Interlude
- - - November 28th - - -
J'onn straightened his tie with his hand. The faintest telekinetic touch would have sufficed, yet he did not wish to draw unwarranted attention to his alien nature, especially not while the other guests were so pleasantly distracted by the Amazon and Atlantean representatives instead.
When Bruce had announced they'd scheduled a meeting with the team for Sunday, to discuss their findings on the Light, Diana had almost exploded.
Aquaman had been the one to proposed this rather unconventional compromise. Almost half the League had already promised to attend her charity ball anyway.
The event's objective was to reduce marine plastic pollution and to gather pledges for funding innovative ocean clean-up technologies. The Themyscirian embassy had been decorated accordingly: Shocking sculptures made of trash and plastic debris dominated the room. Wonder Woman and Aquaman had opened the event jointly, holding rousing speeches to present their cause, followed by a flock of celebrities eager to make public pledges. Unsurprisingly, Bruce Wayne had been among the first supporters, promising not only to build the recycling facilities required to process the plastic collected from the seas, but also to cut the volume of plastic packaging used for his own Wayne Tech products by 80 percent within the next year.
Among the other donors, Oliver Queen had pledged two freight ships to the cause, promising that Queen Industries would provide any equipment that their Atlantean partners required for their ocean clean up missions, and switch their own production processes to using the recycled materials.
As the last celebrity speaker, Black Canary invited everyone to a public demonstration in front of the senate next week, demanding legislative changes to ban single-use plastic bags from supermarkets. With a conspirational grin, she promised to get her old band back together and sing a song or two at the rally.
J'onn could sense the excitement her announcement steered up in the media corner. Both Lois Lane and Cat Grant immediately closed in on the famous ex-rockstar, eager to grab a quote for their respective news networks. Meanwhile, Clark Kent, wearing his trademark tweed jacket and reporter glasses, approached some of the Atlanteans from Aquaman's entourage for an interview.
With a smile, J'onn turned around until he spotted his niece, in her human colours and wearing a black caterer's uniform, helping Mary with offering refreshments.
'Is everyone here yet?', M'gan inquired telepathically.
'Yes, but we should wait a bit longer, before we begin our discussion. I will establish the mind links as soon as the distractions have died down.'
Aqualad gratefully accepted a glass of water from Mary.
"How is everyone doing so far?"
While Mary, Megan and Conner had been enlisted to hand out snacks and drinks, Wally and Artemis were helping out at the open wardrobe. Robin had ensured him that he would also be present somewhere in the building, although he refused to further specify his plans. When Kaldur had asked him to promise that at least he wouldn't get caught sneaking though air vents or hacking the embassy's computers, the Boy Wonder's smirk had been less than reassuring. Of course I wouldn't get caught...
"Well enough." Mary's reply brought him back to the present. "This is really exciting, actually. I've never served royalty before, and your King Orin and Queen Mera make such an impressive…"
She broke off suddenly, lowering her voice to a hiss. "Conner! The senator with the blue dress comes first! Then offer your tray to the mayor with the green suit. You should wait on the group of CEOs near the black tire sculpture afterwards, they haven't made a donation yet."
On the other side of the room, their black-dressed team mate slightly adjusted his posture, angling his tray towards a lady in blue.
Yes, bringing her along had certainly been a wise decision. Whoever her elusive mentor in Gotham was, he had trained her well.
Mary returned her attention to him. "Where was I? Oh yes, the King of Atlantis. You know, since I first heard about the Justice League, he always sounded the most fantastic to me. Can you believe that just one year ago, I didn't even know that Atlanteans or Amazons existed? And now I'm serving them drinks! Isn't that marvellous?"
Her smile was contagious. "I'm glad you're enjoying yourself. Do make especially sure, please, that the Queen lacks no water. She needs to stay well hydrated in her delicate condition…"
Mary nodded eagerly. "Of course. Although I think her entourage from Poseidonis might require more of our attention. Your friends are not nearly as well adapted to the surface conditions as you and the royal couple..."
