Chapter #7 - Damsel
Clark Kent had spent the better part of the afternoon and most of the evening interviewing the residents of a slum apartment building in Harlem. The building stood only a few blocks north of Columbia University. Despite its run-down condition, a developer from the Lower East Side had purchased the building a few weeks before. That had excited some comment in the neighborhood, but a howl of protest had arisen when the new owner promptly served an eviction notice to all of the residents that required them to move out by the end of the month. The new owner had already procured the approvals necessary to renovate the building as high-priced condominiums, and forcing two hundred residents to find new housing was the last step towards accomplishing this plan.
Perry had assigned Clark the story that morning, noting that the assignment represented the start of a lengthy series he would be writing about the regentrification of Harlem and other low income neighborhoods.
While Clark's income as a reporter was far higher than the residents who lived there, rental prices for apartments in Manhattan had gotten so outrageous for low and middle-income residents that he could sympathize with their plight. At the same time, he couldn't help but notice what the on-going redevelopment was doing for the neighborhood, as a number of trendy restaurants and other higher end retail chains had recently relocated to there, replacing liquor stores and fast food restaurants which catered to the homeless and lower income residents.
Clark was busy looking at his notes, eating a slice of meat-lover's pizza at a corner table in a new pizzeria, when his JL comm. link went active. The newer and much improved comm. links announced the identity of the callers, so he knew Batman was on the line. To avoid the curiousity of his neighbors, he pretended to tap the bluetooth headset clipped to the top of his ear.
"What's up?" Clark asked casually between mouthfuls.
"Where are you?" Batman asked.
"A pizzeria in Harlem. One hundred and fifteenth street and Eighth Avenue, to be exact. What's up?"
"I'll tell you on the landing pad at the Metro Tower in fifteen minutes."
Clark opened his mouth to pursue his inquiry, but a click on his comm. link told him the line was already dead. He wolfed down the last few bites of the pizza and paid the bill while he contemplated his assignment from Perry. Missions with Batman were usually all-nighters, and despite the immense physical gifts a Kryptonian was afforded by living in the Terran system, he still required a good night's sleep. He'd already figured the article would need at least ten typewritten pages for a two or three-part series, therefore, he'd be lucky to get any sleep before his deadline. He walked out of the pizzeria, turned left into an alleyway, passing two trucks off-loading restaurant supplies into the pantries. He ducked into an empty loading dock, took one last look to make sure no one was watching, then changed into his uniform. A blast of wind generated by his quick change pushed his glasses off the stool where he'd placed them. He found them floating in a garbage can filled with refried beans and other waste from a tacqueria.
"Looks like its going to be one of those nights," he sighed.
TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTSuperman landed on top of the Metro Tower three minutes ahead of the appointed time. He hoped he would be the first to arrive but to his chagrin, Batman and Nightwing were already waiting for him. Clark had known Batman long enough to know that if Batman had foregone his usual grand entrance, then the situation must be dire.
He touched down next to the Batwing then did a quick double-take when Diana emerged from behind the plane. She was wearing one of Bruce's old uniforms. He tried not to stare, but it was hard to imagine Diana without her Wonder Woman costume to begin with, and the swirl of the black cape and bat-emblem on her chest was shocking.
"Dry cleaner busy?" he asked her with an innocent smile.
Diana gave him a mock scowl, but shrugged her shoulders in response. "Transporters are down, and we got caught planet-side responding to a situation in Bludhaven."
"We?"
"Tea and I were at the U.N. and responded to Bruce and Dick's emergency call. Needless to say, my dress is not in good shape, so I had to borrow a uniform from Bruce."
"Where is Tea?" Superman asked, swiveling his head to see if he'd missed her.
"That's what we called you about." Dick stepped forward. "Professor Hamilton kidnapped her."
TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT"So what can you tell us about Professor Hamilton?" Batman asked.
Superman shook his head in response as he processed what his teammates told him about the abduction. Even after reviewing a digital photo from Dick's security system, Clark was still shocked that Hamilton had committed such an audacious kidnapping.
"I still can't believe he was the top scientist for Cadmus, much less responsible for kidnapping Tea," Clark replied, still in disbelief.
