Young Justice: Final Exam

Chapter 2

"Ladies and gentlemen, if you would indulge me for just a moment longer please riddle me this: what's black and white and red all over? It's a riddle so easy, even that zombie Solomon Grundy finds it breezy."

"I know I know, how about Penguin after I beat the ever-loving crap outta him?"

"How about you just tell us before I beat you black and blue, Riddler?"

Flashing his increasingly impatient audience an almost Cheshire cat grin, the self-proclaimed intellectual savior of the criminal underworld was almost giddy watching the more notable faces of criminal factions and organizations strain their collective brains trying to decipher his seemingly elementary riddle.

Dressed in a flamboyant green two-piece suit, he wore a floral green jacket contrasted by a purple tie with a question mask emblazoned on his left shoulder. Waist down, he wore black pants, green sneakers, as well as a green belt with a question mark-themed buckle. His light brown hair was slicked back, along with a pair of triangular purple-rimmed glasses that perfectly accentuated his naturally arrogant facial expression.

Towering above his criminal congregation on a makeshift auction stage, he was surrounded by a circle of opened crates, each one filled to the brim with illegal weapons and objects of superhuman power.

All around him, he faced a multitude of various personas of the criminal variety. On one side of the stage stood the Rogues of Central City: Captain Cold, Heat-Wave, and Boomerang. Individually they were career criminals wielding almost godlike technology but as a collective they were a force formidable enough to slow down even the fastest man alive.

The master of subzero headed the trio representing the faction, discerned easily by his clear blue parka and cold gun. His snow motif contrasted his partner in crime, Heat-Wave, who wore his standard fire resistant gray asbestos suit that covered him head to toe. On his shoulder holster, he carried his equally as dangerous handheld flamethrower. The third member, Boomerang, was the wild card of the group. Dressed in a navy blue trench coat with a bandolier of his specially-designed boomerangs strapped around his shirt, the Australian criminal straightened out his white scarf while lazily twirling around one of his boomerangs on one hand.

A gathering of representatives from criminal organizations and families filled out the middle section, with names ranging from Falcone and Bertinelli to Maroni and even Black Mask. They were flanked by hired help, mainly lesser-known supervillains like the Electrocutioner with his electrically charged gauntlets, Javelin the Olympic athlete turned mercenary with a deadly javelin-based arsenal, and Onyx, a katana-wielding female assassin-for-hire.

On the opposite side stood the main leadership of the infamous Metropolis criminal organization, Intergang. Bruno Mannheim, the stocky and heavyset leader, crossed his arms unimpressed while his lieutenant, a slender redheaded Caucasian woman by the name of Whisper O'Daire looked on with equal apathy.

"Hey Nygma, why don't you just get on with it, yeah? Some of us have places to loot and people to rob," the ever outspoken Boomerang complained in his thick Australian accent, eliciting murmurs of agreement from his Central City comrades.

"Yeah green man, you've been talking a whole lot but I'm not hearing anything I like. And if none of your bargain bin crap can't do what me, a pair of matches, and some booze can't do on a Friday night then you're just wasting our time. And I hate having my time wasted," Heat-Wave growled in his gruff voice, echoing a common sentiment amongst the Riddler's increasingly agitated audience.

"Mick may be an idiot, but he's got a nose for sniffing out B.S. And if you brought us here in the middle of Bat Country just to spout your big words at us, you're not gonna like how this ends," Captain Cold added ominously, gesturing at his holstered cold gun.