Spark of Genius
Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy verse, Girl Genius verse, DC comics or any of the other smatterings of pop culture and literary ideas that I refer to in my story, I just tread through a few other sandboxes. Oh, and several names are made up, some are real, but the facts have been changed to protect the corrupt and innocent equally.
AN: I'm a bit behind schedule on the postings that I wanted to make, but I didn't expect my Beta to disappear. No harm no foul. When we finally reconnected I told her that real life and school come first, and I meant/mean it. Hopefully we can get back to a regular weekly posting schedule when she gets done with midterms. With that said, thanks for the reviews and thoughts, though I notice that thousands of people read the story yet so few actually review. I really do write more and faster when I get reviews. So if you want more chapters, and you want them faster, you know what to do.
'Thought'
"Speech"
Chapter 22: It's Not Paranoia If They Really Are Out To Get You
"I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In Morse code."
-Emo Phillips
The city of Sighişoara Transylvania had been a relatively small city before Xander forced Dracula's castle to once again appear on the mountains above the town. With a population of only around thirty thousand, Sighişoara was known for being one of the last remaining inhabited medieval fortress cities in Eastern Europe; with a good chunk of the population living inside the old medieval fortifications. With the reappearance of the gothic castle and the triumph of the Leviathan, the city had grown in leaps and bounds.
Castle Bob sat on the heights, dug into the peak of the mountain and seeming to precariously jut out into the air. Half of the black castle was housed on solid ground and the other half stuck out off of the edge of the mountain and was unsupported by anything but the air beneath it. Whereas Castle Dracula had been a dark eerie gothic monstrosity of stone, wood, and iron, Castle Bob kept that dark gothic look yet was an amalgamation of both modern technology and gothic architecture. Gone were the pointy towers of rough jagged cut stone, gone was the drawbridge of wood and iron binding, here to stay was a gleaming dark metal solid megalithic construct with only remnant of the previous ancient castle being a square medieval tower like projection that ran the length of the center of the building. Though the pointy towers were gone the building hadn't lost any of its gothic and dark feeling to it as the metal of the building seemed to absorb the light. The sides of the mechanical fortress were lined with rows upon rows of seemingly carved or molded tall metal statuary; gargoyle like figures in the shapes of clanks, monsters, and there were even statutes of armored Jäger in their Mark VIII or Dark Trooper armor along with the different types of Mechs that made up military of the Leviathan. The statutes stood stacked row upon row, seeming to differentiate the many different floors that made up castle; a castle that span a mile in length and at least two thousand feet in height. The main body of the castle was a solid rectangular block in shape, but the seeming carved statutes on its outer walls seemed to add angles that caught the shadows and made visitors to the castle feel like they were being watched by hundreds of thousands of eyes as they approached the fortress; there was no courtyard, the castle was one solid building. On the top of the castle there stood a structure that looked like a watch tower a central keep or perhaps even the conning tower of an aircraft carrier. Like an upraised portion of smooth black metal, the surface of the central portion of the castle was mirror polished, and it made it impossible to tell if the structure was made out of one piece of metal or even if it was one giant obsidian glass window or block. The castle cast both a literal and figurative shadow over the town of Sighişoara that rested in the valley below the fortress.
One would think that the shadow of the castle would put a damper on the spirits of the people in the town below or that nobody would want to live near the home of the dictatorial Leviathan. However, as The Question was finding, the opposite was in fact the reality.
At first dressed in a business suit and tie, the Justice League's number one conspiracy theorist, resident crackpot, and Master of Disguise 'The Question' attempted to blend in with the population of Sighişoara. The city had seen a population boom. What had once been a sleepy medieval looking town, living in the past, was now a thriving sprawling metropolis with suburbs, a new large university, and all of the businesses that follow large flocks of people. Fortunately for Charles "Charlie" Victor Szasz, aka Vic Sage, aka The Question, his entrance to the city was assisted by the fact that so many new people were flooding into Sighişoara. This isn't to say that The Question was able to seamlessly blend in with the Romanian peoples, far from it actually, as even to the nut job that was The Question, the people of Romania were just plain weird.
