Author's Note: For those of you that are wondering, I will work other JLU members into future chapters. I will also reveal some of David's personal history in the near future too.
Resurrecting the Red
Chapter 4: Investigating Luthor
"Does he ALWAYS sleep this much?" David asked. Through a twist of fate, he had ended with Max and Terry as partners in chemistry lab.
"He works late nights," Max answered. Terry grumbled in response, but said nothing. He had a really bad headache.
"Doing what?" David asked curiously.
"Running errands for Bruce Wayne," she said. Terry muttered incoherently again as he pretended to read the instructions. The last thing he needed was for Travinsky to catch him sleeping and send another demerit file home to his mom.
"By the way Ter," Max said slyly, "We saw Batman last night." Terry lifted an eyebrow.
"Oh yeah?" he asked. "Where at?"
"At the VR Room downtown. David and I ran into each other there," she said. Terry yawned as he looked at the red head.
"What'd you think of Batman Kae?" he asked. The red head grinned as he placed three chemical tubes in front of them.
"He seemed pretty cool. That guy he was fighting was weird though," he answered. David paused at the smirk on Delinquent's face.
"What?" he asked.
"Nothing," Terry answered. "I'm just agreeing. Batman IS pretty cool."
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Bruce set down the phone and stared thoughtfully at the computer screen in front of him. What was Alexandra Luthor up to now? That woman was definitely Lex's daughter.
According to Kent, Luthor had met recently with a couple of French nationals to discuss some new business contract. Clark had said he'd look into it more.
Bruce had also tried to track Debray. Terry had managed to place a tracer on the man, but Bruce had lost the signal a few hours ago. Not only that, but the old man couldn't help but wonder at what Debray had been looking at. Terry said that he'd seen the word 'Cadmus'.
Cadmus. Why was there even a file on Cadmus in one of HIS research facilities? Debray had broken into the main Wayne-Powers research facility. Derek Powers must have been up to something, perhaps both he and Luthor.
Hmph, Luthor. He supposed that Terry would have to deal with one eventually. Unfortunately, this Luthor was just as ruthless as her late father.
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"Just HOW much can you eat?" Terry asked in surprise. David reddened slightly in embarrassment. He'd fully intended to eat lunch outside in his usual place, but Max had forcefully drug him inside to join the others.
Now he was sitting with Max, Delinquent, Dana Tan, and a few other people he didn't know.
"Yeah," David shot back. "Well just how much can YOU sleep?" Delinquent blinked in surprise before giving a wry smile. Red Hair didn't back down from a challenge. He respected that. Max leaned forward to inspect the two empty chips bags in front of him. And the missing sandwich. And the three candy bar wrappers.
"And yet he doesn't get fat," Dana observed. David blushed a little before protesting.
"Hey! I'm a growing boy, okay?" He downed a second bottle of Pepsi before the gaping eyes of the females at his table. Terry and another guy laughed. The other guy, David guessed that he must be a basketball player, slapped his leg as he chuckled in admiration.
"You must have one heck of a metabolism!" he laughed. David grinned slightly as he pushed down the impulse to eat the other two sandwiches in his bag. He decided to eat them later when no one was watching.
The last thing he wanted was for people to think he was a freak.
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Terry idly twirled his pen as Mrs. Lenfesty continued her lecture on the "Great" battle between Achilles and Hector.
Who really cared about Achilles and Hector anyway?
Apparently Red Hair did. He seemed to know the answer to every question that Lenfesty threw his way. Terry stared tiredly down at the open book in front of him. He wondered if Bruce had made any headway yet. He was still mightily pissed at being beaten by a stupid cybernetically enhanced French guy.
Speaking of that, what the hell had happened last night? Terry hadn't seen anything, as he had been too preoccupied with Debray. It had also been dark, so that hadn't helped either. One second, Debray had been sucking all the energy from his suit, and the next second...
All Max had seen was a green blur, and maybe not even that. She had admitted that even with the street lights, it had been dark. So no luck there.
Bruce had sure raised one heck of an eyebrow though when he told him about it. The old man had said nothing more though, except, of course, to berate him for not bringing the twisted metal pipe in. Terry had apologized, but really, he berated himself too. He'd been so tired that he hadn't thought of bringing the piece of metal in. There might have been a clue on it.
Of course, it was gone by now.
"Mr. McGinnis."
