Elusive Illusions
“Huh, someone’s at the door.” Hero noted, hearing the doorbell echo through his home.
He looks through the peephole and sees Basil standing there.
He turns the knob and opens the door.
“Morning! I, uh, brought you something by the way, ehehe.” The gardener snickered.
He walked into the bush nearby, before retrieving…a tomato the size of his torso.
"Woah…okay…uh…" Hero gives a slight stare of amusement and a small laugh. "I don't think we can, uh, bring that in. Where did you even get that?"
“Long…story…” Basil says, struggling to hold the enormous fruit.
“I-I’ll help you out.” Hero says, holding it up for him. It was heavy, but not too heavy thanks to his powers.
“Thanks…”
"No problem. Now before we get scouted by any tomato hungry people, wanna see if we can move this in and you can tell me where you got this?"
“Sure! As for where I got it…my garden!”
"Then you must have some really powerful fertilizer or something." Hero replies, trying to turn the tomato to fit through the doorway.
“…you could say that.”
"Alright…here…we…go!"
Hero pushes the tomato into the house and puts it near the dining room table.
"Okay, tomato moved successfully."
“Knew you could do it!” Basil happily replied, taking a bite out of an apple. Wait, where’d he get that apple?
“Did you bring an apple with you or something?”
“Kinda…” Basil says, pulling an apple seed from one of his pockets and tossing it into a part of the yard outside. In seconds, a shiny red apple popped up from where the seed was…somehow.
"...okay, that is…cool, but also very mildly concerning. Does this have something to do with…uh…what was it?"
Hero racked his head for a moment.
"On the news…uh, gas, mist, what was it?"
“Terrigen Mist.”
“Yeah, that! Did you…I dunno, meet someone who’s tied to that?”
“More-so got a first hand experience.”
Hero frowns. "They're rounding up people who got affected, right?"
“I didn’t know about that part. Long story short…got caught in the gas, woke up in a cocoon…thing, and now I can do…this.”
Moving his hand, a vine emerges from the soil and follows Basil’s movements.
Hero looks at the moving vine in amazement. "That's… incredible." He turns to look at the massive tomato. "You know, you could literally solve world hunger."
“…true. I mean, I only got the tomato as a joke. Something about a certain chef needing tomatoes for a dish of his, ehehe.”
"Well, uh, thanks for the tomato, I guess, though not sure what I'll use it in."
Before Basil left, however, he realized something.
He’d forgotten to eat breakfast.
"...uhm, sorry to ask but-"
"Oh! Actually, do you wanna stay for breakfast? I was just about to make some. Mom and Dad aren't home, so I'll be making it for you, me and Kel if you'd like."
“Sure! I actually forgot about breakfast, considering everything.”
"Okay then, maybe I'll actually use this big thing, if I can figure out how to slice it."
“Yo, mornin hermano! What’s goin on-holy hell that’s a big tomato.”
"Yeah, and you'll be eating some of it for breakfast, no complaining." Hero says and Kel gives a groan.
"Alright then, let's see…eggs…bread…uh, how big is our largest knife…"
Hero took a minute to think.
Kel meanwhile, walks around the massive red fruit in amazement.
“I’ve heard of a Beef Tomato, but this thing’s like the whole cow! Where’s you-“
“Grew it myself!” Basil answers with a smile.
"This thing should be in a museum, why are we eating it for breakfast?"
"Stop trying to get out of having proper nutrition, Kel." Hero answers, comparing the size of the cleaver to the tomato.
“What? This thing’s the size of a couch cushion! Pretty sure that breaks a record or two! We should…I dunno, at least take a photo!”
"Alright, you can take a photo, but make it quick." Hero puts the cleaver down.
Click
“Already on it, ehehe!”
Basil smiled proudly, holding his camera.
With that, in a few minutes, Hero served three plates of toasted bread, eggs, and small tomato slices.
Hero looks down at his plate with a slight look of disappointment.
"There aren't even actual 'slices'. I also had to make sure all the juices didn't spill everywhere, but here we go."
“W-well, it’s still edible.”
Kel, with no hesitation, puts everything on his toast and bites down.
"Mmmm…" He chews and swallows. "Hey, it's actually pretty good!"
"Glad it is." Hero replied with a small laugh before his phone rang slightly.
"Oh, uh, gotta go." He quickly throws everything onto his toast, folds it up and throws it into his mouth, then quickly up the stairs while chewing.
In a few moments, Basil and Kel hear the familiar 'thwip' sounds coming from outside.
