"It's so large"
"It's the world dear, did you think it'd be small?"
"Smaller"
― C.S Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Gotham City
The Cave was just as oppressive as he remembered it, Bruce's large figure sat hunched in front of an impressive computer monitor and the rest of the world was less than the politely told to fuck off. The occasional sound of a bat taking wing punctuated the silence. Clark scowled.
"Why didn't you call me earlier?"
"There wasn't enough time."
The Dark Knight resisted the urge to smirk, he could feel Clark's gaze on the back of his head, swivelling round in his chair he met the other heroes gaze, he had invented this game.
"There wasn't enough time." Repeating his earlier statement the vigilante stood up, his gaze still stony as he swooped past the Man of Steel.
"You're actually sticking to that story? You are aware of how fast I can fly? I'm sure that factored into your strategic analysis of the Justice League after all." Clark exhaled a sharp breath before crossing his arms over his chest, there were things still left unsaid but even he could admit this wasn't the best forum. Yet he wasn't about to let Batman win, if anything the vigilante needed to learn that making executive decisions was not in his remit.
Bruce didn't say anything, instead he moved towards the console stationed beside the metal gurney, the prone girl lying under a thin sheet. Taping several buttons he turned to face Superman. Clark was clearly trying to teach him a lesson in humility, either that, or he was about to start on a tirade that involved the words trust, team and loyalty in close conjunction.
"She's Kryptonian, and if I'm reading this right, you're related." The detective chose to ignore the tension, they were wasting time and Clark would get over it.
"A clone from LexCorp?" Clark's gaze hardened, but his anger wasn't directed towards the man next to him, rather a business mogul that had somehow managed to convince the world that he was the good guy.
"No, presumably they haven't managed to find another Kryptonian out there and anything Project Cadmus produced was always half human. She isn't."
Bruce frowned, the girl had been wearing a lab coat, despite having just salvaged her ship she clearly hadn't just fallen from the stars, but he wasn't ready to share this piece of information with Clark. Kent had a nasty habit of jumping the gun and if there were so much a shred of evidence that linked Luthor to the girl, Lex would find himself confronted with a giant S. It would be a bitter pill for the public to swallow; confidence in the League was at rock bottom, this would not go favourably.
"How did you bring her in?" Clark scratched the back of his head; he had long ceased to grind his teeth. True to form, he was getting over it, the initial anger at least.
The Dark Knight's hand strayed to his belt, Clark swallowed heavily.
"Right… That."
"You gave it to me for a reason Clark, checks and balances."
"But that doesn't give you the right to set out a play by play on how to…" Superman tailed off, buttoning up the anger.
Bruce turned towards the superhero, pulling back the cowl his eyes were like granite.
"I don't have to justify myself to you Clark. And for all your talk of trust you don't seem to trust me. But I'll do my best to explain.
"I don't have powers, I have just spent years honing my skills but I'm never going to be capable of throwing a meteor off course, you can Clark. You, Diana, Wally, J'onn – you're all capable of doing extraordinary things, and for that reason you're susceptible, the enemy would seek to use you and control you. So it would be up to me, I would be the one left to take you all out.
"So forgive me if I had contingency plans. Checks and balances don't just apply to constitutions…."
"You could have told us…" Clark started his voice petering off as he caught a glimpse of Bruce's furrowed brow.
"That wouldn't work. I don't regret what I did Clark, I just regret that my lack of vigilance cost us."
Superman sighed, his jaw clenching momentarily as he shut his eyes for a moment.
"She's waking up." Bruce's voice was gone and the cowl was back in place.
Clark resisted the urge to sigh; the man next to him guarded every secret so viciously that he was surprised every time Bruce managed to show some amount of candour.
The girl's eyes snapped open and in an instant she threw off the blanket, the creature from the alleyway was standing in front of her, but in the florescent lighting and way from the planet's harsh exterior, she saw him for what he was, a man playing pretend.
