Veni, vidi, vici
- Gaius Augustus Caesar
X ¤ X
/Al-Qawiyah, in front of the Royal Palace
October 15, 00:44 Bialya Standard Time (UTC+03:30)/
"Yes, we were too late," Wonder Woman spoke quietly into her compact little black phone, and cast a disdainful glance at the floodlights, numerous wary eyes, and the many, many gun barrels aimed at her and the bio-ship behind her. "Miss Martian felt around for her for twenty minutes, scanned the entire palace grounds, and I gave her the green light to probe the General I just spoke to." An older gentleman who told her in no uncertain terms that they were not welcome, but hadn't had the balls to actually fire on them, and his brain itself had been forthcoming enough. "Queen Bee apparently went to a bunker beneath the palace right around the time of the attack." And the League now had a complete list of the Bialyan army's resources.
The brightly lit plaza was mostly empty, ringed with various sorts of armored vehicles, and the city beyond that metal ring was dark and remarkably silent. Diana's breath fogged in the chill air.
"She then informed her ministers that she would leave for a few days, and she hasn't been heard from since. Our guess over here is she boom tubed out to WaWo."
"Okay. Thanks for trying anyway," Bruce said from the other end of the connection, going through the bio-ship and directly into space. "Are you seeing anything suspicious?"
"Nothing beyond the usual for this place. Have you found out anything new up there?"
"We have a good idea what happened: Tungsten rods."
"Sounds familiar. Go on."
"There was no radiation detected in the winds or currents going from Infinity Islands past location, and after eliminating some impossibilities, we've agreed that orbital bombardment is the most likely option."
"Ah yes," She remembered now. It had such a catchy nickname after all: "Rods from the Gods." Like Zeus' own lightning bolts. "I didn't know anyone had put such satellites in orbit."
"No one has."
The pieces almost fell into place by themselves. "What are the chances that she can fly that high, and that fast?"
"We've designated 'her' as codename Hell's Angel, for now, and whoever dropped that tungsten as codename Starfall."
Diana smiled. "I'm surprised you went along with those."
"The alternative was Candle Snuffer. Sometimes I worry about Robin." It took some listening, but she could hear the tiny smile in his voice, even if he was wearing his typical poker face up there, far above the planet. They'd see which supervillain name stuck, in the end. "And as for chances, anything's possible."
"But for someone with that kind of power, who's known where and how to execute these attacks, to never have registered on our radar?" Diana found the scenario unlikely.
"Could be a metahuman working for another party, rival organisations, governments. It could be many things... Excuse me, something's happening." The line went dead.
/The Watchtower,
October 14, 17:15 EDT/
There was a flash preceding the emergence of a gateway of light with impossible depths within, and two seconds after it had opened, every man, woman and robot in the observation room had taken cover behind thoughtfully blast proof furniture and particularly sturdy colleagues. The alarm activated by itself when the Watchtower's sensors detected the space-anomaly. And from the other side of the boom tube shot a small rectangular item, which Red Tornado registered before it had finished its trajectory as a Father Box, with a note tied onto it with small pink bow.
Then Green Arrow shot it out of the air with an explosive arrow.
Father Boxes, being as expensive as they were, however, had been designed to survive a few knocks. The explosion merely sent the Father Box sailing back into the closing boom tube, and both disappeared without a trace.
With the danger apparently averted, everyone relaxed, except for Red Tornado who didn't have nerves. "I think that might have been a mistake," the AI said.
"It's what we're supposed to do, standard procedure for unindentified objects delivered by boom tube," Green Arrow defended, paraphrasing the Justice League Handbook on Tactics, Press and Legal Powers. Said book did indeed advice returning suspicious or unidentified object delivered by unannounced boom tube back into the portal, though Oliver had been trying to destroy the object and simply got lucky.
Meanwhile, in the conference room two floors above, Black Canary was still covering on the floor behind her chair, holding her breath, while Superman double-checked an identical Father Box lying on the big table, amid scattered papers, laptops and various beverages. "No explosives or toxins that I can detect," her second-in-command declared. That or course was no guarantee of security, Father Boxes being powerful teleportative devices that they were; The thing could be programmed to open a hole into deep space at any time, so Dinah stood up and wisely gathered her stuff.
