March 5th 2016 Reach Factory 11:00 PM EDT

Slipping through the walls of the factory like a ghost was...nostalgic. I wasn't really that attached to thievery, but being back in Gotham and sneaking into an alien factory was pretty nostalgic for something I'd never done before. As I entered the factory, I looked around carefully in aura sight. I could see...factory stuff. I literally knew nothing about what went in factories. I shook my head in annoyance, ok, they were right about how badly planned out this had been. I summoned patches, the cornerpup shifting out of the dark next to me.

I looked down at him. "Find me chemicals." He looked up at me blankly. I sighed. "Yeah, that sounded dumb to me too. Find me...something that smells weird." He blinked, and then turned and headed off in another direction. I trailed behind, only belatedly realizing that I was a literal invisible ghost and he could see me. I put into context exactly how powerful cornerhounds could be at the higher levels.

I followed my dog through a few rooms until we finally came to a small room full of beakers and test tubes. It couldn't have been more obviously a lab if there had been a nerdy dude in a coat standing there mixing chemicals or looking through a microscope. I pulled out the test tubes and walked up to the beakers, starting to fill them up with samples of the chemicals. Once I'd filled all of them (and a few shadow test tubes I made myself) I stored everything in my spatial ring and headed out to find the others.

My clones were combing the other parts of the factory and the others were doing the same, now I just had to retreat and...then I bumped into something. Which was...odd. Because I was intangible. I yelped, and I heard a grunt from whatever the thing I bumped into was as we both faded into visibility, me my usual charming self and it...green. It was really, really green. Also kind of tall and with long limbs. My mind blank ability from all those months ago told me the thing was trying to read my mind, but I knew it got nothing.

It stared at me. I stared at it. It's aura was...weird. Mostly positive, not exactly friendly but not evil or anything, and familiar. It took me a second to pin down what it was, but the aura reminded me of Wally's old teammate, Miss Martian. Which told me he was probably a martian himself, but he didn't look like any martian I'd seen. Given where I was though, and the big ass green chitin antlers growing out of his armored back I had a decent guess what I was looking at.

My hands lit with ectoplasm as I got ready to throw down, but he put his hands up placatingly. "Peace! I am on your side friend! I am B'arzz O'oomm of Mars. I detected an intrusion and intercepted the signal. I wish to speak to your earth heroes about an alliance. Do you work with League of Justice?" His voice was sincere and his body language was showing that he meant what he said. Despite that, there were other things to consider, so I didn't lower my hands.

I did shake my head. "Not exactly. But I can put you in contact with them. Tell me why you want to know?" His hands lowered despite my obvious defensive posture. His aura looked...wrong. Fake. I kept my guard up, I didn't know what was up with this guy but I didn't trust him. Still, it would be best if we weren't caught, and if I could manage a bit of intel gathering that would be a cherry for the top of this debacle.

He looked away sheepishly. "Ah, yes. I have embarrassed myself. As I said, I am B'arzz O'oomm of Mars. I am here to warn your earth of a grave danger. The Reach are not what they appear to be. They are not the friendly teachers they portray in their media, but a race of intergalactic conquerors who seek to enslave and subvert all they survey. I am here to help you avoid such a fate."

I raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, we got that memo already thanks, it's why I'm here. But since you're dressed up like a bug, and I hear that's the latest fashion craze among The Reach, why exactly should I trust you. Forget beware a wolf in sheep's clothing, you're a wolf dressed up like a slightly bigger wolf." I was curious what he would say, because that weird aura I was seeing wouldn't go away. He believed what he said, he genuinely wanted to help, but it seemed...shallow.

He shook his head sadly. "As I said, I am of Mars. Earth's defenders are many and mighty, but Mars is a small planet with little support. If Earth falls, Mars will be next. I would not see those of my home exploited and abused by The Reach." Which sounded like a legit reason. I could imagine doing something similar, but it didn't change the fact that this guy just reeked of double agent. I peered deeper into his aura, trying to see what was making me feel weird.

Then I saw it. A black flash underneath all that peaceful talk and good intentions. Once I spotted it I followed it throughout his aura, finding the threads of darkness woven throughout his mind and spirit in a way that hid them from detection at first glance. B'arzz O'oomm of Mars DID want to help Earth. In fact, he was under the impression that he WAS helping Earth. That impression was mistaken.

The biotech construct on his back was some kind of mental subversion device as well as armor. It was puppeting him through the motions it wanted, and it absolutely didn't seem like it was here to lend a hand. As soon as I identified what it did, the martians eyes flashed in recognition. Somehow it knew I could read his aura, and it could tell it's goose was cooked. Unfortunately for the scarab warrior, three times human normal reflexes boosted by over a hundred points of dexterity and aura sight meant the ectoplasmic bolt was already flying when it started to react.

I saw the hand at it's side start to convert into some kind of cannon, and then stop halfway and switch to a shield. By the time it brought the shield up to block three more bolts were slamming into it's ribs, sending it hurtling back into the wall. I was on it in seconds. My blade lashed out, coated in ectoplasm as I rained down strike after strike into the armored form of the scarab. As soon as this thing took control, the aura underlying the martian's EXPLODED. I was going to have to put this bastard down fast because whatever a scarab was, it was powerful.

The thing's eyes narrowed as it's arms turned to blades, parrying my blows sloppily but with enough power to make my teeth rattle. I opened my mouth and spat a beam of ectoplasm wight in it's face and the thing roared and stumbled back, opening it up for a blow from my sword that did...nothing. Shit. It retaliated and I shifted into my intangible state, it missed me, but I knew from earlier if it wanted to touch me when I was intangible it could. I wheeled back from the onslaught and winced as the bastard shifted his hands to cannons again and opened up on my with a rain of plasma bolts.