The weirdness started when The Question, dressed in his suit, first wandered into a little café and out of the cold snowy weather that was present on that morning; February 3rd, 1999. Finding a corner table out of the way, Vic picked up the newspaper that happened to be lying abandoned on a nearby table, and then began to pretend to read. That's when he started to notice the weirdness.
The Question was able to clearly listen to the arguing duo at the table nearby.
"I'm telling you, the Dionysian model of life doesn't work! Sure the Leviathan has practically created a nouveau riche Utopian society where we can each do what we want and create what we want, but that doesn't mean that it is merely for the purposes of pleasure." The first debater stated in between bites of a pastry with a cherry jam filling.
"And I'm telling you that the Apollonian model of collectivism doesn't mean that we have to mindlessly create within an ordered methodology. It's my belief that the Leviathan would want us to be happy, we are children after all." The second debater stated, sipping her hot chocolate and kicking her legs back and forth under the chair; as the little girl in ponytail's legs didn't even touch the ground. The little boy across from her, the first person in the debate, merely stuck his tongue out at the young girl in rebuttal before going back to eat his pastry.
It was then that The Question realized that even though he was a Master of Disguise, with a capital 'M', it didn't mean he could perfectly blend in with this town. All around him, young children, teens, and adults were having scientific or academic debates or discussions that were just plain weird if not a bit scary.
Over in the opposite corner of the café were two teenage boys just being boys; meaning they were talking about cars, video games, and blowing things up. Only the discussion held by the two fourteen year old boys included such words as "anti-gravity hyper drive engine," "inertial negation," "mind to machine command module" and "possibility of going supernova if we used too much anti-matter."
A trio of teenage girls who cast sly looks at the two boys were talking about girly things, make-up, looks and shopping. The problem was that the conversation went something like this, "Have you seen the latest gene-transfusion cream that just came out from Queen C beauty products? It totally deactivates the gene that leads to an increase in acne vulgaris, and it even gives your hair a shine." One of the girls stated in English. The second responded in Romanian, but switched to French and then into English as she replied, "Absolutely. I'm also trying to get my boyfriend Jacob to start using that Oz Strength hair removal product. I just love to see his shiny muscular chest; none of that hairy werewolf look for me, no way." The second responded, at which point all three girls giggled.
The Question quickly tuned out the rest of the girls' conversation, for he realized that continued listening to the girls regarding teenage heart throbs would lead to possible insanity. Listening to girly conversations regarding team Jacob or some Edward guy would no doubt lead to madness, and The Question knew that he had to keep all of his brain cells intact if he was ever to truly prove that the ice cream industry was actually behind the assassination of President Kennedy and the true power behind the cancelation of the show 'Gilligan's Island.'
Listening to the different discussions throughout the café, the Question was stunned to hear the variety of subjects being discussed as well as the vast array of different languages being used in said discussions. So far he had heard conversations in English, Romanian, French, German, Russian, Latin, Klingon, Morse Code, and even one table who sounded like they were having a discussion in Ancient Egyptian and Sumerian.
Getting up and leaving the paper behind, The Question walked into the men's bathroom, and then exited two minutes later looking for all the world like a young college student with a backpack on his back and a textbook under his arm. Thus changed, Vic Sage left the café and wandered down the street.
Apparently the city of Sighişoara had woken up in the time that The Question had spent inside the Cafe, as upon entering the street The Question had to quickly dodge one robot that was pushing a baby stroller, one boy on a hovering skateboard, and out of the way of a pack of fearsome looking monsters. The group of monsters were all smiling as they chatted, sharp toothed smiles while wearing black military uniforms with their multicolored fur showing through here and there. The monsters were casually chatting back and forth as they walked down the street together as a pack.
"I'mz telzing you'z dats da only vey to make zey pie is wit da pepper, lots und lots of pepper." The first uniformed monster said to one of the others. Half of the group nodded along in agreement while the other half shook their heads in disagreement.