"...what happens when he goes back to University?" Basil asks.
"Dunno." Kel answers with a shrug. "He'll probably figure it out eventually."
Th
Hero can already hear the gunfire as he swings around the corner. As he sees the police cars, he drops down.
"Heya fellas, what seems to be the problem?"
One of the policemen points at him with a small smile.
"Hey, you're that spider guy, aren't you?"
"Uh yeah, I'm the spider guy, what's the issue?"
The officer points at the masked men ahead. "Thought we were busting a regular drug trade, but we were wrong, and unprepared."
Hero looks down the path. The three men are armed, but there's four officers around him.
"Why? There's only like 3 guys, and there's 4 of you. What's the prob-"
Hero feels his head throb and does a jump up right before a rocket hits him from above. It hits the ground and the explosion nearly turns over one of the cars.
He looks up.
"Ah. Drug trade. With a guy in a jetpack…and a rocket launcher. Man, I guess everyone is upping their game these days, huh?"
"Yeah, it's a shame it's all the bad guys. Think you can help us out?"
"Uh, well I fought a guy with electricity at his fingers, so sure, I'll give it a shot." Hero shoots a web thread and pulls himself up, right as the flying crook loads up another rocket.
The explosive is fired. Hero quickly webs up the rocket in bursts and it hits the ground safely without exploding. He throws a punch into the jaw of the jetpack flying guy before clogging up the thrusters with his webs.
He's sent dropping, but before he hits the ground, Hero sticks him to the wall.
“And that’s why we shouldn’t use jetpacks for drug trade.”
Hero quickly moves around, landing punches onto the last 3 armed drug dealers and knocking them out.
"All taken care of sir!" He turns to the officers and gives a thumbs-up.
"Appreciate it! We'll get a bomb squad to deal with the rocket."
"Well, you better hurry, cause my web lasts about 15 minutes." Hero explains before shooting a web and swinging away in the air.
“Another day saved thanks to Spider-Man! Maybe not all the cops hate me, not yet anyways.” Hero says to himself as he looks around for any trouble that might be happening.
But still, today was already looking pretty crazy, huh? Jetpack and bazooka.
Were criminals getting more crazy because of that fight he had with Electro?
…nah. Can't be. Criminals were already crazy to begin with.
“Looking back at those guys, those suits were tacky as hell. Mobsters, probably. Pickin up where guys like…what’s his name…oh right, Hammerhead! Where guys like Hammerhead left off. Glad I don't have to deal with someone like him!”
Hero didn't even wanna know how to handle a guy with a metal plate in their head. That was crazy, crazier than someone willing to…he didn't have any exact examples, but he knew it wasn't exactly a sane thing people did.
Was that building always there?
Hero stopped in front of an odd looking building, paying no mind to the passerby walkers passing him compliments or jeers.
He frowned. It seemed like a regular warehouse on the street, but he looked closer. The paint on the walls were not only moving, but ever so slightly glowing.
Was he the only one who saw this?
Maybe he should go in and make sure they're aren't any drugs or radioactive materials inside. Because either the building it's filled with radioactive material and causing problems with the building, or Hero is hallucinating everything happening.
He pushes open the heavy metal doors and walks in. It's entirely empty. Nothing but a couple of boxes thrown left and right.
“Weird.”
Something else soon caught his eye: a glass dome.
He frowned. What was a fishbowl doing in the middle of an old warehouse?
He walked over to it, attempting to pick it up.
“Not yet!” A voice booms through the warehouse.
Hero instantly jumps back from the fishbowl and looks around. "Hello? Is someone there? Uh, I think your drugs or barrel of nuclear waste is leaking, cause the paint outside the warehouse is glowing and moving."
“Glad you noticed, Spider! Bit of a trick of mine! And this…is a trap.”
"Uhuh, so what does a fishbowl have to do with it?"
There's an enraged scream that echoes throughout the area.
"IT'S NOT A- FORGET IT! I tried to be civil but I guess there's no point with someone like you!"
As if on cue, the walls around Hero start to shift and change…
"Ookay, I'm starting to think it may actually be drugs. Are you burning LSD or something in here? If you admit it, I promise I won't kick you in the teeth so hard."
"WELL, IF YOU MUST KNOW, I AM NOT, BUT IT’S MUCH WORSE! I WILL BRING YOUR WORST NIGHTMARES AND FEARS TO LIFE WITH MY POWER!"
"Is your power…uh, feverish hallucinations?" Hero says with a nervous laugh.