"I'll be in my office. Get a drone to move that thing outside." She put a finger to the small headset wrapped around her left ear. "The is Black Canary to everyone in the Watchtower. Sweep the tower for breaches, every level and each toilet pipe. This is not a drill."
Batman was coming the other way as she walked through along the third-floor corridor, blithely ignoring her orders. "What happened?"
"A boom tube just spat out a Father Box while Kal and I were catching up on paperwork," Dinah replied, still broadcasting across the Watchtower frequency.
"There was one in the observation room too, but G. Arrow sent it back," reported Black Lightning over the channel. Batman was now walking besides Dinah to her office.
"The Light must have sent them. Something has happened again," the detective deduced.
"Father Box One is out," followed Superman's voice. "There's a note on it. I can read it from here."
She'd reached her office. "Open sesam," Canary said to the solid metal door while a laser scanned her in the eye from the side. It still worried Canary about her eyesight, but it meant that she didn't have to unload her stuff on Batman or have him open the door for her. Unfortunately. The room inside looked much like any typical office, if in the high-ranking end with its comfortable size, black leather furnishings, neo-steel and voice-activated filling cabinets. Outside the broad windows, a solitary bomb-disposal drone floated by, away from the Watchtower with the Father Box clutched in one claw-like hand. The coffee, tablet, papers and stationary was quickly arranged on her desk with the same orderly neatness that characterized the rest of the office, and with pen on hand she put the other one to the ear-set. "Okay, Kal, go ahead."
The unlocked door opened and Superman stepped inside, looking past the other two into space. "`This is a prepared statement, written on the 14th of October, at 11:34 Coordinated Universal Time,´" he started, speaking calmly and detachedly, divorcing himself from the author of the letter. "`- which will be automatically delivered to the center of operations of the Justice League in the contingency of my disconnection from the Warworld. If you are reading this, I am most likely dead.
"`This morning, Luthor was removed from his residence by an individual we have still yet to identify. Naturally, we had prepared several responses for such eventualities. We did not expect the target to exit this dimension, but we had a planned for such emergencies´."
Dinah lifted a single, blonde eyebrow. Interdimensional and super-atmospheric capabilities, plus the ability to use them effectively; it added up to a planetary scale threat. Batman seemed very absorbed with his wrist-mounted holo-computer, scrolling rapidly through lists of names and locations.
"`Twenty-one seconds after exit, Luthor's signal disappeared at 41°21'51.73" north, 72°08'22.86" west, 23,1 meters above sea level: a currently vacant appartment. Closer inspection revealed the after-effects of a brief interdimensional anomaly. The response team on the site was shortly thereafter joined by Clarion for interdimensional pursuit.´"
Dinah had to try, even if she was pretty sure it wouldn't fly. "Can Doctor Fate trace this?"
"Not after eleven hours," said Batman.
Superman continued. "`Five minutes and fifty-five seconds after exit, the response team stepped into another universe. They have yet to return, and with no claims of responsibility made, are assumed dead. L-7, Clarion; operative, Deathstroke; operative Tommy Terror, operative, Tuppence Terror; operative, Killer Cold, as well as L-3, Lex Luthor.
"`If my predictions of more attacks to come is correct, and if such attacks are as succesful as this one, I shall have to congratulate this enemy. Which I estimate a sixty-five percent chance of being you. Well done, my noble enemy, I am glad to have been part of facilitating a stronger Justice League. I leave you these Father Boxes, along with the coordinates to your price and inheritance, the Warworld. No other person or organisation do I trust with this weapon. Use it prudently, and make Earth strong.
"`In the event that our attacker is not you, I urge you to learn from them.
"`Only power can negotiate.
"`With the best of wishes, The Brain.´"
At least he wasn't a hypocrite, Canary thought to herself. Or rather, 'hadn't been', if rumors of his demise really were true.
Batman opened his mouth to speak, but Superman lifted a hand, signalling that the letter wasn't done yet: "`PS: 15:14 UTC. Orbital bombardment. How spectacular. And uncharacteristically direct. You've always tried to be elegant in your modus operandi, infiltrating and trapping. I am revising my earlier estimate to fifty percent chance. How I wish I could speak to you without compromising our position.´"
As Superman finished speaking, and didn't look like there was any more left, Batman said harshly: "From what we've known, and now this letter, it's likely that Brain was on the Warworld. If he is dead, then so are Savage and Bee. All of the Light might be dead."