"Nopez, I'z don't like itz with da extra pepper. I likez da extra bludz inz my pie, maybez ezen a goodts blud sausage in da pie." One of the naysayer monsters replied while starting to salivate at the thought of pie.
The one who had originally said that he liked pepper in his pie stopped abruptly and swung to address the second. The Question watched as the monsters walking along behind all tumbled into each other at the sudden stop, before pushing away from each other and watching what was happening.
"I sayz pepper is bezt!" The first one said a bit angrily.
"Nopez, itz defeenitely da bludz, yummy blud." The second one stated while smacking his lips at the thought of extra blood or blood sausage in his pie.
The first one didn't even take the time to continue the debate; rather he jumped on the second one with a roar, hands around the second one's throat as they fell to the street in a flurry of blows. The remaining monsters all smiled, looked at each other, and then dived into the melee as easily as if they were diving into a swimming pool.
The Question was startled, looking to the left, and then the right, seeing if anybody was going to stop the fight, only to see the regular human citizens smile and shake their heads while mumbling things about "Jägers" while they stepped around the fight as if it was perfectly normal. Nobody cared that the fur was literally flying in the street, as one little girl who was skipping down the street played hop-scotch with the arms and legs of the thrashing pile of Jägermonsters before continuing in a straight line down the street.
"Hi grandpa Zenu!" A little boy of about four said as he walked by the struggling pile of biting, kicking, and eye gouging Jägers. To The Question's surprise, the pile of fighting monsters literally stopped fighting as if on cue; one of the monsters, whose fur was a light shade of blue and who currently had a pair of hands wrapped around his neck, responded.
Taking the leg out of his mouth which he had been biting, the Jäger replied, "Helloz der Zenu Junior, howz iz my grandson doingz tadvey?" The Jäger questioned, smiling with a big fanged smile at the little boy.
"I'm well grandpa. Have fun playing with your friends; mommy is taking me to the new zoo." The little boy said with a wave goodbye before attempting to drag his mother down the street by the hand.
"Bye Zenu, goodbyz Daughter." The Jäger stated, removing his hand from where it was giving another Jäger monster a wedgie and waving at his daughter who the little boy was attempting to drag away.
After watching the daughter wave back, the Jäger stated, "Nowz ver vas we?" With that, the Jäger looked at the leg that was before him, and took a large chomp on it with his sharp teeth.
A yowl of pain sounded from the pile of Jägers, and the fight was on again.
The Question slowly edged himself against the wall and tried to move himself down the street without drawing attention to himself. 'These people are crazy!' Vic thought to himself.
The Question spent the rest of the morning changing appearances in bathrooms of stores and surveying the town. He was amazed by what he saw. Robots everywhere, humans debating sciences and building death rays or weird contraptions, fruits and vegetables of literally every shape and size (including a watermelon as big as a car), and everywhere packs of monsters who would get into a fight at the drop of a hat.
'Jeese, mental note for the file, don't mess with a Jägermonster's hat!' The Question thought to himself as he saw blood flying from a fight between two Jägers who had a disagreement about whose hat was better; one had a hat with a pair of red socks on it, other one with a large white N and Y stenciled on it.
The Question had attempted to get into one of the medical clinics to see what was going on inside, but after seeing that the door to the clinic was protected by armored guards who took a blood sample of every person entering and leaving, he didn't think it was worth getting caught over. The morning had passed, and the afternoon was quickly passing by. The Question figured it was time to head for the castle, and hopefully some more answers into the identity and purpose of The Leviathan.
Meanwhile in the castle, Xander was given a bit of a rude, yet still welcome, awakening.
"OhMyGodXander! ! OhMyGodOhMyGodOhMyGod!" Was screamed at him, waking Xander up and causing him to jump out of bed and into a stance as if he was ready to fight.
Xander attempted to blink his eyes to try and figure out what was going on, when the voice added, "Good Lord Xander, please put some clothes on my boy, I don't want to see that." Clearly came Giles's voice.