"ILLUSIONS!" The voice screams out and a dash of purple smoke hits Hero right in the face.
"Ow…okay, spider-sense took a good day for a vacation…” Hero says, rubbing his face where he got hit. "Alright…" He mutters to himself. "Illusions must mean some fancy hologram tech, gotta find out where they're coming from."
“We both know that’s not happening anytime soon! Oh I’ve wanted to say this…GET ‘EM, BOYS!”
In a flash of blue light, a ridiculous amount of goons manifested.
"Ugh, are these guys even real? Their faces seem kinda messed up."
"I'll never tell, why don't you take a guess?" The voice replies with a cackle.
"Okay, here goes…" Hero moves in and takes a swing at one of the goons, his fist goes right through, but when the goon punches him in the stomach, it's real, and it hurts.
"Okay…very, very fancy hologram tech."
Hero looks around, trying his best not to be disoriented by the moving walls.
In the corner of his eyes, he spots what seems to be a shattered mirror on the ground along with a pile of other discarded junk.
He shoots a web and pulls it over to him.
"Alright, please work!" He throws the broken mirror shards at the goons and their form momentarily breaks apart as the light is reflected and distorted.
“Hah! All smoke and mirrors!”
“Mirrors, yes. Smoke…soon! BUT FOR NOW, LET'S GET THE LIGHTS GOING!”
Hero suddenly feels his head throb once more and quickly side steps as a bolt of lightning nearly hits him in the back.
"What?! How are you not in jail?"
"My my, you know what they say, you don't go to the slammer till the cops can slam ya, and I got saved, wouldn't ya know!"
Hero looks at Electro, who's wearing some sort of metal vest, blinking in blue and purple lights.
"Uh, nice suit, where'd you get it?"
"It's an exclusive club, and by exclusive I mean exclusive to me. Get ready for the rematch, cause I ain't holding back no more!"
“Looks like someone’s gotten a slight better hold on themselves. Seriously, Mikhael, you’re…are you better than this?”
“JUST SHUT UP! THE SHOW MUST GO ON, AFTER ALL!”
With that, an energy beam is fired which Hero once again dodges. Firing two web threads, Hero attempts to pull off the vest, to no avail.
Holding down on the ropes, electricity is passed into them.
“This’ll come as a shock!”
The yellow sparks travel into the shooters.
…but nothing.
"Sorry to disappoint, had these insulated before I even fought you the second time!"
As Hero detached his webs, he looked down at his shooters.
They were sparking, but they weren't malfunctioning like they had before.
…an idea surged into his head as he quickly jumped away from another burst of lightning.
In the air, he shoots Electro's vest in bursts, and just as expected, all his webs had been charged in electricity.
“Lemme guess, that vest amps your own charge?”
"Clever guess, but all your webs did was give me MORE!" A much more violent lightning strike is shot, which Hero gets out of the way of.
This time, the second the beam touched the wall, the moving walls suddenly turned off, like a screen being replaced in an instant.
"Whoops."
“You overloaded the circuits, bossman! Either stall for time or get us both outta here!”
"I'm on it, on it!" Electro replies, charging up another attack.
"None of you are going anywhere!" Hero answers, shooting two threads and launching himself across the room and kicking Electro in the chest.
As Hero lands himself, he sees a person about the same height as Electro wearing a fishbowl over his head with a cape over their shoulders at the other end of the room holding a remote.
“Alright, bowl head. Who are you?”
"IT'S NOT- WHATEVER! ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF AS THE MASTER OF ILLUSIONS! I AM…MYSTERIO!”
Hero scoffs.
"And here I thought the names couldn't get any worse. Pack up your bags, Fishbowl, cause you two aren't getting out of here without handcuffs."
“How can you cuff someone who’s not even there?”
As if on cue, “Mysterio” started flickering before he vanished, another hologram. Except this one had another surprise on it.
“One last note…this hologram disc has an explosive wired up to it. After all, a magician shouldn’t let their audience figure out their tricks! Ta ta!”
"I stopped a rocket from exploding, what makes you think I can't stop a-" Before Hero can finish his statement, the bomb goes off in his face. He's launched across the floor and hits the ground painfully.
"Okay…maybe I do talk too much…"
"Farewell Spider!" The fishbowl wearing man says, carrying Electro in his arms. "May we meet again, and may it be the last, for YOUR DEMISE IS IMMINENT!"
"Uh yeah, cya." Electro says, giving a peace sign as he clutches his ribs in pain.
"Bossman, you're supposed to say something cool!"