"How long have you known him?" Nightwing asked.
"Six years. When I first came to Metropolis, I didn't understand a lot about the technology my father had sent along with me in the spaceship. Professor Hamilton came well recommended as a conscionable scientist who wouldn't exploit the technology for criminal uses. We struck up an alliance and even a friendship, of sorts. He deciphered a lot of secrets about the Kryptonian technology. In turn, I think his professional curiosity was satisfied by working with the equipment. He was instrumental in working out the mechanics of the Phantom Zone projector, along with a lot of other stuff."
"What happened?" Nightwing asked.
"It all changed when Darkseid kidnapped, then brainwashed me. I'm sure you remember when I led his invasion campaign against Earth. Kara tried to stop me, but she took the brunt of a kryptonite blast Luthor hoped would kill the two of us. Eventually I regained my faculties and freed Kara, but I was so angry at Darkseid that Hamilton thought I was going to kill him if he didn't save Kara's life. He wouldn't talk to me after Kara recovered, but I never thought he'd joined forces against us until I found him at Cadmus' headquarters."
"You never told me that," Batman said. "When did you see him?"
"When they kidnapped The Question, Huntress and I broke into the Cadmus headquarters."
"That part I remember, just not the little detail about Hamilton."
"I didn't think it was important," Superman shrugged. "When I found him in their lab, the mystery about Tea's existence was solved, as only Hamilton would have been able to procure a piece of Kara's DNA when she was injured. He babbled about how the League represented the greatest threat humanity had ever faced, but I didn't have time to stay and educate him as Huntress and I were knee deep in a fight. I haven't seen him since."
"Do you have any suggestions about where to start looking?" Diana asked. "Judging by what he said to Tea, he's obviously insane."
Superman contemplated the question for a moment. He tried to focus on the known whereabouts of Hamilton before the League was formed, as Hamilton had quietly disappeared into the depths of the Cadmus conspiracy soon thereafter.
"Why not one of Star Labs old facilities?" Superman suggested. "If the suit he's wearing is more powerful than the one Luthor used to wear, that means he'll need the power – and equipment – to maintain it."
"Why not one of Luthor's old hideouts?" Diana inquired. "Didn't he shield them in lead so you couldn't track him? Sounds like a perfect hiding spot for Ruin."
"A lot of those buildings have been abandoned or sold since Luthor disappeared with Darkseid," Batman noted. "Mercy Graves has been selling them to raise cash to fight a hostile takeover."
"Considering that Wayne Tech initiated that hostile takeover, you might be privy to more of that information than the rest of us," Superman said.
"I already uploaded a list of the most likely facilities onto our network. Why don't you take Nightwing and start working through the list?"
"What are you and Diana going to do?"
"The same thing, as soon as we've had a chance to de-brief the strike team. They're en-route. ETA: Five minutes."
"Who's up?"
"Lantern, The Question and Arrow."
"Have you considered using one of our Magicians? Couldn't one of them cast a spell to track Tea and Ruin?"
"Zatanna is the only Magician available on call. We dispatched a Javelin to pick her up from her show at the Sands. She's en-route from Vegas as we speak."
"What about Fate? Etrigan?"
"Fate and Etrigan are busy dealing with a disruption of the celestial plane."
"They never available when you need them," Superman said, then nodded at Nightwing. "Why don't we take the Batwing? You can fill in any missing details en-route."
TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT"Somewhat risky putting them together, don't you think?" Diana asked as the Batwing rocketed away, heading south toward New Jersey.
"Clark's a big boy," Batman replied with a shrug. "I don't think he's going to hold a grudge against Dick just because he and Tea had an affair."
"But you made a point to show him a picture of Ruin instead of the whole video."
"A certain amount of discretion is warranted." Batman shrugged, then nodded up at the rapidly approaching Javelin-8 in-bound from the Watchtower. They moved away from the impending jet-blast as the Javelin switched into hover mode above them, then waited for Lantern, the Question and Green Arrow to emerge from the exit ramp after the spaceplane touched down.
Lantern was carrying a small bag in his right hand. He stopped and did a double take when he spied Diana's uniform. He glanced sideways at Batman, gave him a knowing wink, then presented Diana with the bag.
