Chapter Two
Luthor pondered the Crimson Queen's proposal. It was a very lucrative suggestion. It also had the side benefit of fitting into his plans of undermining trust in the Justice League.
The last four months had been profitable. Although the Legion of Doom as a whole hadn't struck during the Christmas and New Year's holidays, individuals such as the Joker and the Parasite had wreaked havoc. The prisons' inability to keep Legionnaires incarcerated was also eroding public trust in the Department of Corrections.
Stryker's Island was being utilized as a central dumping ground for meta-humans and costumed criminals alike. But the US government was building a facility in the Sierra Nevadas to rival NORAD. It was code-named the GULAG. Its only purpose was to house super villains.
Luthor sipped at his wine. The Crimson Queen was expectantly awaiting a reply. The ruler of Bailya was a striking woman. Both of them had flirted with the idea of bedding one another. So far, they'd let their respective rendezvous remain professional.
The Queen ruled a so-called "rogue state". Having no native costumed heroes, she hired super villains and second rate heroes to guard her country. Oil wealth gave her state coffers the means to do so.
The country's other great domestic product was terrorism. Bailyan specialists worked throughout the world. The country housed one of the largest number of terrorist training centers in the world. Even Libya in its heyday couldn't compare.
A new development in Bailyan affairs was the contracting of meta-humans for terrorism. The Bailyan coffers earned fifteen percent as a brokerage fee. The rest went to the operative in question. Up until now, only second stringers like Jack O' Lantern and Owlwoman had been offered such contracts. Now the Queen was petitioning the Legion to take up the sword.
"Venezuela is asking about hiring you for your protective services." The Queen revealed, "And the Iranians want you for terrorist operations. They will, of course, kill you when they conquer the world but until then you can enjoy their wealth."
Luthor noted the Queen's sarcasm regarding the Islamic Revolution. Unfortunately for his plans, the Iranians were gathering support from Shiite believers from around the globe. They would have to be dealt with once he seized the reins of power.
"Hamas has also expressed interest." The Queen added, "Not to mention North Korea, Kaznia, Chechnya, and Georgia."
"Georgia? Really? " Luthor was surprised, "What about their alliance with the US?"
"The Americans are moving too slowly over the runaway provinces." She explained, "With Russia and her allies recognizing the states, they've put pressure on the world community to do so as well. They're also well placed to discourage dissent."
"Yes," Luthor's smile was predatory, "their Security Council veto. No sanctions or multilateral action can be taken. If anyone wished to intervene they have to do so on their own. Recent history has proven that nations that do so are very unpopular."
"Or at least they are if they are the United States or Russia." The Queen wore a wicked smile as she drank her wine.
"I'm surprised by you." Luthor confessed, "The bulk of your native population is Muslim. Yet you are agnostic at best and they love you anyway."
"'Hearts and Minds', Lex." The Queen wore a contented smile, "Provide for the common needs of your citizens to show them you care and the rest will handle itself."
"That and your Home Guard ferreting out the opposition and torturing them to death." Lex remarked.
"The Home Guard is not a secret police force." The Queen scolded him, "Don't make them out to be one. They are patriots who have volunteered to protect their country. They are unpaid and perform this duty out of devotion to Bailya."
"The truest of the true believers." Luthor remarked, "Be careful, they're usually the ones who topple a regime."
"Steps have been taken." Was all she would say.
"Give me the particulars on each contract and I'll let you know my decision tomorrow afternoon." Luthor said.
"I've already had a courier hand over the pertinent information to Brainiac." The Queen smirked.
Luthor smiled out of appreciation for the Queen's craftiness. The two of them had already agreed that if he were to take the world, she would be his queen. The Satrap and the Empress, it was a heady partnership that had been proposed. Darkseid had met the Queen and approved of her.
Luthor's rule over the Earth in Darkseid's name came at a price. Those humans with the meta-genome would be harvested for Darkseid's armies. If they were already super powered and hadn't joined with Luthor, they would have a choice: yield or die. Those with the latent gene would have their abilities brought to the fore and they would become a new vanguard leading the parademons into conquest. Those with a recessive meta-gene would be bred like cattle.
Luthor had no problem with any of these concepts. As satrap over Earth, he would be in a position to rise through Darkseid's ranks until he toppled the New God himself. By then he would have undoubtedly discovered the secret to immortality and would enjoy the fruits of his labors forever.