"I can't…ribs hurt…ow…"
“Eh, no matter. See ya!” Mysterio laughs and…runs off into the woods.
“What an exit…”
Hero struggles for a moment but eventually gets to his feet. Despite the small distance, he swings over to the overloaded and deactivated illusion disk, ignoring the pain he was in.
"Advanced hologram tech…maybe this could come in handy for me. Everyone seems to outnumber me these days, so I guess it would be nice to have some help."
Snatching the disc, he swings off toward home.
“I’m back…Basil? You’re still here? Where’s Kel?”
“Oh, sorry! He ran off an hour or so ago…something about a contest…”
“Right, that raffle. Winners getting to see Oscorp hq. Probably just…ow…covering up for the recent scandals.”
"Are you okay? You look like you just came out of an explosion?"
"That’s because I did, ha. Uhm, I gotta…do something really quick in the basement. If you wanna stay, I think we have some chips in the pantry."
“Thanks for the offer!”
Hero gives a thumbs-up as he walks down to the basement. Putting down the disk on the table, he reaches for the toolbox.
"I can't just use this for myself, I need to study it too, because chances are, they've still got tons of these. How can I improve it for myself, let's see…"
"Yeah, figured. Circuit is fried. I can fix that up real quick." Hero tinkers a bit and soon enough, it turns on. One of the masked goons from earlier stands in front of him.
"Woah, okay. Seems like this thing has a built-in scanner and storage. Let's try it out…" Hero lets the disk scan him, and soon the goon is no more, instead now a perfect copy of him.
“Huh. Damn, I need to shave. But hey, it works! Just needs a few tweaks and then we’ve got spider-decoys! Hologram army isn't a bad idea, but I'll put that to rest.”
Basil crunched down on the chips. He didn't really like Sour Onion, but it was okay. He'd rather stay upstairs and away from what seems to be strange clanking noises in the basement.
Even so, he watched the basement door, waiting for Hero to show any sign of life.
While he waited, he thought about the powers he had, and his conversation with Kel before the latter had run off…
“…so you can control plants now? That’s freakin cool! You could be…I dunno, a superhero with that!”
“I-I dunno, Kel! That’s not-“
“Cmon, live a little! Yo, this reminds me of a comic character I made up years ago! Doctor Micheal Finnegan used to be a normal man working as a botanist, until a spill of radioactive chemicals over his plants and himself gave him control over foliage! After that, he went on to fight crime and pollution as Overgrowth! I could show ya the old drawings I made of him, maybe we could remake his costume but for you!”
“Uhhh…”
Kel rolled his eyes. “Hey, you’re the one with the powers. But hey, you’d probably pair up well with…I dunno, Spider-Man?”
Basil couldn’t help but laugh a little. “You’re a bit excited about that guy.”
"Well, duh. I can't believe my own brother is a superhero! It's amazing! Look, I'm just saying, if you don't wanna cure world hunger, you could be a superhero!"
“I-I’ll think it over.”
"Alright!" Kel says with his goofy grin before an alarm sounds on his phone. "Oh, gotta go, see ya 'Overgrowth'!"
“…maybe.”
Basil throws another chip into his mouth and flinches as the basement door flies open. "Hey! Check this out!"
Hero throws a disk and almost instantly what seems to be Spider-man made of blue light appears in a fighting stance.
"Uh…wow. What-what is that?" Basil asks nervously.
“Holo-decoys. Meant to confuse anyone trying to get me.”
"Didn't know you knew how to make…something like this."
"Technically, this is someone else's, but I improved it, so now it's basically mine. It's amazing what a few internet tutorials can teach you about engineering, huh?"
“…okay.”
Hero stares at Basil. "What? You, uh, you don't look amazed. I mean, isn't this cool?"
“I just…don’t understand it. I mean, it’s cool though! Good luck on…whatever you’re doing.”
Hero felt his motivation drop heavily as he heard that. "Uhm, yeah, thanks."
He picks up the disk and retreats back to the basement.
“…Maybe.”
Two hours passed by, and Hero was out looking for Mysterio. Turns out it was a lot harder to find a dude in a cape and wearing a fishbowl than he’d thought.
He had helped someone's fallen over truck, get an old lady cross the street safely, and even relocate a family of stray cats, but no Fishbowl and Electricity shining man.
As though on cue, what seemed to be a massive cloud of smoke, stirring in yellow sparks appears within his view.
"What? The city museum? I'm pretty sure those guys have no appreciation for history."
