Been like two years, but here's what I have written of the new chapter. Maybe I'll gain some inspiration if you guys react to it. This is by no means the finished product, but, such as it is, it's better than nothing. I think.

Chapter 18

September 14, 2010

Shinobi decided that Royal University had quite an impressive campus. If he was one of those educationally minded types, he might have considered himself lucky to go to school there. He was stood outside of the science building, quite blatantly studying a directory, pretending to look for the office of one Serling Roquette.

Students gawked as they passed him by, some snapping photos, remarking loudly about his eyepatch or bionic arm or both, and that was the general idea. Shinobi had left Mount Justice without his communicator, but whoever came to find him wouldn't waste any time checking into public sightings as an early lead. A hero whose medical state had been limbo for over a week as his had been would make quite the splash on the internet, calls would be going into local news outlets, word of mouth would travel quickly and all of these would make for a very easy trail for any concerned Leaguer to follow. The fact that he'd had to use a teleporter tube to get to Star City in a timely matter had already made the trail so clear even an idiot couldn't lose it, but his alibi had to be rock solid as at the moment a clone was making its way to Gotham to pay a visit to a certain assassin.

Deciding he'd been noticed enough, Shinobi walked into the building, jogging lightly up the stairs to the floor of the claytronics department. He had no idea what claytronics were, but he supposed science was science and Roquette would certainly have a way to help him. He reached her office which was labeled with her name and barged in without knocking. She gave a start at his abrupt entrance.

"Heard of knocking? What am I saying? Of course you haven't." Serling blew her bangs out of her eyes in frustration. "What are you doing here? Better yet, what happened to you?" she asked as she caught sight of his eyepatch.

Shinobi grabbed a seat in the visitor's chair that sat in front of her desk. The office itself was somewhat cramped, but, contrary to her character, Serling provided her likely few callers with the courtesy of seating.

"You don't watch much TV, do you? I got blown up. Got a snazzy new arm and everything," he said sardonically.

"What the hell? Who made this?" She was clearly in awe and Luthor's craftsmanship was certainly something to be respected.

"I know a guy or two," Shinobi answered evasively.

Serling looked at him blankly. "Know many billionaires who could afford to give away a beauty like this?"

"One or two."

Serling leaned back on her desk and hummed. "Well, I don't think you came to show off your new toy, so what do you want from me?"

"Just some-what's the word?-reciprocity."

"Reciprocity? For what exactly?" Serling asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, that little thing where my team and I saved you from both Cheshire and Deathstroke in one night." Shinobi raised a hand to stall her complaint. "Don't worry, it's nothing major. I just need you to tell me if any sort of signal is being broadcast by this thing." He motioned with his metal hand. "I'm not really a tech guy, but I assume it's possible for someone, say a billionaire, to try to track my movements."

Serling's eyebrow raised once again. "So, if I'm hearing you right, you let someone you don't trust attach a bionic arm to you? Are you an idiot?"

"I don't trust the man, sure, but I trust his character. The more arrogant you are, the more blind spots you have. This guy's balls are too big for his own good. I'm certain he won't try to kill me, not as long as he thinks I can be used to his own ends."

"Just how certain?"

"Eight out of ten? Those are good odds."

"Those aren't odds, you philistine."

Shinobi sighed. "My shitty education aside, I know people. He won't kill me, but he might try to track me. So, can you help me out?"

"It just so happens I have something that can help." Serling start rummaging through a desk drawer before producing a black wand like they used to search people for dangerous objects at the airport.

"You just so happened to have that lying around?"

Serling blushed. It added an endearing quality to her otherwise severe demeanor. "I invent stuff in my spare time... Just count yourself lucky that I got really interested in electromagnetic waves a few months ago. I was working on the Fog and as you know it transmits data wirelessly, I wanted to know if I could make an all in one item that could detect all waves of the electromagnetic spectrum..." She trailed off. "You're not following any of this are you?" She sighed in frustration. "The long and short of it is it didn't work, until I wrote a program to parse the raw data and separate it into readable..." She trailed off again and Shinobi heard her insult his intelligence under her breath. "It'll work, is what I'm saying. We just need to get to you into isolation so we don't get interference from the hundreds of cellphones and sundry electronics on campus."

Serling stood up and Shinobi followed her out of the office. They walked down a few flights of stairs and Shinobi faintly registered that they were heading to the building basement. The stairs led to a dimly lit hallway at the end of which was a heavy metal door.

"This is sort of an all-purpose room. A lot of testing goes on in here for all kinds of projects, but the important thing is that it functions as sort of an isolation space. No radio waves, x-rays, microwaves, any kind of wave you can think goes in or out. You're gonna go in there with the wand and wave it over the arm. Then you're gonna bring it back out."

"That easy?" asked Shinobi.

"Not everything is complicated, just go already so I can get you out of my hair." She pushed the wand into his hand and pulled out a key and unlocked the door. Shinobi stepped in and she shut it with a bang. The room was bare metal from top to bottom with only fluorescent light tubes set into the corner where the wall met the ceiling providing illumination.

Shinobi flicked the switch on the side of the wand, a small beep signifying that it was on. He made a few passes over his metal arm and his torso for good measure before going back to the door and banging on it to signal Serling that he was done. She opened the door and snatched the wand from his hand. She opened a secret compartment in the handle and a black cord fell out which she then attached to her phone.

The screen lit up with all kinds of numbers and Shinobi watched her analyze it for a minute before she looked up at him, apparently done.

"Nothing. Well, not nothing, there's some strange reading I can't identify, but no wave that's used by anyone to carry information. You're good. Now can you go?"

Shinobi patted her on the shoulder. "Anyone ever tell you that you're a really prickly person?"

She shrugged off his hand while answering. "Only anyone who knows me."

Shinobi shrugged and waved at her over his shoulder as he walked back to the stairs.

"I guess your instincts are good after all."

"You ever doubt it for a second?"

"Hmmm. Lex Luthor's a wily one, don't underestimate him."

"You worry too much, Kurama. Now, I think we're overdue for a little League intervention, aren't we?"

Indeed they were. When Shinobi stepped out of the building he was greeted by Superman, resplendent in blue and red as was normal, and being admired by a gathering crowd of students and faculty.

"Hey, buddy! I thought you were doing that... thing." Shinobi approached the Man of Steel, waving animatedly with his right hand.

Superman raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms.

"No 'hi, how are you' or anything? You know I'm an adult right? The silent treatment doesn't work on me."

Superman still didn't speak and Shinobi deflated.

He sighed as he walked past Superman and through the crowd that parted for him as he passed.

"Let's go then," he said in resignation.