Terry looked up to see that Lenfesty was towering over him. The pink cardigan over her shirt and the horrific pink shoes made him shudder. Pink was definitely NOT her color.
"Mr. McGinnis, please read lines 762 to 782," she commanded. Okay, that wasn't so bad. He didn't have to think too hard to read a few lines.
"Then give me your interpretation in your own words," she said.
Damn it.
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A bored David idly drew cartoons into the side of his notes as Delinquent began to read. Damn, this was too easy. He'd already read the Illiad twice before. The third time was a little much. Not only that, but everything was going too slow for him.
"Hector, I cannot forget. Talk not to me of bargains," McGinnis read. David mouthed the words silently as Delinquent continued. "Lions and men make no truce, wolves and lambs have no friendship-they hate each other forever..."
Arrggh! This was going much too slow! David fidgeted and tapped his foot rapidly. Then he forced himself to stop when he realized that his rapidly accelerating foot was burning a hole in the carpet.
Oops.
Hopefully no one would notice it for a while.
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"Anything new?" Terry asked. He yawned as he walked up next to Bruce's chair. Something seemed to be missing, oh yeah. The dog.
"Where's Ace?" he asked.
"In a moment," Bruce answered. "But first, take a look at this." He opened an email from Clark. "Apparently Ms. Luthor has been rather busy. She met with two of Debray's former employers last week. Clark says she has another meeting scheduled with one of them tomorrow. He said he'll see if he can listen in on it."
"You make it sound easy," Terry said.
"You're right. I doubt that Clark learns anything of value...if he even hears anything at all. Luthor's smart, she won't release sensitive information if there's a possibility that Kryptonian ears can overhear. Lex trained her well."
Terry studied the message from Clark for a second before pulling the Batsuit out of his bag.
"So where do you want me to start?" he asked. "And where's Ace?" A flash of amusement passed briefly through the old man's blue eyes as he picked something off the floor next to him.
"Before you go on patrol tonight, I have a special assignment for you," Bruce said. "And you won't even need your suit."
"Yeah, what?" Terry asked. Bruce handed him a plastic bottle containing a thick amber colored solution.
"Ace needs a bath."
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David studied the old photographs in front of him. He didn't have much, but they were better than nothing.
He especially liked the picture of his mom where she was wearing the Flash costume. She was standing next to his dad and one of the Green Lanterns. It wasn't John Stewart, but he was a human. David had no idea what his real name was. (Look in Author's note below.)
The teenager took out another photo. This one had his grandfather, the Green Arrow, and the Black Canary. They were posing in front of some fountain. He wasn't exactly sure where they were because all it said on the back of the photo was 'Scotland, 2006.' David wondered who it was that had taken the photo.
He supposed he'd never find out.
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Terry and the dog glared at each other. How the hell Ace had managed to get completely covered in mud and burrs was beyond him. No wonder Bruce wouldn't let him inside. After a not so brief battle of wills, Terry had finally managed to get the mutt cleaned.
Getting him dry however was another matter.
Terry held out a hair dryer and pointed first at the dog, then himself.
"You sit, me dry," he commanded.
Ace shook himself off and ran in the other direction. A wet Terry shook his fist as he attempted to wipe the wet dog fur off his clothes.
"ACE!"
He had a feeling that the old man was getting some kind of twisted amusement out of this. Now he was going to have to take a shower.
After he caught Ace that is.
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The red haired woman tapped her forefinger thoughtfully against her chin. Her long hair was curled tightly behind her head in an elegant bun as jade green jewelry adorned her ears and neck. An expensive black business suit covered her lithe figure. Pointed high heeled boots pushed away from the desk as she stood up.
Sharp blue eyes narrowed at the small, black object in her hands. It was bat shaped and used to have a tiny computer chip inside of it. It had since been removed.
She picked up her cell phone as she walked to a nearby window and stared out. The business woman knew it had only been a matter of time before she began to draw inquiring eyes. A soft click reached her ear as the person on the other end picked up.
"This is Alexandra Luthor," the business woman said. "What we discussed earlier, get it done."
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Author's note: The Green Lantern in the photo is Kyle Rayner. He's never appeared (to my knowledge) in the JLU cartoon, but he's the newest Green Lantern in the DC comics. He's the fifth Lantern after Alan Scott, Hal Jordan, John Stewart, and Guy Gardner.