12 Justice League Shadows
"Hey Chief, do we have a cargo transfer scheduled?" a Support Chief at the Watchtower's Masters Systems Display asked her coordinating officer.
"Say what?" he asked as he approached. He tapped open his schedule on his tablet, "Nope. Nothing's due to come through until tomorrow. Of course, tomorrow yields the beginning of the avalanche."
She frowned, "I'm reading a teleport to Cargo Bay Six."
"Have you run a diagnostic?" the Logistics Chief asked.
"Twice. Life Support has also been automatically activated," she shared.
"Have security take a peek," the Chief suggested.
"What security?" she begged, "The only people up here are the prep crew. Security doesn't arrive until 0600 GMT -5."
The Chief sighed, "See who you can rustle up and track down this glitch."
"Uh…Chief?" she suddenly interjected, "Cargo Bay Six's doors just cycled. Someone just exited it."
"What the hell?" the Chief wondered, "Get a crew together ASAP. Find out what's going on."
The tech was rather alarmed, "And what if there are intruders aboard? What are we supposed to do then?"
The Chief was stymied so he spitballed, "Ask them to leave?"
The tech threw her hands up, "Argh! You will so owe me for this, Harold."
"Add it to my tab, Ziya," he urged. He was amused to see that didn't sit well with her either.
Chang Ziya had considered being recruited into the ISA as a plum assignment. Then she'd been tapped to join the JLU's support team. She'd marched through the ranks with startling ease and precision. Technically Harold Plummer didn't outrank her. She was a department chief as well. It just so happened her specialty was Information Systems Support while his was logistics.
If Harold didn't have a shipment scheduled than there damn well wasn't supposed to be one. Which meant his first assumption could be correct. It very well could be a glitch, which would land it in her ballpark.
Ziya smiled at the sports metaphor. When she'd been based out of Brooklyn she'd made habit of attending Dodgers games. She loved baseball. It truly was a game of equals. At any time on any given day an inferior opponent could suddenly shine and score the winning hit. Plus the strategies behind it appealed to her logical nature. She was a problem solver by inclination and training and every game was a set puzzle box waiting to be unraveled.
Puzzle boxes were also a passion of hers. Her father was an artisan that crafted them in Shanghai. Her parents had defied the "One Child Rule" set down by the government. And more importantly, they'd kept her despite her being a girl and already having an older sister.
Shanghai was a technological and trade hub of the People's Republic of China. Ziya had shown an amazing aptitude fro electronics as a youth. She'd actually left home at the age of eleven to attend a special school. When she graduated top of her classes, she then went on to higher education in cybernetics and avionics.
She'd planned on a career designing and building spacecraft for her nation. But the International Security Agency had come calling and Ziya's instructors encouraged her to join up. It was while she was deciding that certain elements of her government came forward and told her she could do a great service for her country by joining the ISA.
She would have access to alien technologies. Technologies that were being restricted to the global agencies of the United Nations. The People's Republic needed those technologies to remain affluent. After that sales pitch hadn't completely sold her, they detailed what they could do for her parents and her sister. That sealed the deal.
It wasn't exactly like she was spying. She just described her everyday working conditions. The censors who monitored her letters were also agents of her country. To western eyes her letters were just streaming columns of calligraphy. The letters were actually meant for her parents. It's just that her handlers read them first.
Still, there was a nagging sense of guilt associated with the letters. She'd stopped writing but her parents, probably at the government's behest, had written her to find out what was wrong. She knew her parents honestly cared. She was their youngest and she was far from home. So she resumed writing.
Ziya forced these thoughts, and her growing guilt, aside as the lift doors opened. Her team was still on the command deck and she was therefore surprised when a group of strangely garbed men began to exit the lift she'd been waiting for. The one next to it chimed its arrival and a man and two gorillas exited.
Ziya may not have recognized anyone else but she recognized the tall bald man and his simian companions. She confronted them, "You cannot be here."
"And why is that?" Luthor mused.
"You have no authorization," Ziya insisted.
"But we just arrived from the JLU-Gotham facility," Luthor informed her.
Ziya blinked in surprise. Almost a quarter of her staff had been rerouted to that facility. They couldn't gain access. Rumor had it a JLU team had set out to break in by force if necessary. Ziya now realized that it was.
"What are your intentions here?" Ziya demanded.
"Please, like you could stop me if you wanted to," Luthor chuckled.
Ziya had studied dance rather than martial arts growing up. But some of China's greatest film heroines were in truth dancers who had merely learned to also perform martial arts moves. She recklessly tried throwing a punch.
Luther caught her arm and used her momentum against her. Spinning her around, he pinned her arm behind her back. She felt a cold metal object pressed against her head. She instinctively knew it was a gun. She'd seen him wearing one.
"Do it, coward!" she insisted.
Luthor suddenly shoved her towards the albino ape, "Hold on to her, Humanite."
"Any particular reason why?" the Ultra-Humanite drolly inquired.
"I admire her pluck," Luthor admitted, "She'll inspire others. So when she chooses to bow down before us, they will as well."
"Heh, heh, heh, leave her to me," Sivana suggested.
"I don't think so, Doctor," Luthor retorted, "You have a tendency to break your playthings. Besides you have other matters to attend to."
"Riiight," Sivana maniacally chuckled.
Luthor aimed his pistol at Ziya's forehead, "Cooperate or she will merely be the first to die."
The technical team all shuffled about and quivered in their boots. Ziya spoke, "It will be all right. Just do what they say and the Justice League will be here shortly."
Luthor reached and pulled her head back by her ponytail, "The Justice League?"
She didn't like the way he sneered the team's name but she ventured on anyway, "They usually defeat your plans. Yes?"
"Not this time, my dear," Luthor vowed, "Not this time."
He released Ziya's hair and stepped back, "Riddler, Calendar Man, you may proceed."
Calendar Man approached each tech and handed them a microchip from a small bag he was carrying. When he had finished, he instructed them to adhere the chips to their foreheads. They did so and he nodded to the Riddler.
The Riddler removed his bowler and depressed a thumb switch in the headband. Every man and woman's eye went blank suddenly. Ziya exclaimed in alarm.
"What have you done to them?" she wanted to know.
Riddler donned his bowler, "Nothing to fret about. Just a little technology pioneered by an associate of ours. Perhaps you've heard of him? He's colloquially known as the Mad Hatter."
Ziya knew the name. She'd examined some of his designs for the League. Her government had been particularly interested in the technology.
"So what happens now?" she asked scornfully.
"Now you're people lead us into the command center," Luthor said smarmily, "And there we will take hold of Ms. Waller and Mrs. Dibney."
Ziya's eyes went wide. So they knew.
The takeover took approximately three minutes. Sivana supplied a scrambler that had a null effect on all the communications gear. Riddler used the captured techs to seize the operations staff. Calendar Man repeated his last performance and soon the entire staff was under Riddler's spell.
He chuckled to Calendar Man, "I can see why Jervis finds this so enthralling."
"'Enthralled' is the word," Calendar Man agreed, "They'll do whatever you say at this point."
"Piffle," Riddler scoffed, "With the circuitry wired into my hat, I merely need to think an instruction and they do it. Our beloved Mad Hatter truly is an unappreciated genius."
While the Riddler and the Calendar Man seized control of the staffers' minds, Sivana and Mr. Mind usurped control of their equipment. They brought the defensive systems online and then turned towards the teleporter controls. The Ultra-Humanite brought Ziya over to them and had her advise on some of the more esoteric functions.
Ziya had long ago given up on trying to break the Humanite's grip. She observed and made a startling realization, "You've synched the teleport functions into an external trigger."
"Very good, my pretty. You've deduced our first step," Sivana cackled.
Ziya wanted to gag, "The technology appears to be compatible with our systems."
"That's because they are your systems," seeing her confusion, the Humanite went on to explain; "Don't you recall Luthor saying we came from the JLU-Gotham facility?"
She did suddenly, "But these appear to be the self destruct protocols."
The Humanite gave her as kindly a smile as he was capable of, "Yes, we're going to initiate the auto destruct."
"But that would kill your own people as well as the Justice League!" Ziya exclaimed.
"Well first off, we'll try and avoid the former and as far as the latter goes, that truly is the point of the exercise," the Ultra-Humanite shared.
"Amanda, so good to see you again," Luthor smoozed.
"Get stuffed, Lex," Waller retorted.
"Now, is that any way to speak to your greatest benefactor?" Luthor chided her.
"You were CADMUS' greatest benefactor. CADMUS doesn't exist anymore," Waller snorted.
"No," he said matter of factly, "ARGUS absorbed its functions and ARGUS is alive and well and going strong."
Seeing the smoldering rage in her eyes, he pressed on; "You didn't think I'd just forget about all those clandestine agencies, now did you?"
"I think you should go straight to hell and seal the entrance behind you," Waller admitted.
"Amanda!" Luthor feigned shock, "Is that any way to talk to an old friend?"
"We were never friends, Lex," Waller replied, "We were convenient allies. Having a president that fully endorsed our aims would have been…nice."
"Yes, it would have been," Luthor mused, "But times have changed. I have remained true to CADMUS' mission and you have betrayed the cause."
"The mission went bust. Largely because of you," Waller reminded him, "Priorities changed and so did methodologies. The end goal has been achieved, the JLU is under heel."
"Is it really?" Luthor posed the question.
"Lex, the only one out of control is you," Waller insisted.
"Do you really believe that?" Luthor inquired nonchalantly, "Can you ever imagine me out of control?"
Waller hesitated before answering, "Not really."
"Good," he said with meaning. He turned to Sue, "Mrs. Dibney, I don't believe I've ever had the pleasure."
"You still haven't," she said coldly.
"Careful, we will all be here together for some time," Luthor warned, "Do you really want to end up a mindless drone?"
Sue and Waller glanced towards the support personnel marching to the Riddler's drummer. Sue defiantly retorted, "Better that than spend another moment with you."
"Droll. Very droll," Luthor commented, "Grodd, have the Riddler assign a team to escort Mrs. Dibney to a holding cell."
"Somehow I think it would be a distinct pleasure," Grodd opined. Sue made a particularly rude gesture and Grodd chuckled, "I don't even have to think about it anymore."
Grodd conferred with the Riddler and four staff members came with Calendar Man to escort Sue. They marched her out of the command center and to the lifts. They entered in and Sue made her move.
"So what happens now?" Waller asked.
"Now Grodd takes you into the administrative offices and holds you in place," Luthor nodded towards Grodd. The ape took Waller by the arm and began pulling her into her office.
"You do realize this is ultimately futile?" Waller asked.
"We shall see, Amanda," Luthor advised, "This time we truly shall see."
Waller shook her head in disgust just before Grodd yanked her into the office space and ordered her to sit behind her desk. She tried accessing the comm array but found her terminal's access to the network had been disabled.
She was surprised when the Ultra-Humanite brought Ziya in as well. He relieved Grodd and took a seat on the couch. That left Ziya choosing between one of the two empty chairs.
"Let us see what we shall see," the Humanite mused philosophically as he activated the wall sized monitor embedded in the office wall. It was currently configured to display dozens of newsfeeds at once but the Ultra-Humanite commandeered the remote and pulled up the Culture Channel. Pulling it onto the whole screen, he sat back to relax.
"You may as well partake, ladies. You may even learn something in the interim," he suggested.
Ziya exchanged a loaded glance with Waller. This fight was far from over. But they had to play it cool for now.
Luthor inputted a phone number into one of the Legion's secure mobile phones. He waited as it rang. He was curious as to how his news would go over.
Jaina Hudson heard the phone ring. It wasn't her phone, it was the White Rabbit's prepaid cellular. She smirked. It seemed her alter ego was growing in popularity. Unlike her, Bruce Wayne had stood her up this evening.
And the White Rabbit was truly an alter ego. Not only did the Rabbit represent a different personality but an entirely different body as well. Jaina's father, Tom Hudson may have been Caucasian but her mother was East Indian, and Jaina took after her mother in looks and temperament. Her mother had been Bollywood's top earning actress at one time. Her father had been the American diplomat that swept her off of her feet.
Her mother had died when Jaina was younger and now she and her father were in Gotham City. The squalid sections of the city didn't bother her. They just reminded her of parts of home. She still considered India home despite living in America now. But she was adapting well. And so was her alter ego.
Jaina stretched out her hand and an energy matrix emerged from it and took on a humanoid shape. It coalesced into the White Rabbit, costume and all. She looked slightly perplexed.
"You have a call," Jaina offered as an explanation.
White Rabbit smirked as she checked the caller ID. She knew Jaina didn't want to know anything so she stepped into the guest room and closed the door behind her. Her amusement showed as she answered.
"Why Lex, I knew you couldn't resist my charms forever," White Rabbit said mirthfully.
"I need to contact Scarlet Rose," Luthor said without preamble, "We'll be ready to assist her in a matter of hours."
"Can I give her this number?" the White Rabbit inquired.
"Certainly," Luthor acquiesced.
"Very well," White Rabbit replied, "I don't know her current locations so I'm uncertain of when she'll call you."
"So there are limitations to your knowledge base." Luthor chuckled.
"I'm not omniscient," White Rabbit scolded him for thinking it was true.
"Tell me, what would Batman's secret identity be worth to you?" Luthor suddenly inquired.
White Rabbit uncharacteristically hesitated, "I'd have to think about it."
"Think hard and fast," Luthor urged, "I have a dozen Legionnaires that would love to get their hands on this information as well."
"Give me twelve hours and I'll have a decision," White Rabbit promised.
"I can hold the wolves at bay until then," Luthor decided, "But after that the information is fair game."
"Very well," White Rabbit acknowledged the terms, "I have to go now. The sooner I call Scarlet Rose, the sooner she calls you. Ta ta for now!"
Luthor wondered why the White Rabbit was so chipper. He was also surprised by her hesitancy to learn Batman's identity. He guessed it took all kinds.
Scarlet Rose called him within ten minutes time. She relayed coordinates in Central Europe and the teleporter scanners marked her and five others. The blue flashes evaporated to reveal six Persians. Three males and three females.
Scarlet Rose stuck to a primarily red theme in her clothing. The largest male wore traditional robes and a turban. Scarlet Rose introduced him as "Scimitar".
Luthor was amused by the name. Scarlet Rose suggested to Scimitar that he show Luthor the meaning behind his name. Scimitar lifted his hand and suddenly a sword of that style appeared in his hand. It was composed of pure energy and a flame-like discharge emanated from its blade.
"Scimitar's blade can cut through nearly anything," Scarlet Rose boasted.
"What can't it cut through?" Luthor was slightly in awe of the display.
"The only things we haven't tested it on are Kryptonian and Daxamite flesh. It has cut through every known Terran substance," Scarlet Rose shared.
"Very impressive," Luthor nodded his regards to Scimitar.
Scarlet Rose came to a man Luthor's size and build. He wore generic fatigues but he filled them out in a manner befitting elite soldiers. Scarlet Rose rested a proprietary hand on his shoulder.
"This is Pylon," she explained, "He can project cylindrical force beams. He can also erect stable columns of any and all sizes."
"Isn't he going to give a demonstration?" Luthor wondered.
Scarlet Rose gave him a depreciating smile, "Do you really want him rupturing a hole through the walls of this space station?"
"I see your point," Luthor chuckled, "And this fellow?"
The last man was trim and compact. He wore a flight suit. Scarlet Rose nodded at him and he gave a slight nod in return.
"This is Ramrod," she stated, "His ability is to fly in a straight line and ram his way through any obstacle. No known force has yet to stop him."
"Interesting. But how does he turn?" Luthor wondered.
"He doesn't," Scarlet Rose said wryly.
"Ah, I see," Luthor could see advantages and disadvantages to Ramrod's ability.
The first of the other women wore a smart white pantsuit. Luthor wondered as to its practicality in combat. Scarlet Rose detected a slight chastisement regarding her own apparel.
"Jewel doesn't fight in the traditional sense," Scarlet Rose divulged, "Jewel, show Luthor what you can do."
A ruby began to form out of thin air. It had nearly encapsulated Luthor when he called off the effort. He stepped out of the incomplete jewel.
"She can do that with any kind of stone?" he asked.
"That's how we finance ourselves," Scarlet Rose smirked, "She creates flawless, cut stones we can market anywhere."
Luthor turned to the last woman. Her garb was similar to that of the JLer, Hawk. He made mention of this. The woman replied before Scarlet Rose had an opportunity to speak.
"Hawk is not the only avatar of the Lords of Chaos operating on this planet," she said, "Hawk's patron fell in love with a Lord of Order. Together they created the abominable pairing of Hawk and Dove."
"If you're not Hawk, then you are…?" Luthor prompted.
"Falcon," she said with a predatory smile.
"And you help Scarlet Rose because…?" he encouraged her to elaborate.
"Chaos will be served," she said hungrily, "One way or another."
"I'm impressed," Luthor admitted, and he was; "Does your group have a name?"
"We were code-named the Crimson Jihad. It is a homage to my sister for founding us. It also makes the world thing that we are Islamist radicals so they hunt down patsies who have taken the blame for us," Scarlet Rose revealed, "Except for Falcon, whose loyalties do not even lie on Earth, every man and woman was absolutely loyal to my sister. You have no friends here, Luthor. Someday, when our time together has been served, you may awaken to find us at your doorstep to avenge my sister."
"I'll take my chances," Luthor brushed the threat aside.
"Just so we understand one another," Scarlet Rose clarified, "So when do we begin?"
"Dr. Sivana, what is our ETA?" Luthor inquired through his comm link.
"The auto destruct has been activated. It is only matter of a few seconds now," Sivana reported.
Luthor refocused on Scarlet Rose, "My people will need rest and then we will need to gather intelligence. Let's say we can go operational in forty-eight hours?"
Scarlet Rose nodded her assent, "Very well. And then Bailya will know a new Queen."
Luthor returned to the command center with the Crimson Jihad in tow. There he found the Riddler overseeing several enslaved techs as they ran internal sweeps. Calendar Man stood near Grodd. He was fighting to staunch his bloody nose.
"Dibney?" Luthor asked with a pained expression.
"It seems once she was in the lift she used the tight quarters to her advantage," Grodd reported, "The JLU staffers didn't have enough original thinking left to counter her. Meanwhile…"
"Meanwhile she knocked Calendar Man flat on his back," Luthor said disdainfully.
Calendar Man looked wounded but Scarlet Rose chose that moment to speak, "Problem?"
"An escaped prisoner," Luthor dismissed it, "She'll be caught within the hour."
"In that case we volunteer to do the capturing," Scarlet Rose offered.
Luthor eyed her and she shrugged, "We don't have much else to do but stand around and look pretty. We don't do pretty."
Luthor made his decision, "Calendar Man, if I send you out with some real fighters, can you manage not to get knocked onto your ass again?"
"Sure," Calendar Man replied.
"You'll need this," Grodd hand Calendar Man a tablet, "This is tied into the network. We'll guide you to her using this."
"Come, lead us to the prey," Scarlet Rose exhorted Calendar Man.
As they headed towards the lifts, Grodd asked Luthor; "Is this wise?"
"Meaning will Sue Dibney survive?" Luthor asked.
"Precisely," Grodd concurred.
'Does it matter?" Luthor inquired.
Grodd guessed that after today it really didn't.