Hearing Giles's voice caused Xander to look above the bed, and see a floating window with the head of Willow and Giles looking down at him as well as Tara and Dora who were naked in bed; Xander's two bedmates were holding a sheet up to their chests. While the girls were shielding their assets, Willow's face was so red that it was matching the color of her hair, and currently Giles was averting his eyes from Xander while rapidly polishing a pair of glasses.
Xander's brain finally caught up with what was going on, and in a flash, both literally and figuratively given that he was currently naked; Xander blurred across the room, put on a robe, and then zipped back to sit on the bed in between Tara and Dora.
"Um, good morning guys." Xander stated with his patented goofy grin.
"It's currently evening Xander, and what are you doing in bed with those two girls… on second thought I don't want to know." Giles started, only to realize what he was saying and then look away. A hand was seen to grab Giles's shoulder and pull him out of the picture. Jenny Calendar took Giles's place talking to Xander while Willow continued to be red in the face, mouth opening and closing like a fish as the redhead couldn't think of what to say.
"Good evening Xander." Jenny stated with a smile and a wink, giving Xander a bit of a blush at getting caught in bed by his teacher; well at least his former teacher.
"Hey there Ms. Calendar." Xander replied with a bit of an embarrassed wave, but then quirked his head as he spoke his thoughts, "Hmmm, so it's evening there, its morning here. Hey, how come you all didn't contact me when you promised me?" Xander questioned.
This question seemed to snap Willow out of her stupor, "We did contact you Xander, it's been a week since we last talked to you. And don't you think for a moment that I'm going to let you change the subject buster, see, determined face. What are you doing in bed with two naked girls?" Willow demanded while pointing her finger at Xander in a scolding manner.
Xander, having gained a bit of experience with girls and not the teenaged virgin that he had left Sunnydale as, smirked back at Willow. "Do you really want me to describe what I've been doing in bed with two naked girls?" He quipped back.
Willows reply was to "Eeep!" and turn red again, only to be pulled out of the picture and replaced by Buffy. "Xander, you better not be doing anything improper with those girls!" Buffy commanded with a bit of a growl.
Xander's smile slipped off his face for a second and he frowned at Buffy, "I don't see how it's any of your business what I do with girls Buffster, if I remember correctly, you turned down any rights to dictate my love life when you decided to only have eyes for the dead guy who is literally over ten times your age." Xander snapped back a bit.
Buffy was a bit speechless, since Xander had never really talked back to her before. Always before she had been the Slayer, and he had been the donut boy or sidekick. She was also stunned as she saw Xander seem to float off the bed while telling the two girls with him to go get dressed. The blonde and brunette in bed with Xander each gave him a kiss on the cheek before sliding out of bed together with the sheet wrapped around them; exiting the space that was visible via the spell.
Jenny Kalderish, aka Calendar, decided to interject to stop a potential spat and changed the subject, "Xander, what do you mean we didn't call you in a week? It's been exactly a week since we contacted you, it's even nighttime here yet you said it's morning there." Jenny ignored the fact that Xander seemed to be hovering several feet over the surface of the bed.
Xander stopped frowning as he floated back to the surface of the bed, and then he leaned back against the headboard while now sitting Indian style amongst the pillows at the head of the bed; his large white fluffy robe fully covered him.
Quirking his head to the side, Xander thought for a second before nodding to himself and then answering Jenny, "Well it appears that we have a bit of a time difference between the dimensions, and I'm not sure if it is even linear. It's been more than a couple of months here and its seven o'clock in the morning here in Romania." Xander explained, to which Jenny nodded her head in understanding, then hearing what he said about Romania, Jenny smiled and started to talk to him about her family living in Romania.
