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Amoroso (4/4)
A Justice League Unlimited Story
by BillA1
Copyright April 2007
Rating: (PG-13)
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CHAPTER FOUR
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We that are true lovers run into strange capers; but as all is mortal in nature, so is all nature in love mortal in folly. - As You Like It
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(Grodd's Hideout)
Sinestro stared hard at the gorilla in front of him. Just a few months ago, he'd stood with Luthor against this animal, but he'd misjudged Luthor's mad ambition -- just like everyone else. After the defeat of Darkseid, he vowed he'd never give another Earthling a chance to play him for the fool.
"Sinestro. Welcome," Grodd said with his arms extended. "I can't tell you how pleased I am that you've agreed to join my little troupe."
"I had my reservations, but Toyman and Frost convinced me that I could kill you if you became undependable like Luthor did."
Grodd glanced at Frost, who didn't meet his eyes, before looking back at Sinestro. He folded his arms across his chest. "Well, let's certainly hope it doesn't come to that."
He paused. "However, it's interesting that you should mention Luthor. I have plans for him to finance our new operations."
Sinestro's smirked. "Maybe you haven't heard, Grodd, but Luthor's gone or dead and I seriously doubt he mentioned you in his will."
"Maybe not, but Luthor will provide us with seed money for our new endeavor."
The gorilla grinned and Sinestro realized how much he never liked this animal's smile.
"In fact," Grodd continued. "It's time for me and Lex to settle our accounts. Won't you run an errand with me?"
"Not until I hear about your plan to deal with the Justice League," Sinestro said.
Grodd grinned. "The Justice League at this moment has more problems than it can deal with. They don't know we're here and even if they did, they are so distracted with their own issues, they don't have a clue that a ten million dollar heist has just occurred under their noses."
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(The Batcave)
"Lantern!" Batman snapped. "Pay attention to me. Where'd you spent last night?"
"At the Metrotower with Diana."
Diana frowned. "Hera knows he wouldn't leave my side." She turned to Shayera. "Why'd you turn your commlink off?"
"I must have bumped it," Shayera answered as she glanced at Batman.
Batman turned to Superman. "Where were you last night?"
"Working late at the Planet."
Batman's frown deepened. "Was Lois working late too?"
Superman's expression didn't change. He said nothing.
"I take that as a yes," Batman continued. "Yesterday, we were all affected by something that caused us to act on our hidden love interests such as Lantern fawning over Diana."
"What?" John barked. "I don't fawn."
"Let's ask Vixen about that," Shayera mumbled.
"You got something you want to say?" John replied angrily.
"Apparently, I've got no say, as I remember you telling me."
"You two take it someplace else," Batman snapped. "As I was saying, Lantern's interest in Diana or Diana's sudden interest in Shayera."
"Whoa," Wally exclaimed. "Didn't see that one coming." Then he shrugged his shoulders, "Well, maybe I did."
Both Shayera and Diana glared at him.
"It caused Flash to cross the globe looking for Vixen," Batman added.
Wally's mouth dropped and he flashed a worried look at John as he said, "But, we're not responsible, right? Cause like, I didn't do anything. Honest."
"No, we're not responsible," Batman said. "Some outside force is causing us to do this and whatever it is, it's associated with the Metrotower. I've been monitoring the radio traffic over there and it's pure chaos. Doctor Light and Dove have locked themselves in the rec room. Gypsy and the Creeper have barricaded the computer room and Ice and Mr. Terrific have sealed off the gym."
Wally shook his head. "Ice and Terrific?"
Bats ignored him as he pressed a key on his computer and digital, thermal and photographic images of the Metrotower appeared on the screen. "I have checked and rechecked," Batman said. "No beams of radiation or sound aimed at the building, at least nothing detectible. Nothing in the water supply."
"Well, that stinks," Wally said.
"Exactly," Batman agreed. "It has to be something in the Metrotower air."
Shayera nodded. "That's why Diana and John are still affected?"
GL's eyes narrowed as he snapped at Shayera. "What are you talking about? I'm not affected by anything." He looked at both Bats and Shayera. "I've always felt this way about Diana. Jealousy doesn't become you - either one of you."
