Chapter 33
Lightning Fervor
Helltanz's Notes:
-Chapter begin-
The whole thing about Hermione going to talk to the Justice League had really brought the Order of the Pheonix further out of its depth in a way. It also further convinced Dumbledore that they really did need to do something more about what all was going on both with regards to insuring the prophecy, and looking at the wider world.
In the wake of the disturbance Voldemort was backpedalling as it was. There could be no denying it now though for all the ministry's crowing they had no part in it. It was old magic, foreign magic, and foreign wizards. "With Voldemort retreating and reinforcing his holdings we must consider now to be the time we must gather our strength." the headmaster urged, and in truth it was sensible advice.
More now than ever did Bill Weasley look tired, exhausted by recent months. After Anubis's invasion, which wizards could not ignore everyone had scrambled for answers to the sides involved. Every petty practitioner of divination had gone mad it had seemed in the aftermath. Dumbledore had doubled efforts to keep Utgard's keep hidden and safe from those who didn't know of it. Anubis had invaded Earth, and now experts on ancient Egypt were in great demand in the wizarding world. Demands were made especially by the ministry, and Gringotts too.
Mad Eye looked tired too, he'd warned that all of this was just the beginning. This chaos was just the precursor, he had been saying. Alastor was the 'order's secret weapon' in many ways as far as they knew he was the only one that could be depended on for accurate up to date, so to speak, information about the Aedra and Daedra. Together the two wizards were forming the basis of the Order's new research group that was being assembled.
"So I've compiled pretty much everything," Hermione announced, flipping through here scrapbook of newspaper clippings and notes, "The armor was apparently created by Hephaestus," And it was about then a number of people started dozing, because a lot of the technical details and historical anecdotes really were boring. "... So the Justice League seems to have retrieved the armor from Ares, but it was later lost, and then it showed, and now its missing again."
There some nods, but there was also some problems. Rather simply put the Justice League was rather obviously dominated by a distinctly American, and non magical, leadership. "Well that is rather interesting," Dumbledore remarked, "We should I think keep a watchful eye out for the artifact it would be very troublesome if Voldemort were able to seize control of it." He sighed looking, "Well I see Sirius is absentee again, still with Voldemort on the backpedal, we should certainly consider reaching out across the pond as it were. If we are to continue to take steps to minimize the success of the Death Eaters until we can set a final conclusion we will need to begin trying to better understand the situation at large."
Dancing around the issue a bit, but everyone knew that Moody openly refused to even consider looking for summoning rituals to unleash Sithis into the mortal world, defeating Voldemort or not. So naturally the next best idea was to go and find someone affiliated to ask for them.
Bill looked up, "I've got an expedition to the Sinai already," He rubbed his eyes, "on the books I think it might be a lead." Naturally Hermione was the first one to volunteer to go investigate possible alien ruins.
-scene break-
Luthor sat back still reading, work at Cadmus was both blessing and curse. In a way it had both nurtured and broken him of his grudge against superman. It was paradoxical like that, it was interesting. There was however one thing he didn't like, getting told what to do, much less by a bunch of men in cheap government suits. Still listening to them prattle on had given him an insight into just what was out there. Particularly about Captain Atom's report that had managed to get to Stargate command.
General Jones, and Lieutenant Wallace glanced at Luthor who was still peering down at the report that had had his attention. The report had occupied the genius's attention for most the meeting, "Luthor," Jones called out gruffly, "you still with us?" The white haired man asked, "you fixed the Ultimen of that degeneration thing yet." The aged world war II veteran asked, for about the dozenth time in the past week, "Sooner we have to stop replacing them,"
"Yes general I have the fixed the problem," Luthor grimaced. He really would have expected the old man, who was really only walking around in his normal form thanks expressly to Cadmus's super science, to be more concerned about the possibility of a Nazi colony somewhere out there in space, but he supposed it couldn't be helped. "The issue of the genetic degradation has been fixed," And the fix had been implemented on his pet project, codenamed Krypton.
Doctor Strange cleared his throat, "Yes the Ultimen are fine," He commented, a bit disdainfully, "There should be no further problems." This was primarily an in house meeting. Cadmus division members only, and primarily only their high ranking members and experts were here.
