Unlimited Legends #19 (Featuring the Spectre)

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Unlimited Legends #19
The Friend and the Revenge

Featuring...

Written by Ryan Bush (Watchmen12)
Edited by Daniel Dyer (Spider-Man Beyond)

Two Weeks Ago

Deadman was lost. It was not like it had never happened before really. After all, Limbo is really just a dimension full of mist and there is no handy little map with a big arrow saying “YOU ARE HERE”.

So, anyways, Deadman was lost and was just stumbling around until he bumped into him. He had heard about him, ghost white and green cloaked, but he had never seen him before. That was until now.

“What are you doing here?” the Spectre asked.

“Really I don’t know, about a year ago, you see, I died right, and for some reason, I’m not dead, and all I know is this woman’s voice I keep hearing, right, and I think she might be God, but…”

“Stop, I heard enough, and she is not God. What exactly she is you will learn someday, so why has your soul not gone on to be judged?” again asked the Spectre.

“Well, I don’t know really, you see the woman’s voice, it tells me what to do and where to go and stuff, but I don’t know what I am here to do,” responded Deadman to the other ghost’s interrogations.

There was a pause, as if the Spectre was thinking of something.

“Tell me of your death?” he asked the man who was still dressed in his circus costume.

“Well, it kinda goes like this, the circus was doing marvelous, doing many sell out shows, especially with my show. So naturally this attracted the attention of one of the biggest Chicago Gangsters.

“They arrived a day before my last show, began leaning on the owners, telling them to pony up and that if they did they would protect the circus from any “accident”. The owners refused them.

“A day later I was shot in midair, and I fell, and well, I died.”

“Did you ever see the boss?” the Spectre asked.

“Yeah, at least, I think I did. He looked kinda old, with wrinkles all over his face. He was kinda short, too. They kept calling him Benson and…”

“Benson?” asked the Spectre.

“Yeah, Benson.”

And with that the Spectre turned around and opened a door that wasn’t there previously.

“Where are going. I haven’t told you everything yet?” asked Deadman.

“I have heard enough, and Benson was the boss. He also killed me.”

“Wait, can I come with you? He, in a way, killed me, too, you know?”

“What can you offer me in help?”

“I can, like, inhabit people’s bodies and make them do whatever I want.”

“Like they’re puppets and you’re the puppeteer?”

“Yeah, I mean, I guess so.”

“Then yes, you may come. I may need your talents in the end.”

And together the two ghosts walked though the door.

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Two Years Ago

Commissioner James Gordon was just sitting at his desk in his office, when Renee Montoya came bursting in.

“Sir, I think I have finally found Loeb. I think he’s in Metropolis!” she said excitedly.

James then picked up the phone and began to place a call to the Metropolis police department.

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Stepping off the plane, Benson (or Loeb to some) gazed at his new turf, Chicago. With the police closing in on his operation in Metropolis he decided a change of scenery was in order.

“Fatty, Fatty McCollum, would you get my bags please?” asked the mob boss to a rather large man who was waiting at the bottom of the stairs.

When Fatty returned with the bags and put them in the car, he joined Benson in the back seat.

“Now, Fatty, do we know who ratted me out in Metropolis?” he asked him as he unwrapped a eucalyptus drop. Benson knew that Fatty was a major suck-up who would do anything to get ahead, even rat out his best friend.

“Yes, it was Crazy Eyes Margo,” he responded.

“Fine… I want him taking care of.”

“We can have Bats Randahl in the air and on a plane back to Metropolis before midnight, sir.”

“That will do fine, Fatty. And make sure Bats has a good bat this time. Something of high quality. I don’t want to have to hear of this Crazy Eyes again.”

“That’s what he is good at, Boss. That’s what he is good at.”

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Now

Even though it was two years ago, James still hates that they didn’t catch Loeb in Metropolis, but somehow he escaped. Renee is back looking for where he might have went, but with little gangster activity in Gotham, no thanks to the Batman, there really isn’t anyone connected to other gangster organizations in other cities.