Shayera glanced at Bats. "Yeah, he's definitely still affected."
Diana stepped next to Shayera and said to John, "I think there maybe some truth to what they're saying. How else do you explain your sudden ... infatuation with me, John?"
"John?" Supes and Bats chorused.
Diana looked at Shayera as she said, "Well, that's his name and he told me saying his name was important to him." She moved her hair off her face and smiled. "Maybe we should get together and compare notes, huh? I could even help you with your preening. Wouldn't that be fun?"
Shayera cleared her throat, flashed a quick fake smile at Diana, but said nothing.
"The effects seem to wear off twelve to fourteen hours," Bats continued, "after we leave the building. Flash has a faster metabolism than the rest of us, so his wore off first."
Wally's eyes lit up. "That's why you wanted me to use the Watchtower comm to let the others know to meet here."
"Didn't want you going in the building and getting re-infected."
"Shouldn't we tell the others in the building about the gas?" Shayera asked.
"Tell them what? That once again we're vulnerable in our Headquarters? That we don't have an antidote for this? That we only think that there's a problem?" He paused. "Should I go on?"
"I get your point," Shayera said. "Again!"
"We all do," Superman said. "There's no need to shake anyone's confidence in the League, including our own. So where is it coming from?"
"My guess is the air conditioning system," Batman said. "You need to check it out. You're the one with x-ray vision. I would start with the air intake system on the roof. Take Lantern with you. Shayera and Flash go to the Watchtower and stay there. Don't let anyone beam down to the Metrotower and don't let anyone from the Metrotower up to the Watchtower. Tell them the transporters are off-line for a defective part. Tell them the Javelins aren't space worthy. Tell them anything."
He looked directly at Shayera as he pointed his finger at her and said, "Do whatever you have to do, but don't allow any movement between the two stations. Got it?"
Shayera nodded slowly and slapped her mace in her hand. "Got it!"
"Diana stays here with me," Bats continued.
"And now we know who you were interested in," Wally smirked.
"No, you don't," Batman snapped. "Now go!"
Shayera grabbed Wally's hand. "Watchtower, Flash and Shayera to beam up. Now!"
"Wait a minute, Bats," Wally said. "If you weren't interested in Diana, then it must have been you and -"
Wally and Shayera disappeared before Wally could finish.
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Grodd and Sinestro traveled in a cloaked energy bubble to the Somerset district of Gotham City, where they waited beside a large oak tree outside the gates of Arkham. Beyond giving Sinestro directions, the two said very little to each other.
Grodd wasn't concerned about this renegade Lantern's threat to kill him. If a problem arose, he would simply will Sinestro to kill himself and that would be the end of the matter. His own near-death experience in space had heightened and increased his mental abilities far beyond what they were before.
He feared no one on this planet, not now.
A black sedan pulled up to the oak tree and stopped. Sinestro made a path for Grodd to walk on so he wouldn't leave any footprints. As Grodd approached, the rear window of the Lincoln Continental rolled down, and the man inside handed Grodd a satchel.
Grodd took the valise, opened it and inspected the contents. Satisfied, he said to the man inside the car, "Thank you, Mr. Manheim. I won't forget you, but you and your driver will forget about me and what has just happened here. And now our business is completed."
Grodd paused, glanced back at Sinestro before addressing Manheim again, "As you proceed down the hill, the road will bear to the left. You will bear to the right. The shortcut is to the right and you want to take the shortcut. Is that understood?"
Manheim and his driver both repeated, "Bear to the right."
"Excellent. Good day, Mr. Manheim. Have a safe trip."
Sinestro joined Grodd from the shadows as the car sped off. He formed an energy bubble around them both.
"You know he will drive off the road, over the cliff, and fall two hundred feet, don't you?" Sinestro said.
Grodd nodded. "He was just a courier. Using this marvelous organ in my head I made him destroy his buildings, collect the insurance money from Lex Luthor's companies and then turn it all over to me without realizing what he was doing."
Grodd raised the satchel. "In here, I have ten million dollars in cash and bearer bonds courtesy of Lex Luthor." He grinned as he added, "It was the least Luthor could do."
Sinestro smiled. "I like the way you work." His yellow energy bubble lifted off and headed back to Metropolis.
