Injustice 3: The Might of Magic (Book 3)

Spectre:

Moaning as I fight through a headache, my headache only gets worse when someone slaps me across the face.

"Hey," someone shouts. "Wakey, wakey, Sleeping Beauty!"

The person slaps me again. I don't know if it is because of me or him, but after the third slap, my eyes snap open, and I see the mysterious man standing over me.

His hand is behind his head. He's swinging it toward me but I catch his hand and slam it down with enough force to break it. However, despite how hard I slam it down, the man seems unfazed.

"Never do that again," I say. The man still looks unfazed. He pulls back his hand and stands up. Once fully up, he crosses his arms.

"I thought I sensed someone creepy lurking around. Spectre, what are you doing here? And why?"

 Pushing myself up and dusting myself off, I look right at the man.

"I came here to stop you from possibly killing Black Mask," I answer. As I answer the man, I try to pull in my green cape but when I do, I feel a sharp pain in my arm.

"Ahh," I cry, stopping. Looking down at my arms, I see a large bruise on my right forearm. "No way. That is--that is---"

"Not possible," a female voice says, finishing my sentence. Looking back up, I see Supergirl standing behind the man. "Yeah. That's 'The Man' for you. Always making the impossible possible. And being annoyingly mysterious."

Despite the strange bruise and my wonder about how the man could have actually hit me, I ignore both of them for now and painfully pull in my cape.

"You cannot kill Black Mask," I say.

"Why not," the man asks, "Not that I really care or was about to but why not? If I remember correctly, you're actually one for 'punishment', not just a slap on the wrist? Shouldn't it be Phantom Stranger who is telling me to stop? Where is he anyway? I only sense you."

"You sensed me," I repeat. "Interesting. Normally, no one can sense or even detect me. My power keeps me well shielded."

"I have heightened senses, and I'm not just talking about the normal five senses."

"You are truly an interesting person," I say. "Nevertheless, and as much as I hate to say this, you cannot kill Black Mask."

"You already told me that. It's why that you haven't told me yet. Why can't I kill Black Mask? What? Is he somehow important all of a sudden?"

I turn my back to the man and Supergirl. Using my power, I start to fade away. Before I disappear into thin air, I turn back to the man.

"I know what Black Mask is doing is horrible, and what he had planned is even worse," I say, "But you cannot kill Black Mask. There had been enough senseless deaths already."

The Man:

With that said, Spectre then faints away. When he vanishes from sight, I look around, my head turning left and right. I close my eyes and focus my hearing. I try to sense whether Spectre is still somewhere around, lurking, but I don't sense anything.

"He's gone," I say. I turn around to look at Kara but as I do, I see her eyebrows in a V-shaped. "Kara. Is everything oka--"

I stop myself before I can finish. I know what is wrong, and honestly, I think it would be better if Kara and I don't ever talk about it again. Besides, I think we have something else to talk about.

"Did you hear what Spectre said," I ask. "Before he disappeared?"

"What," Kara asks.

"Just before he left," I explain, "He said what Black Mask is doing is horrible, but what he had planned is even worse. What does Black Mask have planned?"

Black Mask:

"Ahhhh," I cry, holding my shoulder with my hand. "He bit me! The fucker bit me! What the hell! And what the hell was that? What the hell was that giant monster he turned into! Ahhh!"

"Stop moving," Lady Shiva says while wrapping my shoulder. She throws my hand to the side and wraps the bite marks on my shoulder. Despite my screaming and cursing, she goes on, finishing the wrapping.

"Come on," I yell, kicking the back of the driver's seat. "Faster! Faster! I want us there now!"

"Understood, boss," my driver says. Stomping on the gas, we don't even stop to open the garage door. Instead, we run right through it, tearing a hole in the metal door. The car coming to a stop, I push open the door and walk out.

"Boss," my driver says as he gets out himself. "Just give me sec--"

"Too slow," I yell, pulling out a pistol and shooting my driver. A few minutes after he falls to the ground, my other henchmen arrive. They drive through the hole in the garage door and quickly get out. Once everyone is out in the open, I switch my pistol for a remote control. Pushing the button on it, a secret elevator rises from the ground. It opens and I, along with Lady Shiva, and two of my henchmen get in.

"Someone clean him up," I order before I disappear beneath the floor. As the elevator carries us down, I turn to Lady Shiva.

"Do we have everything," I ask, rotating my bitten shoulder.

Lady Shiva reaches into her pocket and pulls out a cell phone. She makes a few calls before lowering her cell phone.

"We have everything ready," Lady Shiva answers.

"Finally," I say. "Prepare the artifacts. I want to start the ritual as soon as we can."

The rusted elevator dings as its doors open, and I walk out.