"So you say doctor," Waller remarked testily, "Percy thinks he might have in regarding the metahuman Static Shock, probably not a recruit, but if he does form a team then we have a potential ally to help with the midwest." The director paused, "While this is far from an ideal solution, for the moment it is potentially invaluable to our agenda." The message was rather clear don't fuck this up.
Strange ground his teeth a bit, "And what about the batman?" He demanded, "Sooner or later Wayne is going to be an issue."
"Wayne enterprise has a genius kryptonian that they snatched from Cadmus," Luthor admitted, Luthor never said us, when described the loss of Galatea, "It thus far hasn't been a problem," He conceded. There was a reason Emil Hamilton wasn't welcome during these debates, they were lucky so far that he hadn't run off half cocked to Gotham City and caused a scene, "We still have only limited evidence on the motivations of Alien Gods after all."
The psychiatrist continued to grind his teeth, "Wayne has arsenal, and is a member of the Justice League, and has in roads with SHIELD." The man continued on, "Couple that with his new wards and we are looking at possible."
"A dynasty?" Waller interrupted, "Funnily enough I can see Bruce Wayne putting a crown on, but he's not after a throne, besides the Director wants us to focus more on the Chinese Metahuman team."
There was a collective groan from the bulk of the assembled. It was one thing having to listen through domestic reports, but congress was growing increasingly worried about other national metahuman teams. As it happened they were saved by the bell. Or as the case was an emergency space contact warning siren. Something was on an approach to Earth.
"Thanagarian?" Waller double checked, "Mobilize the Ultimen, this might be an attempt at round two, with the same opening move," She stated, the ship was Gordanian, at least according to the data from the captured Thanagarian data after the invasion. Well this time they would be ready. As it was it looked like the ship was headed for a crash course on the west coast.
-scene break-
The long awaited meeting of the System lord. Cronus had made more gains than expected, but at the same time he'd also made his share of mistakes. The reports were already filtering in to the other system lords. Zeus was back, and he and Ares, who had resurfaced as well despite attempts were up to something.
Kali and Bastet were focusing on a series of defense increases just in case Cronsus did decide he was going to try and pull something. It didn't help of course that there was a rumor that they may or may not have been aiding Zeus in someway. These were rumors were further spread by alleged reports that elite soldiers masquerading as Tauri special forces had attacked from ships marked with the emblems of Nirti.
A clear example of a false flag operation by some ambitious Goa'uld. After all it was well known that the Tauri did not issue plasma weapons. Cronus had made his opinion that such deceptions were weak, and easily seen through, even as Kali and Bastet claimed their innocence in the matter.
Raiden didn't know what to think of such accusations. It had become readily clear in the months after Anubis fall that something had gone on. These reports of attacks seemed to match up with limited intelligence regarding attacks on Anubis's own troops who had been involved in that region of space. Still for all the bickering that marred the gathering it was true that some progress had been made. An agreement to requisition sample of anti kull warrior technology from the Tauri, according to the established rules of the System Lords had already been signed. Yu had promised to dispatch his prime minister to deliver the missive to the Tauri upon conclusion so the technology could be gathered and disseminated amongst the system lords per their laws.
Naturally the System Lords would each be making their own notifications to the Tauri about the technology as well. Heru'ur had affirmed as such as soon as Yu had presented his intention.
Baal's request to admission into the High Council had been neatly vetoed. No doubt Baal would attempt to bring the matter to a general vote later in the coming year after he had better consolidated his position. Cronus had also furiously denied Kali's appeal to readmit Shiva into the System Lords. Thus for the moment their numbers were sitting at their current numbers with no immediate plan for changes.
Yu rose from his chair, "It the consensus of the High Council," He announced, quieting the entire body, "Per entreatment by the Asgard that the crimes of Anubis merit the creation of an exclusionary zone around the Tauri and other protected planets. Only those forces who marshal in the name of the law will be permitted within this domain and that any other shall be considered to be rogues and villains, and subject to the justice of both the System Lords, and the Asgard. Those who would violate this may be freely hunted without repercussion, and may do so without mercy."
Baal nodded, he had originally feared that he would be relieved of his claim to Dakara, which both Sokar, Heru'ur, and Cronus had all made claims on. No doubt the three members of the high council simply could not agree to whom the world should pass too at the present. It was unlikely that they would reach a consensus any time soon.
