Hello again, ShadowMajin here. Here is the next in AnonymousVoid and my series, the second Justice League story, and AV once again opting out. This one was admittedly slow to develop for me, unlike the previous stories, but I think I managed to iron out some of the bugs in it. Hope everyone enjoys.
Like most stories, this one started with a monster.
"GL, is it just me or is anyone getting a craving for seafood?"
Along with a bad joke as was routine these days.
"Stop thinking with your stomach, Flash," John Stewart warned, floating high in the air. Feeling the familiar warmth generated by his ring as he summoned his will, the Green Lantern extended his arm out, aiming his fist at the monster-of-the-week and fired a blast of green energy.
The beam raced through the air until it collided with the monster's side, causing an explosion that send smoke and dust flying in all directions. As the dissipating smoke, it was soon revealed that nothing happened, not even a mark to show for the attack. Considering the monster's body looked like a giant, white seashell, that sort of made sense. Unfortunately, it also annoyed John.
From where he floated, he could see a red blur streaking around the monster. Every so often a giant lobster claw would swing out from underneath the shell, but it never came close to hitting Flash. John wasn't sure what the man was doing, but it sure wasn't slowing this thing down.
"Ya know, I know we just found out about that Atlantis place, but would it be considered rude if we got their king to order the hermit crab here back to its home? It's sorta his thing and all," Flash said through the comm link.
"As if he'd take our call," John snorted before he spotted movement out of the corner of his eye. Swooping down through the air, Hawkgirl dove towards the monster, electricity dancing around the head of her mace as she let out a war cry. The moment she reached striking distance, she swung the mace, slamming it down hard on the shell. A wave of electricity rippled out, but like John's previous attack, produced no effect. Lifting back off, the Thanagarian took to the skies again.
That made John scowl even more. Reaching a hand to his ear, he hit the button to allow him to speak. "Superman, how far out are you?"
The response was instant. "Just a minute out. Diana and I are almost there."
Good, they needed a little more muscle than what they had. Returning his attention to the monster he couldn't help but scowl as he saw how far away it had crawled from the bay, closing in on the civilian population. It seemed they needed to buy a little time.
Dropping through the air, John headed right for the monster, powering up his ring again. Coming to a stop, he once more aimed his ring at the moving white shell and unleashed the green energies. A beam of light closed in on the monster before it split into two. Circling around the monster, the light beams wrapped around it several times until it looked like a green belt tied around a moving white mountain. Immediately, John felt himself be pulled forward, causing him to lean backwards as he gritted his teeth. Damn, this thing had some power behind it!
"Flash! Hawkgirl! I'm not sure how long I can last like this, but we need to slow it down now!" he barked into his comm link. His arm felt as if it would wrenched right out of his socket, which only fueled his will to pull it back.
"Roger that, GL," Flash answered before he streaked off further down the street from the monster. He didn't go all that far, surprisingly, stopping perhaps a block down. From where John could see, it looked as if the red-clad hero was kneeling on the ground.
Then, something black and round went flying from Flash towards the monster. A second later, a deep-throated groan—or maybe a roar; there was no telling with this thing—rang out. It took John a moment to realize what Flash had done. If he wasn't mistaken, the man had hurled the lid of a manhole at the giant hermit crab and successfully hit it in the face. At the very least, John wasn't feeling the pulling anymore.
Suddenly, John lurched forward. Scratch that, the force was back and stronger than ever. Grunting, he pulled back as hard as he could, his eyes closing from the strain.
"John! Look out!" Hawkgirl suddenly cried out.
Eyes snapping open, John saw a humongous tentacle right in front of him. Before he could so much as gasp, much less react, the tentacle head slammed into him, breaking off his concentration as he was sent flying through the air, a shocked yell ringing out from him. His green construct vanished from around the monster a split-second later, unfortunately unleashing it upon the city.
Tumbling out of control, John was unable to right himself, not before he crashed hard on what he thought was the roof of a building. That didn't stop his fall though, as he continued to drop, only stopping when his back landed hard on something wooden. He only knew that because he heard the familiar sound of snapping wood and felt jagged pieces of splinters digging into his back.