I reached for my gun, then pulled back. From what I saw the martian this thing was controlling actually was a good guy. I was in the clear legally already, and somehow I doubted the League would take kindly to me popping one of the manhunter's planetmates with an evil conceptual handgun I'd gotten from a serial killer. Which gave me...an idea. Not a great idea. But an idea.

This thing showed up and tried to get me to work with it. It only turned on me when I noticed it was controlling the martian, so it clearly had some sort of interest in using me as a cover. As I dodged a few bolts of energy I focused ten thousand or so points into my demonic power, and then shoved all of that into my cloning ability, creating a duplicate of me that wouldn't just pop immediately.

Of course all that energy went into defense so it essentially just became a punching bag, but I knew it would serve my purpose. I was pretty sure the scarab was controlling the martian directly, like hardwired into it's brain. Which meant the scarab wasn't psychic. The martian was, but it couldn't control me. Except it didn't know that. That scarab bounced my sword right off, which made me think it stopped energy, if that energy blockage affected the mind mojo the martian had, it would need to drop that barrier to try to whammy me.

I left the clone behind, phasing through the floor even as the scarab smashed it to the ground, pummeling it with a series of powerful energy blasts. Once it stopped moving the martian knelt down to touch it's head, and when that didn't work, just like expected, it let the helmet portion of it's armor slide away from it. I was already coming up out of the floor behind it, and with every ounce of power I had left, another full ten thousand points I shoved myself into the martians brain as a possessing spirit.

If the last time had felt like slipping into a meat suit and pushing aside the occupant, this time felt like I was trying to overpower a rampaging elephant. Luckily, my ghost power scaled. I didn't know what pouring ten thousand points into possession would do, but I was pretty sure it would help. It did, but only barely, I managed to stall the scarab where it was but I was being pushed back, this thing was way deeper in this body than I was, it had a physical, tangible presence and it absolutely did not want to give up control.

I was losing, it was pushing me back, and all it's cold unnatural intelligence was pushing with single minded focus to crawl inside me next, to hollow me out and create another mindless thing in my place for the reach to puppet. I had fucked up, this thing was way more than I could handle. I'd gotten so used to being a badass I forgot there were things that could hurt me, that could kill me. I absolutely was not capable of holding this back with the power I had right now.

And then I felt something, a connection to my ability, and I realized what time it was. It was midnight, the witching hour, and my power had arrived with more strength. But I would only get six hundred or so points. I needed at least half as much as I put in to reach this stale mate. I needed five thousand points. That would be ten thousand of daily income, far off from where I was.

But as I sat there, about to be consumed by an alien machine intelligence, I remembered something. I remembered that crow, and my ability to create it from nothing, because of a story. That was all I was really, I was stories, falsehoods that I fed the universe to make my dreams come true.

I was a liar, and all of reality was my audience, and I needed that now, I needed to tell the world that I was going to get five thousand points, needed to MAKE that true, or I was going to die here, and these alien bastards would be wearing me like a suit, if I even existed at all. So I focused on that falsehood, that five thousand points, and I made it real. I told the world a lie, and it believed me, and for the first time ever, I used my power as it was meant to be used.

March 6th 2016 Reach Factory 12:00 AM EDT

My head was pounding and my body was shaking as I fell out of the martian's body. I had just enough presence of mind to see his aura and make sure he wasn't being controlled before my vision went fuzzy. The martian fell to his knees, and then onto his side, bonelessly, and I heard a shout as my team showed up, probably notified by the clone on the ground via the sending stone that had been copied into it's ear when I duplicated myself.

Zee was at my side in an instant, with Dreamer standing guard over us both as she tried to figure out what was wrong. "Morgan? Baby are you ok? What happened?" I couldn't respond, my brain felt like a bag of broken glass and gravel, shifting uncomfortably around whenever I moved or thought. I mentally pulled up my character sheet, eyes focusing on my points value. Ten thousand. Nearly ten times what it had been. I would be getting ten THOUSAND points per day now. I shook my head, almost immediately regretting the action, but trying to focus all the same.

I groaned. "M'fine. Minute." Speaking fucking hurt, my entire mind was currently reconfiguring into a different order. That had felt...right. Like it was how my power was meant to function, but it had also felt wrong, like it was something that human beings weren't supposed to be able to do. I thought back to Del's little speech to me about becoming more than I was. I had the sinking feeling that if I'd taken the boom tube back instead of going to long way my brain would have exploded when I tried that little trick just now.

I closed my eyes, noting the burning zero behind my lids. Well, that explained some of the pain. I hadn't fully tapped myself out like this in a long time, and while this was a level of suck that was far beyond the last time, I doubted being completely dry was helping things. I wanted to juice myself up a bit, but I had absolutely no energy for something like void form, so I had no way of taking in energy. I certainly wasn't feeling up to any tantric top ups right now.

Still, despite the twelve fucking hour wait until this hellish nonsense ended completely, my brain started to de-fuzz at least a little after a few minutes. Luckily they hadn't done anything to the martian but tie him up. Zee noticed me becoming coherent and was pretty much in my face in seconds. "Honey? Look up, I need to see if you have a concussion." She moved her hand in front of my face, checking if I could track the movement. She frowned at me. "I...don't know what I'm looking for. Also you didn't hit your head I don't think."

I burst out laughing, cutting off the sound with a wince when it made my head ring. I kept the chuckle after quieter and smiled, pulling her down for a kiss. She relaxed into me, and Dreamer bent down to help us both up. She steadied me, looking concerned. "Are you alright Morgan? We got some sort of feedback through the sending stones, like you were reaching out but not with words or impressions, just...overstimulation. It knocked us all flat. What happened? And who is that?"