-scene break-
Robin closed the protective lens, shutting the projector off. Bruce was busy with a dozen other things, but the League had at least made an appearance. The main thing they were concerned about was the spy they had caught and the alleged 'Martian' prisoners being held. It meant that he more or less was on his own.
Still he had the approval... the approval to form his own team. His team, he thought overlooking the bay. He was clear of Gotham too now, that was on the other side of the country. The league was finally had finally approved the formation of a team of young super heroes. He turned to his new teammates, "I have purchased the ownership of the island in the bay, we'll build our headquarters there," It was also where the alien space ship had crashed, which could be a problem. Or rather would be a problem if the military or Cadmus, or SHIELD tried to contest their hold.
Red Tornado came down to greet the younger heroes, "We have established our position a team of League Engineers," Wayne Industries Engineers really, "have landed and already have a plan to clear away the debris."
"Understood," Robin acknowledged to the android... already his computer was chirping about how Godfrey was already railing on about aliens attack, and battles on Earth. It was PR nightmare, the pundit never let an opportunity to complain about aliens on earth get by him. It was also always aliens, which might have been a good thing. The newscaster certainly didn't care about humans with superpowers, even mutants or such.
Red Tornado seemed to be getting the same reports, "Godfrey will not allow this opportunity to pass him by, and we still have limited information about the Gordanians on whether this will be the end of it." He added. "The League Council will convene at the earliest opportunity to address the matter, until then we must consider avoiding a confrontation with army elements."
"I don't think the army is going to be the problem,"
Tornado paused as his head moved slightly, "It would seem that General Ross has already mobilized forces enroute, it would further seem that indeed the air force may be our initial point of contact." That had the potential to be a problem, negotiations with the National Guard would have probably been a whole lot easier. "He appears to want to speak to the League Representative in charge."
General Thadeus Ross was a part of the Air Force. In fact according to plans he was on a short list to begin transfer to either command of a terrestrial 302 Wing Base, or possibly even a position to a key offworld Air Force Base. He'd only recently been briefed on these potential openings as well.
He hadn't even given the likes of the Gordanians a second thought since the Thanagarian invasion, but the prospect of the scientific knowledge gained by getting the US a downed alien ship. All they'd need to do was get the League to back off, and seal the hull breaches, they might even be able to make it fly again.
-scene break-
His journey to Tokyo had not been planned with the thought of him to be involved in this kind of issue, "Not that I am questioning you master, but is this such a wise idea?" inquired the Shredder.
Approximately four stories below the system lord and the leader of the foot ninja, Karai and Kayura were engaging five youths in magical Samurai armor. The shredder's adopted daughter took the initiative her two katanas emitting burst of light. This abrupt counter attack caused them, the five Ronin, to scatter.
Raiden had hardly expect such a lax display from Talpa, but at the same time presented the rare opportunity to witness the constant thorns in Talpa's side in action. It was hardly an amusing show. The ronin drove forward focusing nearly entirely on raw power, and surely should not have been a match for Talpa's retainers. "Tell them we are leaving I have other matters to attend to. The Ronin are to be left alive." This issue was Talpa's responsibility, sending the Shredder into the fray risked discord amongst the harmonious balance of his domain.
It was the abrupt withdrawal of their foes that left the five armor bearers concerned with the situation. "So what just happened? Did we just get blown off?" Kento demanded looking around for their enemy.
"I think we should consult with John Stewart," His teammate stated looking around, they'd never had something like this happened. Talpa had always sent the warlords to waylay them if he felt the need to distract them, and this time there had been no sign of any of the warlords.
Japan had dodged in full conflict with Anubis's forces during the invasion. In fact the last set of invaders had been the Thanagarians nearly two years prior, which was more than most major countries could say. It had also lead to a bit more laxing of the guard, in part also due to Talpa relaxing his movements in response to the seemingly annual innudation of alien invaders. Talpa had even gone so far as to admit he considered external enemies to be a more pressing concern than the feuding between himself, and them.
Ryo produced the League issued communicator, which the team used primarily to speak with the Green Lantern John Stewart.
"Uh guys," the voice of the League member crackled a bit, "Kind of in a League Council meeting," John admitted over the line, before going on to admit that if they needed the help he could approve some reinforcements, potentially even Hal Jordan, or Gardner, two of the other two Green Lanterns from Earth.