Surprised by her claim, he turned around. Kaldur's eyes scanned the room until he caught the familiar red flash of Tula's hair. She and Garth were sitting at a small corner table not too far from him, chatting with a man in a tweet jacket. Mary was right, both of them looked quite pale, despite the water bottles they were clutching.
Like all students at the Conservatory, Garth and Tula knew the basics of fighting on the surface and had applied them well enough, earlier this month, when confronting the Witch Boy at his side. Although, as he remembered now, that whole fight had taken place just a few minutes after they'd left the ocean. For all he knew, neither of them had ever been out of the water for more than a few hours at a time.
Absent-mindedly, he took a small sip from his glass, vividly remembering his own first days at the surface.
He had always looked up to Garth and Tula, for their strength, their skills, their vastly superior magic. It had never occurred to him that, out here, he might have grown stronger than them.
What an odd sensation.
"Is that a traditional robe you're all wearing?"
Once more, Mary's words woke him from his reverie. Self-consciously, he straightened his suit. He had donned a silvery dress uniform with a deep blue shawl wrapped around his shoulders, just like the other Atlanteans who had accompanied the royal couple to the surface today.
"It's the formal attire of the royal guards of Poseidonis, it's worn only on very special occasions. I think my King hopes to impress the wealthy donors this way."
"It really suits you", she assured him with a cheeky smile. "And I'm not the only one who noticed that…"
Following her glance, he spotted two Amazon warriors watching him from beneath a nearby plastic sculpture. The two women were clad in soft white chitons that accentuated their athletic physique. The older one had pinned her light brown hair up in a bun, the younger one wore her dark locks open, letting them spill like a jet-black waterfall across her well-tanned shoulders.
Had she just winked at him? He quickly adverted his eyes.
Grinning brightly, Mary shoved two more glasses into his hands.
"Why don't you go ask if they would like any refreshments?"
'Is everyone ready?', J'onn inquired carefully.
Princess Diana had retreated into a quiet corner of the embassy's main hall with the King and Queen of Atlantis, pretending to plan the next steps of their campaign, while Aqualad and some other Atlanteans guarded them faithfully. The rest of the young team and Mary had gathered at the wardrobe area, yielding control of the refreshment stands to the real hired caterers. Ollie and Dinah had followed Clark into an unused side room, allegedly to grant the reporter an exclusive interview. Bruce Wayne and his adoptive son Dick Grayson had simply vanished from the room, yet J'onn sensed them on an abandoned balcony nearby.
'This link is now shared between Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman, Aquaman, Queen Mera, Green Arrow and Black Canary, as well as Aqualad, Miss Martian, Superboy, Robin, Kid Flash, Artemis and Mary Baker', he announced.
Neither the Queen nor Mary were strictly required to partake in their discussion, yet he would have felt impolite to leave them out.
'Our objective is to compare notes on the entity know as the Light. This is just a preliminary meeting, we will also address this issue at our next full League assembly, which we still have to reschedule. For now, I would like to ask Superman to begin by summarizing the latest findings from the Cadmus institute.'
'Thank you, J'onn. To be honest, there is barely anything new to report since Thursday. You all know that Cadmus grew an army of genomorphs, and that they cloned both me and the original Speedy twice. We have not found out what exactly the Light's objectives are, beyond infiltrating the Justice League. Based on logistic considerations, it seems that there was no immediate plan to employ the genomorphs in battle, since none of the tunnels at Cadmus would have been suitable to smuggle a hundred trolls out of Washington, DC. Regarding the institute's human employees – well, they were all willing to work for an illegal cloning facility, but most knew nothing about Conner and Match or about the abduction of Speedy. Those who did were interrogated by Batman.'
