Chapter 4:

New York: January 25, 01:04

Artemis slowly came back to consciousness. "What…what happened?" She could see a black booted foot, "Robin?"

"Sorry, kid'oh, no such luck?" a female voice answered her.

Artemis realized when she tried to move that she couldn't. There were restraints around her, binding her to the chair. Her feet were stuck to the floor and her hands bound behind her back. Her head was pounding but she looked up and saw Jade standing over her un-masked. They were in a dark room with a light shining right over her head partially blinding her.

"Jade." Artemis stated. Her sister smiled. "What's going on? Why are you involved?" Artemis demanded.

"Why else," Jade shrugged and pulled up a chair. "Money. I was hired to do a job."

"Spider-Man hired you?" That didn't sound right. The guy was supposed to be from another dimension or something. How would he hire the League of Shadows?

"ha," Jade chuckled, "No such luck. The web-head and I are partners of convenience. But got to say, he is already proving to be more fun than Black Spider ever was."

"Speaking of your new friend, where is he?"

"Not important. I brought you here so we could talk. So lets talk before I am forced to pull out the needles."

Artemis narrowed her eyes. "You wouldn't dare."

Jade smile was cold. It reminded her of their father, Sports-Master. Artemis Crock started to doubt her statement. Jade may not want to hurt her but that is a big difference from not hurting her. "What are you and you're Justice douphs up to?"

"We're stopping Intergang from selling illegal weapons on the black market." Artemis answered.

"And let me guess, the Spider was a surprise."

"Yeah," Artemis said like it was the most obvious thing. "Flash and then he's there blowing our cover. We thought he was Black Spider and then everything went to hell."

"So you're still looking for those weapons?" Jade asked smiling. Artemis could tell her sister knew something.

"Yeah, for the most part. What happened to Intergang anyway? Looked to us like someone already got to them."

"Yah, that was me." Jade leaned back in her chair. "Every now and then Intergang comes up with something interesting but those guys were just, let me tell you, easy. I guess I did you a favor. No need to thank me."

"Don't worry, I won't." Artemis shared her sister's smile. "So what are you and Spider-Man after now?"

"None of your business, Sister."

"Wouldn't be a tablet, with a bunch of strange writing on it." Artemis poked. That's right, I know about it already. Betch'ya thought you could hide it. Now if I can just get you to tell me where it is… Artemis thought to herself.

Jade looked at Artemis queerly. Rolling her eyes she looked up at the ceiling stretching and rolling her shoulders. "So you know about the tablet? You guys really are behind us." Jade got up as if that was everything.

"Hey, Jade," Artemis said trying to stop her. "This thing has to do with interdimentional stuff. I know that can't be good and so do you. What' ever the Shadows want with it isn't worth it. Hand it over and this can be done."

Jade looked at Artemis. Her smile was all amusement and victory. "Thanks, sis. You have been really helpful." Jade looked up and the light turned off. Jade flicked a switch and the lights came on. Looking up Artemis saw Spider-Man squatting on the ceiling upside-down holding a large emergency flash-light in his hands. The ceiling lamps were all normal incandescent bulbs. This wasn't a real interrogation room.

Spider-Man fell off the ceiling turning over silently landing back in the squat right next to Artemis. Standing up he looked at Jade then down at Artemis. The restraints now that she could see them were the grey webs Spider-Man used. "What does this tablet look like?" He asked her.

Artemis was confused. What did that matter? If they had the Tablet than - Artemis couldn't believe it. She had been doped. They didn't have it…now that she realized it she bet they didn't even know that there had been a tablet before she just told them. Artemis' chin fell to her chest. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

"Hey," Spider-Man kneeled down to get to eye level with her. "You said this thing was bad news. I think you're right. So tell me what you know."

Artemis looked him in the eye - well in the large slanted one way eye-pieces. "I can't. I don't know anything."

Spider-Man seemed to stare at her for a long time then quietly got up and went to Jade who had put on her Cheshire mask. "Magic Tablet. Know anyone that deals with magic?"

"I can think of a few." Cheshire said.

They were about to leave but Spider-Man stopped and went to a corner of the room where Artemis' arrows were. He pulled out one that had a round cylinder on it. "Let me guess tracer arrow right?" He didn't wait for an answer. Flipping it around he slammed it into the floor tip first, and when he pulled it free the small round tracer was planted and active on the floor. "So you're buddies can find you."

"Come on, Webs, you're making me gag." Cheshire taunted before disappearing out a window. Spider-Man jumped out after her.

"So where we going to?" Spider-Man asked Cheshire when they hit ground level. Cheshire had procured a motorcycle and since Spidey knew he had to conserve on web-fluid he had agreed not to make a big deal of it. Hopping behind her he carefully put his hands on her waist before the motorcycle gunned forward.

"There is a guy." Cheshire said over the roar of the engine.

The Team regrouped back in the Bio-Ship. All accept Artemis. "We have to go after her," Wally declared.

"We can't," Robin said. "We -"

"You can't be serious. We get are butts handed to us a second time by that freak and now Artemis is kidnapped. Why the hell can't we?"

"BECAUSE," Aqualad raised his voice getting everyone's attention, "Because we have no way of tracking where they took her. Nor do we have any leads at this time."

"What about her communicator. We can track those right?" Wally suggested.

"Not if Cheshire dumped it which she would have. That's kind of 101 for her." Robin reminded the group.