"That was a bust," Ryo admitted after they finished the discussion over the comm. From the way the conversation had gone Batman had probably been glaring at the Green Lantern to get off the phone, metaphorically speaking.
Sage considered the situation objectively, "Talpa may not be the only problem we have to face now." It was highly possible that Talpa might have allies of his own, and that the other two figures who had been with him could be those allies, "I think tomorrow we need to look into everything that happened," Starting with their enemies's emblems, if nothing else who could hint at their powers.
– scene break-
It had taken Stargate Command nearly an hour to cordon off the site. Dealing with the Justice League had also been a problem, and in a surprise so had dealing with the local national guard units. Still in the end the main Gordanian ship had been fished out of the drink, hoisted up with anti gravity technology that had been salvaged from the Thanagarians, and moved further in land.
So here they were listening to the same old complaints, by the usual suspects. Kinsey had been trying to rally support for this, right now it just wasn't politically tenable, "I am telling you we must reveal the existence of the stargate. This latest disaster is a major breach of national security," He growled.
Jack, newly promoted to Brigadier General following Hammond's promotion as interim head of the Orbital Defense, sat back in his chair. Hammond's promotion had meant that he'd been formally relocated to Nevada, at least until a permanent Homeworld Defense command post could be established. There was already talk about simply repurposing stargate command for that, and moving the gate.
For now though everyone was here in DC, effectively twiddling their thumbs as Kinsey ranted. It wasn't like the man wasn't actually bringing up the occassional valid point, it just wasn't feasible. "Jack I understand the System Lords have dropped by."
"Yes mister President, we received notorization from Yu of the new version of the protected planets treaty," Along with the formal requisition for their anti kull technology citing some weird goa'uld law. Thor had said it wasn't a big deal, so they'd notorized that they'd handed the technology to the Asgard who would disseminate it to the System Lords. Thor had said it was the best way to avoid political complications to the situation on the Earth end of things... O'neill doubted that.
The director of the NID looked up as if to say something, but the National Security Advisor beat him to speaking, "At present I think we should consider inviting NATO to assist in studying the Gordanian warship that was brought down in California,"
"It would certainly go a ways to getting the French off of our backs." At least it would for the time being, but given the present situation of the galaxy that would probably be for the best. "Also Thanagarian and Gordanian technology in fact might be just what we need on the issue of countering enemy air units,"
Another advisor nodded, "and if we invite them into a project with this it will give us breathing room with regards to press on with fleet construction." The loss of the Nimitz battlegroup nearly in full had allowed the clearance of a suitably massive naval bill related to spacce to pass through both the Senate and the House in record time. The relative success of the strategic services had also helped. So the quick passing of the bill had had two other upsides besidesa massive increase in funding, particularly towards R&D and shipbuilding, as the fast passage meant there had only been minimal pork spending slipped in and well the stimulation to the economy had created plenty of jobs both in construction and the defense sector. Then there came the bad news to hit stargate command, it was a navy bill the new ships were going to be under the Navy's command, as was a majority portion of the research budget granted under the bill.
"The new yards approved by the appropriations bill are already coming on line," Jumper announced, "the test bed ships are one thing, though with the new funding expansion we should be able to accelerate construction significantly." What that meant was that while they could churn out more ships, quickly they'd still be slowed because there were only so many yards.
-scene break-
It had been hard to see Robin decide to strike off on his own, but Alfred had known that it had been for the best. There had already been some simmering jealousy between the superpowered resident, and young Tim Drake. Grayson had taken things better, having become Nightwing several years earlier, but even he had some problems with the present residence of Wayne Manor.
"Yoh Bruce." Greeted the police commissioner's daughter coming down the elevator that lead from the mansion proper. "Hey Alfred,"
The butler nodded, "Hello Barbara." The Wayne heir greeted the college student, and batgirl, as he continued to review the data. This new change established a precedent for the League, which benefitted his overall plan for the League. As it was the Justice League needed to have robust response capability, and having more permanent teams assigned to regions would increase League efficiency overall.
"So then Drake has his own team." She commented a hint of curiosity to her voice. "That leaves Gotham without a Robin," Barbara commented unnecessarily. The only response was a grunt of affirmation from Bruce. "So with Drake getting his own team I was wondering when I get to join the league?" she inquired.