I stepped away from Dreamer to stand on my own slowly. "His name is B'arzz O'oomm. Martian. He was having his brain hijacked by one of those scarab things. It tried to use me to embed itself with the League or something, I don't know, but when I noticed it was controlling him it took over and tried to kill me. Damn thing was way too strong so I baited it into letting it's guard down and then sucker punched it with a possession attempt. Keep an eye out, it isn't possessing him, but I'm not sure how long that's going to last."

A calm voice echoed from over where the alien was tied up. "Quite some time, I believe, my friend. I thank you. The scarab his been knocked, as The Reach would say "off mode". We should relocate as soon as possible, the other scarab will be coming soon, and he is much more powerful than I. I do not think your method of interference would work a second time." His voice sounded weak, but steady, and I double checked his aura, seeing no more sign of the earlier corruption.

That sounded...terrifying. We decided to heed the warning and bail, but we didn't take him anywhere sensitive, simply relocation to an empty warehouse while Wally took the samples to his lab to run them. Luckily this factory was in Gotham, so there was an abandoned warehouse pretty close. Despite all the changes while we were gone there was still an abandoned warehouse every two miles in Gotham.

Once we made it to the warehouse we sat down with B'arzz, who caught us up on what he knew about The Reach, which sadly wasn't much. His voice was apologetic as he filled us in. "I do not know many of their plans. The Reach send out beetles across the galaxy as scouts and spies. They find unsuspecting locals and bond to them, subverting their minds and creating deep cover agents to aid The Reach in their conquests."

I raised an eyebrow. "Then why send a martian? Or at least, why in your current form. You guys can shape shift right? You could have passed for human. No offense but you aren't exactly subtle as is. For that matter why didn't they just slap a scarab on a human in the first place. If they were coming here you would think they would have sent a spy ahead of time, since you said that's their MO."

He smiled grimly. "They did. Earth HAS a scarab agent, the scarab has simply been damaged and knocked off mode. From what I understand this happened quite some time ago. The Reach are concerned that countermeasures have been taken against implanting another sleeper. The plan was for me to use the camaraderie I share as a renegade scarab to grow close to Earth's scarab user and reset his scarab, rendering him on mode once more. The current host, called Blue Beetle, is a member of the League's affiliate team, and subverting him would give them ready made access."

That actually wasn't a bad plan. Why go through the trouble of planting a spy when you already had one locked and loaded. The best part was that since the League presumably knew about his origins and had almost definitely vetted him, once they brought him under control confirmation bias would make the heroes much less likely to look into him again. "What are their plans for Earth then. Clearly you were involved. We're running those chemicals now, but it would be easier to just tell us."

He shook his head sadly. "You misunderstand my position. I was a drone. An effective drone, but still merely a weapon. One does not tell a knife how one plans to stab. They simply aim it and let it do it's work. I have no more insight into The Reach's plans for this world than you yourself. I was simply chosen due to my position as a nearby neighbor and a known quantity to the League."

I cursed internally, yeah that would have been too easy. I sat down, giving myself a bit of time to recover a bit more as we waited for news from our science nerd. Luckily we picked literally the fastest science nerd in the world, so he was back within about an hour, and he did not look particularly please. Artemis looked at him grimly. "I recognize that look. That's the look you had on your face before I broke up with you. It does not bode well." She approached him gently, putting a hand on his shoulder. "What did you find."

Wally looked...scared. Like full on terrified of his discovery. He glanced at B'arzz and shook his head. "Not here. No offense but I don't know him, and I don't want to announce something like this in uncertain company. I nodded, standing up, and Dreamer caught me as I wobbled, helping me limp out of the room on their heels, Zee slipping under my other arm. I'd never tapped myself out right after refill before, and if I had my way I was never going to do it again, because this fucking sucked.

Once we got outside Wally slumped against the wall, shaking. Artemis looked disturbed. "Wally? What's wrong? I haven't seen you this shaken since we found that time loop projector. Was it really that bad?" She looked genuinely worried for him, and I could understand. If Zee had been all shaky like this it would have freaked me out too, but more importantly, Wally was a hardened operative who had seen some shit, for him to be spooked like this, whatever he found must have been awful.

He swallowed hard. "T-the chemical agents used in the soft drink called 'Reach' contain two main components. One of them is a sort of sedative, but much longer lasting. It's a chemical you would use to make an animal docile, a mood stabilizer of sorts to inhibit aggressive behavior. The second was...more complex. It took me most of the time I was gone to figure out what it did, but once I managed I realized what the plan was." The sedative thing was...bad. Making the native population docile wasn't something anyone with good intentions would do.

He took a deep breath. "It's a genetic tracker for the meta-gene, a marking agent that allows the reach to identify latent metas." He took a shuddering breath. "They're starting a farm Arty. They're fattening us up, and picking the choicest cuts, and they're going to harvest the ones they want and slaughter them. They aren't trying to conquer earth." He spat on the ground angrily. "They're trying to fucking DOMESTICATE us." His voice was hot with rage, and I couldn't blame him, he had reason to be angry.

Aside from the normal human reaction to being fattened up for the slaughter, we had just come from a corrupt authoritarian state. Seeing what the witch had done to the Mystic Man, hell what she'd done to the whole OZ, put the fate of earth under The Reach into sharp relief. Even if they didn't overtly conquer us, they would twist our way of life into a sickening parody of itself.