Dr. Jonathan Crane:

"On average," I say, checking the heart rate monitor. "About 80 beats a minute. That's not bad. In fact, that's very healthy. Ms. Iris, please write that down."

"80 beats a minute," Ms. Iris repeats. She writes down everything I said in a notebook.

I check the rest of the monitors, saying out loud the numbers on them while Ms. Iris writes them all down.

"Based on everything here," I say, turning to Ms. Dinah. "And everything I have read and studied, Mr. Oliver is recovering extremely well. As far as I can tell, there is no need to worry."

I feel a little happy when I see Ms. Dinah let out a sigh of relief. She smiles as she turns to her husband who is still sleeping inside the incubator. She places one of her hands on the glass and places her head against it.

"Thank you," she says. I decided to give her a few more minutes before clearing her throat. She turns to me.

"Okay," I say, "Ms. Dinah, with all due respect, it's time for you to go. The Man gives strict orders not to let anyone out of their beds until he sees them again, and I already let Supergirl out. Ms. Iris, could you please?"

"Of course."

Ms. Iris places her hands gently on Ms. Dinah and slowly guides her out of the room. They disappear back into the infirmary while I do some last-minute checks on Mr. Oliver. However, as I'm checking on the dialysis machine, I hear screaming.

"Ms. Iris," I shout. I start to run but stop.

"No, I can't! I'm not a fighter! Not anymore! But--but--but Ms. Iris!"

Looking to the side, I see a small scalpel. I grab the knife before charging into the infirmary.

"Ahhh," I shout as I charge.

"Put my scalpel down," The Man shouts as he and Supergirl step into the infirmary through a portal. Immediately, I put the scalpel down.

"You're here," I say. "Wait. I can explain about Supergirl. I know what you said, but Supergirl was insistent that she was ready. That she was 100 percent and that she could---"

The Man claps his hands in front of me, shutting me up. When I stop talking, The Man then slaps me on the side of the head.

"Ouch."

Turning away from me, The Man pulls out his phone and starts calling someone. While he's on the phone, I walk up to Supergirl.

"How was Hub City?"

"Bad," she answers, "Very, very bad."

"Oh."

The Man puts his phone down and turns on the infirmary's computer.

"Higgins," he shouts. "Higgins! Are you there? Higgins!"

"I'm here," Anthony yells, his silhouette appearing on screen. "What's going on? Why are you yelling?"

"Are you still trying to break the encryption on the hard drive Batman gave Kara and me?"

"Yeah," Anthony answers. "I'm making some progress, but unfortunately, not a whole lot. This encryption, it's different from Superman's usual encryption. Whatever is on this drive, it must be super sensitive."

"Stop with the encryption for a second," The Man orders. "I need you to do something else."

"What's that?"

"I need you to try and find Black Mask. According to the Spectre, he had something planned. Something big and something bad. We need to know what is it."

"The Spectre," Iris repeats. "Who's that?"

"A ghost with a green cape," Supergirl answers. "I don't really know, but according to him, Black Mash has something planned and it's worse than all those robberies he committed."

"Worse than almost 100 robberies in the last month," I say. "Oh boy."

"Higgins," The Man says, "Can you find him?"

"I'm trying," Anthony answers, "I'm trying, but Black Mask had close to no digital footprint. It's like he's living underground. I can't find him anywhere. There are only a few signals but they're here and there. They're not enough to get an accurate location."

"Show me what you got."

Anthony's silhouette then minimizes. While he's in a tiny box in the upper right corner, a map with a few dots takes up the rest of the screen.

"That's strange," The Man says, leaning in closer to the screen. "Doc, come here for a second."

I waste no time and walk over to The Man's side. I lean in and look at the screen myself.

"Notice something," The Man asks.

I study the map and the dots for a second before noticing something.

"Wait. There is something strange about these dots."

"What's that," Anthony asks.

"Well, it doesn't look like it but most of these dots are actually in or around Gotham."

"Gotham," Ms. Iris repeats. "Gotham City? But wait, I thought Black Mask was robbing stores in Hub City."

"He is," The Man says, turning back to Ms. Iris.

"But most of these dots are in or around Gotham," I say again, also turning back to Ms. Iris. "Including the latest ones. They're located only a few miles outside."

"Well, that may be the case," Anthony says, grabbing all our attention, "But I've looking through the cameras of Gotham City and I haven't seen him or any of his henchmen walking around the city. I've seen a few cars drive around but no suspicious SUV."

We all look at each other as we try to figure this out.

"Most of the signals Anthony picked up are in or around Gotham City," I say again.

"But Higgin hadn't seen any of them," The Man goes on.

"Could Anthony be wrong," Ms. Iris asks.

"Hey wait," Supergirl says, stepping forth. "What if Black Mask really is living beneath Gotham?"