Chapter 6: Finding Answers

Two questions, Flash fumed. He kicked me out after two questions. Less than five minutes.

Flash was standing on the other side of the door of a storage area of a café that Flash used on a rare occasion he wanted to hold and interrogate someone. He heard the low murmur of Batman and the Trickster's nearly hysterical voice in reply.

Flash had asked who else Trickster was working with and didn't get a real answer and then asked who was paying for everything and again, got a vague answer. Then, Batman said "leave" in a tone that left no room for discussion.

He was angry for a moment and then his usual good cheer regained control. Let Bats do what he is good at doing and now, with all this free time, Flash found he had time for a sandwich and maybe some other things.

By the time he was finished eating, Flash realized that 15 minutes had passed. It was probably time to check on Trickster. He was not mentally strong on a good day so at some point, he was going to just start blithering. At that point, a familiar masked face might get the last few answers they need.

Flash knocked gently and opened the door a crack. Trickster was still sitting in the chair in the middle of the storage room. Batman stood about a foot in front of him, his back rod-straight. His arms were crossed over his chest and his feet were planted shoulder-width apart. He was glaring at Trickster. Trickster threw a frantic glance to Flash but Batman ignored the speedster.

"And?" Batman said quietly.

"That's it!" Trickster hollowed. "I don't know anymore about it!

Batman said nothing. The silence only lasted a few seconds.

"Okay! My sister went to high school with Mirror Master! But they didn't date or anything. They just had chemistry together!"

Batman nodded once. "We are done here," he said, clearly to Flash, although he didn't take his eyes off of Trickster.

Trickster visibly relaxed. Flash pushed the door open completely. Batman turned and walked out of the room.

"I assume you will take care of him," he said, stopping for a second but looking straight ahead. It wasn't a question.

"Yup," Flash said.

"Then come to the Watchtower. I'm calling a meeting."

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Diana opened her eyes and moaned. She was groggy from being drugged too much for too long.

She closed her eyes again and focused on her body. Nothing felt wrong or hurt. She was a little weak overall, but without knowing how long she had been in the medical bay, she wasn't worried about that.

She heard a voice but put her hand up before her mind registered the words. Another few seconds later, she determined that she was physically whole.

Thank you, Hera.

"Okay, now," she said aloud, lowering her hand. She hadn't opened her eyes quite yet.

"Good morning, Princess," Batman said softly.

The sound of his voice warmed her and when she opened her eyes, they sparkled as she looked at him. Then the words registered.

"Morning?" she demanded. "How long have I been out?"

She looked around. She was sitting in the only occupied bed of the medical bay with Batman standing beside her. J'onn was standing a short distance away.

He knows, she thought and realized after more than a year of working as hard as she could to keep her relationship a secret, she was actually relieved that someone else knew.

Just as she was about to repeat her question, she saw Superman walk through the door and smile at her. She swung her legs over end of the bed and stood up. She was shaky for a second but it quickly passed.

"Diana," he said. "It is good to see you awake. I thought you were going to sleep forever."

"How long have I been out?" she asked again.

"Thirty-eight hours," J'onn answered. "After you fainted, we sedated you for 24 hours and then, you slept on your own for the rest of it."

"What's wrong with me?" she demanded.

"A few pints of blood were taken. The majority has been restored," J'onn replied. "There should be no long term difficulties."

She looked at J'onn for a moment and then turned to Superman. She arched an eyebrow at him.

Superman sighed. "All right. If it would easy your mind," he said.

She punched him in the stomach. Not as hard as she could, but enough to test her strength. He flew back about two feet which, she realized, was about right.

When he regained his footing, Superman smiled. "Happy?"

She smiled back. "Yes, actually. Thank you."

"Fine, but next time, just see if you can still fly."

She smiled again. "That's no fun."

Batman cleared his throat. Diana still smiled. He was the only person she knew who could sound both bored and disgusted while clearing his throat.

"If you are both done, we are all due at the Founders meeting," he said dryly.

Diana's smiled faded.

"Answers?" she asked.

Batman turned toward her. "Some," he said dryly.

Diana's eyes widened with excitement and she literally flew to the conference room.

Show-off, Batman thought with a hidden smile as the rest left of the medical bay. The grief and guilt of the last two days faded a little at the familiar sight of Diana, full of purpose, flying away from him.

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Flash was the last to arrive at the meeting. Diana tossed him an angry look as he sat down, which Flash didn't see and everyone else at the table ignored. Batman didn't repeat himself so he didn't start talking until they were all there, which meant that Diana had to wait to hear what Batman knew.

Amazons were not known for their patience.

"You're awake, gorgeous," Flash said happily. "Are you feeling all right?"

She found that despite her annoyance, she smiled at him. She adored Flash. She enjoyed his good cheer and found that although sometimes she wanted to pound him, the feeling never lasted long.

"I'm fine, thank you. And thanks for the help at the museum. The crowd seemed to be frozen."

He winked at her and then joined the rest of the Founders who were looking at Batman, waiting for him to begin.

"You called this meeting," Superman said lightly.