"Nice outfit," Lantern murmured.
"Thanks." Diana nodded appreciatively as she opened the bag. Even though there was only the faint light of a waxing moon above, her armor was luminous in the faint glow. She performed a quick inventory to ensure that everything she had requested was there then closed the bag.
"Are you going to wonder-spin your uniform on?" Lantern asked, his curiosity evident on his face.
"It doesn't work like that," Diana replied with a grin. "There will be plenty of time to change later. We need to move quickly if we're going to catch up to Ruin and Power Girl."
"Who's Ruin?" The Question asked.
"One of Cadmus' scientists has gone rogue," Batman explained. "He created Tea and was responsible for her training. By the sounds of it, somewhere along the way, he developed an unhealthy obsession for her."
"Any idea of what he's going to do to her?" Arrow asked.
"Probably brainwash her again to become an agent against the League," Batman speculated. "Bottom line, we need to find her before anyone gets hurt."
"Where do we start looking?" Lantern asked.
"Since Luthor's buildings are shielded with lead, it made more sense to send Superman and Nightwing to work through a list of Star Labs facilities." Batman replied. "You guys work through Luthor's known hideouts that were capable of servicing and powering his suit."
Batman saw Diana's head swivel toward him, her eyes looking at him in obvious surprise at not being paired on this mission. "What about you and Q?" Diana called out.
"We're going to pay a call on an old friend," Batman replied. "Can we borrow your plane?"
"The Invisible Jet?"
"Do you have another one?"
"There's a word I'm thinking of that might help sway me."
"Fine. Can we please borrow your jet?"
Arrow and Lantern traded shocked glances, stepping a few paces back from the squabbling couple. Arrow leaned toward Lantern and whispered, "I take it they finally did it?"
"How did you guess?" Lantern replied.
"Bats' saying please is all the confirmation I need."
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Tea felt a stab of consciousness invade her mind, but a searing headache quickly replaced her slowly coalescing thoughts. She made no attempt to stir, hoping that she would instead gain some advantage by 'playing possum.' First, she flexed her muscles to determine if she'd been injured by Ruin's blast. She felt sore, but otherwise no worse for the wear. However, her ankles and writs were shackled to a hospital bed. She flexed her muscles to see if she could budge them, but Tea wasn't strong enough to break the bonds.
She inhaled deeply through her nose, hoping that some scent would provide her a clue as to her location. There was a familiar, musty smell in the air that she associated with the underground prison at Belle Reeve, but nothing else revealed itself. She attempted the same exercise with her hearing next, stretching out with her enhanced senses as much as possible.
A few sounds were mixing at different frequencies. The first was a telltale chirp of an EKG machine. Tea could hear her heart beat reflected in the soft metallic chirp. The rhythmic whirring of two fan blades also told her she was in a room with forced ventilation, reinforcing her initial impression that she was being held underground. She strained to determine the source of a third sound, but she could not discern the source of the low-frequency buzz coming from the ceiling.
Tea regulated her breathing as much as possible to maintain the appearance that she was still unconscious, but Ruin must have anticipated her as his voice rang from a few feet away.
"How do you feel?"
Tea was silent, hoping she to convince her captor that she was still unconscious.
"Stop pretending that you're asleep, Tea. The EKG and brainwave machine told me you were coming around before you knew it."
Tea muttered a quiet curse under her breath and opened her eyes. Ruin stood a few meters away. His helmet was off, but otherwise Hamilton had left the rest of his suit intact. The EKG machine was next to him, the faint blips of her heartbeat clearly visible. Tea frowned when she realized that the room was bathed in red light – the lights were responsible for the unfamiliar, low frequency buzz high above her. Hamilton was obviously well prepared as he'd rendered her powerless under their red glare.
"Where are we?"
Ruin didn't answer. Instead, he reached over to a nearby side-table then poured a glass of water from a pitcher, adding a straw. He lifted it close enough for her to grab the straw with her lips, greedily sucking the entire contents of the glass.
"Better?"
She nodded. "So where are we?"
"Safe from the prying eyes of your new teammates."
"Underground? Shielded by lead?"
"Correct on both accounts," Ruin replied. "How do you feel?"
"Weak. What did you hit me with?"
"Ionized kryptonite."
"So weapons design is yet another feather in your cap?"
"I can't take credit for this particular invention. It was actually designed by a brilliant colleague of mine named Ivo. He's dead now, but there was no reason to reinvent a perfectly good kryptonite matrix emitter. Luthor had one in the suit he used to wear. I made some improvements that should prove useful."
"I can tell you first-hand that your suit is very effective," Tea said, an obvious trace of sarcasm intended for his benefit. She looked down for the first time and was shocked to find that she was wearing one of Dick's Nightwing outfits. "Why did you kidnap me?"
"As I said, I had to rescue you as soon as possible in order to begin your re-education as soon as possible. I had to move up the timetable of your rescue since the opportunity presented itself, but I wasn't fully prepared for your arrival."
"I've never heard of a rescue where the victim ended up being strapped to a bed by her rescuer. Are you planning on keeping me strapped to the table until you give me a lobotomy?"
"Nothing so radical is required. You won't be immobilized for more than a day or two," Ruin assured her. "I just have to procure a few more pieces of equipment, then we can begin."
"So you intend to brainwash me to becoming Galatea again?" Tea asked. "I'm not that person anymore! I haven't been since the day you sent me off on that suicide mission."
"You don't know how much it pained me to do that, Tea. But there was no choice. Cadmus was calling the shots. As soon as Cadmus folded like a cheap suit, I dedicated my life to becoming Ruin so I could rescue you from that dungeon at Belle Reeve."
"Talk about delusions of grandeur," Tea snorted. "If I couldn't take on the League when I was at full power, what makes you think you could do it with that ridiculous suit? Your kryptonite blasts only work on two of us, remember? There are more than fifty members in the League. Diana and the others will tear you to pieces while you spend all of your time trying to kill Superman."
"Superman? I thought you would have been on a first name basis with Clark by now," Ruin mocked.
Tea tried to maintain a poker face, but his revelation of Clark's identity shocked her so that it was impossible to conceal her surprise. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"I've known Superman's 'secret' identity for years," Ruin replied. "It was the one thing that I never told the higher-ups at Cadmus."
"Why not?"
"It's a lesson that you'll learn someday. Always keep something in reserve in case you're in a tight spot."
"Is that why you haven't gone public with it?"
"Among other reasons."
Tea shifted uncomfortably on the bed. "I have to pee."
"Nice try. I already put a catheter in place. There's also an IV to keep you hydrated."
"You're a sick, twisted old man. Did you take a nice long look while you were there? Why didn't you just rape me while you were at it?"
"It's nothing that I haven't seen before. Besides, I would prefer my bride to be a little more…responsive. Now be a good girl and relax for awhile. I'm going to go retrieve some equipment from one of my old labs and I'll be back before you know it."
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Superman sat quietly in the backseat, poring over the likely hiding places where Hamilton might be found. Reasoning that Hamilton would stay away from the most likely locations near Metropolis, they were a few minutes en route to a remote location in the barrens of southern New Jersey. For most of the flight, he'd occupied himself by perusing the list of locations Batman had provided for Star Labs facilities. The logic had been impeccable, as each location was an abandoned facility where Hamilton had worked during his fifteen year tenure with that institute.
"So how's Tim doing?" Superman asked, breaking the heavy lull of silence that had existed between himself and Nightwing since they'd taken off from the Metro Tower.
"How do you know Tim?" Nightwing replied.
"Worked with him a few years back when Brainiac kidnapped Bruce," Superman replied. "We played Batman and Robin for a day. He taught me the ins and outs of impersonating your boss."
"Ex-boss," Nightwing replied quickly. "We haven't worked as a team for more than five years."
"My mistake," Superman grinned. "But, if you don't work with him anymore, why did you let him convince you to join the League?"
"Because he's not in charge of the League, and I thought his rationale about an embargo on his own team joining the League was crap. The League recruited The Question, Green Arrow, Huntress, and a few other non-powered members. Why not us? It's not as if we weren't trained by the best."
"We asked him if he wanted to bring you guys in years ago, but ou know Bruce. He likes his little power trips."
