Issue 7: The Cracked Diamonds pt.2

"What the fuck are you doing here, Spider Hoe?!" Spider Hope heard a very familiar voice yell from behind him.

With a sigh, the hero shooed the people away from the gang war battlefield. This was no place for them, they should get back to their normal lives and let him do the 'cleaning' of the mess happening in the alley behind him.

Once all civilians left, he turned around and found himself face to chest with none other than Mondo Oowada.

Spider Hope's day was getting very tiresome already.

"Hello, Mondo Oowada."

"I asked you a question!" the biker yelled to his face, "This is none of your business, get the fuck out of here!"

"What do you want me to say? I saw a gang war and one of you brawlers tried to harm a kid. I had to intervene." the young hero glared at the gang leader.

"I… Well it wasn't one of my boys! It must have been one of those Howling Snakes douchebags!" Mondo yelled again, but flustered.

"But snakes don't… So stupid." Spider Hope whispered in a judgmental tone, "In any case, now that I saw that your lot can't even fight in the ring without involving innocents, I have to make sure this fight ends quickly before any passerby gets hurt."

And as Spider Hope said that, he shot a web directly at some thug that was about to beat up a smaller Crazy Diamond, sticking him against the wall in one shot.

"Hey! I had tha-" but the biker didn't have the time as the hero shot another web directly against his mouth to shut him up and with one strong swing of his arm, put the guy on the floor where he got shot by another web, now sticking him on the ground.

Mondo witnessed all that and was now red with rage as he turned around to glare at the midget Spider Hero. But he was gone.

"No time to dance with you, big boy. I have a fight to stop!" the biker gang leader heard the cocky super hero exclaim from above his head.

"HEY!" Mondo roared before punching an approaching rival gang member square in the nose, knocking him out instantly.

With the 'help' of the young hero, the fight was over shortly, with most of the thugs webbed against the walls or the floor. Only Mondo was left standing and he was himself surprised by that.

"Why… Why didn't you stick me on the walls like the rest of my men…?" he asked as he cleaned his mouth of the blood he was spewing from the few hits that managed to hit home.

"Well… I wanted to speak to you." Spider Hope started.

Mondo wanted to retort that he had nothing to talk about with the twerp but it was wrong. He still wanted to know about the whole deal with the arrests. The young hero saw his silence as an invitation to continue.

"It's about the whole drug trafficking."

"Oh for the last time! The Crazy Diamonds aren't that kind of assholes! We have rules and morals!" the gang leader roared in frustration.

"And I believe you, Mondo. But either some of your members are doing business behind your back or they are impostors." Spider Hope raised his hands as he calmly listed his hypothesis, "I know now that you wouldn't stand so low to do that kind of crime."

"...How do you know that?"

"Because I respect you."

At that claim, Mondo blinked a couple of times and looked away. Maybe he was feeling embarrassed or he just couldn't accept his respect after all that happened.

"I've done my research on the kind of troublemaker I would bump into when I started this whole superhero thing. I was expecting to cross paths with the Crazy Diamonds at one point but my worry disappeared when I saw that the only infractions you guys did were speed limits or being too loud during the night. And some fights with rival gangs. But you never involved innocent people or killed anyone. And I respect that more than anything."

Mondo stared at the young hero with wide eyes after hearing his speech. But unbeknownst of Spider Hope, those encouraging words felt more like a burden for the biker leader due to a great and dark secret. But he took a deep breath, normally he would just start an anger tantrum but he was too tired from the fight earlier. And he knew that Spider Hope would kick his ass.

"I still won't believe you without proof. Show me proof and I'll think about it…" he lied.

Then out of nowhere, the young spider hero slapped his forehead.

"A picture! Of course! Why didn't I think of that earlier?! Alright! I'll go grab a camera and next time I encounter a member of Crazy Diamonds dealing drugs I'll take pictures to show you. And you must act on it! Deal?" Spider Hope exclaimed, already ready to jump off towards the roof.

"Uh, s-sure. But wait! You're just gonna leave me here like this?" Mondo stopped him.

At that, Spider Hope raised an eyebrow from under his mask.

"What do you mean?"

"W-Well, wouldn't it be weird if I'm the only one who didn't get webbed? Plus I'm sure the cops are coming soon a-and if I'm the only one who got out, weird rumors of me being a coward who fled the fight or that we're in cahoot could start." the young man with the pompadour said, flustered.

"Eh. Leader goes down with his team, or something like that?"

