Black Arrow #5

[Glippernip]

BLACK ARROW #5

Star City Nights

Written by Jim Crawbuck
Edited by Joel Sawyer


Late night, Star City, the Circle 7 convenience store on the corner of Clinton Dr. and Queen Ave.; a smash and grab robbery has gone south. Hover cars have the store surrounded. The flashing, red and white lights give a strobe effect to the immediate area. Inside the store three newly spliced thugs, trying to up their street cred, are in a panic.

One holds a handgun. He has brown-feathered wings from his under arms to his armpits and down his lats to his knees. He’s wearing a mask that looks like an eagle.

“Shut up. Get on the floor. Put your hands on your head and let me think”, he says as he paces and waves his gun at the three people who are accommodating his wishes.

Another, much shorter man with a blueish-grey tint to his skin is peaking out the window. He’s very thick and unusually stocky wearing the mask of a rhino. “We’re slag”, he says throwing his arms in the air. “There is way to many of them and we have one gun”.

The third one is bouncing his head lightly off the service counter. He’s got a long brown tail and is very hairy. He’s covering his face with an ape mask. “ I knew this idea was all spam. This is so not schway”.

“Keep it together. We got to deal with it now. This no time to get all K-fed on me,” screams the man in the eagle mask. “We have hostages we gotta think how to use’em”.

“Pause. What were you thinking here?”

Everything stops. The lights are not flashing. The eagle man is frozen in mid stride. The Ape-man is stopped in mid bounce. The rhino man is halted with a look frustration. All is silent. No hum of hover engines. No weeps and wines of hostages. No repeated knocking on the counter top. Just frozen silence.

“I was thinking that not all splicers are bad. I was thinking a misguided person like this is all we get to hear about. I was thinking why would anyone want to give up parts their humanity”.

“I meant tactically, but these are all paths of thought that pave the way to noble wisdoms. Your father thinks like that.”

“Tactically I was already with a Wally, Kory, and Mia. In that order”.

“Play”.

Then life returns to the scene. Again the lights dance on the inner walls of the store casting sporadic shadows flickering in the night. The clicks and clacks of the man heels that paces the floor in desperation. Combined with sounds of the panting and heavy breathing from the worrisome hostages.

Like an apparition Black Arrow descends through the ceiling. His deep hollowing voice booms “Kory. Vector S18.” As he hovers just above the would be thieves, He shoots an arrow that sheds its skin upon release and becomes a green energy mass. It strikes the winged man in his firing hand, propelling the gun across the floor and under an item display.

The thick little man screams, "What?"

“Recyke! It’s the Reaper,” cries the tailed thief.

“Pause. And here?”

Once again life is sucked from the action. There’s no noise and all movement has [glow=red,2,300]ceased.
[/glow]
“Little John?”


^

[Glippernip]

Standing side by side in front of the holographic projector in the Queen residence basement gym is Connor Hawk and Little John Deardon. The image being cast is the incident at the Circle 7.

“LJ, are you listening to me,” Asks Connor.

I know you didn’t mean to shoot me. I don’t care. You want to apologize. Stay away. You don’t know what you are doing and that makes you dangerous.

“I’m sorry Connor. I guess I was Daydreaming,” responds LJ.

“It’s what that police officer said to you, isn’t it?”

Connor is so together. He seems to always know what to do. He makes everything seem so black and white. I’m not so sure of that any more.

“Yeah. She’s really got me thinking”.

“What did Dad say,” Conner asks.

“He said he’d look into getting me a small business”.

“And that will solve your problem?”

I really hope so.

“That’s the thing. I don’t know,” answers LJ still seeming distracted. “What do you think?”

“That’s irrelevant. If you believe getting a job will help you, Then getting a job will help you,” answers Connor.

“I mean, do you think she’s right? Do I not truly understand the world? Am I no better then a child playing Cowboys and Indians?”

“She spoke some truths. That doesn’t necessarily make her right. All realities are created through the beholders perspective. Perception is a powerful force. And perception dictates truth but we all have our own unique perception. If you believe that you are only what she said then that’s what you are. First you must change your belief before you can change hers”.

