Alexandra turned back the story she had been reading. Grabbing another much smaller red spiral bound notebook, and she began making notes. She dug around through the pile until she found another spiral notebook that was dark blue, and tossed it to Robin.
"Make note of any possible characters, any details about them, also note pages, and notebooks they show up in."
Robin nodded his understanding and began leafing through the story she had placed in front of him. He noted any characters that were possibilities in an empty notepad Alexandra had found in the pile. As they worked Robin couldn't help but make marks to correct any errors he saw. After a he had completed two stories he glanced at his watch and at the still massive stack of notebooks. Crestfallen, he realized it would take him days to work through all of this with just Alex for help. Then a thought occurred to him; Alex and him weren't the only ones on this team. He shot a message to everyone's communicators directing them all to meet in the library. Then he smiled to himself as he skimmed through the story about a phoenix.
Wally and Artemis walked in together. Artemis's assessing gaze traveled up and down Alexandra who glanced at Artemis completely unperturbed, but not friendly either.
"What," Alexandra asked not quite rudely, but a reminder that she knew what Artemis was doing and she didn't appreciate it.
"You're the one who is helping stop the assassin?"
Alexandra snorted. She probably didn't care to much about the assassins; Robin thought, and her answer confirmed that.
"No, I'm here to find my sister, ensure you guys save her, and don't end up dead along the way."
Artemis glanced behind Alexandra at Robin with raised eyebrows. Robin felt the smile tugging at his lips.
"I'll explain when the rest of the group gets here."
Alexandra whirled on him and he showed her his watch, which flashed showing that messages had been sent out to the rest of the team. Slowly the rest of the team came in to the library in groups. Megan and Superboy entered first, then Rocket, and Zatanna, and lastly came Aqua lad caring a box of paints, brushes, pencils, pens, thick paper, and colored pencils. He smiled at Alexandra as he placed them down in front of her. She eyed the box like a thief eyes priceless gems.
"Alright," Robin said drawing everyone's attention. "For those who do not know, this is Alexandra," he gestured towards Alex. "She will be working with us on the assassin case because she has information on the case and has power." Robin nodded at Alexandra who glared at him. Finally she sighed accepting defeat.
"I can't say who's behind this. Whoever they are, they have been planning this for a very long time." Alexandra swallowed hard when all eyes were on her then she continued. "Megan told me you have two telepaths. One of them is unwilling participate. That would be my older sister, Jessie. She was taken a while ago. Years ago, in fact. The people who took her are using her ability to become her characters to create assassins or just puppets that have more power than a normal human would have. I can't even begin to guess what their aim is, but they have enough power to level countries with my sister."
Everyone exchanged worried or in the case of a few, disbelieving glances. Robin could almost taste the fear that stung the air.
"On the positive side," she broke into their whispering. "The amount of power that would take to tap a character with that amount of power would be significant. Even a weak telepath would be able to feel that kind of surge. But also the more powerful the character the less time they can hold it. My sister will also fight to throw off or disrupt any connection, but she has been held captive for so long you cannot solely rely her."
"So can we track your sister back to her source location when she uses her powers," asked Megan.
Alexandra shook her head no.
"My sister has mental connection with both me and Robin."
Some eyes turned to Robin questioningly.
"In order to keep the other telepath out of those connections she must protect her inner self. So she makes a barrier that keeps out everyone. If that inner core self is compromised they will have access to me and Robin, not to mention full control over Jessie." Alexandra took a deep breath. "Jessie was taken years ago, these people have been working her mind over for that time, and now it is only a matter of time before they break her completely."
Wally raised his hand and asked, "So how do they get the frame work for the characters?"
"My best guess, surface thoughts. They got a hold of her stories and then asked questions about it and picked the answers out of her surface thoughts. Even the most expert liars can't not think the answer to the questions. Or they have someone who is familiar with her stories and mind mining the information from her. This is a lot less likely seeing as; to the best of my knowledge, the only people who had access to her stories or would know about them are in this room."
"So how exactly does your sister's power work?"
"Our powers work by creating a telepathic connection or resonance with a character or picture. My sister is limited to any characters that she can form a true connection with. The stronger the connection the longer she can hold on. So, like my sister, any of the characters they choose will have to be compatible with the host mind. They can't make an inherently good character do bad things or things against their morals, nor can they make an inherently good person take on a bad character. To do so would result in fracturing of the mind and or the frame work for the character making them useless. Also, these people will also be limited for how long they can hold a transformation. How much energy my sister would normally need to expend as that character will also determine how they can hold a particular character. So if the character isn't doing much, it will last longer. However if they are moving earth and sky they will have a shorter period of time to work with."
"You said our?" asked Aqua lad.
Alexandra nodded.
"I'm a little bit different from my sister in mechanics. But we do pretty much the same thing. Anything or anyone I draw I become. Not just become, I know their past, present, their plans for their future, and I know the inner workings of their heart. Unlike my sister I can become someone whose morals greatly differ from my own. But my, I guess you could call it my core self is significantly stronger. Meaning I'm not swayed by their choices the same way my sister is. My sister takes on all of their weaknesses, strengths, and abilities. So too will any character/person who draws from her power." What she didn't say was if she did take on a person or thing that wasn't similar to her it would be weaker than a true connection, and as a rule she didn't have as much power as Jessie.
"Are there any other limits to the power," Rocket asked.
"Physical differences will also matter. A girl cannot become a guy character unless they were born with male parts. However a male can become a woman. We believe it has something to do with the fact that women tend to be more flexible in personalities, but we aren't really sure. Someone born missing a limb will not have that limb if they become that character. However if they were born with the limb and lost it in an accident they will get a new limb. Things like that. Any other questions?" When no one answered Alexandra smiled and gestured to the books, "Good, grab a notebook and start taking note of any bad guy in the stories. Please include where you found it, title of the story if there is one, and a description of the notebook if there isn't." Everyone in the group exchanged glances, but they all pulled up chairs and got to work.
