Gotc: Yeah, so adaptation is a lot harder than it originally sounded. At any rate, I had some inspiration and decided to seize the opportunity whilst I had the chance…..especially since creative writing is slowly sucking away my will to live. No offence to those of you who this may pertain to but, creative writing majors (at least the ones I'm stuck with) have to be the biggest, egocentrical, stuck-up snobs I've ever met. If my above comment did pertain to you, take note and don't be like the people I'm forced to share space with. Please.

At any rate: I do not own JL or most of the characters in this story and am using them only by explicit permission from their original creators. Go sue someone else.

The Master's Initiative

CHAPTER 2: Shadows in the Dark

"Has he shown up yet?"

Daraen was just about at the end of his remaining patience with the voice on the other end of his communicator. Had it not been for the disembodied voice, to the naked eye, all that had previously adorned the L.A. rooftop was shadows under a blanket of stars. Now, as he stirred from his position, the vague silhouette of a man outlined itself by carving out a void in the stars.

Daraen raised his wrist to his mouth, being careful not to raise his voice any more than a low growl.

"No ma'am," He forced politeness into his voice, "This magician hasn't so much as breathed in this city, much less tried to contact me. I'm beginning to think whoever referred him to Cadmus was just trying to waste our time."

A frustrated sigh came over the speaker. "Stay put. This might be our only chance to retrieve our missing Project before we'll be forced to start taking more invasive measures."

"You'll pardon my repetition," He scoffed into the communicator, "But I don't see why we're relying on outside help for this when the damn kid's been flaunting himself all over the 6 o'clock news. Waller, you know as well as I do we could have already had him back in lock down."

"We've been over this Hybrid," Amanda Waller's voice came in, her tone omitting any room for argument, "The League's been keeping a close eye on him, no matter how open he might appear to be. If we're going to draw him out, it's going to need to be big enough to draw the League's attention and the fewer connections to Cadmus the better."

Hybrid growled to the open air in front of him, but obediently settled himself back into his hiding spot. Clouds began to drift in from the sea with the cooling air.

"He gets one more hour. If he's not here by then, I'm doing this my way." Hybrid said at last.

"And what exactly is your way, my friend?" A Cheshire grin appeared from the shadows as the last of the moonlight vanished behind the clouds.

-----

The vial filled silently with crimson fluid as J'onn connected the collection tube to the needle in Rai's arm. Rai sat impatiently tapping one foot, as the Martian carefully documented the sample and placed the tube into a nearby container.

"Is that it?" Rai asked, feigning surprise when J'onn pulled the needle, "No bone marrow? Muscle tissue? Brain matter?"

"I do believe this will be sufficient for now," J'onn said stoically, finishing up his notes, "But if I happen to need a urine sample, I'll know where to find you."

Rai cocked an eyebrow at the Manhunter's sly sense of humor, but chose not to respond as he pulled his shirt back over his head. J'onn still had his back to him, spinning down his newly acquired sample and taking no notice of the young hero still sharing space with him.

"You, uh…you haven't found out anything el-" Rai started.

"Nothing we didn't already know I'm afraid," J'onn cut him off, finishing the rest of Rai's thought, "But there's a few more tests I still want to run before I have any definitive answers."

Rai nodded and rolled his eyes, as he walked out the medleab door. "You need a new answer to that J'onn." He called back, as he disappeared out in the hall, "You say it so much, I think I'm starting to become telepathic."

J'onn didn't look up from the lab table, but instead held up the file he'd been scribbling notes in as a black glove materialized out of thin air.

"Anything new?" The Dark Knight asked, thumbing through the various charts and figures.

"No. If anything, he's slowly getting worse."

Batman nodded and placed the file back on the table as he took the spun down vial J'onn had prepared.

"We'll have to tell him soon." J'onn said, as the sample disappeared into his belt, "The Founders at the very least."

Batman halted in his step, glancing backward at the file resting on the counter where he'd left it.

"Call the Founders and let them know," He said at last, "No one else finds out about this. Not until we've run through every possibility."

J'onn nodded once but knew there was no one left in the room to see the gesture. Instead, he set about on his task contacting the others. Right now all he could hope for was there was something in that small vial now in Batman's possession, something they'd missed. Anything they could use.

-----

"That's it?"

"That's it." Hybrid nodded. The sorcerer had certainly been receptive to his plan, and all too eager to add his own ideas to the mix. Personally, he thought the man was too overdressed for the occasion, sporting a top hat and cane like a deranged sideshow magician, but here he was looking like something straight from a Mission Impossible movie so perhaps it worked out well enough.

"Hmm," The magician twirled his cane thoughtfully between his fingers. The intel called the man "Spirit", but whatever his real name was anyone's guess.

"I don't see why I should," Spirit said, leaning against his cane, "After all, I don't need your help to cause the kind of mayhem you're talking about."

"You're not getting paid for it on your own either." Hybrid pointed out.

