John couldn't really see much of anything positive about he and Shayera's situation right now.
The battle had gone terribly. Of some consolation was the fact that both he and Shayera had held their own well, wounding countless enemy combatants and managing to do some serious damage before being taken down. About half of Lucas's Adept force was either dead or critically injured, a major setback for the man's plans. Still, that didn't negate the fact that eventually, the two had been overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
The cell was dark and cold and about three stories underground. They weren't bound or shackled, but then again they didn't need to be. Lucas had taken both John's ring and Hawkgirl's mace, and any attempt to escape would be dealt with severely.
"It was like facing an unlimited Justice League," said Hawkgirl, breaking the silence. "So many of them"
With an army of metas like that, Lucas could be a real threat even without the ability to control the earth's elements."
"Wonder why they haven't killed us," said Hawkgirl. She leaned her head on John's shoulder. It was a natural enough action, but that didn't stop her heart from skipping a beat when he shifted to accommodate her.
A sigh. "Beats me. Lets not plan on staying long enough to find out."
"Do you have a plan?"
"Maybe."
"What?"
"Still in the works."
"Great."
John opened his mouth to speak but then suddenly, the cell door opened, bringing in more light than either John or Shayera had been exposed to for hours and therefore causing them to squint as three newcomers entered the room. As Shayera's vision gradually adapted to the light, she could see three females, all Adepts. At least they matched the description of the other Adepts that Hawkgirl had encountered. Tall, statuesque, fit, almost Amazonian. It was the one in the middle though who stuck out. Even though she wore the same body armor as the others, the air she exuded told Shayera that she was the one with whom they would be dealing.
"I trust you have enjoyed our accommodations," said the woman. She had a strange accent that John had difficulty placing.
"Yeah," Hawkgirl muttered. "We love what you've done with the place."
The woman ignored her and instead looked at John. "And you, John?" At the surprise on his face, she laughed. "It is what de bird woman calls you, no?"
"You've been monitoring us." John said it as a statement, not a question.
"But of course. You are de prisoners, and very high profile ones at that. How could we not?"
"Why are you doing this?" John asked.
"Me? I am doing nothing. Dis whole business with de earth's elements and blackmailing de civilized world, dat's all Lucas's doing." She paused as if she had just remembered something. "By de way, my name is Aja. What of yours?"
"I thought you knew," interjected Shayera sarcastically.
"I know your first name, but not your last," continued Aja as if Shayera hadn't even spoken.
"What does it matter?"
Aja laughed. "I simply wish to know de full name of my future mate.
"Say what?!" This time, Shayera would not be ignored.
"Quiet, bird-woman!" snapped Aja.
"What are you talkin' bout with this mate nonsense?" John demanded, rising to his feet. "What's going on here?"
Aja looked miffed. "I would be grateful if I were you," she told him. The only way I managed to convince Lucas not to have you tortured for information and den killed was to tell him dat I wanted you as my bondmate. I believe you would call it marriage."
"What?! Why?" John sputtered.
"I observed your battle with my fellow Adepts. I have never seen a man fight as you do. To be honest, I did not dink it was possible. But we have wondered a bit, no? I believe you were on de verge of telling me your full name."
John's eyes were narrowed but to Hawkgirl's surprise, he answered. "John Stewart."
"Such an American name. I may not change it though. It fits you."
John was not taken in. "I'm still confused," he said. "First you send a whole army of Adepts or whatever you call yourselves to defeat me and Hawkgirl, then you lock us up and threaten to kill us if we try to escape-"
"It was not me who placed you here," corrected Aja.
John glared. "Close enough. You were complicit in all this" he gestured around the cell, "and now you want to marry me?"
"Yes."
"What about Hawkgirl?"
Aja looked at the Thanagarian with some amusement and a little bit of contempt. "She was not born an Adept, but we can find a place for her in our ranks all de same."
"Unacceptable," Shayera blurted. "John is not marrying you and I'm sure as heck not working for this madman that you serve."
"She speaks for both of us," said John.
"Really. I suppose you would rather be tortured mercilessly for every scrap of information in your minds that could help us and den executed."
"At least we wouldn't be betraying our friends," said John.
"Yes, you would. It might take a few weeks in de ,uh, interrogation quarters, but it would happen. Accept my offer and I swear by honor and title that you would never be forced to participate in any actions against de Justice League."
John shook his head. "You still don't get it. Lucas is a madman who has no problem with threatening hundreds of millions of lives to further his own agenda."
"All he wants is world peace."
Hawkgirl snorted. "Yeah, there's been a lot of that since he showed up."
Aja frowned. "You will see. Any minute now, he will be making another address to de world in which he will lay out his plans and motives. Come, both of you. I dink maybe you should see this.
Batman was poring over the information that Oracle had left when the computer flashed a message. Lucas Marvin (his last name had been in one of Oracle's documents) was making another broadcast. He quickly minimized the current document and opened the satellite video stream that would show Lucas's broadcast.
The man's face appeared, two statuesque, beautiful women on either side of him, standing still as stone. Lucas himself was completely animated though, with a suave grin that showed off his perfect white teeth. "Hola," he said, grinning even wider. "As promised, I am now releasing an address to the world detailing my plans. But first, I'd like to show you something. Appreciate this, because it cost me half my army and millions of dollars in property damage to apprehend these two intruders upon my humble island."
Batman's gut went cold.
"Here," said Lucas, "is an interesting artifact that I relieved from one of my new guests." He held up a green ring and Batman instantly recognized it as John's. No.