A vital key to these plans was the Brainiac of Earth-212. Luthor had reconstructed the broken and shattered remnants of Brainiac's shell. The personality matrix had been rewritten through means of Apokoliptan technology to replace Brainiac's imbedded AI with a psyche modeled after himself. The new Brainiac was literally an extension of Luthor mated with the former Brainiac's database.
A gong sounded and a handmaiden approached the Queen. A whisper later, the Queen turned to Luthor; "You'll have to excuse me. Matters of state and all that. One of the butlers will show you to the main entrance. I'm sure you can find your way back to the Dome."
Luthor indulgently smiled. The Dome was the Legion's headquarters. Grodd had wanted to call it the Hall of Doom but Luthor had vetoed it saying that it too closely echoed the League's Hall of Justice.
"Of course." He conceded, "Duty must come first. Until tomorrow?"
"Indeed, Lex." The Queen smiled as she made ready to depart, "Let me know what you think of those proposals."
"I will." Luthor promised, "Good night."
Luthor returned to the Dome and loosened his tie as he entered the Command Center. Brainiac and Grodd were looking over the proposals at the situation table. The table had individual screens laid into it and each one served as a separate computer terminal but all were tied into the central database. That database was controlled by Brainiac.
In reality, Luthor possessed the only computer outside of Brainiac's control. The AI was subservient now but there was no sense in taking chances. The original Brainiac had been known to come back from the dead once too often.
Grodd spotted Luthor, "Ah, Lex. I trust the meeting went well?"
"Of course." Luthor smiled, "The Crimson Queen and I are using one another and we both know it. It makes things far more amicable to have it out in the open."
"I have no doubts." Grodd agreed.
"So what do you think of the Queen's proposals?" Luthor wondered.
"Some of them are viable." Grodd reported, "However there are three that I doubt we could recruit any Legionnaires for."
"Any particularly interesting ones?" Luthor asked.
Grodd handed him a manila envelope. Inside was a folder. Luthor laid it out on the table and perused its contents. After a moment's reading, he smiled.
"This is right up the Joker's alley." He said.
"It's too bad the Joker is currently incarcerated inside of Arkham Asylum." Grodd opined.
"No," Luthor disagreed, "what's unfortunate is that his plan to turn the asylum into a trap for Batman failed."
"Yes, construction on a newer facility with the same name had just finished." Grodd added, "All of the patients were transferred there after the damage to the original facility was sustained. The old building is a rotting, half destroyed shell."
"Is the new facility equipped with wormhole deflectors?" Luthor asked.
"Yes." Was Grodd's disappointed answer, "As is the Stryker's Island, the GULAG, the Watchtower, the Metro Tower, and the Hall of Justice. Others have been distributed world-wide to various governments and militaries."
Luthor frowned, "I hate these so-called 'New Gods.' They should stay out of human affairs."
"Like Darkseid is doing?" Grodd idly wondered.
Luthor chuckled, "I guess all is fair in love and war."
"Mmm! You said it." Lashina entered the center hand in hand with Supreme. The Daxamite truly was the spitting image of Superman. The fact that he wore the livery of the Justice Lords didn't help to discourage that perception.
Luthor had robbed the original Justice Lords of their powers. Of course, his memory of doing so had been taken by the Martian Manhunter and every time he tried to recall creating the Nullifier he found himself overwhelmed by a desire to darn socks.
Luthor had scoured the multiverse to recreate his version of the Justice Lords. None of their identities matched those of Earth-1's superheroes but their abilities were on par and their motives were far more exploitable. They all owed their lives to Luthor and had readily embraced his goal of universal domination.
Lashina and Supreme's relationship came as little surprise. When Darkseid had held Superman under his sway, Lashina had fostered a relationship with him. Now it seemed it'd been pure sexual attraction and nothing more. As a Daxamite, Supreme shared all of the same powers as Superman and it seemed he held the same appeal for the leader of the Female Furies.
At least, Lashina had been the field leader of the Female Furies. Darkseid had overridden Granny Goodness's wishes and appointed a new commander. However, Lashina had proven her usefulness and loyalty to Darkseid many times over so she had been made Darkseid's liaison with Luthor. Her mission was to see that Luthor's goals truly served Apokolips and its dark lord. If not, she would simply kill him.
"Hello, Handsome, what're you up to now?" Lashina leaned in on Luthor, "You do realize it's been awfully quite around here for the last two weeks?"
"That's all about to change." He assured her, "The Crimson Queen has supplied us with a list of countries willing to pay for us to commit acts of terrorism, sabotage, and thievery. I was about to summon the Legionnaires and arrange for teams to be sent out."