"True, but to be honest I'm not interested in what the dogs of Cadmus have to offer me," Spirit sneered in the shadows, "I want something more….substantial."

"Which is?"

"Very similar to what you're after actually," Spirit chuckled, "A hero currently out of reach on board the infamous Watchtower. You can keep whatever your bosses have told you to pay me, and in return…"

Hybrid could have sworn he saw the magician's eyes flash red in the poor light as the words formed on his lips.

"I get to kill the hero called Soul Stealer."

------

Rai stepped into the stairwell and started up the floors a flight of stairs at a time. He knew it would have been a lot easier to have just taken the elevator in the main corridor, but fewer people came this way. He'd been lucky even if he would happen to run into one of the maintenance crew. He reached for the door at the end of one of the flights, only for it to swing open and nearly hit him in the face.

"Hey!" Rai barked, jumping out of the way, "Watch where you're going!"

A young woman not much older than him stood on the other side of the entryway, a lost look on her face as she peered into the stairwell.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" She quickly apologized, "I was just trying to find the showers…"

Rai sighed and relaxed a little. He really needed to get it through his head people were not out to get him every time a door opened in front of him.

"No," He shook his head, "It's my fault. You just startled me, that's all. But you're about as far away from the showers as you can get."

He heard her give and exasperated sigh and mutter something about needed a map. He didn't recognize her right away, though he wasn't sure how he couldn't. She had platinum hair that cascaded past her shoulders and piercing teal colored eyes that seemed to see straight through him. He didn't notice it right off, but she seemed to be draped in a smoke black cloak that almost had a life of its own that was in stark contrast to the rest of her appearance.

Now he remembered. There had been a buzz in the cafeteria a few weeks ago about Dr. Fate taking a young magician under his wing. Which meant she wasn't just lost, she was new.

"I can point you in the right direction if you need ," Rai said, even before he fully registered what it was that had just come out of his mouth, "This place can be pretty confusing."

"Oh, thank you," She sighed in relief falling in step with him, and lapsing into silence as they walked through the corridors.

For a minute or two the only noise was the sound of twin footsteps as they walked down the hall. Normally, Rai didn't mind the quiet, in fact, he preferred it….when he was alone. With the heroine walking next to him, the lack of conversation was almost stifling.

"So…When did you join the League?" He asked, feeling a little awkward at such a lame attempt at conversation.

"I was..ah…living in a fishing village off the coast of Japan," she started, "It was attacked by another sorcerer looking for me. The League showed up to offer assistance and ended up extending me an invitation."

"Riiiight," Rai said, "I remember hearing about that. Dr. Fate's been your mentor since you got here, right?"

"Mhmm," She nodded, "It's not often you get a chance to learn from the League's best magician. But what about you? You're Windrider aren't you? I've seen you coming back from a couple missions."

Rai didn't answer right away. It felt like the memory of that night came flooding back in full force. He had just wanted a place to rest, if he was lucky, something to eat. He hadn't meant to stumble into Gotham, much less right into the path of a fugitive villain….

"It's just Rai if you don't mind, and I kind of ended up here by mistake. Hostage situation gone wrong," Rai shrugged, "I was in Gotham and ran headlong into a fight between Killer Croc and Batman. Tried to use me as a shield to get away, but it just didn't work out as planned."

"Too much for him to handle?" She asked with a bit of a laugh in her voice.

"Yeah," Rai laughed with her, though his held none of the humor, "Something like that."

He stopped when the sound of running water reached his ears over the sound of his own heart beat drumming in them. His stomach twisted painfully at lying to the heroine, even if his only lie was not telling her the whole truth.

"Ah…" He snarled mentally, "What the hell do I care? I just met her. Two days from now she probably won't even remember this happened."

"Well, I guess this is your stop," Rai waved towards the showers, and already turning on his heals to leave, "It was nice to meet you…I'm sorry, I never asked your name."

"Kite Sagara," The heroine bowed politely, "Soul Stealer."

Gotc: And here is where I shall leave it for now. Still have a few more people to introduce before all is said and done, but I'll get my rear in gear eventually. Sorry it's so short and all, but I despise intro chapters. That'll change soon enough though :3….. Anyhoo, allow me to introduce the next member of our writing staff: Blood Angel Evangelion!

She's been with us from day one, and is the creator of both Spirit and Soul Stealer! Personally, I feel honored to have worked with her for a little over a year now. She's an amazing writer who brings a ton of emotion and personality to her characters, which was part of the reason this chapter was so hard to write. Not only that, but she's a great artist as well and she's taken on the daunting task of illustrating each character for us! You'll have to check out her profile for the info on how to check out everything she has done so far!

Well, that's enough from me, so now all that's left for you all is to click on that little button right there. Yeah, that's the one. Make sure you tell me what you think and hopefully the massive block of doom won't come and visit me for so long next time! Laters!