Forget the future, Jim had already said it. The world had become darker, more corrupt, and I was betting the secret cabal of alien psychos playing nazi eugenics were not uninvolved in that shit. A few years ago I might have passed it on to the adults, or even the League, and left it alone. Let Jim handle it. But my team had been through too much on our own for that, and besides, I had a little sister now, a little sister with supernatural powers who might very well show up as a bearer of the meta-gene under a microscope for all I knew.

No, we wouldn't ignore this, we wouldn't pass the buck, but we also wouldn't do something as stupid as try to stop an alien invasion from a galactic super empire by ourselves. Our trip through the OZ had taught me a lot about the benefits of having an army at your back, and I was absolutely going to take it to heart. I looked up at Wally, my eyes firm as I looked him in the eye. "Alright. I want you to get me a meeting with the Justice League. Tell them we have information about a threat to Earth. And tell them we want to help them stop it." I wasn't going to become a superhero, but I sure as hell wasn't letting alien slavers farm my race for soldiers either. Guess the Justice League was about to make a deal with a Devil.

March 6th 2016 Bibbo's Diner 12:00 PM EDT

Getting a meeting with the League turned out to be both easier and harder than expected. The big three and a few others were off world for some reason that we couldn't get a straight answer on, but we got an agreement to meet up with Black Canary, Green Arrow, and Captain Atom at an out of the way diner on the river between Gotham and Metropolis. Wally came along with us, as did Jim and B'arzz, but otherwise we kept it to exclusively Dreamer, Zee, and me.

When we entered the diner though, I was stunned to see a blonde blur sweep Wally up into a tight hug. Black Canary was clutching the redhead like he was her own son. "I'm so glad you're ok. We thought the worst when you didn't come back from Arkham all those years ago. The Flash will be so glad you're home. He wanted to come see you, but with Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, GL, Manhunter, and Hawkwoman all gone he's the most senior member of the League on the planet and is acting chairman of the League."

Wally hugged her back, and I was surprised to see Artemis wasn't jealous of him hugging the busty heroine. I'd always had a bit of a crush, and I saw Zee give me a measured look as she sensed that through our bond, but Artemis clearly knew Wally and Black Canary had history. The strong maternal aura made it clear to me that the two of them had been through some things together but it was more familial than romantic, so she obviously had a point.

The redhead laughed as he pulled away. "Tell him it's fine. I get it. I saw mom and dad and I knew he'd be busy. It's good to see you BC. You look good. Thanks for taking this meeting. We were afraid you might not take this seriously considering the source." He flicked his eyes to us as we all took a seat in a red plastic booth, a waitress who was much too blase about this whole thing coming to take our order as we all squeezed into two of the seating structures that were right next to each other.

Black Canary looked over at us an sighed. "Aside from the legalities of their situation being clear, we were never really willing to push things with your friends." Her eyes sharpened. "The events that occurred during the siege...it was decided that legal ramifications for the measures taken to survive would be unfair, as well as gridlocking the justice system since literally everyone in Gotham broke SOME law or other. Enough people saw Devastation and Myrina trying to kill you that you technically fall under the bulk self defense clause."

She didn't sound happy about that, but she also didn't sound as spiteful as I would expect. I guess not everyone on the Justice League was as big of a goody goody as Superman. It also made sense. Gotham was a burning pile of dumpster rubble morally speaking. There was no way the sheer number of crimes during the Amazon War wasn't so mindbogglingly high it beggared the imagination. We'd gotten lucky. The whole murder thing completely slipped my mind. Lucky we brought Jim just in case as backup. Captain Atom would be a tough fight even for me.

Speaking of Jim, the busty blonde was smiling at my mentor fondly. "Good to see you old ghost. Sorry everyone has been giving you such a hard time, but I'm sure we're all glad the kids are back." Her aura had a spike of remembered fondness that I recognized, and I tried not to groan at the knowledge that my boss had at one point been fucking Black Canary. Knowledge that Green Arrow apparently already had, given his acidic glare towards my ghostly mentor. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same.

I cleared my throat. "Posturing aside. Our friend B'arzz here, brought us some pretty upsetting info about The Reach, and we dug up a bit more ourselves. We have a vested interest in making sure that this world stays safe, obviously, and we're planning to attempt to counter their influence as best we can." I had automatically defaulted to my more formal Random mannerisms in the presence of the Leaguers, but I saw no reason to stop it. "He can fill you in on the details."

I nodded to B'arzz, who told his story, which was picked up by Wally with news of what he found. By the time we were done the Leaguers looked disturbed. Black Canary looked to Captain Atom. "That might be where the missing teens have been going. Though it doesn't explain what they've been doing with them. Assuming they ARE pre-metas, what's the point of kidnapping them?" Her voice was tight with anger and concern, and I tried to piece together the story from her comment.

It turned out to not be necessary. She turned back to us with an apologetic smile. "Sorry. Over the last year or two there have been a series of disappearances. Teenagers have been vanishing, most have been thought to have run away, if anyone bothered to even check."

Artemis was gritting her teeth. "So you're telling me that they've been stealing humans for over a year and nobody even knew? That there's a bunch of teens in a lab somewhere being experimented on by some crazy alien doctors?" Her dark grey eyes were cold, but she took a deep breath trying to calm down. "Do you know how many? Whatever they're doing with them can't be good so I hope for their sakes and ours that they don't have a stockpile."

Black Canary shook her head sadly. "No. We can't be sure we even noticed them all. Considering the targets there are bound to be plenty we couldn't get information on or who no one noticed missing. For all we know they have hundreds of them now. The worst part is we don't even have any direct evidence. The word of a self proclaimed alien spy won't hold much weight. The chemicals are bad, but they can just claim they were planted, after the debacle with the secretary general support for the League is at an all time low, and our biggest critic is in their god damned drink commercial."