"Probably," Dinah amended, going by her own gut feeling. Screw `woman's intuition´. "Maybe. It's too convenient. Has everyone been accounted for?"
"No," replied Batman. "Every single member of the League and the Team have been on Earth or in the Watchtower since this morning. Except Atom. I can't find him." With the redundant tracking systems, including the freaking buddy system, that Batman had included in this temporary self-surveilance, the only way anyone in the League or Team could have been behind this as far as Dinah knew... She carefully did not look at anyone as she considered her options.
Well, if she couldn't safely check with Superman standing right there, she guessed her efforts didn't really matter. So Dinah opened one of her table drawers, found a single, old-fashioned cellphone and pressed a speed-dial.
She didn't put the phone to her ear, and nothing seemed to happen for the first few seconds. Then Atom seemingly jumped out of thin air, from Batman's direction. Landing on his feet, Atom carefully did not look at the man standing behind him. "He's clean."
"Hm," was all Batman added to that, not seeming to mind having been invaded by the microscopic man. If anything, the chairwoman of the League would guess that he approved.
"Alright, this wasn't us. The Light may or may not be dead, and we may or may not have the Warworld now, depending on whether or not this is all an elaborate ruse on their part." Eyes turned to the window behind her, where the tracked little remote-controlled robots was still slowly sailing away. Dinah steepled her hands under her chin, elbows on table. "Flash notified me earlier that he'd identified one of the bits Arthur located as a positive DNA match for Ghul."
No one said anything. It was far from conclusive evidence. And that they had that much was only possible thanks to Flash's super speed: It took long enough just to profile a singe DNA-sample. The speedster had gone through hundreds in the past one-and-a-half hours.
"And the Lazarus Pit?" asked Atom. Last they heard, neither Aquaman or his sharks could detect any leak of the Pits' strange liquid into the water. Which was strange, because such an explosion should hardly have collapsed the pit so perfectly.
"He still hasn't called me." And no news were no results. The investigative team of Atlantean detectives, archeologists and chemists were still working diligently at Infinity Island's remains, no doubt.
Dinah closed her eyes. If there was any chance that this was all real, then Earth couldn't afford to let the Warworld into the wrong hands. Which meant pretty much anyone. She was tempted to ask Batman how sure he was about The Light's deaths, again, but managed to stop herself. "We have to know with 100 percent certainty. We'll send the drone to scout through the boom tube, see if Brain was telling the truth. Atom, call everyone available back to base. Batman, put another round of coffee over. And Superman, guard the Father Box. I'll contact the press team." Hopefully those guys could put together something to avert the approaching shitstorm and suspicions, not to mention the political ramifications if the League had indeed been given the keys to the armed moon.
The men - her men? - nodded and left the office. Except Superman. He stood a little to the side, looking out at space. His face had taken a harder aspect when the others left.
"What is it," Dinah asked against her better judgment. She had a bad feeling about this.
"The Brain's letter out there is laser printed. My guess is that he was dictating to a computer somewhere, and had it set to print if he disconnected." Superman switched over to that detached reading tone: "`PPS: 17:13 UTC. Merde. Beast Bo.´"
/Murzuq Desert,
October 14, 19:29 EDT, October 15, 00:29 Local Time/
Green Lantern, Hal, had moved the drone and Box down here, into a shallow bowl between dunes that overtook the horizon all around like flowing hills. The stars hung thick in the sky, undiluted by human civilization's own light, and the moon cast its twilight down on a lonesome, short robotic figure, simply connected by two hundred meters of rolled-up cable to a antennae-adorned relay stationed.
Several kilometers further south, a table had been set up, with all the monitors, boxes, wires and more antennas necessary to operate the robot from this distance and observe the results from five different directions and distances. Several people huddled together warmth and a view of the flat panel screens, the most interesting currently being the drone's own first person view of the Father Box, resting in the multi-digited appendage Red Tornado had attached ten minutes ago.
"This is team Delta, in position," sounded Icon's voice across the com-channel set up here just for tonight.