Jumping off the bed her feet missed the floor, instead she was hovering a good three feet off it. Screaming she tried to get down, but some unknown force was keeping her up there – defying gravity.
Just as her legs began to float ever higher, her body tilting perpendicularly, two warm hands wrapped around her wrists, the symbol of the House of El inches from her face.
"Kal?"
The girl's forehead creased into a frown, she was confronted with the same blue eyes that she had last seen in the face of a small baby. But now she saw a man nearly twice her age.
"You know me?" the first words to tumble out of Clark's mouth were English, but strangely the girl seemed to understand.
"Yes, I'm Kara Zor-El… Our fathers were brothers."
"You speak English?" The Detective walked towards the two floating aliens, his voice only slightly softer than when he was interrogating the lowly Gotham criminal.
"No." Kara responded sharply her gaze drifting towards the creature, or more accurately, man.
"Your ship has some sort of translation relay?"
"It's here?"
Bruce nodded, why Luthor's people had chosen to leave it, he had no idea.
"Perhaps you two could continue your reunion at ground level?" The Dark Knight commented dryly as he once more returned to the computer main frame.
"Right," Clark nodded absentmindedly. Gripping Kara's hand tightly he offered a smile. "I'd always thought I was alone."
Metropolis
The glass paperweight went flying across the room, Mercy merely sidestepped, a look of poorly disguised disdain flitting across her features.
"I don't think throwing a temper tantrum will get the asset back Mr Luthor."
"No Mercy it will not, but it will make me feel better. Right after I string that idiot lab technician up by his entrails."
"If you want to make him disappear Sir, we have ways. But I don't think getting your hands dirty would be the smartest move."
Luthor clenched his fist, itching to throw it at something, maybe Mercy. The bitch was infuriatingly calm, but then he didn't have her around so she could panic in a crisis.
"Do we have a clue as to where she is?"
"No," Mercy responded quickly. "One incident was discovered by our operatives on the ground, but the trail went dead. Someone most probably picked her up. She would have been too disoriented and unfamiliar with the environment to effectively manage her escape. The lab techs are in too much of a state to give us any valuable information. The man they found in the garbage might lead us to something else but we wont know for a while."
"What's the holdup?" Lex spat, massaging his knuckles as he walked the length of his office, studiously ignoring the panoramic view that his glass walls provided.
"They had to induce a coma, potential brain damage."
The man hissed, his eyes narrowing to slits as he contemplated throwing something else. All the work he had put into salvaging the girl, harvesting the necessary genetic material, keeping her under lock and key and away from all interested parties would go to waste. No doubt Wilson would have coerced someone into revealing the truth, the bone he had thrown regarding Cadmus would be set-aside in favour for the bigger prize.
"We still have what we needed." Mercy offered quickly, she didn't know why she was trying to comfort the man. She really didn't care.
"And what if it doesn't work? What if we need more?" Lex rounded on the woman, his hand raised; Mercy's delicate jaw was jutting forward in defiance.
Thinking better of knocking her to the floor her grabbed her by the chin and pulled her into his chest. Kissing her roughly on the mouth he tried to find something, but distraction was an elusive creature. Pushing his bodyguard to the ground Luthor stalked angrily towards his desk, this time it was his phone that crashed against the glass.
Mercy slowly pulled herself up, dabbing delicately at her bruised lip. Her eyes steady as she straightened out her skirt, only the flicker of something vaguely resembling an emotion moved in her chest. She had long since ceased to care about the man in front of her. She was paid to protect him and that was all. Anything else complicated things and as Mercedes Graves had learnt, she wasn't one for complications.
"I'll keep you informed Lex."
Turning sharply her red-soled shoes picked their way across the glass littered carpet.
Metropolis General
Quickly pulling out the man's chart from the foot of his bed the doctor leafed through the pages – it made for grim reading. Returning the clipboard to its allotted spot, a hypodermic syringe was pulled gracefully from a deep pocket. Removing the plastic cap a gloved hand tapped the side of the vial; withdrawing a saline drip the patient's vein took the needle.
