Clack!
The moment Black Cat finished speaking, her silent subordinates drew their pistols in unison and leveled them at Joseph and his crew.
At that same instant, Batman dropped soundlessly from the gantry crane.
He couldn't bring himself to swing and twist on webs the way Peter Parker did—not because he lacked the skill, but because it was too showy and awkward for him. Still, without a grapnel gun yet, the web-shooters could stand in for most of what he needed—and worked quite well.
Using them, Batman slipped close to both gangs without alerting a soul.
"You've got it wrong, Ms. Black Cat," Joseph said, staring down seven or eight muzzles without a hint of panic. "Look—empty hands. We didn't bring weapons. Doesn't that show my sincerity?"
He spread his hands so she could clearly see he wasn't holding a gun.
"Your sincerity is lovely," Black Cat said, "but just now you kept calling me 'Miss Black Cat,' and suddenly it's 'Ms. Black Cat.'"
"I'm not happy. Mind letting me fire a shot?"
Her sweet smile vanished. She flicked off the safety and started to pull the trigger.
"I'll use your name to offend all of New York's underworld, Kingpin," she murmured under her breath, too low for anyone else to hear. "This is step one of my revenge."
A breeze stirred. A rank, fishy stench crept into the air. Black Cat's people glanced around, unsure where it came from.
Joseph's men smelled it too, but unlike Black Cat's confusion, Joseph looked completely at ease. "Little Black Cat, trying to pull a movie-style double-cross? Lucky for me I hired a judge for tonight's deal… the Squid-Man!"
As he spoke, the ground beside them split. A jet of filthy water blasted up and splashed straight across Joseph's face.
"Oh, come on!" Joseph snapped.
Black Cat drew a deep breath and stared as a squid's tentacle pushed up through the wet, muddy earth.
Then another—then another—until a man-sized squid with greenish skin heaved itself out and, braced on two tentacles, slowly reared upright. Four limbs mimicked arms and legs, with four more lashing behind. The monstrous, humanoid squid stood before them.
Bang!
Black Cat fired. The bullet skated off the Squid-Man's slick hide, doing no real harm, only halting his advance.
"Volley fire—aim for the eyes."
No one answered behind her. Across the way, fear flickered over the faces of Joseph's thugs.
Black Cat knew perfectly well her own crew would look just as rattled at something this far beyond normal. She turned to bark the order again—
—and a chill raced her spine. Not a single person stood behind her. Seconds ago they'd been there, silent and steady, guns trained on Joseph; now they were gone. The lightless shipyard had swallowed them whole without a sound.
"No… that's wrong. The Squid-Man was Joseph's hire, but those guys looked scared… what are they afraid of?"
The memory of those dazed, frightened faces told her things had swerved far past her expectations.
No time to think. A black shadow swept in from afar, rushing straight at her. At the last split second, she squeezed the trigger, firing several shots.
No impact. She stopped wasting ammo, snapped the muzzle toward Joseph, and fired.
She knew she wouldn't get away—but she could at least take someone with her.
Joseph, the assassin who'd recently made a name in New York—brutal, known for smashing skulls with a hammer. Whether it was loathing for the psycho killer or the need to make an example of someone trading on the Kingpin's name, the shot cost her no hesitation.
It didn't cost Joseph any, either. Her round struck him clean in the forehead, and he dropped without time to process a thing.
A jolt crashed into Black Cat's wrist. Her pistol clattered away. The black shape cinched tight around her and whipped her into the air; the prominent curves beneath her deep-V leather were flattened under the pressure.
Panicked, she tried to grab the shadow, but her hands were pinned. She scissored her long, powerful legs around the thing hauling her upward.
Thwip!
A barely audible sound—and she found herself trussed up and hanging in midair. The cash-stuffed briefcase was torn from her grip, and the shadow was gone.
Joseph lay on the ground where the bullet had hit him. His men burst into chaos. One ran up, felt for breath, and shouted, "Boss is still breathing! He can be saved!"
They mobbed him, hoisted him up, and bolted, leaving behind the wooden crates of guns they'd come to buy.
The Squid-Man—hired to double-cross Black Cat—stood blinking. Things had changed too fast for him to make sense of. But he had seen her crew vanish one by one, and now, lifting his gaze, he found the hulking shapes of the yard's machinery swallowed by shadow, as if something even worse might leap out at any second.
A monster in human eyes, he wasn't afraid of other "monsters"—but the unknown still rattled him.
He tried to move—and realized some invisible chain had cinched his feet without his noticing. Fortunately for him, he was exactly what his name said: squid. Slick, slippery, all the traits.
He strained, yanked a foot free by sheer slipperiness—and ran.
Joseph had only hired him as muscle; now the man's own life hung by a thread. Between dying for a paycheck and running for it, the Squid-Man didn't hesitate.
"I've got to get back to the sewers—no, something's coming straight at me!"
He had just bent toward the drain when a black shadow knifed down at him from above, caught at the edge of his vision.
Instinct took over. He threw his head back, exposing the funnel—the organ a squid uses to jet ink.
Splurt!
A gush of thick, black ink blasted out. Without looking back, he bolted, sprinting all the way out of the shipyard as if a moment's delay meant death.
"Holy—what is that?"
A couple working out on the sidewalk with phones up for a selfie gaped at him.
He flicked a glance their way, then dove for the nearby manhole cover. With a heave, he popped it and dropped through, leaving the clueless pair staring.
"D-did you get it?" the woman stammered.
"Got it… but who's going to believe we actually saw a humanoid squid?"
"Dummy! Sell it to the Daily Bugle—we might make a killing!"
Cheering, they hitched up their pants and hurried off, never noticing the manhole behind them or the shadowed shipyard where Batman stared hard at the cover the Squid-Man had vanished through.
He didn't give chase. The webbing from the shooters only held the target briefly, and the creature's slick body slipped free too easily. He'd need prep work first. Before that, he had to deal with the gang members he'd webbed up and left hanging all over the shipyard.