VI.-
O.K.
This thing was getting weirder by the minute.
"Rob, dude, this is... "
I turned. Gar was reading one of the printed copies of the information I was already reading on the screen. He looked both alarmed and confused. So was I.
"Creepy?"
"Well, they are just old relics, do you all truly belive they have the powers described in here?" Said Mia, always down to earth.
"You'd have a point, if I didn't know what is really possible to achive with dark magic."
I was thinking, of course, about Darla Aquista and Jhonny Warren. But didn't want to discuss the issue right there.
"So... do we have to asume he is trying to raise himself from the dead?" Speedy, still sounding sceptical, looked at the picture of Idhunn's Goblet. "And he sees us using the mirror, of course."
"Of course. And I presume Sekhmet's Arm gives him the power he needs to use the mirror."
"And the dagger?"
"Beats me."
"Wow, there's something you don't really know?" I decided to take Gar's cheerfulness as a compliment.
"I try to look human from time to time." I said, sitting down again, and connecting to the net. If those objects were really magic, there will be files on them somewhere. "Now I'm going to enter geek mode. Don't take it personally if I ignore the real world for a while."
"And what are we suposed to do while we wait?"
"There's a swimmingpool down there." I said, signaling the way with my thumb, my eyes already glued to the screen.
Gar turned to Kory, pleading with his big, puppy eyes.
"Can we?"
The princess sighed but shrugged.
"It can be nice to wet our feet." Agreed. "Speedy?"
"I prefer to wait here, watching Mulder at work."
She shrugged again.
"Ok, then. We will be down there. When Victor arrives..."
"We let you know by the speakers." I said, waving in the general direction of the comunication sistem.
I was slightly aware of their departure, as well as Mia sitting besides me, crouching in the chair. But beyond that, the external world faded and all that mattered was the information I was trying to find an the twists and bends I had to perform in order to achieve it.
I concentrated my efforts on the Mirror and the way it worked, sendind a mail to Oracle, thanking her, asking her to the movies next wednesday and pleading her to look for some more info on the goblet and, specially, the dagger.
The mirror, so far, was a really interesting archeological discovery. Professor Heinrich Schiliemann found it in the Parthenon, a relic thousands of years old, polished and shinny, or so was told. Sceptical historians held that Schiliemann polished it after the discovery, while mistical cults always claimed its magical properties and were against it exposition in museums.
Mistical and pagan cults... You'd be amazed of the amount of them that really exist... And the amount of public acces webpages they hold. Even discussion forums about mistical and magical items! Gosh! People were really crazy out there.
So, aparently, this Athena's mirror magic properties were as described in our former files, a kind of window to wherever o whoever the holder was thinking about. As I already asumed thanks to Raven observations, the closer you were, the stronger the conection. And he was near the Justice Cave, but... where? What was this thing range? And probably you need to be really strong if he was using Sekhmet's arm. Or the golden staff was to get the goblet to work?
"Robin..."
I entered yet another forum, placing again my question about the mirror action range, while, in another window, I began to randomly look for abandoned basements in the adyacent area. If I hit jackpot I really didn't mind if it was sheer luck or pure skill.
"Rob, hey!"
So... like fifteen abandoned basements, including some mining facilities and never finished subterranean tuneling.
"Robin!"
All of them in an area of about 5 miles... so I was discarding a lot of other posible subterranean hideouts just because I had this feeling in the back of my neck...
"Robin!" Speedy punched me in the arm, startling me.
"Au!"
"Are you deaf or something?"
I turned to her and realized she had been trying to get my atention.
"Sorry. I was kinda..."
"Focused, yeah... But I thought this might interest you." She said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice, her finger pointing the surveilance monitors.
Oh, damn.
Someone had sneaked through the open door and was trying to avoid the cameras, not very succesfully.
"Ok, he is in the main corridor..." I said, getting up really slowly. "wich means he will be here in about twenty seconds."
"Or she."
"Or she." I added flatly. Not that I was a chauvinist, but... why did girls always had to point it out?
"So we are waiting for her?" She asked, aparently amused.
"Yes, you can cover most angles from there," I said, pointing to a corner, Cissie's favourite. "and I can cover the rest. We can take him, and then call Kory and Gar."
She smiled and nodded, positioning herself in the corner so silently that I could have been fooled if I hadn't sent her there myself.
I did my part, hiding in a dark spot by the door, and we waited.
The dark silhoutte was really near now, I could see it in the monitors.
One, two, three...
Man, it was really clumsy and noisy for someone sneaking into a hideout.
Four, five, six, seven...
His shadow was cast through the wall, and it was definitively a He. The guy was really bulky. And material. Wich let Harm out of the equation, unless he had already used the goblet.
Eight, nine...