Canary took a moment to run over her mental checklist. Every precaution seemed in place, from the back-up teams in the Watchtower, monitoring from there, to the Libyian prime minister's signed and classified permission for `hazardous testing´. The area had been checked for stray desert wanderers (finding nothing but lizards) and was uninhabited for miles and miles around. Everything seemed in order. "Attention, everyone. Be ready for anything. Operation Toothpaste is go."
She tried to keep the names of secret operations bland. It helped that the secrecy meant she wouldn't have to mention the name in any condolence letters.
"Activation of the Father Box in 10... 9... 8..." Green Lantern, John, started counting, sitting with controller in hand right before the drone's multiple camera feeds. Behind him, Canary, Green Arrow, Hawkman, Zatanna, Doctor Fate and Flash waited, all but the Lord of Order wearing winter jackets.
"3... 2... 1... Activated."
The boom tube exploded into existence before the drone's frontal camera. And stayed there. For five seconds.
Ten seconds.
Nothing happened.
"Deactivating in 5... 4..."
The boom tube disappeared into itself again without complication.
"Now scanning," declared John, activating the drone's multiple sensor arrays.
"Scan one," relayed Canary across the channel. The Magicians behind her went to work with their spells and crystal ball. One by one, they, Superman, Martian Manhunter, Beast Boy and Blue Beetle each checked back, reporting nothing suspicious. It was a slow and tedious affair, and Canary found herself discretely looking over the superheroes around her.
She knew Oliver, standing at her right. He would have talked to her if he was going to join a conspiracy to kill the Light. But besides him? John, Katar, Nabu, Zatanna, Barry... who could she trust, if she couldn't trust Batman?
Certainly not the rest of the Bat Clan. Atom. The Martians and the Wonders - Wonder Woman had always been a warrior princess, even if she was too tall to be 'Hell's Angel'. Even not-so-little-anymore Billy had been close to crossing the bloody line when Black Adam facilitated his first transformation. And Beast Boy. Even for revenge on Bee, Canary had trouble imagining that one. He was just not the type.
What she was left with counted Superman, Green Arrow, and Static, if only because the last one was still so new to the League that no conspirators could know him well enough to trust him themselves.
In the frontal drone camera feed, and on every satellite feed, the boom tube bloomed back into existence, and with a giant green hand from Hal, the treaded drone was deposited inside the dizzying, rotating tunnel and began to drive forward on John's command.
In the distance, a darkness appeared at the end of the glowing tunnel, slowly coming closer. As the drone arrived at it, falling out of the tunnel and landing hard on the floor, then righting itself with its arms, the light from the Tube's exit end illuminated enough of the floor that Hawkman could confidently confirm: "It looks like the warworld."
The drone's own equipped lights turned on, and revealed a big, circular metallic room occupied by house-sized, orange-glowing, alien machinery. And in the center of it, suspended in a short pillar of yellow light, a twisted crystaline shard they had all seen before.
"The key chamber."
"Can we grab the key from here?" asked Canary.
Hal Jordan could. With a long green arm, a few directions from John, and a hundred meters between him and the boom tube, the Green Lantern reached through the hole in space, grabbed the crystal hardware and deposited it in another big bowl of sand for a sextuple safety check. Which it passed, even being positively identified as the real deal.
"Could the Light have made a copy?" asked Green Arrow.
Who knew? If they had, they would have changed the `keyhole´ so the League couldn't use this otherwise incredibly valuable item against them. Or it could be Brain's attempted proof of veracity. There were too many possibilities, and they were taking too much time. Canary decided she was done pussyfooting around.
"Katar, fly me over, I'm going in," she said, stepping toward Hawkman. "If I don't come back, I'm turning the chairmanship-"
"-leadership-" corrected Wonder Woman in Dinah's ear.
"- over to Superman."
"Uh, Canary, Superman's not an option. He just went in," informed Hal from his place in the sky.
She stopped short. Fuck.
Well, he did have a better chance of getting back alive if this was trap. But he would also a much greater loss. And it was her responsibility as leader, dammit. Dinah resignedly turned back to the monitors, the interior of the key chamber, and the swirling vortex of golden light below the dunes.
At least she could trust Kal. Probably.
He came back out, after only eighteen tense minutes. "It's the warworld," he confirmed over the radio. "And they're dead."