia families down and three drives leaving the Costa and Libri family left. Two more drives and Prowler's got a complete set." Will said.
"And with the other members of this triple alliance now aiming for them this war could turn into a new conflict if Stokes, Triad, or Bratva try to get all three." Felicity said in worry.
"We need to find those drives and Prowler before they get the last two. Felicity, look for every single property, warehouse, hell, even apartment that the Costa and Libri family have on file. Even with them being criminals there has got to be a money trail or a digital fingerprint on something if they hid their drives. You're the best with computers Felicity so if anyone can find them it's you." Will told her.
"Oh, thanks and I've got some algorithms working overtime to try and find the two places of the drives. The second I've got some top contenders I'll let you know." Felicity answered. "But here's one thing that's been bugging me?"
"What's that?" Will wondered.
"How does Prowler know where to find these drives in the first place? We know he's a skilled thief, he started working for the Stokes in stealing the usual stuff a thief would want like money and jewels before he began stealing data and information on the Maggia families. Then there was the theft of the Maria from that Maggia warehouse." Felicity recounted.
"Right before I left for Central City." Will remembered.
"Exactly. You came back and we had to deal with Zytle and that's when the war between the Maggia and the Stokes started. The Triads and Bratva came along to help the latter and now we've got this triple alliance working. They fought against one another and then Prowler stole the second drive from the Ciceros and now more recently the drive from the Karnellis which was in an old book. Stuff not exactly they keep in view for people to find." Felicity said.
"Right, leaving just two left that we need to find." Will stated.
"But how has Prowler known where to find the first three? He was just a basic thief and the first things he stole against Hammerhead were client files from a lawyer. There's no way he just got the location of the drives from those files." Felicity pointed out.
"That's…that's true." Will slowly realized that they were missing a key part in all of this.
"I mean, if the guy Prowler is working for really knows the locations of all the drives, then why didn't he steal them all at once? He first stole the one in the painting but didn't steal the one in the statue until at least a week later when the gang war had taken off. Why was he waiting when stealing them all at once would have been so much easier? He could have stolen all the drives under Hammerhead's nose and the war likely would have been avoided." Felicity added.
"You're right. That would have prevented a lot of this. My guess? It has to do with whoever the Stokes and Prowler are working for and I'm guessing it's the Fatman and Wesley guy our Bratva friends told us about. The power brokers working behind the scenes that started this war. Maybe he wasn't able to get all the locations of the drives all at once. He only had one which is why Prowler went after the Maria first." He theorized.
"And in digging and getting information to find the next flash drive that's when Hammerhead and the Maggia launched their attack and the war started. And then the power broker brings in some new parties to help bolster the Stokes while he has Prowler find the rest of the drives." Felicity suggested.
"Only the alliance is out of convenience and it's not long before the Triads and Bratva figure out what's going on and try to get in on the action which explains our recent situation. Sounds great in theory. I just wish we could really prove it." Will remarked.
"Well, it makes sense and could explain why things have gone the way they have. So, this means whoever this broker is that's hiring Prowler must have ins with the family." Felicity said.
"Not only that but close and powerful friends in the families to figure out the locations of the drives. Even just a general location and then Prowler does the rest. We really need to find those two remaining drives." Will said in worry as he grabbed the unconscious Bratva member and swung down to drop him off to the police who had picked up the others.
"I'm working on it." Felicity assured him. She just hoped it would be
Elsewhere in the Glades at the warehouse owned by the Stokes crime family, the broker Wesley stood in the warehouse standing next to an SUV with tinted windows. The bespectacled, three-piece suit wearing businessman had a briefcase with him and was waiting for someone to arrive. A few minutes later, a purple cloaked figure dropped from the ceiling and landed with a light thud. The grey lenses on Prowler's mask lit up as the masked/armored thief walked over.
"Do you, have it?" Wesley asked as Prowler reached into his belt and pulled out a small flash drive before handing it over. Once Wesley had it, he handed over the briefcase. "The promised amount like the others. The third installment of the 2-million-dollar payout my benefactor promised you."
Prowler took the case and opened it to see it was filled with cash. "Where's the next drive?" Prowler asked, his mask changing his voice.
"Our men are still working on ascertaining their locations. Like before, once we have that information, we'll inform you when it is time." Wesley told him.
"One other thing. I ran into some of the Bratva out there who wanted the flash drive. They were waiting for me at the drop off location and told me to hand it over, which is when I called you for the change up. You might want to get them in line." Prowler informed him.
"We'll handle the Bratva." Wesley answered and Prowler jumped up to the ceiling and climbed out of an old skylight. Wesley entered the SUV and made a call while the driver drove them away. "I have the third drive. Our men are still working on finding the location of the drives belong to the Costa and Libri family. It won't be long now."
"Have them work faster. The sooner we get the rest of the drives the sooner we can deal with Hammerhead. More and more of his men are abandoning him. It won't be long before Hammerhead will be left with but his most loyal or scared followers." A man said over the phone.
"We have another problem. The Bratva attempted to take the drive from Prowler at the original drop off. And they have groups of their men going out into the city at various known Maggia spots to try and find the drives. The Triads are attempting the same thing as our associates have reported their men investigating and searching similar areas." Wesley reported.
"Any news on if they have found the drives?" The man asked.
"Not yet as they're still looking. And even if they did find the two, they are worthless without the three in our possession." Wesley replied.
"Check the drives the Prowler gave us. Let us make sure that our resident thief isn't getting any smart ideas. Men like him are only usefull up to a point and if word reached him about what he was really stealing then his services will be a liability."
"I'll check and plan accordingly. What do you want to do about the Triads and the Bratva?" Wesley asked.
"I'll inform Madame Gao and her associates will handle the Triads attempting to pad their own pockets. As for the Russians, a change in leadership seems appropriate."
"The Ranskahov brothers seem like suitable replacements. Vladimir and his brother Anatoly have been good money makers for the Bratva and are equally brutal but can take orders. No signs that they would attempt a power grab without some assistance." Wesley suggested.
"Get it done. The sooner this war is over then the sooner my associates can move on with their plans. Don't fail me, Wesley."
"Of course, sir." Wesley hung up the call after that. There was still work to do.
Line Break xxxxx
The next day, Will was moving a little sluggishly during his morning classes having stayed up till late in the night to deal with the ongoing gang war. By now, it was beginning to make the local news outside the Glades about what was really going on. A gang war between Hammerhead and a Maggia resurgence against the Stokes crime family, the Triads, and the Bratva. The fighting was still being mostly relegated to the Glades, but the Bratva and Triads have been moving out of the area in an effort to find those two remaining drives and as a result they've been clashing with Hammerhead's goons. People were getting worried and scared with Hammerhead resorting to old school Maggia scare tactics like car bombs, fire bombs, and drive-by shooting. He really was trying to bring back the golden age of Maggia dominance. With the FBI, while they were in over their heads at the very least, they were additional bodies to keep the fighting from spreading. Felicity informed Captain Lance that the Bratva and Triads were looking for the remaining two flash drives which meant the SCPD were as well. He navigated the federal bureaucracy working with the FBI and he put Yuri in charge of organizing the field units. Normally, they'd be playing catchup but working with Will who was getting the best information from Felicity allowed the SCPD and FBI to better navigate this war and be at skirmishes or attacks much sooner than they normally would. And the help of Star City's superhero Spider-man along with Team Arrow made them more effective. Laurel was extremely busy at the DA's office as pretty much the Mayor's office and adjacent city groups were now focused on dealing with the criminals that were arrested and bringing forth a lot of charges. Iron Heights was definitely going to get crowded.
Working with Spider-man they took down more members of the gangs/criminal organizations and confiscated plenty of contraband and weapons, so this war was hurting the bad guys at the very least. With the help of the SCPD and FBI, they were at the very least on equal footing with the gangs but to be honest it felt like more and more kept coming. Like a Hydra where you cut its head two more grow back, in this instance for every bad guy they took down and arrested another one was there to take his place. Guess Star City wasn't running out of idiots who made bad life choices. Things seemed to settle down around 2 in the morning which is when he returned to his dorm room and passed out. It took several cups of coffee to keep him awake during his classes. The campus was busier than usual as with the gang war going on most students wisely avoided going out into the city. Even Dr. Connors told him that they would be working in their old lab on campus out of safety concerns and thankfully Ray Palmer shared that thought. He sent out an email saying that all non-essential personnel would work from home for the time being until he and the board felt it was safer. Granted he had been sort of MIA from the company for a while, but he must have been working on some big project.
With his classes done for the day, Will was heading to the lab to get some work done with Dr. Connors when his phone rang, and he saw it was Felicity. "Hey, Felicity. Good news?"
"I think so. I'm sending you to an address. It's an old safehouse the Costa family used and compared to the other ones my program have looked through this one has the most elaborate paper trail to distance it as far away from the family as possible meaning someone wanted to make it difficult to find." Felicity told him.
"Making it the perfect home for a hidden data drive. Awesome work, Felicity. If Oliver doesn't say it enough, you are the best at what you do." Will sang her praises.
"I know. Diggle and Roy are gearing up and will be on standby in the area. Hopefully, this time we'll be get ahead for once." Felicity hoped.
"Got it." Will hung up and then sent a quick text to Aria saying that if he couldn't hang out later, he would likely be busy before calling Dr. Connors.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Dr. Connors, it's me Will. Look, I know that I've got some time set up in the lab today to work on the Genetic Recombinator, but something has come up. It's some family business that I need to deal with. Sorry for the last-minute call but I promise I'll make it up with some extra time in the lab this weekend." Will told him, making up the lie and reminding himself to text his mom to cover for him if Dr. Connors asks about what's going on.
With Dr. Connors…
"It's no problem, Will. I'm actually busy with some paperwork so we can pick up the project work next time." Dr. Connors assured him. He was in his office doing paperwork but not the usual kind like grading papers, preparing lesson plans, or signing papers from the Department or the Dean. He was actually using his department access to check the records of certain students and their grades. His conversation with Will a while ago about a fellow student who was in Academic Probation for poor grades suddenly getting a miraculous A at the end of the semester last year peaked his curiosity. He checked and the student, Alison DiLaurentis, was indeed failing in multiple classes, even his intro to chemistry course yet somehow despite the failing she managed to A which barely kept her from flunking out. It was odd so he checked her current grades, and they were surprisingly all Aced so far. He felt it was odd and during his search he began seeing other students in similar cases. Mostly students on the university's sports teams but all the same. With poor grades throughout the semester all of a sudden pulling miracle A's at the end to keep from failing.
He even checked their old test papers and saw that some of the answers were exactly as he had written them. The students must be getting access to the finals beforehand so they can cheat but he always kept them locked up and the only way to gain access to them was with a key which only he and the facilities team had. Each professor had their own key, so something was going on and he was going to get to the bottom of it.
Back with Will…
"Thanks, Dr. Connors." Will hung up and quickly headed back to his dorm room to get some additional gear and resupply his equipment before heading out. Once he found a place to change, he began web swinging through the city, stopping a few skirmishes between the two sides of the gang war. Surprisingly the idiots avoided confrontations during the day, so they weren't as big of targets for the cops and now the FBI.
He swung through the air and landed on the rooftop of a building across the street from the address Felicity sent him. It was a regular three-story building and didn't look all that impressive but had a bar on the first floor. According to the city planner it was a microbrewery. Will used his enhanced vision to get a closer look at the building while his HUD scanned for any abnormalities when it detected a foreign trojan in the building's security system meaning someone put the security system on a loop. Prowler was inside so Will decided to spring a trap.
Nothing but the sound of a few gusts of breeze and distant car horns were heard as the Prowler exited the building from the rooftop door and raced to make his escape with his prize in hand only that's not exactly what happened. When he ran forward, he crossed the path of several laser beams from web trip mines which instantly ensnared him from head to toe.
"Egh…what the hell?!" Prowler's legs were pinned, and his arms were trapped at his side.
"Yoink!" A web snagged the flash drive in his hand and was pulled out of his grasp, landing into Spider-man's hand who flipped over and landed on the roof. "You don't mind if I hold onto this, do you?"
"You! Give that back!" Prowler shouted.
"Sorry. This may not belong to me, but it definitely doesn't belong to you." Spider-man slipped the drive into his belt.
"ARGH!" Prowler flexed the claws of his left gauntlet and sliced himself free before firing a steel spike from his wrist. Spider-man ducked, and side stepped the projectiles only for Prowler to close the distance with his claws flexed. He swung his claws down, but Spider-man side flipped over him with ease before hitting him with two kicks to the back and a side kick to the back of the head. Prowler rolled forward and fired several more steel spikes and a few bolo cables, but Spider-man dodged with ease using backflips and then turned into a butterfly twist. The steel spikes flew through the air, skimming close to his suit like out of the Matrix. Prowler had closed the distance with a leaping claw swipe, so Spider-man leaned back and kicked Prowler over his head and onto the ground. Prowler got up and was immediately hit with webbing to the face plate of his mask as Spider-man web zipped forward and landed a flying kick to his stomach.
Prowler rolled on the rooftop, grabbing his side in pain when he saw Spider-man swing away. He knew that he needed to get that drive, so he chased after him. His boots allowed him to jump from rooftop to rooftop while also using the grapple cable of his gauntlets to close the distance. He was fast but Spider-man was faster. Spider-man swung away from the building, going purposely slower than normal in an attempt to draw Prowler out into a trap.
"All right, here he comes. Dig, I'm bringing him right to you. Don't miss." Spider-man told him.
"Roger that…" Dig said, perched up on the roof of a building with a mask covering his face and a grenade launcher aimed at the sky.
Spider-man swung by, and Prowler was quick to follow, jumping across a street which is when Diggle fired a round from the grenade launcher. It was heading right towards him, and Prowler was mid-jump so he couldn't do anything. It hit him and exploded into a thick glob of webbing, revealing it was a web grenade round. Prowler was tied up and fell to the ground, but Spider-man swung by and snagged him, carrying with him before dropping him down into an empty park. Prowler quickly cut himself free with his claws which is when he was hit in the back by two arrows. They stuck to his back, not penetrating his armor but then released two high-voltage electrical shocks that stunned him and short-circuited the armor.
Prowler slumped to his knees and groaned in pain as smoke emanated from his body and suit. Spider-man swung down and webbed his arms and legs for good measure before walking over and removing his helmet, revealing a young African-America man. His HUD ran a quick facial recognition, and his identity was revealed to be Hobbie Brown, Starling City Community college attendee with no serious priors minus a few school detentions for some anger related issues and fights.
"The mighty Prowler in the flesh. How's it going, Hobbie?" Spider-man wondered as the man tried to move his arms and activate his weapons, but they weren't working. "Yeah, I wouldn't get your hopes up. Your stuff is kind of out of commission for the time being."
"What did you do?"
"Two concentrated electrical arrows courtesy of Arsenal shorted out your gear so no quick escaped." Spider-man told him as Arsenal stepped forward into view with an arrow notched on his bow. "You've been a very bad boy, Mr. Brown."
"Screw you, Spider-man. Things were going fine until you came along." Hobbie cursed.
"Really? You work for criminals, and you helped start a new gang war oh but wait? I remember, you blame that all on me which is kind of hypocritical. I mean, after all, Hammerhead wouldn't have declared war on Star City if you and your boss weren't trying to steal from him." Spider-man pointed out.
"That's not my fault!" Hobbie shouted. "You can act all high and mighty but what about the people left behind to deal with your messes? Tombstone wasn't perfect but he was a sure sight better than what we got now!"
"And yet you work for them." Arsenal countered.
"What I do is to help the people I care about. The people the city forget about." Hobbie defended his actions.
"Like your mother, who works two jobs to support you? What would she say if she could see you right now? How would she feel with you putting yourself in harms way like this?" Spider-man asked him.
"Shut up! You don't know anything. She's done everything for me and it's killing her. After you took down Tombstone, she lost one of her jobs at his fronts and now she's got to work an even worse job to try and get us by. Everything, everything I did was for her, so she didn't have to worry! She deserves not to worry!" Hobbie shouted, breaking down crying as everything that was happening was finally starting to sink in. Honestly, the two heroes felt bad for him.
"Look, Hobbie…believe it or not, I get it. Really, I do. When my Father passed it was just my mother and I for a long time. She worked her butt off to provide for the both of us and I know it wasn't easy. She gave up a lot for me and there were times I knew she was killing herself to make a better life for us. And I owed it to her to make sure that I didn't waste the chance she gave me. When I got my powers, I did exactly what she would have wanted me to do and use them to help people. And that includes people like you, Hobbie." Spider-man walked over and ripped him free of the webbing but subtly placed one of his new spider tracers into the grove of one of his armor plates, so it was hidden in plain sight. "I'm not condoning what you've done or even saying that what you did was right, but I understand, if anything and I want to help. That's why I do what I do…to help people."
"Yeah, I know how you help people." Hobbie remarked.
"If you're referring to the influx of prisoners at Iron Heights then you can drop the piousness. You're a thief and you've never hurt or killed anyone, but they have. You stole money from some rich guys who frankly deserved it, but they transport and sell guns, drugs, extort and blackmail hard working people into giving them protection money, or they go old school and just beat or kill people who go up against them. Hammerhead and his Maggia are bad and the Stokes, Triads, and Bratva are even worse. They all got what they deserve and now they don't care who they hurt or gets killed. Can you honestly keep your moral high ground and say that they shouldn't be stopped?" Spider-man pointed out and any kind of snarking comeback or comment Hobbie thought of were doused. "Like I told you, I help people whether that's putting away bad guys/criminals or helping people who need it. Star City's been kicked into a frenzy and a lot of people are getting hurt. Hammerhead and the Maggia are on a warpath for those drives and if they get them then old chrome don't won't stop until the Maggia are back in power. And if the Stokes, Bratva, or Triads get their hand on the money then they'll terrorize the city. If you don't want to see Star city turned into a criminal gangland and innocent people be put at risk, including your mother than help me stop them." Spider-man told him.
[Tires screeching]
Before Prowler could even respond they heard the very loud squeals and screeches of tires skidding to a brake. They were very close which is when they saw five vans skid to a stop around the park and out came dozens of Chinese Triad enforcers armed with guns and other weapons.
"Looks like we'll have to pick up this conversation another time." Spider-man handed Prowler back his helmet which he put on, concealing his identity and for protection. The eyes on his suit lit up as did the rest of his armor and he readied himself, same with Arsenal and Spider-man. The three of them found themselves in the middle of a fight together. "This park must be a great place for parties if your all here. Don't worry, we were just finishing up, so we'll get out of your hair?"
"Hand over the flash drive, Spider-man! We know you have it!" The Triad lieutenant shouted as he and his men kept their guns trained on the two masked heroes and the one masked thief.
"Flash drive? Where would I keep a flash drive in his suit? It's rather form fitting in case you haven't noticed." Spider-man pointed out.
"No stupid jokes, Spider-man. My men were watching the building when Prowler arrived and took the drive. We were planning on following him back to where he would drop them off when you showed up, so we know you have it."
"Oh, you mean this drive?" Spider-man pulled out the flash drive from his belt. "I was thinking of keeping it if you don't mind."
All the Triads raised their guns at him and cocked the hammers. "Hand over the drive and all the other ones you stole."
"I don't have them." Spider-man looked over at Prowler.
"And neither do I. I handed them over." Prowler replied when he saw Spider-man glance down to his belt where his smoke bombs were. Prowler nodded and slowly reached down to grab them.
"Then you're going to get them back for us. It's long past due that the Triads run Star City—"
"Let me just stop you there before you make this big, impassioned speech. Honestly? No one cares and it's not gonna happen because you're not getting the drives and soon enough, you'll all be in jail anyway." Spider-man shot a glob of web in the face of the leader and then another at the rifle he was holding before whipping it around, hitting the leader and another Triad goon in the face.
Prowler threw down his smoke bombs, creating a thick cloud of dense smoke that completely covered their position. The Triads opened fire through the smoke, shooting everything they had until they needed to reload and then stopped. The Triad leader held his bleeding nose in pain as he looked at the cloud of smoke for any kind of signs of the masked freaks and praying that a bullet didn't destroy the flash drive. No signs of blood flowed out of the smoke, and it was too dense for them to see any kind of figure, so they had to wait for the smoke to dissipate or send someone in.
"You three, go in there and find them!" The leader shouted, holding his broken nose and so three Triad enforcers reluctantly walked over to the smoke. They were about five feet away from it when a garbage can of all things came barreling out of the smoke and slammed into them like a bowling ball. The Triad goons hit the ground and then two arrows came out of the smoke, exploding like flashbangs so the Triads were concussed and temporarily blinded. Prowler leapt out from the smoke and fired several steel spikes from his gauntlets which speared through rifles while he fired some bolo cables and tangled up others. Spider-man then web zipped forward and sent two Triad goons flying back with a drop split kick before doing several backhand spring flips and tuck into a jumping roundhouse kick, then jump spin hook kick that knocked out two more. He shot a few globs of impact webbing to capture a few groups of two before using several shots of splitter web to yank the guns out of the hands of the Triads. Several more arrows were fired, taking down a few more as Arsenal rushed forward and tackled one goon to the ground and punched him across the face.
Prowler sliced through a pistol with his claws before landing an uppercut that knocked a Triad goon back. He then flipped through the air and punched several more Triad goons who tried to bulrush him. He dropped a magnesium flare which blinded them and allowed him to beat them down with more ease. The Prowler was a skilled thief and had some advanced tech but was just brute force and wild instinct as he punched and kicked the Triads unconscious. Prowler jumped back for some distance when he saw Spider-man rush forward and vault up a guy, back flip off his body before firing a web, web zipping back to the guy and knocking him out with a powerful punch to the face.
Spider-man jumped back to dodge a knife to the back and brought his right arm back. It glowed with the orange flicker of his bio-electric energy before he surged forward and nailed the goon with a venom strike straight punch to the chest. The goon's body was struck by the bio-electric energy and when he crashed into another goon, the electricity transferred so they were both shocked and rendered unconscious. He jumped over another goon and took out two guys with a split kick before landing in a crouch and then leaping forward. He pounced onto another goon, charging him with bio-electric energy before hurling him at another group. When he crashed into him, the venom strike electricity surged, shocking all the nearby goons at once.
"Ha, I'm getting the hang of that ability more and more." Spider-man quipped before moving his head to avoid a punch and elbowing his attacker in the nose. "Come on, guys. At least say something intelligent so we can make it interesting."