"Ow," he groaned, eyes squeezed shut. Shaking his head, John opened his eyes and stared straight up. Right away he saw the hole in the ceiling, the one he undoubtedly made. Glancing around, he found himself in what best looked like a warehouse—made sense since they were fighting just outside a harbor. Good thing this box of weapons broke his fall, otherwise things would…
Hold up, box of weapons?
Looking down, John couldn't help but notice that he was indeed lying on top of a stockpile of rifles—but not just any rifle either. Alarm welled up within the Green Lantern. What the Hell were these things doing here? This sort of tech wasn't supposed to be on Earth!
"What the Hell?" he murmured before static went off in his ear.
"Hey, GL! Buddy! You okay?"
"Yeah, swell," John replied as he slowly began to pick himself out of the pile he laid on.
"Sweet! Just to let ya know, Big Blue is here and he's handling things."
Good, that was one less thing to worry about. As he stood on his feet, the Green Lantern looked down at the rifles, a worried frown on his face. Thanks to his extensive travels throughout space, he knew a plasma rifle when he saw one. They were about as plentiful in space as handguns were in the States, probably more so considering the billions of races out in the cosmos and their tendency to make the exact same weaponry, their different designs aside.
It seemed he had a mystery on his hands.
"So what you're saying is you fell onto this box when you were hit by the tentacle," Hawkgirl summed up.
The Thanagarian was standing next to John, her arms crossed over her chest as she stared down at the stockpile. On the Green Lantern's opposite side was J'onn, known to the world as the Martian Manhunter. The moment John had alerted the rest of the group to his discovery, the Martian had been requested to join the scene.
That left Flash, Superman, and Wonder Woman for clean up. Currently the speedster was cleaning up debris from the streets, reassuring citizens the attack was over and done with, that everything was under control. Superman and Wonder Woman were hauling the monster back to sea, Diana's lasso restraining it as they both used their super-strength to move it. Unsurprisingly, the battle had come to a quick end when those two arrived, much to the cheers of Metropolis.
Which brought them to the present. "And you are sure no such weapon exists on the planet?" J'onn asked.
"Positive," John answered, nodding to emphasize his word. "There's a lot of different weapons on Earth, no doubt about that, but never of this sophistication or destructive power."
"Oh, so you suppose atom bombs aren't that destructive," Hawkgirl mocked, earning her a scowl from the dark-skinned man.
"You know what I mean," he snapped. "These have the power of tanks in small, hand-held packages. Not just anyone packs that kind of power in their waistbands."
"Okay, okay, chill," the Thanagarian responded, rolling her eyes as she did so. "So how did they get here? It wasn't like they were just moved here."
"That's why you and J'onn are here. You're our resident detectives."
Before Hawkgirl could answer with something just as annoying as her sarcasm, J'onn spoke up. "I believe it would be prudent if we discover who owns this warehouse and then obtain the shipping records to determine how long these guns have been here."
"Good idea," John said, looking to the Martian. "I'm sure you two can handle that on your own, right?"
"Of course. What will you be doing?"
"I'm going to inform the others of what we found here. I'm sure there are other avenues that can be explored, especially from Superman since this is his town."
J'onn nodded his acceptance. "A wise idea. We will rendezvous at headquarters."
"Roger that." A green aura appearing around his form, the Green Lantern lifted himself into the air, flying up through the hole in the roof. He could pick up Hawkgirl mumbling something sarcastic beneath him, but it wasn't worth the effort to bother listening. She was headstrong and quick to anger, two things one would think would be counter-productive for an investigation. How she was a detective on her home planet, he wasn't sure, but she had pretty good results here to argue for her expertise.
And as it turned out, his timing was perfect. Superman and Diana were returning from their trip, closing in on him from the bay. "Hey, John," the Kryptonian greeted him as he slowed to a stop next to him, his Amazon companion doing the same. "You said you found something here?"
John nodded. "That's right. Plasma rifles, definitely not from this planet."
Superman's eyes narrowed. "How long?"
"J'onn and Hawkgirl are working on that right now. We figured since this is your town, you had other ideas on how to investigate."
The dark-haired man remained silent as he dropped his eyes to the warehouse. Faintly, he muttered, "That isn't a Luthor building."