"Y-Yeah! Exactly! So do your job and I do mine, okay? I'll be out of the station in a jiffy anyway." Mondo said as he walked towards the wall to be webbed against it, "Do your worst!"

But then, only one hand got webbed.

"Wh-What are you doing?"

"What? I webbed you, it's not my fault you managed to break free and save as many of your friends before the police arrived." Spider Hope shrugged before swinging himself up towards the roof.

The cockiness in his voice made it clear that he was smirking under his mask.

"I-I don't need your pity! You hear me!?" Mondo yelled before breaking himself free and doing exactly what the Spider Hero said.

That evening, the Crazy Diamonds gang were celebrating their 'victory' at a hangout spot at some park, drinking and looking at some pizzeria menu while playing 'Rock Paper Scissors' on to who would go get them.

But they were also celebrating the bravery of their boss who, despite getting webbed by the shithead Spider Hoe, managed to break free and help the remaining webbed members escape the fight scene before the cops arrived.

"Great… Another lie to bear…" Mondo grumbled depressingly under his breath while drinking a can of beer.

He wasn't feeling very festive, but more importantly, he was thinking about what Spider Hope told him earlier that day, after the fight… Would some of his boys be dumb enough to do shady business? Or are they impostors… No it can't be, if they were he wouldn't be this agitated, he remembers the faces of all members… He thinks. But he did remember seeing the ones who got jailed a few times during their rides.

He needed to get to the bottom of this, and clearly fighting and losing to Spider Hoe wasn't helping at all. He looked to his right, where Takemichi Yukimaru, his right hand man, who despite being the youngest in the gang, even younger than himself, was the most loyal and fierce of them all.

"Yo, Takemichi." he called.

"Yeah, Boss?" the kid turned his head to look at his boss while drinking some apple juice.

"Can you do me a favor for tomorrow? Can you check the background of every member who got their ass handed by that Spider Hoe and got jailed?" Mondo demanded.

"Uh, sure thing. But why? You're not believing what that spider is saying, right?"

"Nah. But… just to be extra sure…" Mondo said as he looked towards the floor.

The next day, thanks to a camera that he borrowed from his father, Naegi Makoto once again found some Crazy Diamonds doing shady deals in a dark alleyway and took as many pictures as possible of the deal before eventually kicking their butts and handing them to the police.

After printing the pictures, and erasing them from the camera as he did not want his father to find that kind of pictures in there, there was only one thing left to do: wait for Mondo's challenge where he'll expose the evidence and finally have him do something about this whole case.

But the day after, instead of meeting with Mondo as usual, he saw his bike and a couple of others parked near an empty warehouse, but what really worried him was when he saw two large vans parked next to the bikes and a dozen men walk out of it armed with bats, knives and chains. And some of them were also wearing the Crazy Diamond uniforms!

Something bad was going to happen inside that building, and he didn't need any spider sense to know that. So he swung himself against a window and sneaked his way in. Silently and secretly he stuck himself to the ceiling and saw that Mondo and three other Crazy Diamonds were surrounding another.

Spider Hope checked his web shooters as he could feel a fight coming up and slowly hung down to better hear the conversation.

"So, Tsukochi… You know why we called you here, right?" Mondo glared at the older man he had surrounded.

"Hm.. I think I know but why not tell me just to be certain…" Tsukochi, an older biker with a black pompadour that had his hair turned like a tornado, grinned mockingly.

Mondo was already feeling his blood boil from the shit-eating grin and wanted to punch that guy's teeth in but one of his boys stepped in.

"We did some digging and we found out that every, single, jackass who got jailed had two things in common…" the young man started, talking to his elder without holding the venom in his voice, "One. They all joined the Crazy Diamonds a month or so ago. And two. They all mainly hang out with you who also joined around the same time."

"So?"

"Well… That makes you suspicious of what's been going on with the drug trafficking! A prime suspect!" Another member exclaimed, pointing a finger at him.

"Aand…?" Tsukochi moved his hands as if to ask them to go on, but when he saw that the four bikers surrounding him were at a loss of words, he sighed loudly in disapproval, "You gotta be kidding me. That's it? That's all you got? Man, if I knew you were so stupid I wouldn't have planned all that…"

"The fuck are you talking about?" Mondo glared while cracking his knuckles.

"All new members of the Crazy Diamonds, and all the ones who got jailed were members of old gangs you bastards forced to dissolve! You morons actually let old enemies into your ranks without even checking!" Tsukochi roared laughing, "All we had to do was to say that we wanted to join and that we knew how to ride a bike and you'd just hand us the coat! How dumb is that?!"