I feel like I’m disappointing him just by asking his opinion.
“Do you believe her?” Asks LJ.

“I believe you are losing sight of the positives. I believe you are a great young man with unlimited potential. I believe all situations have both positive and negative sides to them. It’s up to us to pick the side we focus on”.

Does he believe her?
“But you didn’t answer my question,” respectful replies LJ

“I most certainly did. Every man and woman gets to this point in life. Regardless their upbringing, they question whether it would have been better to have been something else. I can tell you that this was not unexpected. The decision to bring you up the way we did was to keep you away from the worlds poisons as long as possible. Hopefully to make you purer hero then we were. To keep you as pure as possible like Shazam once was. I can tell you I believe in you. And I can also tell you; you must go through this yourself.

He’s said it before, he’ll be my guide but the journey is up to me. This seems like one of those times.
“I planned on taking out the flier first because he had the gun,” says LJ.

Connor looks LJ in the eyes and nods. “Play,” he says.


^

[Glippernip]

Once again life is trusted back into the images. The winged man grunts with the impact of the energy blast. He immediately launches into the air with both fists above his head, zooming towards the armor-clad hero.

“Jets off. Mia," whispers John just before he falls.

The eagle-masked man goes screaming through the air to where Black Arrow once was. Before Black Arrow hits the ground, and precisely when he is directly under his assailant, he fires his adhesive arrow gluing the bird man to the ceiling.

“Well done”.

“Thank you”.

Black Arrow lands flat on his back. His armor and static force shield absorb the impact. He springs from his shoulders to his feet.

Incoming six o’clock.

The words flash across the inside of his visor. He throws a fierce back kick landing on the chest of the much shorter opponent, stopping him in his tracks. Air barely has enough time to whistle out of the rhino-masked man’s lungs when Black Arrow follows up with an aerial roundhouse kick to his temple with his other leg. The small stocky man's eyes roll to the back of his head and he flops sideways onto the floor.

“I remember not believing how heavy that guy was when I landed the first kick. I swear when he hit the ground the floor shook”.

“I give. I’m sorry,” pleads the tailed man for underneath the service counter.

Black Arrow cuffs the rhino masked man hands to his feet in a hog-tied position. Then he walks around the service counter.

“What are you,” cries the bird man struggling to free himself.

Black Arrow has no response, not even a glace in the man’s direction. Instead he turns to the hostages and says, “Leave. Now,” in that low toned echo. Then he makes his way around the counter “Donna” booms the hollow Black Arrow voice as he knocks another arrow.

“No please,” cries the ape-man.

Black arrow shoots again. The arrow breaks into four pieces and lands on the sides of the tailed man. They magnetically create an invisible wall trapping the thief underneath.


^

[Glippernip]

In Gotham at a WaynePowers meeting room, Derek Powers is holding a meeting.

“I received word that another subject of Brick experiment died in Star City. It seems the serum we are giving the subjects weakens then the weight of there stone flesh caves them in. Our latest Subject, Walter Barbosa, suffered that same fate. The one serum that didn’t leave the subject's system reduced his intellect to a child’s. He calls himself the Brute and is still at large. He is impossible to control or reason with, which makes him no good to us”.

“So how can we keep the subjects strong enough to stay alive? How can we control these subjects?”

“Put your hands down. I’m going to tell you. We need to find the Bane serum”.

“Nearly fifty years ago Bane, a hire gun broke the legendary Batman’s back. He was on some sort of super steroid that was hooked up to be pumped directly into his head. It didn’t affect his ability to think. We want to find out how to make this serum and set-up. Then create another Bane. Once we create this Bane we splice him with the Brick cells,” explain Mr. Powers.

One man from his audience asks, “How will we control this subject?”

“That’s the brilliance of my plan. We will have the serum. He will need the serum to keep his own skin from collapsing on him. He will be forced to serve us if he wants to live”.

The men at the meeting mumble to each other. All, once again, impressed with Their Boss’s idea. Powers lets it settle in watching the over all impression.

“Well, get to it. I have a business to run,” he orders with a crooked grin.