That seemed to mean something to him, though John suspected that was the Kryptonian's go-to thought when something bad happened here. Then again, he had plenty of experience that reinforced that line of thinking. It wasn't exactly a secret that one of the richest men in Metropolis had an intense dislike for the Man of Steel and that the feeling was mutual. Turning his attention to Diana, he could see she was floating patiently to see what order she was given. Usually she was more outspoken than this, but considering they were on a known superhero's turf, she was being deferential to his wishes.
Finally, Superman spoke, "I think there are a couple things I can look into. Have everyone meet up this evening at Happy Harbor. We'll compare findings there."
Happy Harbor had once been a quiet fishing village in Rhode Island. Sleepy and scenic, no one would have thought it would grow past a few thousand people in population. That all changed when the Justice League built their headquarters here. Now, it was a popular tourist attraction, bringing in hundreds of thousands of people just to get a glimpse at a possible superhero sighting.
Now if only the city council would give them a tax break.
Within the League's headquarters was a meeting room. It was rather plain aside from the round table that occupied the middle of it, six chairs surrounding it. Sitting in those chairs were each member of the League. Most of the time spent here was over routine maintenance plans, updates on security and criminal activity, and the like. It wasn't often they discussed a volatile case, though this one was proving to be the exception.
"As everyone knows by now, Green Lantern found a stash of advanced weaponry at a warehouse during an attack on Metropolis," Superman summarized. His blue eyes glanced from face to face, seeing the seriousness on each and every one of them save the Flash. Flash was currently stuffing his face with a hotdog, smearing mustard on his lips, cheeks, and chin.
"From what we were able to gather, the warehouse belongs to a Metropolis socialite: Frederick Dorsey. The Dorsey family is part of the shipping industry and holds at least a sixth of all ports on the East Coast.
"Which brings us to the warehouse itself. J'onn, Hawkgirl?" At this, Superman placed all of his attention on the two, handing control of the meeting to them.
"Well, there's something rotten going on here," Hawkgirl was the first to speak. "J'onn and I went over every record in the warehouse and conveniently that particular box wasn't listed as being there. In fact, we found several more crates that weren't listed either. Care to guess what those boxes had?"
"Oooh! I know, I know!" Flash suddenly shouted, waving a hand high above his head. "Pick me! Pick me! I know the answer!" Upon seeing the Thanagarian give him an unamused look, he said, "They were full of space guns, right?"
"That's right, Flash. They were," the redhead deadpanned, though that didn't do anything to dampen the speedster's mood. Regardless, she carried out with her report. "Strange thing though, no one who worked in the warehouse even knew they were there. None of them remembered moving them in. As far as any of them were concerned, those crates had always been there."
"Seems too convenient," John grunted. "How many of them were lying?"
Hawkgirl turned her attention to the Green Lantern. "Well, that's where things get complicated. While J'onn here is no Lasso of Truth, he was able to read their surface thoughts. Tell them what you told me, J'onn."
The Martian took over as requested. "None of the workers' thoughts were malicious or secretive. As far as I can tell, they were all innocent."
"Tell me you dug deeper than just that," John replied.
J'onn nodded. "I did. Again, they were just as surprised about those crates as we were."
"Which brings us to Dorsey," Diana spoke up. "Surely he must know about these weapons."
"He could be just as clueless about this whole thing too," Hawkgirl pointed out. "After all, I doubt rich boy here would physically check each and every warehouse he owns every day; he has people to do that for him. All someone would have to do is claim those boxes weren't there and he'd believe it."
The Amazon countered, "It doesn't hurt to try."
"Of course it wouldn't," Superman agreed. "Unfortunately, Dorsey isn't an easy man to get a hold of. I've tried setting up a meeting with him, but I've been rebuffed every time."
There was a silence at the table before Flash broke up. "Whoa, you telling me a guy from Metropolis doesn't want to meet the Man of Steel? Isn't the entire city apart of your fanclub at this point?"
A rueful smile appeared on the Kryptonian's face. "Not everyone likes me in Metropolis."
"Does it have anything to do with that Luthor guy? I hear you guys get along like oil and water."
"I don't see how Luthor isn't involved with this," Diana interjected. "Unless he's pulling strings?" she added as a suggestion.
Superman shook his head in the negative. "It's nothing like that. Flash is right, Lex Luthor and I don't get along and that's influenced a lot of Metropolis' elite. There's not many that like having me in the same room unless I'm there to push their agendas along—sponsorship deals and the like. They only want me around when it benefits them. If they hear I want to meet them, they suddenly go on vacations to the Bahamas."