"Why on Earth are you doing all that for? If you wanted revenge, wouldn't it be simpler to just fight us?" Takemichi exclaimed, but he was mostly confused, like the rest of his friends.

"You guys really aren't smart, eh? We wanted to ruin the Crazy Diamonds' reputation, of course! Having members dealing drugs to teenagers and the like, that would definitely get the attention of the public, cops and even that Spider-Hope! I was actually hoping for that dumb Hero to kick all your asses but eh. Didn't happen."

The traitor let out another chuckle as he shook his head, « You know, that was unbelievably irresponsible of you, Mondo Oowada. Your brother wouldn't have made such a dumb mistake. »

"Alright. I heard enough. Clench your cheeks asshole, 'Cause I'm gonna whoop your ass so hard your mom won't even recognize you!" Mondo roared as he now cracked his neck alongside his knuckles, his anger now having reached a critical point.

"Oh? We'll see about that." Tsukochi smirked with confidence.

"Uh… are you blind? It's four of us against you." one of the Crazy Diamonds laughed out loud.

"I wouldn't be so sure." The traitor smirked.

As in on cue, thirty or so armed men entered the room and surrounded the four Crazy Diamonds bikers.

"You fucking coward! You set us up!" Takemichi shouted as he raised his hands for a fight.

"You said it was four on one, right? From where I stand, I coooount… thirty-two on four." Tsukochi smirked sadistically.

The situation looked very dire for the four bikers, they were surrounded, outnumbered and most of all, unarmed. How were they going to win this?! Mondo snarled as he looked at his boys then at the enemy, there was no way out. None at all… But as all hope seemed lost…

"Actually, from where I stand…" a voice echoed throughout the room.

As everyone started to look around for the source of that voice, two of the armed thugs suddenly got pulled towards the ceiling. It didn't take long for everyone to understand what was going on. Even less when they saw the recognizable green hoodie appear in their field of vision.

"Spider Hoe!"

The Spider Hero was slowly lowering himself upside down from a web, eyes fixed on the leader of the little army of thugs.

"It's Spider Hope! Also, I count thirty against five." the hero smirked under his mask.

"Five? You mean-" Mondo started but the hero cut him.

"Yeah I'll assist you. I heard everything and those buttheads are clearly the villains here."

"I-I said I didn't need your pity!"

« Tch! You think having one more guy on your side is gonna change anything?! Get'em guys! » Tsukochi ordered with a shout and chaos started.

Spider Hope was the first to act as he let himself drop in front of Mondo and his friends, and fired both his web shooters directly into two mens who got immobilized, linked to him by a strand of webbing. He grabbed a hold of both strings and yelled for his allies to crouch before spinning around and slamming the two thugs against their comrades.

Only Tsukochi and six other grunts had the brains to also follow the hero's order and avoided getting hit by the attack.

When Spider Hope jumped into the fray to fight the large group of thugs, the traitor and his six allies charged at Mondo and his friends.

"Mondo Oowada is mine!" Tsukochi snarled as he tried to punch the leader of the Crazy Diamonds, just to get hooked to the side of his face, rending unconscious immediately.

Spider Hope was disarming, kicking and punching his big group of thugs. Dodging as much as he could but sometimes got hit when more than two came at him at the same time. But thanks to his webs, he could swing himself away and slingshot himself back to the fight, taking out one or two thugs that way. All in all, he was winning no problem.

At one moment during the scuffle, he and Mondo bumped shoulders.

"Hey watch where you're kicking ass!" the leader of the Crazy Diamonds exclaimed.

"Wow, sorry. Oh! I forgot I got these for you." Spider Hope said as he reached for his pocket and pulled out four little papers.

"The fuck are those? Couldn't wait after the fight?" Mondo yelled as he took the papers.

"They are pictures of Crazy Diamonds thugs selling drugs. Perfect proof!" Spider Hope jumped away.

"Wha- I- Gu- Are yo- Are you fucking with me?!" Mondo was seeing red again, or at least more than before.

Spider Hope only answered by not looking his way and only raising his index and thumb fingers in a matter to say 'a little bit'.

"AAARGH! I'M GONNA BEAT YOUR ASS!" the teenager with the pompadour roared before charging at the hero.

"Wow, dude! It was just a joke! Wait, MOVE!" The Hero exclaimed before pointing his web shooter towards somewhere behind Mondo who thankfully jumped out of the way when he fired the web.

