I'm sorry it took me this long to update.
Thanks for the follows and reviews.
Thanks to Hellacre for the edition.
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Chapter 19 – The most important meal of the day.
Day 26
Almerac - City of Potentoris – Ouside the Royal Palace
Hour of Erimus
"Are you sure you want to do this?" asked Zatanna.
"I'm sure I don't want to, but I don't want to offend the ruler of the planet we're conducting an investigation on either. It may play to our advantage being in the good side of the Queen for a change," responded J'onn
"Just leave your comm-link open. We will be just a second away if something strange happens," said Green Lantern.
"Very well. But just as a precaution. And, please, I don't want you two speaking or, worst, arguing in my ear the entire lunch. I need to focus on extracting the most information possible from Maxima without raising any suspicions." And the Martian added, "Relax, friends, I think I can handle her. In spite her many contradictions, or maybe because of them, our Queen is an interesting character. This can be an enjoyable situation."
"I'm gonna pretend you didn't say that. The only interesting thing about Maxi-pain-in-the-butt will be when my shoe makes violent contact with her idem," snapped Zee.
"Now, now, Zatanna. Let's play it nice for everybody's sake," and changing his tone, "Back to the mission. We have to start looking for Darkseid's people among the delegates."
"We have Adam checking every person in the Rannian committee: background, associations, everything. Zee and I will start doing the same with the Thanagarians. If everyone comes clean, then we'll follow with the seers from other worlds and after that, the locals. Shayera would be of great help now with her contact with a Thanagarian commander…Katar, is it?. By the way, did you hear anything about them?" asked John.
"In my last report to the Watchtower they told me the device could be safely removed from his head," answered the Martian.
"His head? Wow! How did somebody put it in there?" Zatanna looked to GL puzzled.
"There are many medical examinations to which members of interplanetary diplomatic missions are subjected. There's blood extractions, vaccinations, etc. Lots of opportunities to implant a tiny device inside someone's body, which got me thinking…"
John was interrupted by Zatanna "There's where we should start looking! It had to be implanted after the last body scan, or the examiners would have noticed it! "
"I was about to say that…!" began GL, but no one listened.
"Excellent!" said J'onn "Finally a solid clue to follow! Get to it while I attend my social duties," he added with resignation, and he moved towards the entrance.
"On it! See, ring boy? We can make a good team when you push yourself to rise up to my level," teased the magician when they were alone.
"Oh, yeah? And where do you suggest we start, fishnet girl?" retorted Stewart.
"Don't think for a second I didn't catch you looking at my legs, 'Green Horny'. How about the nearest health care center?" Zee asked.
"I think the Almerachian government put together a special medical team for the task. You go to the Med Center and I'll question the military about it." Proposed GL "Wait. Green Horny…?"
"As in 'Green Hornet'. You know, the comic book hero. Clever wordplay?" Zatanna said with a shrug.
"Clever…yeah. And who would you be? Cu…?" John stopped mid sentence when he realized what he was going to say was terrible. "Never mind," he said, without looking at her. "We have our errands to do. Let's get to it."
"What? I'd swear your face turned a shade reddish. You were going to say something, wise guy. C'mon, say it. I dare you. Saaay it," she challenged him.
"You don't want to hear it. Was something very stupid and…offensive. Let's leave it at that." And he turned to walk away.
"Now you picked my curiosity. What can the impeccable gentleman, Mr. John Stewart, say that's so offensive?" She grabbed his arm "I want to know so I can put you down your 'knight in shining green armor' pedestal. I won't be offended, I promise." She pleaded "I just want to see a more human side of you, you holier than thou moron."
John kept silent for a few seconds, and then mumbled something with his back still turned on her.
"What!? What was it? I can't hear you. 'Nrut ot ecaf me' ,"she ordered. "Now, say it out loud or I'll make you cough hairballs until tomorrow! I promise you, I'm not gonna get mad!"
"All right, all right. 'Cunt-o'! I was gonna say 'Cunt-o', okay!? As in Kato, but…you know: 'clever wordplay'?" John said.
After a shocked moment, Zatanna exclaimed, "Pals ruoy nwo ecaf !" at which Stewart promptly obeyed, slapping his left cheek.
