Spider Quinn 21 A View of Oakwood and Ruins - Part 7

 

The Enigma lowered the forcefield she had used to protect herself and Dafoanairi. “Of course he’d trap it like that!” she groused.

 

“Whatever this thing is, he’s considering it worth the risk to sacrifice vehicles for,” Dafoanairi snarked.

 

SpiderGirl and Ninja Talon then swung down from the trees. “You tripped a trap?” SpiderGirl asked.

 

“You’d do the same,” the Enigma retorted.

 

“Not the same way,” SpiderGirl responded. “I’d throw the parts clear.”

 

“But if we’re might careful, he might also booby trap the mound,” Dafoanairi pointed out.

 

“I won’t let that happen,” SpiderGirl said. She swung back up into the canopy.

 

 

She approached the spot where Osborn was talking to the new arrivals.

 

“According to the satellite scans, Aldridge was going to find it either tonight or tomorrow. Just hold off the vigilantes and I’ll have it unearthed by sunrise,” Osborn said.

 

“But they may act in unpredictable ways,” one of the agents spoke up.

 

“I’m aware of that, but it would take them time to come up with a strategy that would work for them. Time they won’t have.”

 

‘That’s what you think,’ SpiderGirl thought as she swung back in the direction of the other vigilantes.

 

 

Ninja Talon had been thinking about a strategy. But the biggest issue was that she hadn’t really seen the silent vigilante in action. But she did know the Enigma and Dafoanairi’s strengths and weaknesses well enough. ‘We can disrupt Osborn’s plans by keeping the agents busy, but also feinting attacks on him. Spidey and the Enigma can be flashy and can use their powers to disarm and restrain them. Dafoanairi and I can keep them on their toes and try to distract Osborn.’

 

SpiderGirl returned. “Osborn thinks we’ll take too long to come up with a strategy.”

 

“I already have the basics,” Talon said.

 

“That’s great!”

 

 

Dafoanairi thought about the strategy Ninja Talon laid out. She had to admit that it was very good. ‘That still doesn’t narrow down who she is,’ she thought. But that wasn’t what she wanted to dwell on while trying to stop Osborn from desecrating a First Nations site. “I can certainly do it. But it will get tiring well before sunrise, given it’s still several hours.’

 

“Let’s do it,” the Enigma said.

 

“Of course you would be enthusiastic about this,” SpiderGirl said. “We have to be responsible about this.”

 

The Enigma rolled her eyes. “Oh, like, this again?”

 

“I’m not going to argue about it now,” SpiderGirl said. She then paused and twirled on her feet. “Someone is coming.”

 

Dafoanairi looked and saw another vigilante arrive. A young woman, about their age, wearing a mask and cloak with yellow accents, climbing up the trees.

 

 

SpiderGirl waited until the new vigilante had come up to their level in the canopy and sat on a branch close to her and Ninja Talon. “So, you’re new, and from Lawndale or Oakwood?”

 

“Oakwood,” the new vigilante answered. “I haven’t been active much yet, but I heard about what was going on here earlier tonight.”

 

“We were just talking about how to deal with Osborn,” Ninja Talon said.

 

“That’s cool, Ninja Talon, right? I’m Spark,” the new vigilante said as she held out a hand.

 

Ninja Talon shook it.

 

“Spark?” Dafoanairi asked.

 

“Yeah,” Spark responded. “I can generate electricity.” She held out her hand and sparks shot out of it a short distance.”

 

“Impressive,” the Enigma responded. “Although that’s not much compared to my powers.”

 

“I was holding back,” Spark said defensively.

 

“That’s fine,” SpiderGirl said. “But we now need to include you in our plan.”

 

Spark nodded. “Go on,” she said.

 

Ninja Talon laid out the plan again, this time including Spark alongside herself and Dafoanairi.

 

 

“Ready?” Ninja Talon asked when she had finished.

 

All five other vigilantes nodded.

 

 

SpiderGirl quickly webbed up two of the agents, but the third was quick to use the web dissolving fluid. “How much of that do you have?”

 

“I’m sure your webs are finite too,” the agent responded.

 

“Maybe,” SpiderGirl said. “But I haven’t yet run out at a critical moment.” She had wondered what would happen if she did, so she had been working on a mechanical solution. (But that was slow going.) Even so, she shot more webs such that the agent couldn’t access the fluid.

 

“Hey!”

 

SpiderGirl turned and signalled the silent vigilante who was still waiting in the tree canopy.

 

 

The Enigma shot projections around where Osborn was walking to the exact site where Aldridge had been digging.

 

“You’re holding back, Enigma,” Osborn said. “You don’t want to damage the site.”

 

“Well, I have no idea what is under there, nor how it would react to my projections at their full power.”

 

“That is a good attitude to have.”

 

“Yeah, but we’re still going to stop you,” the Enigma said.

 

Osborn just smirked.

 

 

Dafoanairi watched Ninja Talon swiftly take out an agent nearby. ‘The Enigma better not get too cocky when she eventually confronts SpiderGirl.’