Xander and Jenny continued to talk about what was going on in the Sunnydale universe, and slowly but surely Buffy started adding in facts and discussing the latest big bad that they were facing as well as giving the Slayer report of Sunnydale night life. Willow came on while Buffy left, Buffy apologizing for her earlier comment and Xander doing the same to Buffy before she gave up her place. News was shared from both sides as the true caring that the Scoobies had for each other was thoroughly shown through the conversation. That's not to say that only the Scoobies shared information, Jenna Kalderish of clan Kalderish explained who she really was and why she was at the school to Xander before stating that she and Giles were dating, causing the Englishman to blush a shade that clashed a lot with his normal tweed clothing. Giles spoke with Xander at length regarding what was going on in the DC universe with Xander, and Xander explained a bit about how he was surviving and in some ways thriving. Giles tried not to wince when Xander explained that he was now ruling a country, especially when Xander teased the G-man a bit about having nightmares about a country of Twinkie fanatics who constantly poked fun at the land of tweed. In turn, both Giles and Buffy spoke to Xander about having powers and possible training regimens to use to bring his powers fully under Xander's control.
It was a good conversation, even if it had started off with a bit of the unexpected, and both sides of the people speaking through the spell found a great deal of peace in being able to reconnect. It ended with Willow and Xander sharing how much they missed each other, and both parties told the others to stay safe.
With that last well wish stated, the spell ended with promises to call Xander again as soon as they could. That left Xander sitting in his room in Castle Bob looking out through the window that was across the room from his bed.
Watching the sun rise over the hills and mountains of Romania, Xander thought to himself, 'That was a nice beginning to what looks to be a very good day.'
With that, Xander got out of bed to get dressed and get his day started, only to get interrupted by a message from Bob the Castle.
"Sorry to disturb you Xander, but it seems that we have a captured an unexpected Visitor." The voice of Bob issued out of the walls around Xander.
Xander quickly grabbed his black Leviathan helmet and a fresh nano-suit before darting out of the room.
Everything had been going relatively well for The Question. Having seen the image of one of the Leviathan's chief helpers on the televised news throughout Sighişoara, The Question assumed the image of said hunchbacked old man and proceeded through the town towards the castle. Many of the citizens of the city bowed to him or smiled at him, and The Question was remarkably lucky that stoic faced nodding in reply was similar enough to a common response from Igor. No, everything was going well for The Question, even as he walked up the twisting road that was lined by lamppost carrying statutes of gargoyles, everything even went well as he guessed the password to the small door that was to the right of the closed main gate and punched it in.
Yes, as the door opened and The Question entered, everything was going well. Right up until the door behind him closed, and a crazy voice started singing.
"One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn't belong." the voice of Bob the Castle started to sing before cackling madly and stated, "Hmm, I guess somebody has never read the Evil Overlord's list, now have they?"
"Wait! There's really a list?" The Question was so startled by the statement that he actually broke character for a moment and stood up straight; the idea that all of his conspiracy theories on evil villains could be true was just too much for the man.
The castle cackled in reply, "Bwa ha ha ha ha! I pity the fool who tries to break into this castle! Wa ha ha ha ha ha!"
"Well that doesn't sound good." The Question stated, triggering a mechanism in his outfit, a cloud of smoke and gas shot out of his clothing, obscuring him from view. From within the smoke the rapid sound of explosions and drilling was heard, and then suddenly silence.
When the smoke cleared, the shattered remains of small power drills and the casings from explosive packages were seen to be scattered across the floor of the small airlock/mantrap. Unfortunately for The Question, he was left standing there in his Igor disguise, staring frustrated at the still sealed metal door which he had entered through.
'Well bugger, Batman is not going to be happy about me breaking all of these gadgets that I borrowed from him.' Vic Sage thought to himself as he noted that the solid black metal door behind him was unscarred, and what he had assumed was glass didn't even have a chip or ding in it. 'Perhaps next time I'll actually ask Batman if I can borrow his gear, perhaps he won't be as angry if I try that…'
The Question's introspection was interrupted by the Castle asking him a question.
"So, who are you? Spy for a country, thief out for riches, assassin, villain, or some do-gooder digging into the Leviathan's business? Hmmmm?" The voice questioned.
"Well, what's the difference?" The Question replied, looking up at the seamless ceiling and walls around him to see if he could figure out where the voice was coming from.