I nodded. "We know. It's why we approached you. We're in a position to be a bit more...flexible, about combating the threat. We're GOING to handle them, but we would really appreciate backup from people with your skillset. Keep in mind you can't stop us from doing this. So your options here aren't whether we're involved or not, they're whether you're going to help us or actively get in our way." My point may have been a bit blunt, but I had no time to coddle their feelings. I was genuinely pissed.

Black Canary closed her eyes in consternation. "This is the damn team all over again. Fine. We can't stop you. But we CAN make sure you do this safely. You want to work with us you work by our rules. We have a team made up of people your age, Kid Flash is familiar with them I'm sure. If you're willing to work with the Team we aren't against collaborating, we just want to make sure you stay safe."

Green Arrow glared at Jim. "Unlike SOME people we don't let teenagers run around competing with adult superhumans with little to no supervision." He clearly had some issues with Jim, but to my surprise, my mentor didn't fight back or even snark, he just sat there and took it. It was clear he still blamed himself for us getting sucked into that portal, and telling him different hadn't changed that.

Still, I wasn't letting some jumped up Robin Hood talk shit to my mentor. I was back up at five thousand points now, having topped off at noon from my new crazy upkeep. I poured a small helping of points into my ghost powers, but not into any aspect of them I'd tried before. This time I poured my energy into my "ghostly presence". The temperature dropped radically, the sodas the waitress has brought over while we talked frosting in their glasses as everyone turned to look at me warily.

My eyes were blazing with ectoplasmic light, based on the green glow spilling over the table in front of me, and I stared daggers at the emerald archer. " I am not a child. I am not an invalid. I make my own decisions, and my mentor's role in those decisions is none of your fucking business, so why don't you keep your stupid dick van dyke beard in its upright and locked position before you say something that will REALLY piss me off."

The frost creeping across the table was clearly convincing, and Green Arrow stopped glaring at Jim long enough to look at me warily. Zee reached over to take my hand, and I let the ectoplasmic aura drop. She smiled placatingly at the Leaguers. "I'm sorry about that. We haven't been home in a long time, and Morgan is upset at how much of our absence has been blamed on his mentor. I'm sure you can understand why he'd be unhappy about how Gentleman Ghost has been treated in our absence."

I took a deep breath. "We're willing to work with your team, and even communicate about our plans and accept feedback, but we aren't joining. Wally told us the kind of backseat sidelining bullshit you guys pulled on him and his friends back in the day. We'll work with you, or we'll work without you, but we ARE doing this. You cool with that? Or do we walk?" I expected them to tense up and get annoyed, but weirdly Black Canary in particular smiled at my little speech.

She shook her head with a chuckle. "Get on board or get out of the way, huh? History really does repeat itself. Fine. We won't sandbag you, but we expect open communication before you engage in any operations, especially with team personnel. We know you can handle yourselves, that much has been made clear, but the last thing we need is one of ours following you into something they can't handle and getting hurt."

I sighed, nodding once, and she relaxed. Artemis chewed her lip. "There's more." We all looked at her. "I want information. That thing about Gotham was something we didn't know. We need someone to fill in the blanks, because just the stuff the general public knows isn't going to cut it. I have people I need to find, and just in general I think we all want to be caught up on what's been happening."

Black Canary nodded. "Very well. We can arrange it." She nodded to Wally. "Wally knows the way to the Zeta tubes, you'll be green lighted for travel to mount justice, but only when there's a chaperone on the premises. No offense, but you WERE professional thieves. You execution of Devastation in particular will be a big sticking point for some of the League, but this is too big to just ignore. Without our heavy hitters it's all hands on deck for this Reach business, so consider yourselves temporary allies."

I nodded once, reaching out to shake her hand. Once that was done she stood to leave. I realized that while some of us had ordered, Black Canary, Captain Atom, and Green Arrow hadn't. They were never staying. I was off my game to have missed that. Once they were gone I turned to the others. "Well...that went as well as could be expected. I feel like an idiot for forgetting I killed Devastation, thank the gods Gotham is a dumpster fire, or I might have ended up on trial. Regardless, mission accomplished I suppose." With that out of the way I decided to relax and try to just enjoy the night with my friends...and a martian. "Now, I kind of want to try the cherry pie."

March 7th 2016 Gotham City 1:00 PM EDT

I was unimpressed by the zeta tube. Well...no. I was kind of impressed by the tube itself, but I was unimpressed with where they hid it. I turned to look drolly at Wally. "Really? A phone booth? It's not even a nice phone booth. This thing would be at home in a garbage dump. Hiding in plain sight is fine but you couldn't have used a transformer box or something? Like this is the end of an alley, why would this even be here?"

He grinned. "Everyone says that the first time. But it's never been compromised before. You have a reason to question it, but most people don't care. Not to mention it's locked all the time and the doors are reinforced despite looking to messed up. The combination of looking like garbage and being able to tank an rpg strike has kept anyone who decided they needed to make a call out of our business."

We were standing in a random alley in downtown Gotham, somewhat close to the old apartment complex Artemis and I had lived in when we were kids. After we talked over the whole issue with the League and had something to eat we headed home, only to get a call from Black Canary. Apparently they had someone on duty to watch the team the next day and were willing to let us have a tentative meeting with their junior squad, which led us here.

The zeta tubes only functioned if you knew what you were doing. At fifteen thousand points give or take a few for my aura trick yesterday, I could have probably bought some kind of hacking or tinkering ability that would let me get through them, but reasonably just having an invite was a much more convenient way of getting through. He punched in a bunch of numbers on a well hidden keyboard and the door popped open. He gestured to us. "After you guys."