 

 

This continued for the rest of the early hours, with Osborn slowly calling in more agents from Lawndale, and the hero vigilantes defeating them.

 

“Problem,” Ninja Talon said as she looked at the early dawn light appearing over the glow of Lawndale’s streetlights.

 

“The agents could recover,” SpiderGirl guessed.

 

“Exactly,” Ninja Talon said.

 

“We just take them out again,” the Enigma stated.

 

“That is irresponsible,” SpiderGirl said. “Increases the risk of permanent injury.”

 

“I’m aware of that!” the Enigma said as she stepped closer to SpiderGirl.

 

Dafoanairi interjected by placing her quarterstaff between the two. “That’s enough. There’s little time for this.”

 

“Do you do this a lot?” Spark asked.

 

“Yes, I’m her rival!” The Enigma answered.

 

“It’s just unresolved due to everything that’s happening,” Ninja Talon said.

 

“But what we can do, we have already been doing,” Dafoanairi said.

 

“I think we need to secure the actual site, or Osborn may dig it up as the sun rises,” SpiderGirl said.

 

Ninja Talon looked at her watch. “We have about forty minutes.”

 

“That isn’t much time,” Dafoanairi pointed out.

 

“Then we force our way through,” Ninja Talon decided. “With all of our abilities we can do it.”

 

“So, we just overwhelm Osborn?” Spark asked incredulously.

 

Ninja Talon nodded. “But he might have some of those pumpkin bombs with him.”

 

“He did Saturday morning,” the Enigma said.

 

“Nothing happened Saturday morning,” SpiderGirl said.

 

“I confronted him in his office about the agents,” the Enigma said. “Something you didn’t do.”

 

“I didn’t because it’s reckless and irresponsible,” SpiderGirl said.

 

 

“Enough!” Dafoanairi said.

 

SpiderGirl backed off and leaned back against the trunk and Ninja Talon. The Enigma calmed down and also sat back. “Sorry,” she said, more to Dafoanairi than to SpiderGirl.

 

‘I know Enigma is impatient about the confrontation, despite her changes,’ Dafoanairi thought.

 

“Right… We modify the earlier plan, and go on the offensive,” Ninja Talon said. “Enigma, your forcefields are really the only we defense we have in close quarters if he uses those pumpkin bombs.”

 

“I’m ready,” the Enigma said.

 

 

Osborn wasn’t that surprised when a bolt of Spark’s lightning followed by one of the Enigma’s projections shot past him.

 

“Making a move now, are you?” he asked rhetorically.

 

Dafoanairi and Ninja Talon flanked Spark and the Enigma. “You won’t get whatever it is you’re after,” Dafoanairi deadpanned.

 

“Repetition won’t help you,” Osborn said. He clicked his fingers and agents flanked him, firearms raised. “Move any closer and I’ll give the order.”

 

“I don’t think so,” SpiderGirl said as she webbed one of the guns from an agent’s grasp.

 

“Can you stop them all?” Osborn asked.

 

“We don’t have to,” Ninja Talon said as she threw a shuriken past him, knocking a firearm out of another agent’s grasped.

 

“Fire!”

 

The Enigma raised a few forcefields, blocking the bullets. She then pulled two out of guns out of the agents hands telekinetically.

 

 

As this was happening, the silent vigilante slipped around, behind Osborn, and arrived at the site. She looked towards the increasing brightness on the eastern horizon. ‘Now to hold.’

 

 

Osborn was annoyed. ‘Even without the Shadow, and Linda,’ they are besting my agents. He grabbed a remote. He still had more aces in the hole.

 

“Are you really going to use bombs in a sensitive archaeological site?” Dafoanairi asked.

 

“I’m taking the risk. Think of it as a bluff,” Osborn responded.

 

“Given your track record, I don’t think so,” SpiderGirl said as she swung and webbed another gun out of an agent’s hand.

 

“You’ve got very good at that.”

 

“This is America, duh!” SpiderGirl said.

 

“More light,” Spark commented.

 

“If there’s nothing else, I have an appointment with the sunrise, and I don’t want to miss it,” Osborn said as he turned and headed back towards the mound.

 

“I, like, still have tricks up my sleave,” the Enigma said.

 

 

SpiderGirl grabbed Ninja Talon and Spark and swung with them around the mound to the dig site. The Enigma marched forwards with Dafoanairi, keeping her forcefields up.

 

 

Osborn reached the spot and grabbed the shovel. “If I have to do it myself… Or is it just one of the brushes.” He put the shovel down and grabbed a brush. He quickly brushed some of the soil away, and something was revealed. It looked like plain stone, but he knew it was what his satellites had picked up. He heard something nearby, and turned to see the silent vigilante with a tarpaulin very close by. “You can’t block the sunlight with that.”

 

“No?” the Enigma said from nearby. “Because I can see a lot of things that can block it.”

 

“I don’t think your powers are that strong,” Osborn said.