It stuck to the weapon a thug had in hands, ready to bash the back of the skull of Takemichi, and with one pull the weapon struck the thug's skull instead, knocking him out. The young kid biker turned around at the sound and couldn't help himself from blushing in embarrassment and thanked the hero for saving him.

"You're welcome!" Spider Hope smiled.

Mondo growled a thanks too for saving his right hand man and went back to fighting the thugs, dropping the joke from earlier.

After a short while, all the enemies were down while no Crazy Diamonds was seriously injured. They took a beating but won in the end.

Spider Hope was already rounding up the thugs in one corner, wondering if he should just do like the Spider Men in the US and do a big web cocoon ball with all the thugs in it, it would be easier for the police to get them.

No one noticed that Tsukochi regained consciousness and brandished a knife from his pocket while glaring at Mondo Oowada, it was only when he rushed at him and yelled his name that everyone shifted their attention to him.

"Oowadaaaa!" the traitor yelled as he swung his knife at his target.

Thankfully, Mondo dodged fast enough for the knife to barely cut his shirt. And as Tsukochi was about to take another swing, his weapon got pulled out of his hands by a web from Spider Hope.

"Hey! Give that ba-" he complained but got interrupted by a fist to the guts by the leader of the Crazy Diamonds.

The young Hero then slid towards the action to deliver an uppercut to Tsukochi. The traitor tried to recover but both Mondo and Spider Hope both punched his face at the same time, sending him flying and knocking him out instantly for good.

"Alright, now it's over." Spider Hope sighed while clapping his hands clean.

As he was about to go back into making a 'thug web ball' for the police he was going to contact, he heard Mondo grumble something behind him.

"Is there something wrong, Mondo Oowada?" he asked.

"I'm just saying thank you… you saved our bacon earlier, even Takemichi's life. When I thought all hope was lost… you appeared. So. Thank you!" Mondo roared and bowed deeply, hiding his face flushed with embarrassment.

"Yes! Thank you, Spider Hoe- Hope!" The three other Crazy Diamonds bikers bowed alongside their boss.

The hero didn't say anything, feeling embarrassed. He then approached Mondo and put a hand on his shoulder to make him straighten himself up.

"You're welcome. Anything to help an amazing leader as yourself. You're a strong and incredible young man, Mondo Oowada. Plus your hair is awesome. I'm more than happy to have been your ally for this fight." Spider Hope said with enthusiasm as he reached for a handshake.

"Hehe. Thanks, man. You're pretty great yourself!" Mondo smirked and grabbed his hand back for a manly handshake.

"Have I told you how great your haircut is? I really want to try it one day."

"-And that's how Spider Hope and I became buds!" Mondo exclaimed with his arms crossed and a smug look on his face while every other classmate was looking at him with expressions going from amazement to doubt.

Then all of a sudden, the blonde heir walked away from the group with a huff and an annoyed look on his face.

"What a waste of my time. When you said that you had information about that vigilante Spider Hope, I didn't know you would be telling us a make believe story of true events." Togami sighed, "Let's go back to practice everyone."

Class 78 was in the middle of PE until Hiro said something that the exercise was so hard that not even Spider Hope could do it (despite having more than half the students of the class doing it with barely any difficulty). Then Mondo said something about having a story about Spider Hope and everyone got intrigued.

"'Make Believe?!' That case was fucking real! It was in the news and stuff, you douchebag!" Mondo exclaimed.

"LANGUAGE!" Taka shouted.

And just like that, another banter between classmates started. But Yamada and Naegi were a bit on the back, looking at everything happening. Then the artist leaned towards the Luckster's ear and whispered.

"Naegi-dono. Did everything Oowada-dono tell us true?" he asked.

"Actually, most of it was accurate until the last bit. There weren't thirty or so people in that building but only twelve. And half of them ran away when I arrived. And of course, I didn't go that far with my compliments when everything was wrapped up." Naegi smiled awkwardly while scratching the side of his face.

"Really? But the way Oowada-dono told the fight made it sound like it really happened."

"Tell me about it! For a second I was even doubting my own memories. But no, haven't been in that kind of big brawl yet." Naegi laughed.

But unbeknownst to both teenagers, a certain lavender haired girl was staring at them, and in particular at the Ultimate Luckster…

To be continued…

Baka's notes: Hey! Been a while!

Hopefully you like this chapter! Sorry that all my other projects are taking so long to update, I just have so many things to do! Between the fics, my drawings and 3D, plus playing games. I barely have the time for any! It's hard to jungle with so much...

In any case, next update from me is either Slayers or Despair in Lobotomy!

See you soon!