'We identified the two men who took over Desmond's leadership over the darker elements of Cadmus in July', the Dark Knight continued. 'Both reported directly to Lex Luthor, who is one of the seven members of the Light. They received orders from him to continue all ongoing experiments. As the genomorph Dubbilex already informed us, one object of their research was an 'aggregate', a bio-engineered substance infused with nanotechnology, magic and Kobra-Venom. Cadmus had made preparations for merging this aggregated material with the remains of a starfish creature of extraterrestrial origin, the echinoderm 'Starro', which used to be guarded at the Poseidonis Science Centre. We must assume that this procedure is now undertaken elsewhere, since the Light knows that Cadmus was compromised. We still don't know the aggregate's intended function.'
'What about those mutated plants attacking us last month? Would they also count as an aggregate?', Aquaman asked.
'In its crudest form, yes. Yet we know that the entire scene was engineered to distract us. Over the past months, the team has interrupted several of the so-called 'acquisition missions' conducted by the Light's agents. Temporarily cutting off their drug supply from Santa Prisca, rescuing a nanotech scientist from the Light's clutches, et cetera. Ra's al Ghul, who has now also been confirmed as a member of the Light, took notice of these disturbances. His daughter, Thalia al Ghul, was the one who assembled the so-called Injustice League, in order to throw off our suspicions.'
'The missing woman!', Kid Flash cried out.
'Please explain', Diana demanded. J'onn sensed her discomfort – all of Batman's interactions with the Master of Shadow's daughter were a sore subject for her, and it was clear that Batman had interrogated Thalia very recently.
'Poison Ivy never works with an all-male team', the young speedster elaborated. 'That's why nobody took those Injustice guys seriously, right? We all knew there was something fishy – um, something odd, I mean – about their set-up. So now we finally know who Ivy's female partner was.'
J'onn suppressed a small chuckle. In contrast to the teens, several of his League mates had taken the self-proclaimed Injustice League quite seriously indeed.
'Back to that aggregate', Aquaman pleaded. 'We knew the decoy was a number of huge, self-regenerating, remote-controlled plant creatures. Could we simply assume that the real thing will be some even larger, self-regenerating, remote-controlled star fish creatures?'
J'onn picked up quite a few hopeful thoughts drifting through the mind link. Big monsters were simple and straightforward. The League knew how to deal with big monsters.
'Unlikely', Batman crushed their optimism.
'Could it be a swarm of very small creatures?', Queen Mera proposed.
A mental shudder ran through their link.
'Everyone agreed that magic is required as one of the aggregate's components', Diana pointed out. 'An involvement of Klarion the Witch Boy seems likely. Does that help us in any way?'
'It might, after the procedure on Monday', Aquaman mused.
'Yet from what we have experienced, the Witch Boy's actions are unpredictable', his protégé Kaldur cautioned. 'We still know nothing of the Light's true objectives.'
'Even if Klarion was the third member of the Light, there are still four others whose identities we don't know. We also haven't identified their leader yet', Batman reminded them.
'Why don't we ask Ra's al Ghul? With the Lasso of Truth?', Superboy proposed bluntly.
J'onn felt a blur of mixed reactions, ranging from hopeful agreement to instant rejection.
'Theoretically, we could ask Wonder Woman to do this', he carefully conceded. 'However, this would escalate a conflict which has so far been… moderated, to some extent. Ra's al Ghul is many centuries old, and a far more knowledgeable opponent than some of you might realize. We have fought him and his Shadows countless times, violently, yet there have been a few fine lines that neither side has crossed so far. I fear that being subjected to Wonder Woman's god-blessed artefacts is something he would take as a personal affront – and he might choose very personal retaliations.'
Such as revealing the civilian identities of Batman and Robin – or of Green Arrow, for that matter, since his Shadow's had certainly not failed to ask Red Arrow about his mentor's civilian name.
'I would therefore advise against it', J'onn concluded.
'I second that motion', Batman immediately agreed.
'Third', Robin added.
'What about using the lasso on Luthor?', Artemis suggested.