"So Dorsey is a prime suspect so far," John said.
"Person of interest," J'onn corrected him.
"Okay, so then one of us other than Big Blue tries to meet him," Flash suggested. "I vote for Wonder Woman. I'm sure this guy would be more than willing to keep her company."
"I doubt that would work now," Hawkgirl retorted. "Dorsey knows Superman wants to talk with him; he also should know by now that the League has found his weapon stash, so anyone of us will also be blacklisted at this point, including Diana. Especially Diana."
"Then perhaps we need to visit him uninvited," the Amazon proposed, a hint of steel in her voice. It was obvious she wasn't in the mood for "Man's World" politics.
"And do what? Tie him up with your lasso and force the truth out of him?" Hawkgirl snarked. "Tell me again which senator is pushing a bill through Congress to make any admission obtained by your lasso inadmissible?"
"Pretty sure two of them wrote that bill," Flash added before he began to slurp loudly on the straw of his supersized soft drink. "And so far at least twenty of them are supporting it."
"So that puts us in quite a bind," John summed up. "We need to talk to Dorsey, he doesn't want to meet even one of us by now, and interrogating him with Diana's lasso is treading thin ice at the moment. What about J'onn reading his mind. or Superman using his super-hearing to listen in?"
Superman spoke up then. "You know, now that you mention it, I haven't been able to hear a thing around Dorsey's office or home. When I was trying to get in touch with him, I didn't pick up on anything. It was like a dead zone for sounds."
"Oh, he's hiding something alright," John growled.
"If he is, then all of Metropolis is," Hawkgirl pointed out. "I'm pretty sure most businesses in the city are making sure Superman can't overhear their corporate strategy. They probably began soundproofing their office suites before this Luthor situation happened."
"Actually," Superman spoke up, "soundproofing doesn't really work. All that really does is dampen the sounds to the point it can't be heard from room to room. My hearing can still pick up voices, though they're a lot softer than they usually would have been. In this case with Dorsey, I'm not even hearing their air conditioning units turning on and I'm standing right next to them."
Another silence loomed over then, this time lingering. Ultimately it was J'onn who broke it, voicing his musings. "It would seem there is more to this than illegally-stored weapons. The sort of technology necessary to cancel out sounds that close would have to be advanced." He paused before asking, "Am I safe to assume this office building is also lined with lead?"
The Kryptonian nodded. "It is, but only certain rooms."
"So this leaves us with what?" Flash inquired. "We have to get close to this guy to figure out about the guns and why he can suddenly shut out Supes' eavesdropping? On top of that, he won't see us because he thinks we're onto him and doing things less than legal, while it would work, would make convicting him that much harder, or at the very least putting him in jail? Does that about sum it up?"
There were several eyes blinking owlishly at the speedster before John smirked. "Yeah, that about sums it up well."
"Huh, that sucks. Wonder what kind of person could open this guy up?"
"Obviously a person the complete opposite of us," Hawkgirl retorted.
Suddenly, Superman jolted in his seat, drawing everyone's attention to him. "I think you're onto something there, Hawkgirl." This time it was his turn to be on the receiving end of bewildered looks, ones he deftly ignored. "I believe we're going to have to outsource this investigation."
"Whoa, whoa, hold up," Flash interjected, pushing himself up in his seat. "Outsource? To who? It's not like we're Nike and can hire a sweatshop in Indonesia to do all our dirty work."
"What we need is someone that Dorsey would be willing to open up to, who could get close and make him spill his guts." Superman's eyes seemed to glaze over before they lit up. It was as if he were mentally approving this idea, working out the bugs right in front of the other heroes as they looked on curiously. "There's a party two nights from now. Dorsey's already RSVPed it, so he'll definitely be there."
John raised an eyebrow, looking to Hawkgirl and Flash who returned his confused look with ones of their own. "Uhh, party?" he asked. "You're saying we're going to get someone to infiltrate a party so he can interrogate our top suspect?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying, John," the Kryptonian replied. He then looked to J'onn. "J'onn, think you can locate someone for me?"
The Martian nodded his acceptance. "I can. Who am I looking for?"