He gets down near the area, where the building is already surrounded by officers who have yet to step into the purple and yellow storm.
"Uh, heya."
One of the policemen look at him.
"It's you! Aren't you that guy doing reckless dangerous stuff while dressed in a tight costume?"
“I’m the guy who’s gonna try to stop those guys. So I guess so.”
"Well, we technically have a warrant for your arrest as of an hour ago, but right now, we're dealing with…this."
"How long has this been here?"
"Uh, I dunno, uhm…Gladys?"
"About 20 minutes!" The police woman named Gladys answered.
"Yeah, We're standing by, we've been told a strike team will be going in." The officer explains.
“Don’t bother, they’ll just end up disoriented. Fishbowl guy uses holograms to mess with his enemies, but I’ve managed to reverse engineer his stuff. I’ll take care of this.”
"You better hurry, cause like I said, an official warrant for your arrest has been issued. Strike team gets here, you both are getting the handcuffs slapped on."
"For doing their job? Yeesh, what a world we live in." Hero says with a laugh before moving on. He takes a deep breath before making a mad dash into the purple storm.
As he does, his vision is muddled for just a few seconds as he enters the museum bathed in purple light.
He feels his head throb and ducks before a massive skeleton of a dinosaur nearly bites him.
“Hello, Spider! Looks to me like this museum was the perfect place for our clash! After all, you’ll be history soon enough!”
"What? That's the best you could come up with? And they say I'm cheesy!" Hero answers before pulling the dinosaur's skull off with his webs. "But seriously, who puts the main attraction near the entrance like this?"
“Who said that was the main attraction?”
"I highly doubt anything you do from now on can top a moving dinosaur fossil, but go ahead and try to impress me." Hero puts up a defensive stance, ready for what might come next.
Just as he had expected, Electro descends before Hero, hands already coated in yellow electricity.
“Before you ask, I’m not shocked at all, Electro.”
"I was actually gonna ask how would you like to have all your bones and flesh melted off of you, but whatever!"
"Okay, now I'm pretty shocked."
Dodging out of the way of another blast from Electro, Hero had to do something fast.
Could his vest overload? It's a big risk considering it might make him stronger by accident.
What about tearing off the vest? Chances are, Hero would suffer major burns.
Regardless, he needed to get Electro to stop firing at him. Time to send out the holo-decoy!
Throwing out the disks, about half a dozen duplicates of him appear on the field.
"HAH! MORE OF YOU JUST MAKE THIS MORE ENJOYABLE!"
With that, Electro went on an electrostatic rampage, sending lightning all over the place towards the decoys. Maybe if Hero could get him to use up all his energy on the decoys…
Suddenly, a loud shattering noise came from the other side of the building.
“…ow. I guess comics don’t tell you how hard it is to break a window…”
Someone had busted through the window, a large vine retracting from where they came in. Wearing a green eye mask, a camouflage looking jacket, and…some sort of thorny gloves.
“…I’m sorry, but YOU’RE INTERRUPTING OUR BATTLE! Who the hell are you?!” Mysterio shouted.
Taking a deep breath, the person spoke loud and clear.
“Overgrowth.”
For a moment, everyone just stares.
Then Electro hires a bolt of electricity. Basil screams and instantly cowers in fear as a vine stretches outwards to take the hit.
"...S-sorry, I-I’m new at this, haha."
"Seems like everyone's got a gimmick these days. No matter, I'll fry you all to ashes soon enough!"
“…hey, isn’t that Spider-Man behind you?” ‘Overgrowth’ says, pointing at one of the decoys.
"YES! THERE'S A LOT OF SPIDER-MAN AROUND ME, I'VE NOTICED!" Electro shouts, bursting in electricity. In an instant, the space around him turns black, with puddles of yellow.
“Well, I think something else is riiight above you, ehehe.”
“WHAT NOW?!”
As if on cue, a comically large pumpkin craters onto Electro. He's sent tumbling onto the ground.
"Heh, how’s that for a gimmick?"
"What a joke!" Electro shouts in anger as he fires another bolt of energy right at Basil.
He barely manages to dodge out of the way, retaliating with a trio of vines.
"Oh my god! How are you even still so calm?!" Basil shouts at Hero.
"Trust me! I'm very stressed right now." He replies.
“I’VE HAD ENOUGH!”
"With getting your ass kicked? Yeah, I'd have enough too, but you'll have to deal with it a little longer."
“SILENCE, FOOL!” Electro shouts, and a massive field of yellow electricity surrounds him, with energy leaking out and leaving black marks on the walls and floor.