“Sir, I think I have found Loeb again,” said Renee Montoya as she placed a stack of pictures on the Commissioner’s desk. The pictures where of Loeb and another man who was in a military uniform talking in what appeared to be a diner.

“Who is this other man and where were they taken?” asked the Commissioner.

“The man, we’re not sure of, but the pictures were taken in your old hometown, Chicago.”

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Two Weeks Ago

In an alley in Chicago smoke began to bellow as two figures walked through a doorway that wasn’t ever there before.

“Where are we?” asked Deadman.

“Chicago, now lets go find our killer,” said the Spectre as he strode out of the alley.

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

One Week Ago

After only a week of searching they had final found the house that Mob Boss Benson called home. The Spectre and Deadman arrived at the house to find it empty.

The Spectre decided to wait, he couldn’t help but think about how Benson’s did the same thing to him ten years ago. But tonight he would finally be able to deliver justice to his killer.

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Now

James hung up the phone and called in Renee.

“What is it, Commissioner?” she asked him as she walked in.

James began to rub his eyes as if he was tired.

“I just called the Chicago Police Department. Allegedly, about a week ago, the house Loeb owned and operated out of, burned down. When the Fire Marshall’s investigated the fire, they found a bunch of smoldering candles. They believe that’s what burned down the house.”

“So, we missed him again, didn’t we?” said Renee with a sigh.

“Yep, it looks like we did.”

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

One Week Ago

The mobsters slowly started to arrive at Benson’s house. The Spectre had made himself invisible and Deadman is only visible to the dead, so he really didn’t have to hide.

Finally Benson himself arrived.

“Alright, I want everyone quiet, and…”

He never finished his sentence, because he suddenly noticed there was a green-cloaked man in the back. One he had seen before, ten years ago. Others slowly started to look back and quickly they pulled out their guns.

“What are you waiting for?” he shouted. “Shoot him.”

And so they started firing, but the bullets just passed through him and began to blow holes in the wall.

The Spectre raised his hand and swept it over the men in the room, everyone except Benson. Suddenly the whole room was filled with candles and slowly he began to walk towards Benson. And as he walked by a candle, it would catch fire.

“Do you remember me, Benson? Ten years ago, at Claire’s house.”

“Get away from me!” Benson screamed in a girl like octave as he tried to make it to the door.

But here is where Deadman comes in; he inhabited the mobster’s body, preventing him from leaving. And controlling him he made him turn around.

The Spectre approached Benson, wrapping him in his cloak, and then they disappeared.

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Now

“You Ok, Commissioner?” asked Renee.

“Yes, I guess so. I mean this time we were so close and… did it just get chilly in here?” asked James Gordon to Renee, but when he asked, as if in answer, he could see his breath.

Suddenly they both realized that they were no longer alone, because standing there was a man in green with his arms folded over his chest.

“Hello, James, it has been a long time,” the ghost said.

“Who are you?” asked Gordon to the Ghost.

And then the Spectre removed his hood, causing James to recognize his face instantly.

“Jim, Jim Corrigan!”

“Yes, James, and I have a present for you,” said the Spectre

The Spectre removed his cloak and out plopped Benson, shaking and mumbling something about “...he was right.”

“What is he babbling about?” asked Renee to Corrigan.

“Nothing of your concern,” he answered rather sternly. “James, it was great seeing you again and I hope to see you soon.”

And with that, the Specter disappeared.

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Limbo

Deadman was waiting on the other side as the Spectre entered.

“Was it really necessary to keep him for a week?” he asked the Spectre.

“Yes, it was. There was a question that needed to be answered, and he is someone who can provide some answers.”

“Answers to what?”

“Answer as to where a certain angel is, but really it is of my concern, not yours.”

And with that the Spectre left Limbo, and returned to Earth to fulfill the task he was given by God.

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Two Days Later

James sat alone in the diner. He wasn’t even sure if he would show up. That is until a hand landed on his shoulder.

“Thanks for waiting, James.”

“You know, Corrigan, you are the only person to ever called me James,” he said to the normal looking chap as he sat down.

“I know,” he responded.

“So what have you been up to?” he asked as the waitress poured them both some coffee.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

The End of the Beginning...