"I know where Giganta's at if you're interested," Sinestro said.
"What was that line in that old movie: This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Yes, Sinestro. I am most definitely interested."
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Lantern and Clark stood in an energy bubble hovering over the air conditioning system on the roof of the Metrotower.
Clark's face betrayed no emotion as he wondered why he wasn't affected by the gas. Maybe it only worked on humans. Shayera was an alien to this planet, too. Did it work on her? Come to think of it, Bruce specifically didn't mention her.
Or, Clark reasoned, maybe the gas did work on him and that was the point of Bruce's question about where he was last night. With Lois.
"You know, I never realized how much I liked Diana until yesterday," Lantern said.
Clark frowned. "Give it a rest, Lantern. What you feel for her, she doesn't feel for you. Understand? You heard Batman. We were all probably affected by the gas."
Lantern was quiet, then said, "You got a girlfriend at the place you work? I mean, does the secret you have a girlfriend where you work or is the Lane woman it?"
Clark ignored him. "Let's concentrate on the task at hand. You see anything strange about this air conditioning system."
"No," Lantern said, "not a thing."
"The extended hood on the air intake is made of lead so I can't see through. Now why do you suppose that is?"
"Good question. Guess someone flunked the course on how to hide something in plain sight and not attract Superman's attention." Lantern focused an energy beam at the top of the hood extension and swept the beam through the lead hood.
"No Kryptonite or bomb," he said. Then using his ring, he cut through the soft metal where it joined the air intake vent. Forming a hand, he set the separated hood top aside. Just on the inside of the intake was an open plastic container full of a red liquid. "Any idea what this is?"
"The stuff nightmares are made of," Clark answered. He pressed his finger to his ear. "Batman. We think we found it."
"Don't think," Bruce answered. "Make sure. Then put it in an airtight container and bring it back here. But make sure you got it all. Batman out."
Clark slowly x-rayed the entire building ventilation system. "That's got to be it. There's nothing else out of place."
He looked at Lantern. "Set the container on the hood, then back us off."
Lantern did as Clark requested and after backing off a safe distance, let Clark out of the bubble. Clark held his breath and at superspeed flew back to the roof, wrapped the lead hood around the container, taking care not to spill any. Then he fused the lead ball shut using his heat vision.
"I take it we're done here," Lantern said as he joined Clark.
Clark nodded.
"Good! Race you back to the Batcave," Lantern said. "Diana's waiting for me."
"You haven't been listening, have you?"
"I listened enough to know you never answered my question about your love life," Lantern said.
"I know," Clark called back as he flew off toward the Batcave. He'd let Bruce deal with this lovelorn Lantern.
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(The next day - The Watchtower)
"If your face was any longer, Boo, it'd hit the floor," Mari said as she sat down at John's table in the cafeteria. He'd been lost in thought as he stared out the window looking into space. There were lots of long faces in the building today. Most of the members who'd been at the Metrotower within the last twenty-four to forty-eight hours before they shut down the transporters were apologizing to each other for things they know they did, but for which they couldn't remember all the details.
Batman seemed to relish recounting to him, after the gas wore off, some of his conversation with Diana and Shayera. How could he face Diana or any of them again? He'd made a complete fool of himself and to make things worse, everyone knew it.
Maybe not everyone, but certainly anyone who was important to him knew about it.
Except Mari.
He acknowledged her with a quiet, "Hi." All she had on her tray was bottled water and lime Jell-O. And at that moment, he recalled Shayera's comment about the gift shop paying for Mari's lunch and he smiled.
Then his face froze in a frown. He probably owed Shayera an apology, too.
"Missed you the other day," Mari said. "I did see the Flash, however."
"Oh."
Mari arched an eyebrow as if expecting John to say more. He didn't. He couldn't.
"Yeah." Mari took a sip of her water. "He ripped my gown." She looked at him as if she expected him to jump up and hunt Wally down and destroy him in place.
She looked disappointed when John said softly, "I'm sure it was an accident."
Mari sighed. "It probably was. He offered to buy the dress until I told how much it cost. Then he wanted to know if he could make payments for the next ten years. I told him I'd talk to you." She tilted her head to one side and gave him one of the professional smiles he'd come to recognize. "What do you think I ought to do?"