"Hey! You said you wouldn't get offended!" he complained. "You promised!" He rubbed his face with the same hand.
"I'm a woman. Changing my mind is my prerogative. You…you…!" Zee started laughing hard "'As in…as in Kato…! Bah-ha-ha! 'Pals ruoy ecaf niaga!'"
This time, he rose a green shield to protect his face. "Hey! Stop that!" he whined.
"Serves you well! You won't like me to use the 'N' word on you, Do you?" She looked at him. "Women are as sensitive as you about certain things, okay?" she chided him.
"I'm sorry! That's why I censored myself! I'd never…" he apologized.
"It's okay. I know you didn't mean to offend me. It was kind of funny in a completely twisted, inappropriate and offensive way, though, and I thank you for refrain yourself from saying it. Let's forget I've ever asked. " She placed her hand on his left cheek. "Sorry you hit yourself so hard. Are we okay?"
"Don't worry. No permanent damage," John said with a smile. "I'm sorry those kind of sexist jokes crossed my mind. I'm very ashamed"
"Let's do our jobs. The League is expecting us to come with answers, and we won't get them standing here." Zatanna promptly removed her hand, lowering her eyes.
"Right" said GL, moving away from her. "See you at the Javelin?"
"Yes. At the Javelin…" she answered pensively. When they were twenty yards from each other, they both turn to look at the other. Embarrassed, both waved their hands.
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Almerac - City of Potentoris – Royal Palace
4 crons to Hour of Tarin
The Schedule Keeper told J'onn 'the Exalted One would receive him shortly' for the third time in the last hour. The Martian knew, after a quick mind scan, the man was covering for his Queen, who was just waking up when he announced his presence. Since the Peace Negotiations ended, the Queen's schedule was a lot more relaxed. Still, the ruler had to deal with the angry delegates, who were unable to return to their worlds.
The curfew decreed by the Queen was to be applied in full force: no living soul or artifact of any kind was allowed to leave Almerac or the heads of the crew covering the affected sector would roll, and not euphemistically. Each sector was to put special attention on any teleportation device or Boom-Tube signatures.
"That area is covered," thought the Manhunter. "Now I have to ensure Maxima's full cooperation, which will be difficult if she's hiding something from us…"
"The Exalted One will receive you now, Leaguer. Follow me, please." The Schedule Keeper made sure J'onn was behind him and began to walk towards the opposite wing of the enormous palace.
"Was it contempt I heard when he said 'Leaguer'," the Martian wondered. Instead he asked, "Where are we going? The Throne Hall is the other way…"
Without looking at him, the other man said, "The Exalted One will receive you in her Private Gardens, Leaguer." There it was again. Another superficial intrusion into the mind of his guide told him that the Schedule Keeper had in the lowest regard not only members of the Justice League, but any off-world being as well. Simple case of xenophobia, nothing personal.
"That's reassuring," J'onzz said to himself.
They were approaching huge, iron bar doors, beautifully crafted; behind of which the bluish beams of Almerac's sun could be seen filtering through the leaves of tree branches, falling almost perpendicularly over what seemed a neat garden.
"Here we are, Leaguer," the S.K. gestured the two standing guards to open the doors. He let the JL member in, but he remained at the doors. "The Exalted One is already inside, you are to continue without me."
J'onn J'onzz found himself in a luxurious garden, where colors exploded into a celebration of life. The mere view of such exuberance instilled joy into the Martian's soul.
"H'Ronmeer!" he said out loud in admiration. The visible spectrum was wider for Martians than it was for humans, as was their olfactory sense perception. J'onn was almost inebriated by this 'nature fest' attack.
As if she were part of the scenario, Maxima, dressed in green and gold and with her beautiful red locks falling over her shoulders and back, was standing in the middle of the garden. She moved to meet the Manhunter halfway, which was a rather long walk, since the whole garden occupied the equivalent of 1 ½ football field area, with three different levels. The entire wing was built around this botanical wonder, where birds of many different species found a home as well.
"J'onn! I'm so glad you came!" Maxima said.
"Exalted One, I…" The Martian took a bow, but, before he could say another word, the Queen spoke.