Glancing towards the door the woman waited, hoping that her soon to commence interview would not be disturbed. To her pleasure the man groaned, shaking his head almost imperceptibly.
"Ah, Mr Daniels, so glad you're awake."
Daniels opened his mouth to speak but instead there was a quiet rasp.
"Water?"
The man nodded. Reaching over to a nearby jug the woman poured a cup as she contemplated what she was to do next, squeeze the man for every ounce of information he had and ensure that no one else would discover it.
Spluttering slightly the man looked at her, his eyes barely focusing on the mass of wavy dark hair and green eyes.
"Doctor?"
The brown locks shook as she signalled the negative, "Cheshire."
"Cheshire? Like the cat?" Daniel's frowned, before a bout of coughing took him.
Jade's full lips stretched around her teeth, as she offered him a primal grin, her green eyes glinting, full of menacing promise.
"What do you remember of the girl?" Cheshire probed as she set a delicate hand on the man's chest, but hers was an iron fist clothed in velvet.
"Blonde, cute." Daniels muttered, his eyes dancing across the ceiling before settling on the door.
"I don't need to know how cute she was, to be honest men like you probably deserve all that you get… How'd you end up in the garbage?"
"She hit me…"
"What, repeatedly and then dragged your sorry ass into a dumpster?" Jade hissed in annoyance as she dug her nails into the man's chest. She wasn't getting her answers fast enough, clearly any damage the doctors thought he'd sustained wasn't permanent but it was making the interrogation take too long.
"No, one hit, right on the chest. Didn't even look like she was trying." Daniels turned his head to face the exit, Cheshire's eyes with their deaden stare were proving to be too much.
"Anything else?"
"She didn't speak English…"
"Then where was she from?"
"Didn't sound like I any language I'd heard of…"
Cheshire relaxed her grip, standing backwards she brushed down the white lab coat she had procured, "Is that all Mr Daniels?"
The patient coughed, before swallowing heavily, "I could have sword she was floating. Just for a second."
Offering Daniels another grin she flicked off the plastic cap of a second hypodermic needle.
"Thank you for your help Mr Daniels."
Jade rammed the needle into the man's neck. A small air bubble all that he had to remember her by.
Central City
There was a vague sense of occasion as Artemis strung up the thief; she'd finally manage to convince herself that she could and wanted to do this. Her head had finally stopped getting in the way. Leaving the unconscious criminal strung up to a lamppost she turned to walk back the way she'd come and continue her nightly patrol. But a voice stopped her.
"What, you don't write, you don't call?"
"Wa…" his name was about to fall fully formed from her mouth before she checked herself. "Flash."
The Scarlet Speedster grinned, as usual his smile managed to relax and excite Artemis all in one moment. It was something that never failed to throw her; no matter how often she was on the receiving end of it.
"There's a thing…"
"A thing?" Artemis frowned; the boy could be infuriatingly vague. Albeit not on purpose, but the effect was still the same.
"Gotham – tall, dark and scary asked me to help out. I thought you might want to come along too."
"You think Batman would appreciate me coming? He's kinda protective don't you think."
Wally glanced down before taking Artemis by the hand, "He's probably figured out what you're doing. Greatest. Detective. Ever. Remember?"
"Right," Artemis nodded. "But that doesn't mean he'll want me around."
"Artemis…" Wally's voice was uncharacteristically stern. "Lets say you owe me one and if you come with me, we'll call it even?"
The archer gave him a full smile, her eyes creasing behind the mask. Grabbing Wally by a gloved hand she pulled him towards her, very aware of the lightning that seemed to crackle around them, bouncing from chest to chest as it breached the gradually narrowing gap between their bodies.
"Gotham it is then."
A/N: Sorry for the lack of Wally/Artemis interaction - there will be more soon!
