Earth's Last Defence [DEFENDERS OF EARTH BOOK IV]

The Wall-Crawler

The New York City Grand Bank was silent at this time of night. The staff had gone home for the night, and the security guards patrolled the inside. The streets outside were busy enough, what with it being a Friday night and the bars being open all night. But the bank itself remained locked down.
Suddenly, a large green disposal truck pulled up outside the bank. The words 'Hell's Gate Waste Depot Service' were scrawled on the side in red. From the front came out four men in masks. From the back of it came out five more, along with their leader, a man in a custom tailored suit with heavy burn scars on one side of his face. The ten of them strode towards the bank entrance. The thugs pulled out sub machine guns, and the leader pulled out a tommy-gun. He aimed at the door and blasted it, and then kicked the door open.
Three of the guards spun around, quickly taking out their pistols- but they were too slow. They were easily disposed of, slamming to the ground in a flurry of gunfire. One guard shot at them from the stairs, but missed her shots. The lead shot her down with the tommy-gun, and she tumbled down the stairs. The final three guards shot at them from across the room, catching one of the thugs in the arm. He cursed, then stumbled backwards, and hid behind a desk. His friends returned fire, catching two of them in the chest. The final one was hit in the ankle, and limped away behind cover.
The eight other thugs were about to fire on the cover, but the lead held out his left hand. He handed the tommy-gun to a thug on his right, and retrieved a silver dollar from his suit pocket. He flipped it in the air, caught it, and looked at the result.
"Weapons down, boys." He snarled. His gunmen lowered their guns, and the lead put the coin back in his pocket. The guard peeked his head around the corner to see why his attackers were dropping their weapons. As soon as he did so, the leader shot him in the head with a pistol he quickly drew from his suit. The guard dropped to the floor, and the leader put the pistol back in his suit and retrieved the tommy-gun from his lackey.
"We take the money as planned, boss?" One of the thugs asked. The lead turned to him, pulling out his coin once again. He flipped it, caught it, and read the result.
"All of it." He said, putting the coin away again. His gang dispersed, four of them running to the vault the rest for the drawers of cash.
Just as they began collecting the cash, a scream was heard from one of rooms with cash drawers. The leader and three more thugs ran to see what the noise was about. They reached the room, and saw one of the thugs unconscious, slammed into a drawer.
"The Bat followed us here?!" One of the thugs exclaimed, readying his weapon.
"We lost the Bat back in Gotham." The leader responded. "This must be one of the New York freaks- no way the Bat could tail us."
"Which freak, though?!" Another gunman asked, pointing his weapon at the ceiling.
"If I were to guess, it's have to be that bug-kid..."
"Two things:" a voice said.
"What the hell?" Another gunman shouted.
"Firstly," the voice continued. "Spiders aren't bugs. Every 'super-villain' gets it wrong. I've stopped making jokes about it now as it happens so much." The leader and the three thugs ran back into the main lobby along with the rest of the gunmen.
"And secondly, burns..." Two of the thugs had their guns snatched off them by multiple webs, and were kicked in the face as their assailant swung down, landed on top of a desk. "Bug-Kid doesn't really work as a superhero name. Maybe a kids show from a couple of decades ago. There! that's something to make some cash from, right?"
The leader and his gang opened fire on Spider-Man, who effortlessly cartwheeled backwards, webbing a bench from across the room and pulled it towards himself. It crashed into two of them, knocking them unconscious. Spidey flipped across the room, dodging gunfire.
He eventually landed on a wall and jumped off it, crashing right into another thug. He grabbed the gun with a web, swung it around and hit another gang member over the head with it. A third gunman rounded the corner and prepared to shoot him, but Spidey turned on the electric webbing on his web shooters, and shot a web at the gunman's shoulder. The electric shock caused him to drop his weapon and fall to his knees. Spider-Man then kicked him into a wall, taking him out.
Then, all of a sudden, a gun nozzle pressed into Spidey's head.
"Got anything smart to say now, kid?" The leader said, the tommy-gun pressed firmly into his skull.
"I got scar puns, if you'll hear them." Spidey retorted, and the leader glared.
"You're dead!" He yelled, and prepared to pull the trigger. Just as he was about to, another gunman was thrown through a glass pane, and landed next to them, unconscious. This distracted the leader for just a moment, and Spidey kicked the gun away, and punched him in the direction of the glass pane. Suddenly, another fist came down on the gang leader's face, knocking him unconscious, and the Batman stood over him.
"I really didn't need the help." Spidey said. Batman turned to him.
"You got too cocky. Two-Face isn't as predictable as the standard gang leader." Batman replied.
"Hey, he's your freakshow, not mine. Speaking of which, what was he doing here?"
"I've crippled the majority of his gang so much so that he's abandoned Gotham and has moved to New York."
"Of course you did... so, I'll take it that's why you're here. To take your... Two-Face back to Gotham?"
"Partially." Batman said.
"Oh?"
"I spoke to Brainiac." Batman began.
"Haven't seen him in, what, a year? How is he?"
"He told me about the impending threat- what it is. And it's coming. Soon. A lot sooner than we think. Something called the Sinestro Corps. And we need to be ready."
"How soon?" Spider-Man questioned.
"Any day now." Batman answered, handing Spidey and small device, the size of his palm. "Hold onto this. When you hear a beeping sound, my location will flash up on the small monitor there."
"This is some kinda rapid-response device?" Peter asked, examining the device.
"In case I see something to do with the invasion and need you to quickly come and lend a hand." He said, grabbing Two-Face and waking over to the main lobby.
"Where are you going?" Spidey asked.
Batman turned around to him. "We fought an invasion off before, the two of us. We barely managed it, multiple cities being wrecked in the process. This time, it's going to be a lot harder. We need all the help we can get." He pressed a button on his gauntlet, and the Batwing hovered above the shattered stain-glass window on the ceiling.
"I'm assuming you're not just talking about Al Simmons?"
"No, I'm not." Batman answered, taking out his grapple gun. "I've been busy."
He grappled up to the Batwing through the window, still holding Two-Face, and flew off.