Us in this case was me, Zee, Dreamer, and Artemis. We'd considered inviting Bette and Reggie, but they had active criminal records and history with the League that we didn't after five years as thieves, so we kept it small. I took a deep breath and stepped into the box before nodding at Wally. He hit a button and a robotic voice spat out some number and letter combo and then there was a flash of light and...I was somewhere else.

I stepped out into what looked like a fairly tricked out cavern. The stone floor was polished smooth, the walls were chiseled flat, and there was a comfortable couch set off to one side. In front of the weird tunnel thing we'd ended up coming out of was about ten people, all looking tense and confrontational. Some were our age, and some were older, but looked familiar despite that age difference. I zeroed in on one aura in particular.

I nodded to the tall dark haired man. "Robin. Or is it Nightwing now. Heard something about that." His aura pulsed with surprise at my recognition, though none of that showed on his face. I turned to take in the others. Some I knew. Superboy, who was looking shocked to see Dreamer show up behind me, Miss Martian, Red Arrow was missing, and Aqualad was gone as well.

There were new faces though. A tiny blonde a year or so younger than us who was surprisingly buff for such a delicate looking girl, and a kid a few years younger who was literally green. Also what I could very obviously tell was a scarab, but judging by color and aura this was Blue Beetle, who had been taken 'off mode'. There was also a red robot guy and a kid in a white and red striped sort of jumpsuit with lightning bolts at the temples who I assumed was some kind of Flash adjacent person like Wally. Last of the newbies was another green guy with antennas and gills, and a tall dark skinned guy in a gold helmet. Also a fucking literal wolf, for some reason.

Last of all was Captain Atom, who was out chaperone for the night. Apparently my show had spooked them enough to put a real heavyweight on babysitting detail, but I didn't mind. This was a meet and greet anyway and I had no plans to do anything nefarious. The metal man nodded when he saw me. Nightwing's lips twitched in annoyance. "Random. Or I suppose it's Morgan these days. How...nice to see you again." His voice sounded less than enthused, but not nearly as bratty as I expected.

I raised an eyebrow but flicked my gaze past him. "Where are Aqualad primary colored archer number two?" His lips twitched again. I expected someone to make a comment about green not being a primary color, which was wrong from a physics standpoint, but no one took the bait. To my surprise though, his aura became genuinely agitated. Not enraged or anything but he clearly did NOT want to talk about it.

Captain Atom cleared his throat. "Why don't you all come inside and we can introduce you to the team." I nodded and we all headed over to the couches, everyone seeming a bit on edge as we walked, which ended up coming across like we were all inching sideways in lockstep like we were in a mexican standoff or something. When we finally reached the couch I flopped down on the cusions, Zee and Dreamer sitting down next to me, while Artemis stuck close to Wally. Captain Atom looked to Superboy. "Conner. Why don't you start us off."

The boy of steel nodded. "You remember me, I'm Superboy. Conner when I'm here, I don't bother with a secret identity really. Dreamer, it's good to see you again. Curious how you all met, but that can wait. You know Miss M of course, and Nightwing." He pointed to green furry and green fishy respectively. "That's Beast Boy and Lagoon Boy." Then to the blonde. "Wonder girl." He gestured at the jumpsuit kid and helmet guy. "Impulse and Guardian." He paused. "Oh. And that's Wolf."

I burst out laughing at the terseness. "You should be a tour guide man. You get right to the point. Good to see you again of course. As for my people, you already know us. But that's Dreamer, Zee, Artemis, and you're well acquainted with Wally." I waved vaguely to my people and he shot me a small smile. He clearly wasn't one who liked to mince words, and being concise had obviously made him more comfortable.

The jumpsuit kid, Impulse, blurred across the room to stand in front of me. He was fast, faster than Wally used to be, though he didn't have a patch on speed force levels of running speed. I could track him still, given my reflexes and my dexterity. He appeared in front of us, grinning widely. "You're Morgan O'Malley! That's so Crash! I heard all about you growing up." He closed his mouth, hand going over it. "Whoops. Spoilers!" I smirked as he held out his hand and shook it. His pulse was like three hundred beats per minute against my palm when we shook.

I chuckled. "I don't know what that means. But it's nice to meet you kid. Impulse right? Wonder how you got that name?" He flushed a bit but never lost the grin, and the others chuckled, releasing some of the tension. I turned to Captain Atom. "So, how much of this mess have they been briefed on? I know Wally said you guys sometimes do the need to know thing, and I don't want to spill anything I'm meant to keep secret."

The idea was clearly unpopular with the younger members of the team, but luckily for them Captain Atom just shook his head. "Not necessary kid. This is going to be a big project and we need all hands on deck, not to mention Blue Beetle is involved. He needs to know what's going to be coming for him." His face hardened as he spoke, and I felt myself developing a modicum of respect for the uptight hero.

I'd never really had much use for Captain Atom. He was a huge stick in the mud who could blow shit up, but seeing that he just wanted me to lay all of it out made me rethink my stance on the man. I nodded. "Ok. Well then. Basically we found out a couple things about The Reach." I proceeded to explain everything we'd dug up, both from grilling B'arzz and from the chemicals we found in the factory, and by the time I was done there was a lot of very pale faces around the room. Even the green guys seemed a lighter shade of green.

Blue Beetle, who had let his scarab armor drop and was revealed to be an olive skinned teen with slightly shaggy hair, was clearly the most effected. He staggered to the couch and slumped down onto the cushion. "I was...almost a spy? A brainwashed meat suit." He flinched, whipping his head to the side to speak to empty air. "Hey I should be blaming you for this! They created you to control my mind!" He waited a minute before letting out a lengthy sigh. "Yeah. Agreed. Neither of us wants that."