"Well, if you are a villain, spy, assassin, or thief, it doesn't really matter." The voice replied. The statement was prefaced by slots all along the metal walls and ceiling seeming to dissolve before suddenly showing a myriad of blasters, guns, flamethrowers, rockets and even a couple of mechanical hands carrying sticks of dynamite or wielding green stone encrusted brass knuckles . And since the Castle followed Xander's rule of "There's no such thing as overkill," spikes started to slide out of the walls and ceiling and started to grow closer to The Question.
"Hero! I'm a hero! Definitely not a villain… nope, no villains here." The Question quickly shouted, triggering his suit to change it back to his traditional outfit of the faceless man with the purple and green suit and trench coat.
The spikes stopped encroaching, the ominous hum of the lasers and blasters relaxed to a dull buzz, and the wisps of flames on the flamethrowers stopped.
"Oh, you're The Question. Well in that case." The voice stated.
Suddenly all of the spikes around The Question started to spark with electricity.
Charles Victor Szasz, aka The Question, only had time enough to say one thing before the electricity arced off of the walls and ceiling around him and blasted him.
"Oh Shit." The Question said, and then all he knew was darkness.
"So Mr. Bond, we meet again." A voice with an artificial German accent said, causing The Question to groggily wake up.
"Huh? What?" The Question mumbled as he slowly woke up, the room around him blurry as he tried to bring his senses back under control.
This time an American accented voice stated, "No no, you've got it all wrong, you're supposed to ask if I expect you to talk. At which point I get to say, 'No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!" The voice finished in what amounted to a horrible attempt at a German accent.
That seemed to wake Vic up fully, trying to sit up quickly, he struggled and realized that he was strapped down to a metal table quite well. Looking to the left, and then to the right by moving his eyes around the room, The Question was stunned to realize that he was missing his mask and that he couldn't move his head.
Vic struggled against his bonds for a few seconds more, before realizing that it was hopeless. With a sigh he asked, "So you're going to kill me?"
The answer surprised him.
"Ha! No way, I've just always wanted to say that." The American accented voice stated in English. A clunk sound was heard, and then a buzzing as the table that The Question was on tilted with the table behind him until it was as if he was standing up on a slight incline; only he was strapped down with metal restraints that totally covered his torso and strapped his head, legs, and arms to the table behind him.
There, standing in front of Vic was The Leviathan in his patented featureless black helmet, black suit, and blood red tie; the only other real flash of color was the pin on the lapel of the suit that was fashioned in the gold three headed dragon motif. Behind the Leviathan was a large computer consol that had wires and tubes of chemicals connected to it. The connecting wires and tubes flowed into a vat where a head sat floating in a jar. Wires were connected into the floating head and then out of the jar to disappear towards the ceiling which was out of Vic's view.
The Leviathan's next statement fully focused Vic's attention back on the mysterious figure, "Well Charlie, I have to say good job on getting as far as you got. You're the first person to breach my country's defenses, and I'll have to figure out how you did it and protect against it now. But first, I'd like to learn a little bit more about Charles Victor Szasz, the man, the mythbuster, The Question." The Leviathan stated as he turned his back to the table where Vic was secured. The Leviathan started fiddling with the computer and suddenly sparks started to shoot up a Jacob's ladder on the top of the computer while bubbles started to flow through the tubes between the computer and the floating head.
"I don't know what you're talking about." The Question stated.
"Sure you do Vic, I know your name, I know your history, I even know about your battle against the shoe industry and their use of aglets. I just need to get a few answers to some questions that I have." The Leviathan turned before walking towards the once again struggling Question.
"You'll never make me talk! No amount of torture will make me tell you the truth." Victor growled, and was surprised when The Leviathan halted moving towards him.
The Leviathan quirked his head in thought and answered back, "Vic, why the hell would I want to torture you? I'm not the bad guy. You're the one who broke into my home, by all rights the law is on my side… well, I don't think the law says anything about me running science experiments on you, but I can write one of those up later." The Leviathan finished, before reaching up over Vic's head and pulling down something that looked like a kitchen sieve. Said kitchen sieve had a tinfoil coating on it, and attached to nodes of tinfoil were wires and tubes that disappeared into the ceiling. "Besides, by entering the castle you've agreed to volunteer your body to science and any experiments that I might choose to do on you; it says so right on the welcome mat. Great way to keep down the unwanted solicitations." The Leviathan finished as he moved towards the question again.