He webbed up another guy before taking him for a spin and sending him flying over into a tree. After he web zipped to the side and took out a Triad goon with a flying kick and keeping him from ambushing Arsenal from the back. Arsenal push kicked a Triad goon back and elbowed a second in the face before whacking him with his bow and spinning into a tornado kick that knocked out the first goon. He spun into a crouch and leg swept the second goon which allowed him to spin back up into a hook kick that nailed a third Triad. Arsenal followed that up with a clinch that landed several knees to the guys stomach before taking him to the ground with a grapple and a final stomp to the face that knocked him out. One Triad grabbed a pistol off the ground and aimed it at Arsenal only for Spider-man to web pull him away. He then backflipped into a moonsault onto the guy's shoulders before taking him to the ground with a reverse-hurricanrana takedown. The goon leaned up only for Arsenal to kick him across the face and fire an arrow, taking out a Triad goon who tried to reach for a gun. Spider-man snagged another Triad goon with a web and pulled, allowing Arsenal to knock him out with a roundhouse kick to the face.
Some of the Triad enforcers that were webbed up in the beginning had managed to get free. They aimed their guns at the heroes when Prowler raced by and sliced them in half with his claws. He elbowed one in the face and push kicked him away when another grabbed him from behind allowing the others to wail on him. Spider-man zipped over, and web pulled them back. Prowler headbutted the guy holding him and pushed him away before punching him in the chest. Spider-man tripped up the Triad goons, but one got up and pulled out a pistol, so he web pulled him into a punch to the face and then a tornado kick across the face. Prowler blocked and dodged a knife from one of the Triad goons before slicing the knife into pieces, headbutting the guy in the face and push kicking him into Spider-man who backflip kicked the guy in the face and then spun into a 540 spinning hook kick that sent him flying into a tree. Spider-man ducked and dodged feral punches before elbowing his attacker in the stomach and then knocking him back with a drop kick towards Prowler who grabbed him by the neck and knocked him out with a powerful chokeslam to the ground.
The hero and thief looked at one another before giving the other a respectful nod and the fighting continued. Arsenal fired the rest of the arrows in his quiver before quickly shifting to his fighting sticks and took down a few more Triad members when Diggle arrived in the van, disarming and knocking out an enforcer who went back to one of the cars for a spare gun. Spider-man backflip kicked a guy in the face and then spun into a 540 spinning hook kick that sent him flying into a tree while Prowler kicked his opponent in the groin before slamming him head first into the ground. He grabbed two Triad goons by the shirt and tossed them away which is when Spider-man drop kicked them both but fired some webbing and slammed them back into the ground.
The Triad enforcers were all taken care of, and no one was injured or hurt, thankfully. "Well…that was fun." Spider-man stated before looking over at Prowler. "Now how about we get back to our previous conversation? You ready to help stop this war before things get worse?"
And like a karmic gong going off, they heard a bunch of cellphone ringtones going off. Most were the generic phone ringing ringtone but there were a few special ones like annoying sounds or music. Spider-man, Arsenal and Prowler checked themselves and it wasn't coming from their phones as it was too loud and there were too many. The ringtones were coming from all the Triad cellphones so something at Triad HQ must have happened if they were all getting calls. Spider-man walked over and took one of their phones to check what was going on and it wasn't a phone call but a mass emergency text, likely something programmed into these phones. It was in Chinese, but his HUD translated it and it read: Everyone fall back. Hammerhead has Zhao. And there was a video attachment, so he opened it.
It appeared to be handheld video film like from a digital camera. It showed Hammerhead, dressed all up like a Prohibition-era gangster minus the hat because one wouldn't fit on his massive head.
"How are you doing Star City on this fine evening? Now, I'm sure that many of you have been aware of some troubling times that have arisen in the Glades. And the people responsible for that are right here." The camera then moved to show over seven people sitting in chairs, their hands tied behind their backs, blindfolds over their eyes, and gags in their mouths. All of them were held at gunpoint by other Maggia members, likely Hammerhead's most loyal enforcers.
Arsenal and Prowler came over to see what was going on and it seemed like a public execution video.
"Now these seven individuals are the source of your problem. We've gone Ken Shi Zhao, head of the Chinese Triads, and next to is Boris Khedavos, head of the Russian Bratva. These two decided it was a good idea to join up and fight against the Maggia to raise themselves and their groups up past the stinking piles of shit they really were. They are your enemy, Star City but we've also got to be wary of our allies." Hammerhead walked over to the other five individuals on screen. Arsenal and Prowler didn't know who they were, but Spider-man's HUD used facial recognition to identify them. Luigi Fernando Costa, Alexander Libris, Peter Guiseppe Cicero, and Mario Alberto Karnelli. They were the heads of the four other heads of the Maggia families. The Costa, Libris, Cicero, and Karnelli families respectively with the final person being Marcus Manfredi, one of the high up lieutenants with the Manfredi family who stayed in Star City when Silvermane's daughter, Sableona Manfredi fled.