"Um, guys," Zatanna spoke up. "Does anyone find it odd that Cheshire would kidnap her sister. I mean what is it that Artemis could tell her that she doesn't already know?"

"She's working with Spider-Man, my guess would be they are looking for the Tablet and Artemis is the easiest for Cheshire to deal with one on one." Robin openly commented.

"You may have a point." Aqualad gave Miss Martian the signal to raise the Bio-Ship and they departed the area but with no destination in mind. "This must be reported to the League all the same."

Robin looked over at Superboy, "Hey, SB, you okay?" Connor hadn't said a word. He grunted and turned to look out the window. "Okay, I can see you are less than in a good mood."

"As long as he isn't in a bad mood," Zatanna offered trying to lighten everyone's spirits. Superboy glared at her and she turned away. Everyone trusted Connor but anyone who knew him also knew that he had a temper. Tie that in with his awesome strength and…well he would never hurt them but accidents were called accidents for a reason. This Spider-Man Guy had gotten under his skin. That was clear.

Cheshire banged on the door to the basement apartment. Spider-Man waited clinging over the door. Cheshire suggested that he wait just incase something unexpected came out. "Faust, its Cheshire, open up."

Faust, as in 'faustian bargain'? Oh yah, no way this can go bad. Taking an educational moment, the story of Faust is a common morality tail about a man who sells his soul to the devil…and like all morality tails get burnt for being stupid. You would think I, knowing this, would be saying 'no, no, no, Cheshire, we don't want to make any deals'. But I'm not. Desperate times calls for desperate measures. Besides I'm already teamed up with a other dimensional super-villain, how much worse can I make it?

The door opened and a skinny man in a dress came out. "Uh, Cheshire, how nice to see you…I would most love to be of assistance to the league of Shadows but…"

Spider-Sense! Peter reached down grabbing Cheshire and yanking her straight up just as bullets started firing out of the door. The Faust guy dove for cover, curling up into a ball inside his dress.

"Well, well, well. Girl, you just don't know when to quit to you?"

Cheshire flipped out of Spider-Man's grasp and landed on the ground. A large man in black body-armor covered in knives and guns stepped out of the apartment. He looked up at Spider-Man. His mask was half black and half orange with only one eye showing. "For a moment, I thought you were Black Spider. But he wouldn't be caught dead in a red and blue getup like that." He had some kind of machine pistol in his hand.

For what seemed like forever the four of them were all frozen. Cheshire crouched on level with the Deathstroke; Spider-Man had the high ground; Faust sniveling on the ground, and Deathstroke was the only one with his weapons out ready to go to war.

"What can I say, I'm a sore looser." Cheshire sneered.

"Okay, what the heck is going on?" - Spider-Man

"Faust, don't you move." - Deathstroke

The world's best mercenary took stock. "Before we dook it out, I'm curious, how'd you know to come here?"

"Lucky guess," Spider-Man offered.

"We are looking for the Tablet," Cheshire admitted, sticking one hand behind her. Deathstroke had his other hand close to the K-Bar knife on his hip. "Figured, old Faust would know where to point us."

"Oh, and why are you still looking for the Tablet? You've already been paid. And I don't like competition." Deathstroke commented his eye sparing a quick look at the guy above him. He wasn't holding onto the wall, he was sticking to it. "I didn't figure you for the death wish type."

"I'm not. My friend here is particularly motivated and I know anything that powerful is worth a pretty penny in its own right. That's all." Cheshire said. He muscles were tightening. She hoped the web-head was ready to back her up.

"And what's your stake in all this?" Deathstroke didn't let Cheshire out of his site but flicked Spider-Man a head twitch.

"Oh, nothing much. Just the possibility that this tablet kidnapped me from a alternate dimension. Nothing to major."

"Funny. So you want to go home and you," He indicated Cheshire, "want more money." He man behind the half/half mask laughed. It wasn't a crazy laugh like the Green Goblen's or manic like the Joker. It was this deep, cold, evil humor that made you think of the worst thing imaginable. "Time to die kids."

"WAIT!" Before anyone made a move, Faust was up with his hands waving. "Wait! Please."

"What is it, Faust?" Deathstroke said irritated.

"You," he pointed at Spider-Man. "You came because of the artifact. It brought you here?"

"We are kind of working from that conclusion, yah." Spider-Man admitted finding new interest in the man in the dress.

"What's your point, Faust?" Cheshire was ready to fight and this delay would only hurt her chances.

"You all don't have to kill each other, in fact you shouldn't. You see. If your friend really did come because of the artifact I can use him to help locate it. And if what you said I accurate," he was now talking to Deathstroke, "Whomever took it is very powerful. You will probably need assistance in order to retrieve it."

So there they were. Ready to go at one another and the guy in a dress was the one telling them they had to work together. Spider-Man knew this was going to go bad. He just knew it.

Note:

Sorry for the late entry. I was busy over the Memorial Day weekend. Honor the lives of those that gave theirs. Anyway, hope you liked this short story. I was working on the tie ins to make all this come together and I realized that the ending I had planned wasn't making any sense or was lacking the level of drama we are accustomed to in Spider-Man media. So I wrote this to help tie the two parts together. Should have things back on track shortly.

I'm also working on my Kindred/Stargate story so if you see delays with this its because of that.

I hope you are all writing the site to help make "Ultimate Spider-Man" a category.