Bruce tapped a key he had been expecting a confrontation like this, in fact most the league had. There was further discussion of creating under Nightwing as well, but a membership roster had yet to be developed. "The League Council has altered membership requirements for full membership, when you graduate college," He added, and then tapped another key highlighting regions on the map. "Robin's team is going to be the first of many, the League is going to expand." It was definitive fact. It was also very likely that everyone else would be trying to do the same.
"So thats why Speedy throwing his little temper tantrum on the Watchtower?" Green Arrow's sidekick like Supergirl was considered officially a junior member of the Justice League.
Under the new categories they wouldn't be eligible for full League Membership for sometime. "We're considering forming two younger teams in the near future," Bruce acknowledged, "Nightwing would be responsible for a central US based team, we're still evaluating potential team members."
"So the other team would be responsible for the East Coast?"
Batman nodded, in a singular gruff motion, "Or possibly on the Gulf of Mexico," This third junior team was in a way a political favor to Aquaman by giving one of his subordinates command of the team, either way it would probably end with Aqualad being in charge of a team somewhere in the Eastern US. "In any case the League reorganization is meant to allow us to better response to future crises."
"What about the new defense bill? I mean," Wayne Corp along with pretty much every other Mega Corporation in the United States was getting paid to start churning out construction projects for the US Defense, and then there were rearmament programs that were supposed to to better suit the national guard to defense during an alien invasion. Of course a lot of the latter was making sure new weapons, and vehicles were issued to the Guard units, and a lot of old guard vehicles, and weapons would be transferred to police armories in major cities.
"Wayne Industries, particularly our aerospace group is already working closely with SHIELD, and the US Armed forces."
-scene break-
So far there had been a lot of changes, and at the same time very little had changed in the day to day running of Stargate Command. The main change had been downsizing of Cheyenne mountain. Under the new orders the SGC was no longer intended to be used as combat or exploratory arm. The SGC's primary budget was now meant to be dedicated towards development of all offworld facilities, particularly offworld shipyards. As a part of this all anthropological research was being limited to worlds that had been contacted, and were considered minimal danger. It had been a pain to even get the scientists that much.
Jack leaned back in his desk, right now Hammond was over at Area 51 briefing NATO brass on the captured Gordanian ship. That had unsurprisingly caused the entire UN to flip tables, but then again a number of nations had done the same thing before. The most notable had been the Thanagarian invasion when every nation had for the most part ignored the UN and scrambled to gather up any available alien tech. "At least I don't have to deal with all the squabling over Naquadah, and the pieces in orbit," Jack remarked
Of course there had also been a serious outcry over the Anubis Invasion and the nukes in space, but that had been primarily NGOs talking as opposed to nations. People had seen the nuke grid, while an obvious violation of the 1967 Space treaty, that the US, and the other spacefaring countries, were withdrawing from anyway had been at least semi effective against alien capital ships en masse. The Naquadah issue was the other one, dominance of the gate and for the moment only FtL ships meant the US had sole access to the wonder material. Allegedly Russia was trying to back engineer a Thanagarian Hyperdrive, and would probably have a working prototype inside two years.
"Well we've gone through pretty much everything from the databases we do have access to," Daniel was saying, he was still going on about trying to find the lost city. At first they'd gotten off to a major false start by assuming that Atlantis on Earth was the actual ancient city, that had been a pain to explain to congress. "Anyway the problem is we've barely gotten anywhere with reconstructing the dreadnought's data systems, and then of course there is what we do know?"
The new head of the SGC groaned, and humored his former teammate, "Ok Daniel what is it that we do know about the lost city?"
"Well we know the Ancients fled the Milky Way, and from that we know that Atlantis is in another galaxy, and that it can only be dialed from Earth as a safety measure. It means we're looking at an eight chevron long address."
Jack nodded, "If I get you access to the ancient outpost we know is beneath Antartica do you think that will help?" The information from sensors, Asgard derived sensors, that had been told what to look for had picked them up. The information had been immediately classified eyes only because it risked scrambling for what was under the Antarctic ice. It hadn't been that hard to quietly increase presence since they'd been digging in that area since they'd discovered the second gate. "The Asgard think they can bring the ring system of the outpost back online, and we should be able to use a Prometheus class to get back and forth."
"That would mean tying one down," Daniel remarked, Congress wouldn't like, Ancient outpost or not.
-Chapter Conclusion-
Helltanz's Notes: