The next morning, Courtney woke up feeling more well rested and refreshed than she had in months. It appeared that finding the staff had been what she needed to finally allow her to get some rest.
Anyways, after she got dressed, she headed downstairs to find Pat waiting for her.
"Sleep well Court?" Pat asked.
"Better than I have in awhile. Turns out when you finally answer a magic stick's call, it leaves you alone." Courtney said and Pat rolled his eyes.
"Come on. Eat breakfast and then I'll take you to my shop so that I can tell you what I meant about what you told me." Pat said and Courtney nodded.
"So, what is it that you wanted to show me?" Courtney asked Pat as they entered his shop.
"This." Pat said as he led her into the backroom of his shop and Courtney was very surprised to find the robot that she'd seen in her dreams standing there.
"What is that thing?" Courtney asked.
"That Courtney, is a robot I built before I met your mother." Pat said.
"You are way smarter than you look. How did you build that thing?" Courtney asked.
"I built it out of old car parts." Pat said.
"Why are you a mechanic when you could be a rocket scientist or something?" Courtney asked.
"For the same reason the JSA wore costumes. Misdirection. By hiding in plain sight, doing something that does not draw attention to myself, the bad guys can't figure out who I am." Pat explained.
"Makes sense. Speaking of costumes." Courtney began.
"We'll talk about that once your mom calms down a bit, since unlike her, I do realize that with the staff comes a desire to protect people. Sylvester felt it and so do you and while I'm not thrilled about you putting yourself in danger like that, I also know that I can't talk you out of it, so I might as well do my best to make sure that you don't get killed." Pat said.
"Honestly, I doubt that there's anything here that could kill me. Even if the staff chose me, I don't understand why it waited till we were here to become so insistent. It makes more sense for it to have shown up while we were living in LA." Courtney said.
"I don't know how the staff's mind works, since I know that it has one, but I think I may know why it activated here." Pat said as he led her over to a trunk in the garage.
"What's this?" Courtney asked.
"Everything I've gathered on the Injustice Society. Ever since the JSA was wiped out, I've been following the ISA's trail, trying to pick up their trail. That's the reason why I moved around so much and why we moved to Blue Valley." Pat said.
"Because the trail led you here." Courtney said and Pat nodded.
"The fact that staff became active all of sudden means that I was on the right track." Pat said.
"Where did you get all this stuff and what's with the robot?" Courtney asked.
"One member of the JSA survived the initial slaughter that night. Hourman. He became obsessed with hunting down the ISA and finding out what they were up to. He followed the trail across the US until he and his wife were killed in a car crash." Pat said.
"And then you decided to pick up the trail from there." Courtney said and Pat nodded.
"I built the robot because I thought that I could help Hourman, but he wanted to go in alone." Pat said.
"Pat, let me help you. If the ISA is here in Blue Valley, you're going to need all the help you can get." Courtney said.
"You'll get your chance Court, I promise, but not until after you show me that you can handle yourself both with the staff and without it, since Starman never solely depended on his weapon in a fight, since while the staff may be alive, it can't always be there." Pat said.
"So what you're saying is that I can't just depend on the staff." Courtney said.
"Exactly. The JSA weren't just heroes because they had powers, in fact a lot of them didn't have any. But they survived and won as many times as they did because they were renowned fighters and the ISA was just as skilled. If you don't have the right training, then you'll get killed. So, that puts you on the back burner, since you've got a lot to learn and unfortunately, what I can teach you is limited." Pat said.
"Yeah, I figured that out from the robot you built to fight in." Courtney said.
"I'll figure it out. But for now, let's focus on the staff training." Pat said as he pulled the staff's crate out and put it on the ground before allowing Courtney to open it.
The moment she did, the staff glowed and shot up before flying towards her.
"Let's get started." Courtney said with a grin as she twirled the staff around before catching it perfectly and getting into a fighting stance.
"What was so urgent that you felt it necessary to summon me?" Brainwave asked Dragon King as he entered his lab.
"I'm sorry to disturb you Dr. King, but I thought that you might be interested in learning about this, since we both know that the Wizard is not the person Jordan should've left in charge." Dragon King said.
"On that we agree, William has always lacked the stomach to do what was necessary. But what is it?" Brainwave asked.
"My instruments detected a very strong energy signature coming from here in Blue Valley, though they could not identify where." Dragon King said.
"Okay, so, what is so concerning that it could not wait until morning?" Brainwave asked.
"My concern is that not only is the energy signature strong, it's also familiar. In fact, it's an exact match to the energy signature of this." Dragon King said as he pulled up an image of the cosmic staff and now Brainwave understood Dragon King's concern.
"Starman's staff. Are you sure?" Brainwave asked.
"Positive. I ran several tests to confirm that it was a match. You understand now why I called you." Dragon King said and Brainwave nodded.
"I always knew that leaving the staff out there, unaccounted for, was a mistake that would come back to haunt us and now it has. Jordan believed that without Starman, it would be dormant and not a threat to us. But by allowing it to stay in the wind, we have allowed it to find a new wielder and now that it has reawakened, our plans are in jeopardy." Brainwave said.
"Should we alert Jordan?" Dragon King asked.
"Yes. Even if it turns out to be nothing, he should be made aware of what is going on." Brainwave said as he pulled out his phone.
Jordan Makhent was currently sitting on a bench, thinking about his next target when his phone rang.
"Henry, what a surprise. I wasn't expecting to hear from you." Jordan said.
"You need to return to Blue Valley now. There's been a complication." Henry said.
"What sort of complication?" Jordan asked.
"Dr. Ito has detected energy signatures that are consistent with Starman's staff. It's resurfaced and it looks like it's found a new wielder. I thought that you'd want to be made aware of this." Henry said.
"You're correct. Who else knows?" Jordan asked.
"Just you, me and Ito. The others don't know yet. How would you like us to proceed?" Henry asked.
"With caution. I will head toward Blue Valley tomorrow, but in the meantime, see if you can locate the staff's current location and extract it. Preferably without making any noise. I don't want to draw unneeded suspicion when we are this close to our triumph." Jordan said.
"Understood. So that means that we're not telling Sportsmaster or Tigress." Henry asked.
"No, while they have their uses, they're not exactly subtle. We've evaded the authorities for so long because we've managed to avoid drawing suspicion. They'll end up turning a simple mission into a bloodbath, which will no doubt bring unwanted and unneeded attention. This operation requires subtlety. Something that both you and Ito excel at. I want you two to work on figuring this out and try to acquire the staff before I arrive, but if you do not, then we will inform the others and go from there." Jordan said.
"Understood. I look forward to seeing you again. William is not up to the task." Henry said.
"See you soon." Jordan said as he hung up and sighed, thinking he should've known that something like this would happen this close to their estimated launch date.