"In case you haven't recognized it, this is indeed the power ring of Green Lantern, a member of the American superhero group known as the Justice League. I'd show him too, but he's not really photogenic, go figure. This is a pretty cool little gadget actually, although it doesn't really match anything in my wardrobe so . . .." He tossed it aside. Suffice to say, without it the man's quite powerless. As for my second guest, she's not really that photogenic either. But this is." He hefted up Shayera's mace, sizzling with electric energy. "Heavy little thing. Haven't found the 'off' switch yet, but it'll be a fun new toy to add to my collection. He tossed the mace aside as well, a surprising feat for a man who didn't look all that physically strong to be able to handle a fifty-pound (??) object with such ease. "Anyway, these two superheroes are currently enjoying my wonderful hospitality, the same hospitality that I will extend to anyone else who attempts to defy the sanctity of my island.
"When I look at the world, I see a troubled, turmoiled place. I see a world in which there is chaos and confusion. Civil wars and unchecked aggression. I see the United States of America forcing their ideals upon the rest of the world, using their vast military might to squash those who refuse and employing brutal economic sanctions in other cases that take just as many innocent lives. There are over twelve thousand nuclear weapons in the United States of America alone, over thirty-thousand in the rest of the world. This is enough nuclear might to eradicate the earth multiple times over. This cannot remain the case, and so I have a solution. Every nuclear power in the world is to surrender 100 of their weaponry to yours truly, as well as complete and total sovereignty over their respective nations. I am talking about a wide-scale simultaneous disarmament all over the globe. And complete authority over the globe, which all translates to a peaceful earth and prosperous humanity under my gracious rule.
"Now I know what many of you are thinking. That I'm a handlebars short of a full bike. Heck, you're probably wondering what size straightjacket I wear." He leaned forward conspiratorially. "Just between us, it's a size seven." He straightened. "Anyway, you're probably thinking that I'm crazy and arrogant and I have some nerve thinking I'm gonna take over the world." He winked. "To which I respond that I can ruin the world's agricultural market with a snap of my fingers and flood the coastlines from Florida to Australia. It would be wise to accede to my demands. As I speak, instructions on how to go about this disarmament are being wired to all of the world leaders whom I referred to, which should hold you over until my next broadcast. Ciao."
Lucas's image winked out, only to be replaced with the President's.
"I trust you saw that," Groenig said.
Batman nodded. "You know what you have to do," he said.
"Declaring war on another sovereign nation is no matter to be taken lightly, as my predecessor undoubtedly can tell you."
"There could hardly be a more clear-cut case of aggression against the United States, not to mention the rest of the world. You have more than enough justification."
"People will say that I'm only launching this war to appease metahumans such as those in the Justice League. Senator Lee definitely won't like the idea."
"We'll see," said Batman. "I'm keeping an eye on him."
The President didn't ask for clarification, for he knew none would be forthcoming. Instead, he merely nodded. "This Lucas character seems like he's out of God-given mind, and that's what scares me the most."
"Understandably. My contact Oracle is in the process of transferring some new information about Lucas Marvin to government databases."
"How? They're like cyber Fort Knoxes. The encryption would take even a pro hours for the most basic of data access."
"It should be there within five minutes. Batman out." The screen winked into oblivion and Batman pushed back, standing up. This was not going as planned. Green Lantern and Hawkgirl had been captured and Superman's team was AWOL and incommunicado. Not only that, but Barbara had gone and revealed his secret identity to-.
His brow furrowed. Speaking of which, where was Diana? He hadn't seen her since she'd found out about his identity.
He walked out of the Comm. room and strode down the hallway. "Diana?" he called. No answer. If she was on that level, she would have heard him. The gym perhaps.
He knew his hunch was right even before he reached the gym where the various members of the Justice League routinely went to work out. He herd soft grunts of exertion as well as the loud THWAPPing sound that marked someone putting a harsh beating on one of the poor training dummies. "Diana?" he called.
"How did you come to that conclusion?" she said without turning to look at him, her voice laced with sarcasm. Batman frowned and ignored the uncharacteristic jibe. "What are you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing?" She still wouldn't face him.
"It looks like you're murdering our brand new sparring dummy." Batman frowned. "Is anything wrong?"
Diana threw one more punch and then finally turned to face him, rivulets of sweat coursing down her body. Batman couldn't help but stare a moment longer than was necessary before repeating, "Well?"
"Nothing's wrong Bruce, I'm just trying to get a little exercise."
Her eyes were a little red. She had been crying, perhaps as much as an hour or so since he'd last seen her. Most people wouldn't have noticed the little detail but the eyes of the Bat missed nothing. "I thought you might like to know that Lucas made another address."
"I'll look at it soon."
Batman stood there. He knew she expected him to leave, but he didn't feel right doing so. Strange as it was, he felt a little guilty about the lack of tact he'd had in dealing with the secret identity situation. Perhaps that was why he found himself saying, "I could spar with you."
She actually laughed, turning back around as she gave the dummy a roundhouse that lopped its head off. "I do not think you will be of much use to anyone crippled."
"I don't intend to be crippled."
"And I don't intend to spar with you." Another blow, this one a left jab that would have snapped the dummy's sternum if he'd possessed one. Batman wondered who it was she was taking her pent up frustrations out on through the poor dummy. "We both know that you would lose."
"Perhaps. Consider this me making up for being a little harsh last time we talked."
"I don't want to hurt you Bruce."
A frown. "Trust me, you won't."