"Thirteen months ago, university research Kyle Weston went on an indefinite sabbatical from his university work for 'government service.' Other than the fact it is top secret, there is no record at the university of where he went or what he is doing. He is a DNA expert, focusing on manipulation. The day after the first attack on Wonder Woman, a 'government representative' contacted the university looking for Weston. The same representative has been in Weston's home and the residences of nearby friends and family," Batman began.

"He went AWOL?" Green Lantern asked.

Batman's eyes narrowed slightly at the interruption. "Someone scared him into leaving. The same day Weston disappeared; Captain Cold, Mirror Master and Trickster were invited to help a professor develop a way of getting metapowers from Wonder Woman. They agreed and moved to a complex on the outskirts of the industrial area of Metropolis."

"Who invited them?" Superman asked.

Again, Batman's eyes narrowed and he found that he got a little bit of pleasure by answering. "Lex Luthor."

The change in Superman's expression was instant. The curiosity turned to anger.

"Luthor? How did Luthor get involved in this?" The Man of Steel more spat the question than asked it.

"That is the answer I don't have," Batman said darkly. "He must be somehow connected to the 'government service' project. I don't have a lot of answers surrounding whatever government entity is involved. However, the walls I have been hitting are the same walls I have been hitting investigating the group sponsoring the Kasnian gas research."

Wonder Woman, Flash and Batman had stopped an attempt by a Kasnian researcher to use a gas to subdue several members of a royal family he wanted to murder. The gas itself was not deadly, but the potential was there. The source of the research funding for the project had been a mystery, even to the researcher. Although he would be the first to admit he only looked into it during his spare time, the Dark Knight had been bothered by how difficult it was to find the source of the funding. This new development, however, had given him the motivation he needed to move it up his priority list. Luthor was very smart, Batman said, but his arrogance occasionally made him sloppy.

"I understand that the group from Central City is involved because of what happened with Sally, who was also from Central City," Diana said. "I can link Weston if he was the one originally behind Sally getting powers. I understand that Luthor, for some reason, lifted Weston from the government agency where he was working and Luthor was financing. I even understand that Luthor is using the group from Central City to test Weston's results before he uses them either on himself or for other purposes. But I cannot think of an umbrella project that would contain both the gas and the metapower serum."

Batman looked at her. Diana was smart; there was no question about that. But sometimes she lacked the cynical edge to see connections.

"They both are weapons against metapowers," he said simply.

"But the government?" Diana asked. She seemed too stunned to even finish the question.

"There is a lot of power here," Batman answered. "And no external oversight."

"But we help people," Diana responded.

"For now," Batman said darkly.

"Don't start on this again," Superman said, annoyed. "I really don't want to listen to it."

Batman looked silently at Superman for a moment, but said nothing.

"How long do we have until the stolen blood is turned into a serum?" Green Lantern asked. The conversation that Batman and Superman were headed towards had been heard by all the Founders on several other occasions and they had found the only way to stop it from starting was to bring the conversation back to the topic.

"It depends on what Weston told Luthor," Batman answered smoothly. "Anywhere from two weeks to six months."

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Kyle Weston rubbed his eyes and sighed. He had a week until his deadline and he was confident that he would make it, but he really just wanted to sleep for about three days.

He was sitting in front of a small group of mouse cages. One small cage contained a single mouse. Two other, larger cages each contained six. Weston was staring at the lone mouse. He had just given it an injection of the latest batch of serum. There are been no changes in the mouse but he knew it was early to see something.

If you can get this mouse to fly, you can take the rest of the afternoon off, he thought.

Ten minutes later, it did just that. The mouse floated into the air and circled the cage several times before landing. What impressed Weston was that the mouse neither panicked nor hit anything while flying. The mouse looked like it had been flying for years.

Weston smiled and updated his lab notebook. He made sure that all the mice had ample food and water and then locked up the laboratory for the afternoon.

Fifteen minutes after he left, the strain on the flying mouse's system caused it to have a heart attack. It died instantly and with no pain.

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Meeting dismissed, Batman prepared to return to Gotham. He was on his way to the mailroom when Question approached him.

"Yes?" he asked, impatiently.

"Cadmus," Question said.

Batman stared at him for another moment in silence.

"The piece of the puzzle you are missing is called 'Cadmus,'" Question said and walked on.

Batman said nothing and continued to the mailroom. He recalled the reason why he spent such little time at the Watchtower – the League members.

There was a small white box waiting for him in his mailbox. He picked it up and immediately placed its generic label and look. He put it under his arm and continued on to the teleporter.

When, upon his return to the Batcave, he opened the package, he found the bit of hair. The tests he ran on it confirmed what he suspected – it was the hair that Trickster had cut from Diana's head. The note read "If you continue to pursue Kasnian research, we will have to take something more permanent."

If he was right – and although he hadn't proven anything, he was confident he was – it wasn't his looking into the Kasnian research that was bothering this group. It was that it was the clearest path back to them.

Hoping that his relationship with Wonder Woman would protect them from him was the stupidest thing they could have done.

You will not hurt her, he told his invisible foe and got to work.

Four hours later, Alfred Pennyworth entered the cave with some refreshments. He left the tray on a side table designed for that purpose and returned to the Manor without a word. He had seen that expression on Master Bruce before and it did not bode well for the object of his hunt.