"Those are the Maggia heads of the other families. And the Triad and Bratva leader." Spider-man told them.
"What is he doing?" Prowler asked.
"He's making an example of them." Arsenal said.
"Looks like I was wrong. Things have gotten worse." Spider-man said.
"Now these five here? They used to be my friends, my family but that didn't mean so much to them when they betrayed me. They decided that money and betrayal meant more to them than loyalty and people they've know their entire lives, people they've fought and bled besides." Hammerhead walked over to Luigi Costa and patted him on the head. It was clear by the look on the man's face that he was shitting his pants in pure fear. "But that's not the biggest gripe I have. It's their complete lack of respect."
Hammerhead punched one of the men square in the stomach causing him to bend over and cough his lungs out.
"You see, these two…" Hammerhead pointed to the Triad and Bratva head. "…are nothing more than thieves, trying to take what doesn't belong to them. And these miscreants…" Hammerhead gestured to the four Maggia heads. "…decided that they couldn't stomach what was to come and threw away everything they've known to work with them. And that did it. I'm a gentleman. If they had asked first, then we could have had a civilized discussion. But instead, you had to go and sneak around, turning my own men into rats, and hiring another freak in a mask to be your thief. That's the problem these days. No one has any rules and respect because they know what they are. Scum. All of these pretenders are. The Stokes…the Bratva…the Triads…hell, even the Los Halcones and the cartels. The Maggia are what made this city. All these other gangs that came after…nothing more than pretenders to the throne and I've had it with letting them skate on by or taking what they have no idea how to handle. If they had their way, then Star City would be in ruins! No more sitting back and letting others tell me what to do! No more taking orders from idiots who don't know a thing about respect and honor! And no more masked freaks making a fool of me! They're the worst! With the way things used to be, the cops knew their place! They hit us then we would hit back! Made you know your place and showed you fear! But now…now you think you can walk all over us! Because what?! Because you got lucky?! You think that with your new freaks in mask that they make you invincible?! You think the bug is gonna make you safe?!"
Hammerhead then walked over to one of the men and picked him up by the neck with one hand. He lifted him up into the air to show off a great deal of strength before he viciously slammed his forehead into the man's face five times. Each time you could hear the sound of blood spattering, flesh tearing, and the horrid sound of bones breaking against metal.
It was a difficult sight to bear witness to and the three masked men flinched. "Geez, he really is nuts." Spider-man muttered.
Hammerhead dropped the dead man to the floor and wiped his forehead of the blood, giving him a pure demented look. "No…more. If you've changed the rules than so have I. From this point on…none of you are safe. And the person you have to thank for that? The thief known as the Prowler. So, I'm making this announcement. You're little treasure hunt is over. You're not getting the last piece of the puzzle you want but go ahead and try because you'll be dead when you do. The Maggia have returned, and we are taking back Star city! Anyone who gets in our way…" Hammerhead pulled up the dead guy's body so they could see the mess his head was. "…will know exactly what this sad sap went through. I'm putting a one-million-dollar bounty on The Prowler. Anyone who can bring him dead or alive, will get rich and earn their place with the Maggia. You started this, Prowler, and now I'm ending it. And to the Spider-man…your days here are done. Hammerhead's reign has begun."
The video ended with Hammerhead's demented smile and blood-stained face before it was cut out.
"Holy crap." Spider-man said.
"Hammerhead just declared war on Star City, and he's got the leadership of his enemies. What now?" Arsenal asked.
"I don't know but he's not gonna stop until he gets back what he wants and its those drives." Spider-man looked at Prowler. "You get how serious this situation is now? So, will you help us stop him?"
Prowler just stood there and with his helmet they had no idea what he was thinking until he spoke. "Cottonmouth is the one who made the introductions. Guy name of Wesley, that's all I know. Shows up in a car and leaves shortly after always in a different warehouse. Cottonmouth lets me know he has a job leaving a signal in the alley I first started getting my drop-offs. I met him, he will give me the assignment, a burner cell and a meeting location for after. The one I just took was one part of the assignment and I'm supposed to get the other before meeting him." Prowler told him.
"He found the last drive. Where?" Spider-man asked him.
"Docks, in a private shipping yard own by the Libris family." Prowler answered.
"And if what we just saw is any indication, Prowler knows what you're going after so that place is gonna be guarded like a fortress. He'll know you're coming, and it's bound to be a trap." Spider-man pointed out.
"But if we get the drive, we have leverage. We use that to lure out Hammerhead." Prowler suggested, before reaching into his belt and taking out the flash drive. Spider-man checked his belt and saw it was missing. Prowler must have taken it during the fight with the Triad goons.