He was nearly under my nose now...
Ten!
I put my stick under his feet, making him fall, taking adantadge of his more than bigger frame, just as I had learned to do. My next hit was aimed at his nose, but Mia's shout stopped me. Not that it had made any diference, now that I could see his face.
Thinking it twice, why not?
So I hit Conner in the nose, knowing it was not going to hurt him, but making me feel a little better.
"Ouch! You did it on purpose!" Superboy protested.
"What the heck are you doing here, Conner?" I snapped back angrily while I put my stick back on my belt pouch. "Now you stalk us even when we are out in a mission? The farm is too boring to you?"
"I was worried!" He defended himself, letting Mia help him to stand up. "Bart told me about Harm and... well, this guy was a kick on the butt... so I followed, just to make sure you were allright".
"Why you followed us and not the other team?" Asked Mia, probably thinking about Cassie.
"Well, to even things a little."
To even...
"Oh, thank you very much." I retorted.
"You know what I mean!"
"Yes, and I wish I didn't."
"What's the fucking matter with you? You were angry because I was not going to stay... and here I am, ok? What am I suposed to do to fit your standarts?"
I snorted, returning to the computer, deciding to ignore him from now on. Let the rest of the team deal with him. I had things to do.
"Don't give your back to me, Rob!" Conner put a hand in my shoulder, making me turn to him.
I hit his arm, freeing myself.
"No, Conner, don't you ever give your back to me if you are touching me again. And now, please, I have work to do."
I sat again in front of the computer and surfed through the net, ignoring the conversation behind me the best I could.
"What's with him?"
"I was hoping you could tell us."
"No, I already told Bart I didn't have a clue as why Robin would have turned into..."
Ok, so fifteen basements in the surrounding area. From mines to bunkers to unfinished tunels... If I were a psycho obsesed with hell...
"Are you all right?"
"Yes, it's not like he can break my nose and even if he could... "
I recieved a pair files from Barbara on the goblet, and I opened them, hoping for a real clue. Nothing on the dagger so far.
"So, what's all this about? What is Harm up to?"
"You wouldn't belive..."
Idhunn's Goblet.
The Golden Honey of eternal youth.
As in Indiana's movie, you had to drink from the goblet to have eternal life. I had guessed so far. No further information as for the "raising the dead" thing, except you need a body to resurect.
Yiuc!
So I searched the news for a profanated tomb, crossing fingers to be wrong.
"So... you are waiting for the others?"
"Yes, Cyborg will be here in short notice."
"Ow."
I sighed, turning to them.
"It will take them at least fifteen more minutes to get here. You can still go before they arrive."
Con frowned.
"I'm here to fight Harm."
"I was just trying to help." I said, shrugging. "I thought you wanted to avoid Cassie."
A dense silence filled the room and Speedy bit her lip, uncomfortable.
"Fifteen minutes, uh?" She said, finally. "I better go get Kory and Gar..."
And she dodged to the tunnel, leaving the two of us alone.
Fucking great.
The silence extended a little more, so I turned to the computer again.
"I have fifteen possible basements from where he could be operating." I said, showing a map on the big screen, red spots marking the location of the possible hideouts. "Any guess?"
"Are you kidding, right?"
"No, I really want to know."
"You..." Con passed a hand through his face. "You have done your best to be as disgusting as possible, and now you just ask my opinion about where Harm can be? Don't you realize I can't just talk to you as if nothing had happened?"
"That's your problem, not mine. We are trying to avoid a madman to come back to life here. Personal quarrels don't mind."
"You talk just like him." He said with a hint fo aversion in his voice.
I clenched my fists and bit my lip.
"This is the mirror he is using to contact us." I said, tending him the printed copy. "I still don't know the range of action of this thing, but I asume he is really near."
"Tim, by God's sake!" Superboy stripped the paper, turning my chair, making me face him. "If I have done something wrong, just tell me, ok? But just don't... do this! "
"Do what?"
"THIS! This whole 'I'm badder than bad and I dont' really care' thing!"
"Oh. You mean this 'I'm not in the mood for your whinning so I try to stick to bussines' thing?"
He sighed
"Why?"
Ok.
He wanted to know.
Perfect.
Just fucking perfect.
"Because you are not going to stay. That's why." I answered, standing up and getting away from him. "And yet you are here, rising our expectations. And I just don't want to be disapointed again."
"We've talked about this, Tim."
"No, we've not." I sat at the table, avoiding his gaze. "And now it's not the best of times to talk."
"No? Why not?"
"Because Vic and the others are by the door. And Mia, Kory and Gar will be here in mere seconds."
He turned to the monitors, grimacing.
"I really hate when you are right."
"Then you must hate me all the time."
His grimace turned into a smile.
"You bet."