"Carry on. Don't let us stop you." Lashina withdrew a boom tube controller from her belt.
"'Us'?" Luthor repeated.
"Yes." Lashina purred, "I'm showing my sweetie off for my Master. He has plans for darling Gev." With that, she opened the tube and she and Supreme vanished.
"Curse that woman." Luthor snarled, "She's unnecessary to our plans."
"Darkseid doesn't think so and as long as we're allied with him, she's going to be around." Grodd pointed out, "Patience Lex. The day will come when you topple Darkseid and you take Apokolips and her conquests and then I have Earth."
"And will you be content with that?" Luthor wondered.
"You can keep the universe, Lex. I just want a planet of the apes." Grodd confided.
"Didn't they already make that movie?" Luthor mused.
Grodd scowled, "Utter tripe. On my Earth humanity will know who the superior species is."
"We'll see." Luthor advised, "Mankind is best at struggling. Strife is in our nature. So long as we're divided, we waste our energy. But given a universal foe, such as an army of apes subjugating them, and humanity will rise as one. You don't want to see that happen."
"You're suggesting that I co-opt humans the way you have meta-humans and costumed criminals." Grodd surmised.
"It couldn't hurt." Luthor replied, "It's perfectly reasonable to anyone that isn't a speciest."
Grodd looked offended and then he eventually chuckled, "I guess I have been viewing matters through a clouded filter."
"When it all comes down to it, apes and man are cousins." Luthor opined, "Of course your average ape isn't as intelligent as your kin in Gorilla City but that just a matter of education. To be frank, you've more in common with humans than you do your unevolved relatives."
Grodd wanted to protest. He truly did. He just couldn't rationalize a coherent argument. In the end, he merely shrugged, "It seems I need to review my plans."
"Before you do, bring me up to speed on these proposals." Luthor requested, "Then we can see who we need to liberate or not."
Clark Kent and Lois Lane stretched out on towels on the Riviera near Nice. Clark had received several lustful glances from nearby women. Lois was as pleased by this as she was jealous.
"My God, they're not even subtle about it." She complained, "And you! You act like it's not even happening."
"Do you know how many stares I receive at my other job?" Clark laughed, "It's nice for Clark Kent to get a little attention for a change. Besides, you should hear some of the offers I get from some of the people I save, men and women alike."
He rolled over and leaned close to her, "But it's nice to see you jealous. It shows me that you care."
"I am not jealous." Lois defiantly declared, "It's just morally indecent."
Clark chuckled, "You should write an article about it."
"I think I will." was Lois's rejoinder.
"You go, Honey." Clark moved her face to the side and kissed her gently.
Her smile was a sultry one and she drew him back in, "It's about time you thought of that."
"Just wait to you see what comes next." Clark wore a delighted grin.
"Yum!" Lois remarked.
Star Sapphire, Giganta, and KGBeast emerged from their boom tube at the gates of Arkham Asylum. The panicked guards quickly called the GPD and the police were dispatched. It would take them some time to arrive.
Giganta stood watch outside while Star Sapphire and KGBeast invaded the asylum. The interior defenses were designed to keep people in not out. It only took minutes to release the Legionnaires they'd come for. The Joker, however, wanted everyone released.
"It'll keep the cops busy." He explained.
Star Sapphire acquiesced. Soon lunatics of all description were swarming outside. As the first police sirens could be heard, Giganta shrunk down to her base size.
Star Sapphire used her jewel to lift all of the Legionnaires and flew off to the Penguin's lair. He, the Clock King, the Phantasm, and the enigmatic Darkwing awaited them.
"Hello Smokey the Babe." The Joker said as he passed the Phantasm, "Glad you've joined the party."
"We'll see." The Phantasm replied, her voice distorted by the mask to ring out in masculine tones.
Dressing curtains were arrayed over by the restrooms. This particular base of operations had been a legitimate business front until the Penguin acquired it. Now its split levels served two functions: manufacturing souvenirs and providing shelter for the Penguin's minions.
The former prisoners' costumes had been provided by Brainiac. He'd stored their measurements and given them to a press gang of Bailyans coerced into sewing different materials for the Legion. The Legionnaires now had unlimited access to labor and unlimited resources to attire themselves with.
With everyone clothed, the Joker came to the Penguin, "Thanks Ozzie, couldn't have done it without you."
"Don't thank me," the Penguin huffed, "I was just told to prepare a shelter for you and that I would receive a plan for a new caper after you arrived."
"Really?" the Joker was amused, "I wonder why?"
