Arsenal: Legend Watcher #9

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Arsenal: Legend Watcher Issue #9
Striking Back

Written by Jim Crawbuck (Royharper)
Edited by Daniel Dyer (Spider-Man Beyond)

The wind kicks up. Dust, leaves and loose papers get thrown in every direction as the LexCorp helicopter comes in for a landing on top of the LexTower in Washington. The wind begins to die down again as the propellers slow. The pilot side door opens and Agent Calvi steps out. He reaches back in to the helicopter cab and yanks George Glass out.

George stumbles, then falls face first onto the ground. His hands are tied behind his back. His feet are tied together and he’s gagged. He tries to pull his hands out but to no avail.

There’s a loud crash. The door to the roof is violently thrust open. An arrow sails less then an inch past Vin’s cheek. With a Thwack! it imbeds itself into the hull of the helicopter.

“You missed,” states Vin.

Standing in the doorframe of the stairwell is a man in full body armor. The shades of red and orange helps compliment the definition of his already near perfect male form. The sun sparkles off the red lenses in his sunglasses. The wind gives life to his red hair as it gently sways with the breeze. His bow in his left hand and his quiver full, every inch of him looks ready for confrontation. Even the clump of red hair beneath his bottom lip looks angry.

“Please,” groans Arsenal, “I’m just being sporting.”

“So how do you want to this?” asks Vin, his eyes narrow and his hand readies above his side arm.

The breeze sends a couple of leaves swirling between them, dancing just above the ground.

Arsenal smirks. “Go ahead, Vinny. Reach for it. It’s on you.”

^

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Earlier that day, in the biggest office in LexCorp’s home base in Metropolis, on the highest floor, Lex Luthor himself gets a visited from a ghost of his past.

“…And further more, Ms. Tackmonger, I’ll need a Grande Decaf Non-fat Latte,” says Lex Luthor into an intercom. He reaches into his pocket and takes out his personal cell phone. “Well, Color me amused.” He laughs to himself when he looks to see who was calling. “Nice trick, Director Sullivan. You always were a clever little minx. You must tell me how you got your name to appear in my caller ID. I see we’ve done away with the Chloe these days.”

“No, Mr. Luthor, my friends call me Chloe,” snaps Director Sullivan. Back in high school I was a reporter for the school paper. My senior year, LexCorp got interested in Smallville property. He forced a lot of my friends and neighbors off their land. So I did a little digging.

“Ouch. You wound me, Sullivan. You used to be such a polite little girl.”

“Hurt you? Are you trying to imply you have a heart?” I stumbled across some forged documents and some shady lawyer tricks. I had proof that LexCorp was making its own contract loop holes. Then exploiting them. The article made a bigger stir then I expected.

“Such discontent. This phone call is becoming unpleasant. You went through all this trouble of getting this private number, hacking its caller ID just to insult me? I think not. You are far too driven to do something that just waists your precious time. So, please, stop wasting mine,” politely pleads Lex.

“Fair enough, Lex.” Right before my family got notice that LexCorp was suing for slander, my school was broken into. The place was trashed, graffiti, broken windows and chairs, destroyed along with every stitch of evidence I had on LexCorp. They called it Vandalism.

“Oh, Goodie. A drop of formality,” sarcastically adds Lex.

“We are on to it, Lex. We know about the crew on the moon when the meteor shower came crashing to Earth. We know the potential of those men’s offspring. We know about Vincent Calvi and he is not making it back to you with that kid.” My family lost everything. If it weren’t for the kindness of the Kents, my family might not have ever got back on its feet. I might not have gone to college despite my scholarships. He almost destroyed me before I began.

Lex chuckles.

“You find that amusing, Lex?” asks Chloe.

“I find you amusing, Sullivan. I have no idea what you are talking about. I most certainly will order an investigation if a government office such as yourself believes my company might be involved with such shenanigans. I will co-operate in anyway. I’m assuming you have no proof that leads to me. Otherwise I wouldn’t get the pleasure of this phone call.”

“Is that your assumption?” asks Chloe. That is when I got a hard lesson in the dark side of capitalism. Lex Luthor himself stopped me as I was exiting the courtroom to make sure I understood that lesson.

Lex chuckles again. “Burden of proof, my dear. Although I know you are not accusing me of anything because slander is a messy issue.”

“No. I’m not. I have nothing that personal implicates you. What I have now is an official reason to keep an eye on LexCorp,” concedes Chloe. “You should consider this a warning.”

“Ms. Sullivan…”

“Director Sullivan,” interrupts Chloe.

“Director Sullivan. This is not Smallville or the schoolyard. You are a very tiny dancer in contest with giants. You have a history of biting off more than you can chew. As concerned acquaintance from your past, make sure you are still playing in your league. Dancing with the big boys could get you squashed.”

“I appreciate the concern and you should know you just crossed into my jurisdiction. You’ll find out in this ballroom, I have a great deal of rhythm,” retorts Chloe.

“Good day, Director.”

“Good day.”

Lex hangs up his phone. He pushes the button on the intercom.

“Ms. Tackmonger.”

“Yes, Mr. Luthor?”

“Get immediate word to Mr. Illard in Washington. Tell him to come here ASAP. Take his three best associates with him. After all, he did get me the boy’s presumed died older brother for us,” boast Lex.