'No!', Clark and Diana replied in unison, to everyone's surprise.
'We actually tried that, back in July, after finding out about Conner', Superman began to explain. 'When we confronted him in Metropolis, he gave us a whole speech about how he would consider such a forced interrogation torture, how his mind was the only sanctuary left to him, how he would rather be subjected to physical pain than such a violent breach of his privacy…'
J'onn felt himself nod. The same arguments held true against mind-reading.
'And when that didn't sway us', Wonder Woman continued, 'he grabbed my lasso and announced, truthfully, that he would let someone cut his left arm off if we forced him to answer our questions in that way. Just to prove his point.'
For a moment, everyone fell silent.
'What madness possesses that man?', Aquaman blurted out.
'Was he really holding the lasso when he said that?', Black Canary inquired.
Diana's voice was firm. 'Yes. He was speaking the truth.'
'So you did not interrogate him further?', Batman asked calmly.
'No, of course not!', Superman shot back, sounding horrified.
Batman did not falter. 'You already knew that he was leading a cloning facility easily capable of regrowing severed limbs. And have you ever met his head of security, Mercy Graves? She has a robotic arm filled with state-of-the-art LexCorp weapon technology. From what we know about Luthor, he must have wanted a new arm, if he made such a claim.'
'You're not seriously suggesting…'
'It would be only fair!', Green Arrow spat out. 'Remember what they did to Speedy?'
Before the conflict could escalate further, a meek voice interrupted them.
'Excuse me, but was LexCorp invited to today's charity event?', Mary inquired. 'Because Luthor's deputy executive assistant, Mr Adolphus Green, has just walked into the embassy.'
At the open wardrobe, Wally, Artemis, Megan and Conner watched as a rather overweight LexCorp official strolled past them. Then all eyes turned to Mary.
"How do you know all these guys?", Kid Flash blurted out. "Senators and mayors are one thing, but the full name of a deputy assistant?"
Mary blushed, shrugging helplessly. "Coincidence?"
Diana intercepted the bulging businessman as soon as he entered the embassy's main hall.
"Mr Green from LexCorp, I presume?"
Her directness seemed to throw the man off balance. Warily, he reached into his jacket, fishing out a paper envelope. "I, um, I come from LexCorp – you knew that, right? To make a contribution on behalf of Lex Luthor." His bright green eyes darted around the room. "For the… plastic thing."
"How thoughtful." She accepted the letter, but made no motion to open it yet. "I take it Mr Luthor himself is otherwise occupied?"
"He is a busy man", the representative offered weakly, fidgeting with his tie.
She kept holding his gaze. Batman was not the only League member with a penetrating stare.
The large man dropped his eyes quickly, a sheen of sweat glistering on his meaty neck. "In fact, we are all rather busy this weekend…" Stammering some half-hearted excuses, he shuffled back out of the hall.
Once he was out of sight, Diana tore the envelope open. It contained a rather generous check, and a hand-written note.
By the end of this year, LexCorp will bring the next generation of plastics to the market, produced more cheaply and energy-efficiently than conventional materials, completely free of fossil resources and 100% bio-degradable in salt water.
I hope you continue considering me as a resourceful ally, should you ever find yourself in need of compelling solutions.
L.L.
'He just solved our plastic problem', Queen Mera burst out, awe in her voice.
'At least that's what he wants us to believe', Batman cut in.
'This is a bribe. Everyone realizes that this is a bribe, right?', Green Arrow scoffed.
'He enslaved the genomorphs', Conner growled. 'He will never be our ally.'
'Of course not', Superman agreed. 'Yet he knew that this would buy him time. Whatever the aggregate is, we must expect the Light to attempt using it before the end of this year.'
Black Canary's sigh echoed through the mind link. 'We should really set a date for that full member's assembly, as soon as possible.'