"You could have kept this and I wouldn't have known. Why?" Spider-man asked him.
"You're right. This is my fault. So let me fix it." Prowler told him.
"All right. We'll meet at the docks and plan ahead from there." Spider-man suggested.
"I'll meet you there. I need to check on my mom to make sure she's ok." Prowler said before he turned to leave.
"Prowler!" Spider-man's call got him to stop momentarily. "Be careful. Hammerhead's put a huge bullseye on your back."
"I will." Prowler fired his grapple cable and left.
"You sure that was a good idea?" Arsenal asked only for Spider-man to hold up a spider tracer. "You put a tracer on him?"
"Just covering my bases. Hopefully, soon this will all be over." Spider-man said, glad to see that Prowler has seen the light and now they can end this together. Hammerhead was going down.
Prowler had made it a few blocks away before he stopped on a rooftop. He took a few deep breaths before reaching into his belt and pulling out a second flash drive attached to a portable cloner. When he stole back the flash drive, he slipped it into the flash drive and attached a blank one to make a digital copy of the flash drive. He had the original and actually tossed Spider-man the copy. Prowler will admit that things have gotten out of hand, so it was time to get out of Star City. He would go find his mom and get her out of Star City with the money he had already made. With it, she would be fine and once he had the final drive, he'd join her and they'd both be set with all the money they could possibly want and no one would know. He had made copies of all the flash drives he had stolen and gave them to Wesley. He kept the originals so the Maggia fortune was just one flash drive away from being his but getting to it now would be next to impossible with Hammerhead now gunning for him.
Thankfully, Spider-man would make that difference. He said he was there to help, so he would use it. Prowler fired his grapple cable and left, making plans for his great escape.
But would it succeed?
End of Chapter 15
Hope you guys liked the chapter. Things have gone to hell and Hammerhead has lost it. It's time for Spider-man to end this with Prowler's help but is he really going to help him? Time will tell.
Next chapter, the culmination on the war in Star City comes to its head as Hammerhead takes charge and shows the city he means business. They fear him and it's up to Spider-man and his allies to stop him, recent among them being Prowler. But is he really an ally or will things get worse? One thing's for sure. Star City's criminal underworld won't be the same after this war. Until then!
Again, thanks to everyone for all the suggestions, reviews, and words of encouragement. Special thanks to Masamune X23, my Beta reader. He gives me a lot of great ideas for this story as well as my other ones as well. Also, thanks to War Sage, JhotoLoraxius, Omni-Creator Kami of Anime and all the other people who PM me with ideas for my stories. Thank you, guys. They help a lot. Also, make sure to check my DeviantArt every now and then for new pics I'll put up. I've made cover photos for just about all my stories, but I'll have more pics made so check them out.
Updates for August: The Blue Wolf updated on August 31st.
Updates for September: What if Superman and Omniverse Earth-38 will have chapters on September 30th.
William Alexander Detmer-Age 20/Sophomore at SCU: Birthday, October 8th, 1994
Moniker: The Spectacular Spider-man
Appearance: Tyler Posey
Uniform: Ben Reilly's dark blue and red Spider-man suit with the black spider logo and web pattern. Now STAR labs upgraded with new durable fabric and insulation, built-in HUD, and communications systems with various modes of vision. Built-in parachute and web wings and new utility belt.
Casual outfit: sneakers, blue jeans, black or red t-shirt with blue button-up or sweatshirt.
Weapons:
STAR labs upgraded Web Shooters capable of configuring to over 200 different web-shooter combinations and connected to HUD for easy configuration and control. New capacitors to hold and resist an electrical overload.
STAR Labs modified Web Grenades/Bombs, Web Trip Mines, and acid embrittlement bombs
Spider tracers, mini-camera/recording device, spider-thumb drive.
New Spider-bot. Mini-drove capable of field reconnaissance and interfacing with security systems.
Skills: Genius intellect with 250 IQ, Superhuman strength, Superhuman speed, Superhuman reflexes, Superhuman agility and balance, Super senses, accelerated healing factor, wall-crawling/adhesive stick, Spider-Sense, Night Vision, and telescopic vision, Bio-Electrokinesis/Venom strike-blast
May Detmer: Marisa Tomei
Aria Montgomery: Lucy Hale
Emily Fields: Shay Mitchell
Spencer Hastings: Troian Bellisario
Dr. Curt Connors: Dylan Baker
Yuri Watanabe: Kelly Hu
Disclaimer: I don't own Spider-man, Arrow, or any above-mentioned products. All rights belong to their respective owners, I'm just a big fan.