"Alright, I've got an idea. Gonna need you to do that pumpkin thing again, but bigger."
“S-sure. Mind if I spice things up?”
“Just go for it!”
Soon enough, a watermelon the size of a car crashes onto Electro.
The field of yellow instantly dies down as he struggles to escape from below.
"YOU- PATHETIC- IMBECILES!"
"Pathetic?" Hero laughs as he makes a mad dash. "I'm not the one under a watermelon right now…and about to be defeated!"
Hero smashes through the melon. In an instant, juice is splashed everywhere. As Electro's eyes are closed and blocked, Hero grabs the vest and tears it off, ripping it in two.
“I spent an entire day on that amplifier vest! No matter, Mysterio shall-“
Before he could continue, another vine burst from the nearby plant exhibit and uppercutted Mysterio, knocking his helmet clean off. His remote drops to the ground and the purple lights subside.
"GAH! MY HELMET!" Mysterio screams as his pompadour bursts out. "HOW COULD YOU?!"
"...have I seen you before somewhere?"
"UH, NO! YOU NEVER SAW MY FACE! AND NOW, I ESCAPE!"
He throws a smoke bomb to the ground. It fails to go off.
"....WHAT?! JUST AT THE WRONG TIME!"
“No time for identities, time to go!” Hero shouted, hearing the police sirens.
"H-how?! I can't swing like you, I-I had to run here!" Basil questions in panic.
“Just…I dunno, use those vines to surf or something? Just go!”
Basil frantically summons vines which pick him up and throw him out through a hole in the roof, with Hero right behind him.
The strike team bursts into the building.
"Suspects in sight. No sign of the Spider-man."
“Hey, there’s a note here.”
“'A town can never have too many heroes! Signed, Overgrowth.'”
"...copy. Note will be taken back for analysis."
As if on cue, the note was dragged into the soil of the plant exhibit by a mysterious vine.
"What the hell was that?!"
"Note was stolen, I repeat, note was stolen."
“Hey, at least we actually have the suspects this time.”
"Yeah, but even so, it's a shame we couldn't catch the Spider-man. Well, cuff these two up."
“Already on it.”
Soon enough, both Electro and Mysterio were hauled off.
“Suspects identified. Mikhael Systevovich and Angel Houston."
"...are you serious? Very well then. Listen up, we'll be taking these two to Oscorp, it's already agreed upon."
“You said we’d be handing them over to S.H.I.E.L.D! Are you nuts?!”
"Not my call, it's the chief. Oscorp pays and contributes to the Police Department more than SHIELD, and all the legal paperwork is already completed, so there's nothing we can do."
“Ugh, fine. But I'm telling you, we'll regret this when something else happens to botch their reputation even more.”
"Maybe, but we can't do anything about it."
And so, Mikhael and Angel, restrained, are thrown into the back of a police truck and driven away.
Suddenly, one of their radios rings out.
“WE GOT A SITUATION! SOMEONE BLASTED THEIR WAY INTO CLOSEBY JAIL! WE’VE LOST TRACK OF SEVERAL PRISONERS, INCLUDING KNOWN GANGSTER AND EXTORTIONIST HAMMERHEAD!”
"What?! Prison break?! Right now?!"
"I REPEAT, THERE HAS BEEN A BREACH IN CLOSEBY PRISON, REQUESTING ANY AND ALL PERSONNEL FOR ASSISTANCE- ARH!"
The radio went static.
Hammerhead smiles as he crushes the radio into pieces. He looks over at the police officer. Dead. Good.
He turns to his henchmen.
"Alright boys, shows over, grab their weapons."
“Hey boss, you wanna grab those two guys? Rob and Tyler, some con men who tried to hustle in on ya.”
“We ain’t gonna see ‘em after this anyway. We’re gettin outta here! As for these guys’ chances of findin us…they’re betta off lookin for a needle in a haystack!”
"Well then, what's our first action now that you're back, boss?"
Hammerhead smiles as he looks down at the newspaper in his hand. He'd been reading this before he got busted out.
"First, I want out of this damn orange jumpsuit. Second…"
His grin turned bigger as he looked at the headline 'SWINGING MENACE IN THE CITY'.
"...I want to bring this fella to my office."
“Ya mean ya wanna talk it out, boss?”
"Yes, so alive. A guy like him I could use on my team. Oh, and send a message to the other Dons."
"What's the message?"
"Tell ‘em that Hammerhead is back in town."