Diana swirled her glass around in her hand, lost in thoughts. The mind link had been closed for a while now, yet she felt reluctant to return to her party just yet. Instead, she retreated into the shadow of one of the more hideous plastic arrangements – this one sported several broken folding chairs and a mess of ghost nets. She set the empty glass down on a protruding piece.
The Light was clearly a menace, yet they had no idea how to oppose it, or even how to properly prepare. It was a vexing thought, to be left in the dark like this, when all her instincts yearned for an open confrontation.
"That was a nice death glare earlier, princess", a familiar deep voice whispered behind her.
Leaning back into him, she rested her head against his muscular shoulder, knowing that the ghastly sculpture would conceal them. "Bruce, what can we do?"
She felt his callused hand trail down her bare arm, until they found her palm. "Nothing yet, princess, beside keeping our guard up. For now, we'll have to focus on fighting plastic pollution..."
She sighed, entwining her fingers with his. "At least that's one problem that we understand."
He leaned in more closely, his breath tickling her neck. "Don't you dare being broody, princess. That's my role."
She turned around sharply, meeting his deep blue eyes. "I will not let you worry about this alone, Bruce! I want you to rely on me, and trust me, no matter what hazards we face."
His lips smiled at her fierceness, yet his gaze was filled with pride and hope and apprehension.
"I already do", he admitted. Just three words, yet they rang true in her heart.
"Did you see Wonder Woman dance with that billionaire?"
Artemis let herself fall onto the oversized truck tire at Mary's side. They had found a rather comfortable trash sculpture near the edge of the dance floor, settling down to share the last tray of the vegan canapés Mary had been distributing earlier.
"Bruce Wayne is a total playboy, but I suppose she has to show some good-will after that generous donation he made… Did you know his adopted son goes to my school?"
Mary kept her face perfectly blank. "Is that so?"
"Yeah, see where Megan is trying to teach Conner how to slow dance under that broken umbrella sculpture? Dick Grayson is the black-haired kid on the other side of… Oh crap, I think he's seen us."
Mary showed no sign of recognition when the sharply dressed teen approached them.
"Artemis Crook! Fancy meeting you here!"
The blonde girl rolled her eyes, pointing at her black caterer's uniform. "Just helping out, but my shift is over, Grayson. If you want a drink, ask at the bar."
He raised an eyebrow in mock affront. "Oh, I didn't come to ask you for refreshments!" Smiling cheekily, he offered her his hand instead. "May I have this dance?"
Before the flabbergasted Artemis had a chance to reply, Wally appeared out of nowhere, a plate full of food in his arms. Taking in the scene with one glance, he shoved his heaped dish into the other boy's outstretched hand. "Sorry, Grayson. She owes me a dance."
And with that, he pulled a completely baffled Artemis back to her feet and onto the dance floor.
Mary and Robin stared after them.
"He knows I was just trolling her, right?"
"I take it Wally knows you, then?"
The unmasked boy blushed slightly. "Yeah. He's the only one I've told."
He flopped down on the old tire beside her – close enough to talk quietly, yet with enough distance to ensure they would not appear overly familiar to any onlookers.
Robin reached for a cupcake from the speedster's plate, then hesitated. The dish was loaded with a precarious mixture of cake, sweets and antipasti from the open buffet. None of if was touched yet.
The boy's gaze returned to the dancing couple. "He must be pretty serious about her."
They watched Artemis laugh freely, as the speedster failed to lead her into a jaunty twirl.
"They do seem quite happy together", Mary agreed with a smile.
Robin took a bite from the cupcake.
"Talking about happy together – did you see Bruce dance with Diana? You think she's finally won him over?"
She raised an eyebrow at the detective's apprentice. "According to Alfred, they've been dating for three weeks now."
"What? No way!"
Mary regarded him closely, as he processed the news. To her delight, a broad grin spread across the boy's face. "This is going to be so good for him."
"Of course. Alfred whole-heartedly approves." She helped herself to a piece of antipasto from Wally's selection.
For a moment, they sat in silence, watching the couples swirl by.