“Yes, Mr. Luthor.”

“And close down the Washington Branch. Make sure to leak the news to the press.”

“Yes, Mr. Luthor.”

^

[Spider-Man Beyond]

The wind whistles over the tower roof in a small gust. It picks up a cloud of dust orbited by light debris. With that, Vinny reaches for his gun. Just as the barrel clears the holster Vinny opens his hand and grunts, takes two steps sideways to regain his balance. He wraps his hand in his shirt. Which becomes quickly saturated with his own blood. He notices the tip of his trigger finger lying on the floor. His gun is dangling off an arrow shaft, by the ring around the trigger, stuck into the cab of the helicopter. He looks to the doorframe to see what his opponent is up to.

Arsenal has an arrow with a thick tip already knocked and is slowly approaching.

Vinny looks back at the gun.

“Go for it,” pleads Arsenal. “You might have a chance, right? This is one of those things that will haunt you the rest of your life if you don’t try. You’ll forever think ‘What if I went for the gun? I could’ve taken him’. When I’m done with you I want to make sure there’s no doubt.”

Vinny doesn’t move or respond in any way.

“I said go for it,” demands Arsenal. “NOW!” he screams.

Out of fear and instinct, Vinny makes a dive towards his gun. Well, before Vinny can even get close enough to touch it another arrow hits it. This arrowhead bursts, incasing the gun in an adhesive gel.

Arsenal throws his bow to the side as he marches to Vinny.

Vinny’s eyes widen and his free hand begins to tremble.

“Where not done, Vincent,” barks Arsenal. “I told you, I’m being sporting.”

He unfastens the belt on his quiver, letting gravity take it. It bounces off the ground, spilling arrows like a fresh game of pick-up-sticks. Still marching at an even rate, he sheds all his weapons and gadgets in the same manor.

“There’s still a chance you can leave with that boy,” Arsenal says as he cracks his knuckles. “Judging by that shiner and swollen nose you’ve already had a tough time at this. So I’ll even give you first swing. You knock me out. You can leave.”

“Where the hell is everybody? Where the hell is security?” cries Vinny, backing himself into the helicopter’s tail.

“Oh, Vincent. This place was closed down earlier today. Didn’t you get the memo?” asks Arsenal. “We have full co-operation from Lex Luthor to do whatever is necessary to clear up this mess. Ain’t job security a bit…”

Vinny interrupts Arsenal with a haymaker mark for his head.

Arsenal ducks, catching Vin’s wrist above his head. As he stands back up, he drives Vin’s elbow up with his other hand, forcing it to bend in the opposite direction. It snaps with a bone-shivering crunch. Vinny cries in agony.

“Courtesy of Deathstroke, Vinny,” gloats Arsenal. “This one is for my own pleasure.” Arsenal follows that with an elbow to Vinny’s eye reopening the cut Kevin gave him.

Vinny desperately fights back tears and trying to keep his jaw from quivering. “Some hero you are. I can’t even defend myself anymore.”

“Tell Kathy when you see her, Roy says ‘What’s up?’” Arsenal requests, ignoring Vinny’s plea. “This one is for Kevin”. He grabs both of his shoulders and pulls Vinny into a head butt right on the bridge of his already broken nose.

Vinny’s body stiffens, then goes limp. Arsenal lets go and he crashes to the floor.

Arsenal goes over to an arrow he dropped earlier and cuts the boy free.

“You alright, kid?”

“Yes sir. I’m fine. Are you alright?”

“I feel much better now,” replies Arsenal without a hint of remorse. “You must be George Glass.”

“You must be another DEO Agent,” says George.

“I am. My handle is Arsenal,” answers Arsenal, removing his sunglasses. “You can call me Roy.”

“That man killed the other DEO Agent,” George tells Roy.

“He would have had to, to get you here,” mumbles Roy, looking down for a moment.

“My mother likes you,” insists George.

“And how do we know this?”

“She just told me.”

“Really? Just now?” asks Roy, knowing there’s no women on the roof and looking in his ear for a speaker.

“Yes, she says it’s in your eyes,” George says with a smile.

Roy puts his arm around the boy and starts leading him to the stairs, picking up his equipment on the way.

“Yeah. I have that effect on woman,” sighs Roy.

“What about him?” asks George.

“Shhhh. He’s sleeping,” says Roy. Mental note to self, Roy: No more head butts. Roy rubs his brow.

^

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Back at DEO headquarters in New York, later on that same evening, Chloe Sullivan gets word.

“That’s great work, Harper. It’s just a shame Vinny got away,” Chloe says in the phone.

“No. It’s fine. It gives me a chance to beat him again one day,” replies Roy.

“Well, get the kid to me. So we can get him to science geeks and close this case for a little while. While we were chasing George, the meta population exploded in our own back yard,” quickly briefs Chloe.

“Alright, Director. You can brief me when I get there. And Chloe…”

“Yeah. I’m still here.”

“Thank you.”

“Nice try, Harper,” laughs Chloe. “You still owe me big time. Prepare to work your buns off.”

“You just can’t keep your mind off my buns,” taunts Roy.

“Just get them here, Harper,” says Chloe while rolling her eyes. Baby steps, Chloe, we can’t expect overnight miracles.

The end for now.