"I told you to call me Maxima, we're friends. I'll be very offended if you don't." she slipped her arm in J'onn's
"Maxima." He corrected himself. "I'm very honored by this invitation. Needless to say you look as radiant as Kloss above us. And this place…this place is beyond words. The beauty…I can't imagine it to be more perfect. Worthy of its Queen, no doubt."
"You flatterer! Thank you! I'm very proud of this place. It used to be a training area for the palace military personnel, but I made them move to other quarters nearby and designed this myself. Let me show you around." Maxima was at her most charming, she pulled the green man's arm and they began strolling the neat paths into the garden, as she described the vegetation and avian fauna for him. After a while, she took him to the center of the installation, close to where she was when he entered. There the Martian saw a table with a wide and rich variety of delicacies and drinks on it, flanked by two servants ready to pull their chairs for them to be seated.
J'onn waited until the Queen was seated to do the same.
"This is a truly magnificent place; you do well to be proud of it, Maxima."
"I am very happy here. I even took care personally of the tree we're sitting under. It's my favorite spot when I need to unplug and clear my head," said the Queen. "You are one of the very few persons I invited here…ever."
"Which brings me to my next question: why exactly am I here?" asked the Martian. He noticed she dropped the royal 'We' when talking to him.
"Ah. The direct approach. I've always liked that aspect of you, J'onn: you can be a cautious diplomat when needed, but you don't hesitate to be frank either." Maxima took one of the bottles, with a blue liquid inside. A desperate servant threw himself to grab the bottle, but the Ruler stopped him with a look. "It's all right, We'll pour our own drinks. In fact, both of you are dismissed for the rest of the lunch. We can service ourselves."
"Is the Exalted One certain?" asked the frightened man.
"Positive. Off you go!" She moved her hand as to wave away a bug.
"As the Exalted One wishes," said the other lackey. Both men took a deep bow and, turning on their heels left J'onn and Maxima alone.
Looking back to the green face of her companion, she asked "Mead?"
"No, thank you. We're in the middle of a crucial investigation. No spirits for me, I need my head clear."
"I doubt with your constitution it will produce any negative effect at all, as it doesn't in me, but I appreciate your cautiousness. There's also 'pruss', a soda like beverage, made of the same plant the yellow tea comes from, and, of course, ice yellow tea," she offered.
"Pruss will be fine, thank you. Now, back to my question…" J'onn wasn't going to let go so easily "Why am I here, Maxima? We were never the best of friends and now we seem to be uncomfortable bed fellows (he immediately regretted that choice of words) out of sheer necessity."
"Is my company such a burden to you? No. Don't answer." The Queen rose a hand to silence him. "Let's toast to new alliances and new found friendships," after drinking, she added, as if carefully considering each word, "The truth. The truth, Martian Manhunter, is that I've always held you in the highest regard. Of all those self righteous jerks in the Justice League you were the most balanced one, even though you were the one who lost the most…"
"Kal-El also…" the Martian started.
"Yes. Kal-El. He's the main reason for your staying here. Him and the other two." Maxima choked a hint of contempt in her voice. "Anyway. Kal-El lost a lot, but he also gained the love and admiration of humans. An entire planet at his feet, only he couldn't see it. He could've been a powerful ruler, a conqueror of worlds and my consort, but he was too blind to realize the power within his grasp. It's you I don't understand: you were left with nothing, you had nothing to lose, yet, you chose to hide among weaklings and be the errand boy of the League. Your power (I experienced that first hand yesterday) rivals that of the strongest amongst you. You were meant to rule, to lead, not to follow jesters dressed like flying rodents…"
"Bats are not…" J'onn tried to explain.
"Almerachi bats are. They're also magenta, though. In fact, every time Batman said something really annoying…"
"…which was all the time…," they both added at the same time.
"Exactly! Ha-ha-ha!" Maxima continued, " In those moments, I imagined him dressed in a magenta bat costume. It helped me cope with him."
The Martian laughed so hard that a flock of orange birds sheltering in the tree branches above them flew away, alarmed. Maxima's laugh was crystalline and melodious.