"Hey, Mary, is that Kaldur dancing with that Amazon? Look how they're hitting it off!"
'Let's see if there are any canapés left at the… Oh!'
Conner quickly followed Megan out from underneath the weird umbrella display, anxious to see what had startled her.
He almost walked into Superman.
"Good evening, Conner." The Kryptonian was wearing glasses and a loose-fitting tweet jacket, slumping his broad shoulders slightly.
'That is his disguise?'
He could feel Megan snicker through their mind link.
"Greetings", he replied audibly.
"We're about to head back to Metropolis, but I wanted to use the opportunity…"
Superman gestured at the dark-haired woman beside him. She was dressed in an eye-catching purple costume combined with dangerous heels.
'Maybe people don't recognize him cause they're distracted by her', Megan suggested.
"This is Lois Lane, soon to be Lois Kent." Superman's smile was both proud and reverent. "She's my most relentless and sharp-tongued co-worker, and the love of my life."
Conner regarded the human woman more closely. The journalist's eyes were bright and piercing, her smile and posture full of confidence.
"It's lovely to meet you, Conner."
Shaking her hand carefully, he noticed Megan's awed expression.
'What's happening?', he asked her silently.
'He is introducing you to his fiancée!'
'Yeah, but why?'
'Because he cares about her! And he wants you to meet her, because he cares about you, too!"
'Oh.' Conner released the woman's hand. 'Okay.'
With one arm, he pulled his girlfriend closer. "This is Megan, we also work together. She's the one I love."
Blinking once, Lois Lane reached for Megan's hand as well. "A pleasure to meet you, too, Megan."
He noted how his girlfriend's heart rate had picked up considerably.
'Did I do that wrong?'
'You… We… No, Conner, that wasn't wrong at all.'
He simply smiled at her, trusting that she'd explain it all later.
Oliver Queen locked his door behind them with a deep sigh.
"I'm so glad that's finally over."
Dinah embraced him warmly, then helped him undo his tie. "Not a single attack tonight. You think al Ghul has kept your secret?"
"If he did, I'm sure it's because he has something terrible in mind for me." He sank heavily onto a cushioned chair, fumbling to untie his shoes. He felt like he had aged a decade this weekend.
"Can you take a few days off from work next week, while we figure out how to upgrade security at Queen Industries?"
"Already did. Signed up for a couple of shifts at the Watchtower instead."
It used to be called monitor duty. Now it meant standing guard.
All because he couldn't have kept himself from bragging.
"It's not your fault, Ollie", his sweet songbird tried to soothe him.
"Of course it is."
For three years, Red Arrow had reported to the Light. Which meant that due to Ollie's leniency, they knew about the Watchtower, too.
He had revealed the existence of the League's secret space-born headquarter to a union of their most powerful enemies. Next to that, compromising his own civilian identity seemed barely noteworthy…
As if that wasn't enough, Red Arrow had told him today that he would be leaving to Asia by the end of the year.
Speedy still refused to speak to him at all.
Ollie staggered into his living room, then let himself collapse onto the couch. "Let's just skip all of Thanksgiving next year, shall we?"
Author's Note:
I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist. Bruce and Diana are not canon - in none of the DC universes, as far as I know, and certainly not in Young Justice. But I happened to watch a few of the old "Justice League Unlimited" cartoons recently (and read some of the sweeter BMWW fanfics here), and figured that our favourite Amazon princess does deserve to catch her 'rich boy with issues' after all... Feel free to completely ignore them if you disagree with the pairing, it's not crucial to the rest of this story.
This chapter is exactly what its title says - an interlude, just a moment to let everyone catch their breath after 'Alternate Agendas', before we're finally setting out towards the story's showdown...
And yes, it's the first time Conner told Megan he loved her. He doesn't see why she's making a big deal out of it - they share a mind so often, she should know this already, right?
Reviews are appreciated like a cold drink after a lively dance.