Chapter 25: A Wasp's Sting...
4 Hours Ago...
"Mr. Vayne, sir?" Julius Vayne's loyal secretary and assistant, Miss Lynnette Devlin, said as he slowly turned around in his swiveling chair.
"It's the Wasp..." she trailed off, handing him what looked like an article printed off of the internet, complete with photos and a giant headline reading "Julius Vayne: Mob Affiliate?"
Pictures of the illustrious CEO of the Ammuntions Corporation, or simply AmmoCorp. for short, exiting his white limousine near what could be identified as the King's Rook Club, where, as of recent years has developed quite the reputation. A very
bad reputation, in fact. A bad reputation that formed when revealed on
thewaspiswatching.com that a multitude of alleged "mob bosses", the owner of the notorious club, Galen King, included, happened to all be some of the club's more respected benefactors and members. Leading the Wasp and her public to suspect the establishment to be a front for mob activity.
Needless to say, for Vayne to have been spotted near the club would certainly cause people to think things of him. Bad things. Things that very well could or could not be true...
The headline "Julius Vayne: Mob Affiliate?" wouldn't help convince people otherwise.
Without so much as a word, he simply glared at his assistant. That was all she needed to know that she was no longer needed and find her way to the door.
Upon her exit, Vayne chucked the articles out of his sight, and reached for his phone. Dialing a very familiar number, a voice soon answered after the first two rings.
"Who now? Unless you're calling off the hit on the superhero..."
"No, Nex. Feel free to save that one for later. For right now, I have a higher priority target that needs... eliminating. Double the original payment." the businessman growl through gritting teeth.
"Fine. Who needs a bullet now?"
"I just have one question to ask you first."
"What's that?"
As the CEO looked upon the papers that cluttered his offices carpet, he looked at the web address that, if action was not taken on his end, could be the source of his undoing.
"Have you ever happened to have heard of a website by the name of 'thewaspiswatching.com'?"
Now...
No sooner after getting that text did I find myself wandering the condemned Public Library in search of the message's sender... which, lack of proper lighting and mountains of debris and dust aside, was
no easy task, I assure you.
Thank god for the sunglasses that came standard with this uniform. Josh and his dad decked them out with all kinds of spectral vision. Including infrared...
Adorning the eyewear that normally rested upon my forehead, I clicked a small button within the right temple arm to activate the glasses' Heads-Up Display. Then, using a slider on the opposite arm, I switched the glasses from normal to night-vision, then finally infrared. And instantly, a small heat signature appeared off in the distance, and I immediately began running towards it, as from what I could tell, it was moving both sporadically and very quickly.
Unfortunately, after minutes of straight running through the old rooms of the library, I had lost the signature, and I frantically stopped and scanned everywhere for it. Whoever this person was, they were either
really crafty... or they had a
lot of resources. And by resources, I mean tech.
Of course, I haven't exactly ruled out "Ninja Assassin" yet...
"I'm here! Come out and show yourself!" I yelled as I continued to survey my dark surroundings.
"Hello..." a voice whispered into my ear, instantly making me jump as I freaked out.
"AHH! What the fu--" I screamed out after being scared half to death, stumbling back to see the figure of a girl, arms crossed as she so confidently stood before me.
"So... you're Blacklight, huh? Funny. Expected someone taller... and less of a p***y." The mysterious girl cut me off.
"Screw you, lady. You got the jump on me is all! I'm no p***y..." I debated as I picked myself back up and rested my glasses upon my head once more to look into the face of my blackmailer.
...Wait a minute. I know her!
I mean, she's hiding behind her own pair of sunglasses, but I'd recognize that face anywhere!
"The name's Wasp. Of thewaspiswatching.com."
"I... I know you..." I muttered as I continued to stare at her in disbelief.
"And I know you. But it's nice to see my reputation precedes me." She retorted, not losing her cool.
"Anyways, I sent you that message because I believe your life is in danger. We'll have to move quickly if we're going to--"
"...Jess? Jess Gerbutovich?" I cut her off after almost completely ignoring everything she just said. I was too busy being shocked at the fact that my co-worker and close friend moonlights as the world's top investigators and information brokers...
Can't say I saw
that one coming.
"What the... How did you know?"
But as she asked how I figured it out, I noticed something strange. At first I thought I was seeing things, but I noticed that there was a sort of... red-dot on the side of Jess' temple.
Oh God...
*BANG!*
"JESS, LOOK OUT!!" I screamed as I jumped at her, pushing her out of the way of what looked like a speeding sniper bullet.
As we both crashed into the floor, I noticed the laser-sight had vanished. Before she could recover, I immediately got back up, ready to dodge anymore incoming sniper-fire.
"Blacklight, what the fu-- Oh, s**t..." Jess muttered, taking notice of the bullet embedded into the ground. I looked behind me to see her picking it up and beginning to study it.
"Wasp, I think we have 'company'." I warned, my fists clenching as I shielded my friend, who was trying to get back to her feet, ready to face the shooter.
"Blacklight... It's Nex." she pointed out to me as she stayed close, identifying the shooter.
"Who?" I asked, confused.
"Didn't you read my last blog article? Nex! The super mercenary that was hired to kill the new District Attorney!"
"Looks like my reputation precedes me." A voice sounded as we both quickly turned to see the shooter had already infiltrated the building and stealthily cornered us in this room. He looked about mid-thirties, with a slicked, parted dark hair, a combat uniform complete with bandoliers, pistols and body armor, a high-tech aiming reticle covering his right eye, and in his hands, his sniper rifle. The one used to fire off that shot just now.
"Well, well, well. Blacklight AND the Wasp. Looks like I got me the opportunity here to kill two birds..."
*CLANK!*
"...with one gun."
To be continued...