John nodded and said sadly. "He's good for it. I'll help pay for it, too."
Mari stood. There was a tinge of anger in her voice that John decided to ignore. "I paid for the dress, John," she said. "What's going on between you two? Is this another one of those 'Secret Seven' things again 'cause I just saw Shayera in the gym and she looks like someone stuck something up her butt and broke it off. Is there anything going on we need to talk about?"
John stood, walked over to Mari's side of the table and kissed her on the forehead. "Thanks for paying for the dress. I'll see about getting you reimbursed." He sighed. "It's not anything I can talk about, but I'll try to spend some more time with you to make it up to you. I'm sure Flash will want to apologize to you. I would really appreciate it if you can find a way to accept his apology."
John turned, walked out of the cafeteria and headed for the gym. There would be a lot of apologies today. For him, Shayera would be first.
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(The Batcave)
Bruce had attempted to analyze the mixture Superman had brought from the Metrotower. Unfortunately, the heat from the melted lead casing had been sufficient to degrade the material into a brown sludge that defied solid identification. He'd run dozens of samples, but nothing in his databases matched the results. So, something new, potent, and easy to destroy, and Bruce had no way of formulating an antidote in case of another attack.
The others hadn't caught onto what had happened in those kinds of terms, and Bruce was content to let that stay the case. That they had not been physically attacked while they were distracted meant that someone had gone to great lengths merely to prove a point.
Bruce's frustration was tempered somewhat as he watched Alfred lead Diana down the steps to the cave. Tomorrow, he'd have the ventilation system of the Metrotower modified to prevent tampering. As it stood now, there was a complete air exchange in the building every thirty minutes. The effects of the gas would wear off of those exposed by tonight at the latest, and Bruce kept a close eye on the GPS trackers on each potentially exposed member so there wouldn't be too much trouble.
But there was no doubt someone had sent the League a message that they could be struck at anytime.
He sighed. This was just another reminder of the stupidity of the five minute head-start.
"Shall I delay your Paris trip again, sir?" Alfred asked as he approached.
"Cancel the plane, Alfred and thank the crew for me. See that there's something extra in their paychecks."
"Yes, sir."
Bruce watched Alfred leave. "I have such a headache," Diana said.
"Do you want Alfred to bring you some aspirin?"
"No, it's not that kind of headache." She paused. "I'm so embarrassed."
Bruce shrugged. "You couldn't help it. None of us could -- except for maybe Kent." He shook his head. "I'm not sure he was affected, but everyone else who was in the Metrotower was. Everyone." He flashed a small smile. "Remember that when Lantern tries to apologize to you."
The smile faded from Bruce's face as he turned and pointed at the brown sludge on his lab table. "If I didn't know they were either gone or behind bars, I'd swear Luthor or Scarecrow was behind this. This chemical mishmash was brilliant. I could tell just enough from this mess to know that it works on our pheromones and over-rides our normal restraints to people we're already physically attracted to. In short, it allows us to love the people we won't allow ourselves to love.
"Like I said, I'm not sure it worked on Kent. But it does explain Lantern's attraction to you and your attraction to -"
Diana frowned. "Don't say it." She smiled as she folded her arms across her chest and tapped her foot rapidly on the floor. "So how come you didn't contact me?"
"I guess I wasn't attracted to you."
Diana glared at him for a moment before breaking into a smile. "You are such a liar."
Bruce returned her smile. "If you say so."
Her smile broadened. "I say so."
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EPILOGUE
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The story on page three of the morning edition of the Daily Planet announced the death of reputed mob boss Moxie Manheim and his driver in a single car accident outside of Gotham.
Lois Lane and Clark Kent put together their story of an insurance scam run by Manheim and Intergang, making no mention of Venus Smith and Omiex. Bank records showed that Manheim converted over ten million dollars of Manheim Holding Company assets to cash and bearer bonds hours before he died.
Both Daily Planet reporters were nominated for Excalibur Awards for "Outstanding Investigative Journalism." They lost to Julian Frey for his "Internet Drug Ring" story.
None of the money LexCo paid out in losses was ever recovered.
END