Thomas Deja Blackair@gis.net (c) Feb-00 by Thomas Deja GENTLEMAN'S GAME By Thomas Deja A proposal for the unnamed Spider-Man/X-Men anthology It's one of those evenings for Spider-Man, it really is. Having been placed ringside by Mary Jane for a special charity fashion show, he has had to slip out to prevent a sorry villain calling himself 'the Deadly Human Top' ("Boy, you are sad, using a name a third-rater like Whirlwind cast off.") wanting to make off with the receipts. Spidey defeats the spinning guy by just spraying webbing into his whirlwind (and thus wrapping the jerk up handily) and is about to return to the show when he spies one of the models, Elizabeth Braddock, being led away by two shadowy figures in trenchcoats and fedoras. Spider-Man follows and intervenes, only to learn that the shadowy figures are STRIKE Agents-Betsy Braddock's former employers ("STRIKE? Never heard of them." "Good. We're doing our job."). They're about to exercise 'extreme prejudice' on Spidey's ass when Betsy intervenes, claiming that her brother vouches for the web-slinger. Of course, Spidey doesn't know who her brother is, but Betsy insists that he and Peter Parker were Brian's two strongest influences while he was in the states. The STRIKE members, heads full of Daily Bugle stories proclaiming Spider-Man evil, are ready to dispatch him, but Betsy insists he stick around on an 'advisory' capacity. The problem concerns The Foreigner-which explains why Spidey is needed as an advisor. It seems that The International Assassin has been hired to obtain The Helm of Dunn. The Helm is a mystical item of some unspecified power. STRIKE was planning on using the Foreigner's hunt for the item as a way to flush him out and use his capture to disrupt the 1400 Club.until the criminal compromised all the field agents working in the general New York area. Considering that Betsy Braddock used to be a STRIKE agent, she is asked to intervene-The Foreigner will not expect her and her telepathy will give her an edge. Spider-Man, of course, speaks up, claiming they have two edges; Spidey has had extensive experience with The Foreigner of late, and through an 'associate' (The Black Cat) knows of some of his haunts. He can guide Braddock through the Foreigner's set-up here in New York and act as extra muscle ("which you're gonna need."); all he wants is the chance to bring him in to answer for the crimes he committed while trying to recruit the webslinger. With some reluctance, the STRIKE agents agree. The first stop: the 'business office' the Foreigner kept while running his operations. While the ex-spy and the webslinger case the joint, Spidey questions what she meant about her brother. Betsy explains that Brian was a very immature man until he came to America on an student exchange program (which of course, leads Spidey to mumble about not realizing Brian was part Japanese.). The unlikely duo infiltrates the offices of the Foreigner. They are relatively unopposed-in fact, there are a pair of guards blissfully sleeping, and the smell of cooking pork in the air. And when they reach the Foreigner's inner sanctum, they surprise a rumpled dark haired man in a suit who flings intensely hot platelets at the two. Some webbing and a psychoblast later, and the intruder is revealed as Peter Wisdom of Black Air ("Never heard of them." "You're not supposed to, you tights-wearing fascist." "In other words, Spider-Man, it's doing its job."). It seems that Black Air is also interested in obtaining the Helm of Dunn; according to Wisdom, it belonged to a necromancer and cult leader during London's Victorian era, and the wielder of the item supposedly is able to commune with the dead-and, in a weird sympathetic magic effect, is able to 'share' the death of the deadman communed with a victim. The person who obtains this item can interrogate a target after the target is dead. Recognizing there is a common goal (Wisdom makes some sort of veiled reference to that maybe not being true, but lets it drop), Psylocke proposes a temporary alliance. This doesn't sit well with Spidey, who is ultra-suspicious of Wisdom (a suspicion not mollified by Wisdom's assertion that espionage is "a gentlemen's game-a man's word in situations like this is his bond." "Fortunately," Psylocke adds, "Wisdom here is not much of a gentleman."), but he reluctantly goes along. The question on the trio's mind is now where the Foreigner may have got to. The man's desk and computer are impenetrable...but not his secretary's, as Wisdom demonstrates by breaking into the absent assistant's desk and examining the appointment books. It looks like a dead end until Betsy recognizes the code name for an infamous underground auction...which may be where the Foreigner is getting the item. Now all they have to do is find out where the auction house has set up shop ("How did you recognize the code word? I'm pretty damn low to the ground and I didn't know that." "Someone I used to work for-or who I used to be worked for...oh, bother, it's not bloody important.").. "Welcome to my world," replies the webslinger.. It's not easy, finding the location-it takes a visit to a couple of sleazy dives and one bar fight, but the wall crawler locates the floating auction's location, on the docks of the Hudson. And the grubby little warehouse does in fact look like an auction house from the inside. Psylocke is able to telepathically fish the pass codes from the first line of defense, distracting them just enough so Spider-Man can sneak in from higher ground. The two are given masks, to assure anominity. Acting as a couple, Wisdom and Braddock try to extract information on the 'Helm' but get nowhere...so the auctioneer is strung up and asked again while Psylocke and Wisdom use their respective charms to get somewhere. They do find that the Helm was a lot in last night's auction, but was sold to someone Spidey recognizes as the leader of a notorious drug lord. The spies start speculating on how to locate the man, but Spidey has an idea-Arthur(?) Stacey (you know, Gwen's still alive uncle). And thus the three heroes locate the drug lord's office and raid it (WRITER'S NOTE: If it's necessary, we can stick a few more X-folks in here for an 'assist'). The Helm turns out to be the actual skull of the necromancer, and can, as promised, 'share' death via some form of mystical bolt. However, Psylocke creates a circuit by focusing the pain Spider-Man is feeling when he's hit back on the drug lord. Spider-Man, with his enhanced physiology, can hold out a while before succumbing; the drug lord cannot. The man falls, and the Helm/skull is theirs-except a fight breaks out between Braddock and Wisdom over who actually gets the item. Spidey takes it and explains that he doesn't trust Wisdom-to be honest, he doesn't trust STRIKE all that much, but he does trust Psylocke...so he's giving the item to STRIKE. So, in the early morning hours, Spider-Man hands the skull (with a little expression of how icky it is) to the STRIKE team..and gets a buzz from his spider-sense, just as he did the last time he met the STRIKE officer. Quickly reviewing the night, he realizes that the officer is in reality The Foreigner in disguise (just as the man was disguised as Keating in their first encounter in SPECTACULAR SPIDER MAN)...the reason STRIKE tried to kill Spider Man initially was because The Foreigner didn't want the hero to suss him out. The heroes try to stop the Foreigner, but this time it's Spider-Man who is able to put paid to the fight utilizing the methods he used in their initial meeting. During the course of the fight, Wisdom 'accidentally' destroys the skull (whether by accident or to prevent it from getting into STRIKE's-or Black Air's-hands). Afterwards, the heroes sees The Foreigner off (Spider-Man, of course, knows this 'incarceration' will be short-lived). They part, each with a little something-Spider-Man with the knowledge that they stopped a really frightening item from falling into the wrong hands, Psylocke with the comfort that, at least for a while, she was using Betsy's personality and skills, not Kwannon's, and Wisdom with a small book containing the membership of The Foreigner's 1400 Club...plenty of recruitment fodder for Black Air..