He noticed all of us staring and flushed. "Sorry. The scarab talks to me sometimes." His eyes widened. "Not like, in a creepy mind control way. In fact, it's kind of a dick. It mostly just complains and says alarming stuff about blowing people up...which I realize sounds just as bad but trust me. It's not that bad once you get past it's natural kaboom tendencies." Despite his babbling, I didn't suspect his scarab. I could see his aura, and he didn't have the underlying web I'd identified from B'arzz before he went full murderhobo on me.

I waved him off. "You're fine, I can tell. I was able to see the other scarab was in control before he attacked, and you don't have that vibe." I turned to the others. "So...that's whats on the line. Human beings being tagged and kidnapped, probably experimented on, as they try to fatten us up for the slaughter. Earth is under attack guys and dolls, they aren't shooting all the jobs yet, but they're worming their way in to mess us up. I for one have stuff to lose here, so I'm not gonna put up with that shit. You guys down to help?"

The blonde, Wonder Girl, cracked her knuckles. "I don't know about politics or espionage or any of that stuff really. I'm new to the team. Mostly I just hit stuff. I only joined a few months ago, but I'm pretty sure I signed up to stop stuff like this. So obviously I'm going to help. I don't know how far I trust a bunch of former thieves, but I know it's a damn sight more than I trust the aliens kidnapping and experimenting on civilians."

Superboy nodded. "Agreed. Morgan is agreeable in his own way. i don't exactly approve of all his choices, but he's legally in the clear, and we need all the help we can get." He looked around. "These guys are coming at Earth from under the radar, which puts them on our level. The Team exists to work outside the limelight, so that's what we do."

He turned to me. "I'm pretty sure we're unanimously with you. Now I know this was supposed to be a meet and greet, but I doubt you would bring this up if you didn't have a plan." He smiled grimly. "So, let's hear it. You have a knack for annoying strategies that make everything fall apart for your enemies. Kind of looking forward to seeing it happen to someone else." I couldn't help laughing at that. I knew there was a reason I liked him.

March 7th 2016 Mount Justice 2:00 PM EDT

My plan was simple. Admittedly not as simple as my ORIGINAL plan, which had been to just blow up every trace of The Reach on the planet, but still not complex. Zee had talked me down from that one after we found out what they were planning, back before we involved the League. As I shared it with Nightwing, however, the muscular man looked more

dubious with every word I spoke.

He glared at me. "An open bounty? Do you know how reckless that is? How much collateral damage could result in just throwing down a few million dollars and declaring open season in the underworld?" He sounded upset at the very idea, and I could vaguely understand where he was coming from. He'd definitely seen some of the people I was planning to bring in work and had good reasons to distrust them.

That said, there were a LOT of criminals, and this was their planet too. Putting out an open bounty for the reach would utilize my absolute advantage. Money. My powers could do lots of things that were very impressive, especially with time to build up, but there was a limit for the really scary stuff in that I needed a LOT of points. Even at ten thousand per day it would take months, or even years to buy some of my more expensive potential abilities.

Which I would definitely be doing down the line, but I could basically make money for nothing and barely spend anything on it. I was a human printing press, and there were quite a few people on earth who could really put the hurt on someone if you paid them enough. I still thought it was a good idea. "Sure, and they'll all be super safe if the world gets turned into a teen superhero farm? There's risk there sure, but this is their planet too, and they won't want to give it up to The Reach or anyone else."

Superboy shook his head. "You don't get it Morgan. Lex Luthor, Ra's Al Ghul, Vandal Savage, all the big names are actively working with the reach. Lexcorp is funding that energy drink they're spiking. Most of the criminal underworld works for them, even if you put the money out no one will take the cash if it means crossing them." His face was stony and serious, but despite the grim warning I couldn't help but laugh at that.

He looked shocked, but I just shook my head. "You have a flawed understanding of supervillains man. You have this ingrained notion of them as some kind of malevolent and insidious counterculture, constantly plotting to bring about the ruin of civilization." I paused. "Which, ok, there are a couple of those. But for the most part that's not what criminals are. Criminals aren't all psychos who want to murder everyone and bathe in their blood. The majority of them are just people who don't like following rules."

He raised an eyebrow at me and I smiled, spreading my hands to encompass myself. "Yup, exhibit A. My point is though, that while the average crook may want more money, or better looking women, or vengeance, the main theme is that they WANT. Specifically them. They don't have a higher cause like you League folks do, they work to enrich number one. Hostile aliens enslaving the whole human race and turning the planet into a slave farm is bad for EVERYONE's bottom line."

He tried to open his mouth and I cut him off. "Don't get me wrong man, Vandal Savage, Lex Luthor, and their little club of tyrant wannabes are scary. But they aren't scary enough to make burning down your house while you're still inside it a good idea, and anyone worth their salt or who has any real power wouldn't have bought into their supervillain social club. Real power players don't mix well with others. People like Morgana, like The Shade, the movers and the shakers who just go about their business, they won't want to see someone taking their turf."

Nightwing, to my surprise, looked...pensive. "That...isn't exactly wrong. Most crooks are out for themselves. We assumed based on the scale The Light operates on that they were cohesive like us, but being a criminal is a job. Being a hero is a calling. They're way less united than we are, and that applies here too." He grimaced. "I don't like the idea of having to pay someone to protect their own planet, but if we could make sure there isn't any collateral...it MIGHT work." He looked at me. "You really have the money to pay for this? We tracked your thefts and nothing you stole was even close to that valuable."