"I also didn't like being left out of the fight when Darkseid and his Parademons were invading Earth." Dick shot back bitterly. "I would have emptied Bruce's bank account to get my hands on a League comm. link to call in some back-up. We were getting our asses kicked in Gotham while the rest of you were watching each other's backs."
Superman didn't say anything, but he could sympathize with Dick's plight, especially having lived through the frustration of Savage's future world where the silence of his long-dead teammates had been deafening. He cleared his throat, knowing that the next topic was likely to be a sensitive one.
"So I take it that by the circumstances of Tea's kidnapping at your place that you and Tea were intimate?"
There was no response from the pilot's seat.
"Still there, Dick?"
"I heard you. I'm trying to figure out how to answer that question without appearing to be some kind of gigantic ass."
"Start with the truth."
"Tea and I started flirting the moment we set eyes on each other," Dick admitted. "Since we were rookies I thought it made sense to hang out together. I didn't realize that it would get physical so quickly…"
"You're both consenting adults," Superman replied as a warning buzzer signaled they were nearing the facility. "And it's not like you two were the first members of the League to start dating. Between Lantern and Hawkgirl, Question and Huntress, Arrow and Canary, I can't keep them all straight."
"Not to mention Bruce and Diana," Nightwing muttered.
"WHAT?" Superman yelped in surprise. "Since when?"
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Amanda Waller had just settled onto the couch of her one-bedroom flat in Bethesda, Maryland to watch the evening news when a sudden chill in the air sent a shiver down her spine. She was wearing flannel pajamas, but the temperature had dropped so quickly, she forced herself off the couch to check the thermometer in the hallway. She peered at the LED readout, which confirmed the setting was as she'd intended, then spun around in shock when she felt the presence of another in her apartment.
"Hello, Amanda." Batman said.
"Rich boy!" Amanda replied, stepping back as she was shocked that he'd slipped past her upgraded security systems for the second time. "What are you doing here?"
"We've got some questions about one of your Cadmus scientists," Batman replied, nodding at The Question to answer her unasked query about who 'we' meant. The Question curtly nodded at her from the kitchen, then resumed his task of going through the contents of her briefcase.
"Get away from that!" she demanded. "That's classified information."
"Then why did you bring it home?" Question mocked. "Is it as big a secret as your two-a-day Twinkie consumption?"
"I thought you would be tired of looking through people's trash by now," Waller muttered.
"People's trash is just the tip of the iceberg. I go a lot deeper than that."
"We've got more important things to talk about than your latest coup d'etat in Africa," Batman interrupted. "What can you tell us about Professor Emil Hamilton?"
"What do you want to know?"
"When did you last see him?"
"Nine or ten months ago," Amanda replied, searching her memory. "After we folded Cadmus, Hamilton and the other scientists were disavowed."
"Where is he?"
"I have no idea," she replied. "We've tried to distance ourselves from that little disaster as much as possible."
"That 'little disaster' include the Galatea project?" The Question demanded.
"Is that what this is about? What happened? Did she go rogue after you recruited her?"
"Hamilton went rogue, Amanda. He kidnapped her and nearly killed my son in the process."
"I don't know anything about that."
"What can you tell us? What happened to the equipment Cadmus used to condition Doomsday?"
"Let me check," Amanda replied, scooting around the corner of the hallway to her computer. Doing her best to ensure her privacy, she entered in a series of increasingly long passwords into the keyboard. She glanced up and realized that The Question was watching her input her passwords via a reflection off the glass of an Ansel Adams picture above her desk. Amanda made a mental note to change her passwords as she realized there was a good chance he'd just memorized them.
She ran a search query on the Cadmus database, and was instantly rewarded with a manifest list of the equipment used in both the Galatea and Doomsday projects. She hit the print button, then handed over the four-page list. Batman perused it quickly, then handed the list to The Question.
"Any suggestions?" Batman asked.
"How about the storage depot at Ft. Drum?" she replied. "Most of the equipment from the Doomsday project ended up there. It's not heavily guarded, and if he hasn't already built the equipment himself, the manifest says most of the equipment he needs is right there waiting for him."
She turned to enlarge the map of the facility, then sent the image to the printer, but when she turned back to face them, they'd disappeared.
"Damn you, Rich Boy!"
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