"In answer to your question," the ruler finally admitted, "the reason you're here is because you earned my deepest respect and admiration. It is not every day I confront somebody who can outmatch me in the things I'm the best at, and I would like to forge a relationship that could evolve into friendship. Don't get me wrong: you're not Kal-El's replacement. I'm not romantically interested in you, though I admit you had me quite smitten. I don't even know if we are genetically compatible, for that matter, or if this is your true form, nor even how your species reproduce…"
"Green Martians are mammals, viviparae and our conception methods were pretty similar to those of many species in the cosmos, like humans or adalus, as Almerachy dominant species call themselves. I'm not a genetic match for humans: after my first ten years on Planet Earth I decided to quit mourning and took a human wife (disguised as one of them, of course) but we couldn't engender offspring, which was a good thing, because I'm sure her physiology wouldn't be able to bear an hybrid Martian-human fetus. Her frustration led, eventually, to our separation…," said J'onn.
"You never told her?" Maxima asked.
"I wanted to." He explained sadly, "I was still inexperienced and afraid she wouldn't accept me. Humans are so sensitive about skin color, I didn't want to test how they respond to a different species. She proved me wrong. I kept following her life after we split and saw her join an equalitarian movement (I passed as an African American, or "black" person, as they were called in that first half of what humans considered the 20th century of their history, like my colleague John Stewart, and so was she.). I saw her, as well as others of many different ethnic origin, fight to promote same rights and opportunities for everybody. I was very proud of her, she had to confront many odds and perils. I had to save her life twice. Eventually she re-married a man of different skin color and had three children, which made me very happy." The Martian made a pause, "As for my real aspect, I'm humanoid, as Terrans say, but with more elongated and graceful feature lines, according to H'Ronmeer's design."
"I'd like to see it, if you are alright with it," the Queen said.
By all answer, J'onn stood up and shifted to his original form.
"Such noble features!" she exclaimed, in admiration. "You do wrong in hiding your natural beauty. I once had a suitor resembling your true form, an Eludan prince, prideful and strong. Sadly, we were incompatible. They are egg-layers. Wait…your clothes, they didn't change or disappear!"
"I started using actual garments because I noticed people get uncomfortable when they realize you sat on their furniture naked. It's a problem when I need to phase or change form, because I have to undress. Not to mention when I try to be invisible. Let's just say I only wear them in formal occasions, like this one," the man from Mars said.
"I won't mind seeing you naked. In fact, I often sit in the nude on the same spot you are this very moment," she said seductively. If he could blush, Maxima was sure he was doing it right now.
"Maxima, please…" Embarrassed, he changed back to his 'human' persona.
"What's wrong, J'onn? Does it disturb you picturing me bare?" she teased.
"I'm sure you are like those beautiful marble sculptures human used to represent their gods with, only you have a flaming top." 'This isn't me,' he thought, in a moment of clarity 'something is wrong indeed!'
"Why don't you see it for yourself?" Maxima stood. With just a gesture, she undid her dress fasteners and the gown fell at her feet, revealing her creamy skin. She knew the powerful aphrodisiac poured in every drink and on the food, with a potent pheromonic scent cleverly disguised by the mix of floral fragrances in the garden, was kicking in by now. It once made Kal-El crawl at her feet, before that Amazonian slut rescued him, and now she doubled the dose for the Martian. Since yesterday, her guts were craving for this strange and powerful man, but, more importantly, if she could make him open his mind to her, she would be able to learn how much the League knows of her plans to protect herself. Oh, yes. The Queen, as every good politician, always had ulterior motives for doing things and, what's the harm of having a good time while at it?
"This…we can't…I'm…!" he babbled. His mind could only picture her in his arms.
"Don't you miss having physical AND mental contact during sex? It's been a while since I had that kind of pleasure myself. I miss that a lot, J'onn…," she moved towards him slowly, putting her arms around his neck. Before he wrapped her waist with his and pulled her against him, with the last remain of his conscience, he shut down every other thought, except his perceptions and feelings of the moment. He was more than willing to share those with her during physical intercourse.
"H'Ronmeer. It's been almost 43 turns (AN: eighty human years) since my beloved M'yri'ah and I…Maxima, I'll make you pay for this…!" he said, with a heavy breath.
"You'll send the bill to my treasurer later. Now let me have what I will pay for, big man…" she whispered.