Grodd stepped out of the shadows and the Penguin smiled, "I think he knows."
"If you could all grab some refreshments and take a seat around the tables?" Grodd asked, "I'll show you your offer. Ivy, please note that there are cucumber sandwiches and tomato juice for you."
Ivy smiled and went to grab a plate. As the Joker surveyed the arrayed foods, he smiled; "After Arkham's slop, this stuff looks pretty good."
"It should." The Penguin was perturbed, "I had it brought it over from the Iceberg Lounge. I only employ the finest chefs."
"You forget, I've been to your little lounge and I've personally met with some of the ex-cons that do your cooking." The Joker laughed, "The finest chefs in San Quentin."
The Penguin's metaphorical feathers were ruffled but he let it go, "Just get your food and let's hear what Grodd has to say, shall we?"
"Let's." the Joker replied in an upper crust accent.
Grodd finished his report and added an observation, "What your perspective employers want is utter anarchy. A city gone wild and uncontrolled. For this you each receive five million dollars."
"I like it!" the Joker enthused.
"Can you pull it off?" Grodd asked.
The Joker turned to the Scarecrow, "I believe we can."
On top of police headquarters, the bat signal shone into the clouds. Jim Gordon waited at the building's edge. He had two mugs, a thermos, and a Red Bull at hand. He'd dismissed Montoya and Bullock. He wanted to speak with Batman privately.
As always, Batman and Robin arrived without preamble or warning. Batman approached while Robin held back. The kid looks beat, the Commissioner thought.
"I wasn't sure you'd show tonight." Gordon said as he handed a mug of coffee to Batman. He tossed the energy drink to Robin. He brightened.
"Thanks Commish!" he popped the topped and began chugging.
"Unless everything is falling apart I always respond to the signal, you know that Jim." Batman replied after taking a swig of coffee.
"I know but my riot police reported that you and your tribe were in the thick of it." Gordon said.
"We usually are." Batman said without a trace of regret or humor, "We came out of it."
Gordon hesitated and then very cautiously he asked, "How's Barbara doing? I heard she'd been injured."
Batman studied Gordon for a while before replying, "How long have you known?"
"About Barb?" Gordon asked. Batman nodded and the Commissioner answered his own question, "Since I first met her as Batgirl. I had my suspicions about you but they weren't confirmed until she started dating you…the other you."
"Jim," Batman's tone was softer than Gordon had ever heard it, "Barbara's fine. She sprained her wrist. That's all."
"Thank God." Gordon breathed, "It's been bad enough pretending not to know but the endless nights of worrying about what the four of you will encounter has left me sleepless at times. Fortunately you've proven yourselves time and again and I've been able to rest easy for the last few years."
"You should be proud of her." Batman assured him, "There are times when she's utterly amazing."
"And the rest of the time?" Gordon wryly asked.
"She's young. She'll learn." Batman replied.
"Like you did?" Gordon inquired.
"I didn't have a mentor." Batman admitted, "At least I can show her how to avoid the same mistakes I made when I started out."
"Thank you." Gordon sighed, "Thanks for soothing an old man's nerves. In the meantime, I have this."
Gordon fished a CD-R out of his jacket and handed it to the Dark Knight, "This has a list of the escaped patients. It also has the interior and exterior surveillance feeds recorded. Your suspicions are confirmed. It was definitely the work of this so-call 'Legion of Doom'."
"We'll have to be alert." Batman warned, "If they've freed this many of Gotham's rogues might mean that they mean to strike here."
"The Mayor will love that." Gordon groused.
"Hamilton Hill can worry about re-election tomorrow." Batman scoffed, "Right now he needs to look to curbing a potential threat."
Gordon grinned, "I'll tell him that."
"I'll do it myself, if you prefer." Batman offered.
"No," Gordon chuckled, "he had me provide an armed escort for a month after the last time."
"Anything else?" Batman asked.
"No." Gordon admitted, "Just take care of my daughter."
"She'll be fine." Batman promised, "We all will be. Take it easy tonight. She'll be taken care of."
Gordon smirked, "I'm sure she will be."
Batman had no response. He walked away and gathered up Robin. Together they rappelled down to the waiting Batmobile.
As they drove away, Gordon's thoughts went with them. Nearly all of Batman's archenemies had been liberated tonight. If they were to go on a rampage they would want his head. And his daughter would be at his side.
Gordon sighed and put on his poker face. After all, a gloomy commissioner made for bad morale. He had a feeling that he'd need that face in the near future.