I snorted, waving off the question. "I'm a Falcone. For every account you know about I have ten you don't. I won't confirm or deny any theft related funds of course, but I assure you I have the cash to throw around. As for making sure I suppose we could do something like set up stipulations on the fund for withdrawal. Our first customers wouldn't be assassins or bounty hunters anyway, they would be thieves and spies. We need information first and foremost. I can talk to Jim about putting the word out to people in his line of work."

I'd also talk to Reggie and Bette, but I wasn't going to confirm that for the goody goodys. Superboy looked less dubious than before, but still not convinced. He mulled it over for a bit before he sighed. "Alright. But we have to agree on the terms of the contract. Nightwing is right, we can't have rogue mercenaries killing innocent people for a shot at some bounty. How long will it take you to get the money together? We can work on something while you do it. Should be able to have an agreement drawn up pretty fast." He looked to Nightwing. "You think tomorrow?"

The dark clad hero nodded. "Tomorrow works, we can run it by some lawyers I know. If we-sorry if YOU are going to be paying spies and thieves to start we'll have to work in something about theft prevention. We obviously can't endorse it directly. First because we wouldn't be able to keep it from the reach for long if we did, futile as that hope is, and secondly because we're UN sanctioned and this will involve dealing with some shady characters."

I snorted a bit at that and he glared at me. "What? No one here sees the irony that the League could get in trouble with an organizational body made up of governments that regularly employ the same kinds of scumbags and lowlives we're going to be paying off here?" I got a lot of hard looks and I put my hands up. "No pointing out blatant governmental hypocrisy, check. Speaking of hypocritical governments we were promised a run down on the situation since we've been gone. What the hell happened with the government after the Amazon War?"

I'd been wondering about this since we got back. I hadn't heard anything about...anything. There was no way the US government could ignore an attack on sovereign US soil. Nightwing looked annoyed. "The US government ignored an attack on sovereign US soil." I blinked, staring at him in shock and he chuckled. "Insane right? We were all expecting more, expecting some reprisals, or peace talks, or...something. The Bana Mighdal weren't Amazon's from Themyscira but they WERE Amazon's and we expected the government to use it as an excuse to wring some concessions from them."

He looked pissed. "But they didn't. They just...ignored it. Gotham has always been the underbelly of the US, and the bigwigs in Washington didn't think starting a fight with the island full of super strong women, or even rocking the boat, was beneficial. They slapped a blanket immunity order on the city for anyone who wasn't provably in the wrong so we didn't have to keep hearing about the fallout and then went about their business, essentially rushing Gotham out of the news cycle."

Superboy put a hand on his shoulder and he sighed, slumping into a chair. "Sorry. Sore subject. Wayne Enterprises ended up picking up a lot of the slack on the rebuild, and even Luthor helped out. The government just levied sanctions against the Amazons as a finger wave, but they import NOTHING so that was a pointless salve to the ego of the American people." He froze, looking over at the blonde girl with the very obvious frown and the wonder woman W on her chest. "Sorry Cassie, you know I don't blame Themyscira, but I'm not happy with how it was handled."

She sighed heavily. "No, I get it. Queen Hipployta didn't exactly help out with the aftermath either. Diana lobbied for relief teams to be sent, or at least some resources, but in the end it was decided that mans world can deal with mans problems. In reality I think she was just worried that the locals wouldn't have been able to tell friend from foe and attacked the Amazons who came because of their relation to the Bana." She sounded sad for her people and for Gotham both, and I decided I liked her. She seemed to really care about what she was doing.

I wished I could say that the government throwing Gotham under the bus was shocking, but they had done their best to ignore us for years now. Gotham was always the butt of everyone's jokes, It was the hell hole, the dumpster fire, that place you wouldn't be caught dead. Well, Bludhaven was worse, but only marginally and it wasn't nearly as big. Still, ignoring something as big as the Gotham siege was pretty classic. Not just because they didn't want to mess with the

Amazon's but because acknowledging it meant acknowledging magic on a wide scale, and even with aliens and superheroes and people like Dr. Fate and Zatara running around, that was a big step that would be hard to walk back.

I shook off my disappointment. It wasn't like it mattered. I actually felt for Nightwing, as a fellow Gotham brat we both hated how our city was dismissed and derided, but it was hard not to see their point at times. I had bigger problems though so I focused back on the teams, mine and theirs. "Alright, well to answer your question earlier a day should be doable to get some of the cash together. I can manage a big chunk of money, unless you would prefer something like gold? I'm flexible."

In reality it would be more like two days, since I could still use todays email and then tomorrows. With the fifteen thousand points I had on hand I could get pretty much the biggest payday I'd ever seen and still have enough points left to spare. I was thinking some kind of sweepstakes or something. Maybe publishers clearing house or something like that. Point was money was no object to me, and if I got too much raw cash gems, gold, treasure, art, anything I wanted could be obtained easily and for cheap through my power with the click of a button.

Nightwing looked slightly suspicious but still nodded. "I think cash should be fine right now. I'm warning you though, I WILL look into where it came from, same with any resources. Just because we're working with you and you're legally in the clear doesn't mean we aren't still heroes. We won't let you use blood money or stolen goods to fund this little operation, no matter how convenient it might be." He glared at me sternly. I had to keep my smirk buried under stoicism, because I wanted to grin at him tauntingly. I still didn't like Nightwing, and I had to admit, the idea of him spending endless hours trying to trace a money trail for cash I literally conjured into existence made me smile. It was the little things that really made life worth living.

Probably not a popular course of action, but given the DC government I could see it. It's basically what they did with No Man's Land. Gotham is the asshole of the US, and they don't deal with it if they don't have to. Add in the political corruption in the city and PR and nothing promises make the most sense. pat-reon has the advance chapters at that site /malcolmtent.