"Now hold still, this won't hurt at all." The Leviathan stated patiently as he rested the sieve on The Question's head and attached a chin strap that held it in place; as if Vic could do anything but hold still considering he was bolted down to the table.
After the sieve was in place, The Leviathan walk over to the computer and twisted a few knobs as static started to broadcast out of the speakers around the room.
Turning back towards the restrained Question, The Leviathan pulled out a TV remote control and pressed a few buttons. The Question found his table rotated slowly so that he could see not only The Leviathan and the computer, but also a monitor screen on the side wall. What was most impressive though was the images of Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and other heroes that flashed on the screen. Even more impressive when The Question realized that his thoughts about whether the Justice League would save him were being shown on the screen before him as if in a movie.
"So then, I'm going to ask you questions, and your brain is going to tell me the answers. Now please be as honest as possible as this is for scientific posterity." The Leviathan stated, a smile coming through in his voice.
"First a couple of questions I already know the answer to make sure the machine is working," The Leviathan started. "Bruce Wayne." The Leviathan stated, and on the screen the millionaire's image flashed up there, followed by pictures taken from news clippings and other storied pictures that The Question must have looked at when researching Bruce Wayne.
The Leviathan continued with that tangent and asked, "Bruce Wayne is Batman, correct?"
The Question tried to bite his tongue, refusing to answer, but he couldn't control his brain to stop it from answering what he knew as his thoughts briefly flashed to his research on the identity of Batman. On the screen the image of Bruce changed to where he was wearing the Batman suit but had his cowl off. There was then an image of Bruce putting the cowl on. Several images of research and files that The Question had compiled regarding Batman flickered across the screen, including the fact that Vic had found evidence pointing to the fact that when Batman was younger Bruce had almost gotten caught peaking in college sororities while practicing his stealth skills.
Xander inside his Leviathan outfit burst out laughing, much to The Question's chagrin.
"Ha! Hey, no worries, I always knew he couldn't be as anal as he acts, he had to have some fun in his life." The Leviathan stated before going on to ask other questions.
"How did you get into Romania unseen?" This was answered by images of The Question using the Justice Leagues' teleporter system to enter Romania and was followed by questions regarding what Vic had seen while in Romania as well as how the teleporter system was used at the Watchtower station.
After Xander was sure that he had milked all of the security info that he needed out of Vic, he started to have some fun.
"Ok, so just so you know, I'm going to let you go after all this, but I wanted to talk to you about some conspiracies and see if you know the answers. So who killed Kennedy?" The Leviathan questioned.
Images of the owner of Ben and Jerry's ice cream meeting in a dark conference room flashed up on the screen, though memories of the discussion were too garbled to really hear.
"Damn, I never would have guessed that it was the Ice Cream industry that was behind the second gunner on the grassy knoll." The Leviathan exclaimed, the shock coming through his voice before he stroked where his chin would have been on his mask. "Hmmm, now that you mention it though, that may explain why Ben and Jerry's ice cream is so addictive, perhaps they took out the President because he was going to have the FBI look into their secret ingredients." Xander postulated.
"Where is Jimmy Hoffa buried?" Was the follow up question, to which pictures of Jimmy and Elvis flying away in a flying saucer with little green aliens flashed up on the screen.
"Wow, you're a little crazy, you know that right?" The Leviathan replied after watching the images taken from The Questions mind.
"This coming from the guy doing the good mad scientist impression with a floating head?" The Question responded with a bit of humor coming through his voice.
"Eh, pot, meet kettle, kettle meet pot I guess." The Leviathan stated with a shrug.
"Ok, final question. Have you ever seen any of the Justice League heroines naked?" The Leviathan asked.
Suddenly the screen was full of images from the ladies locker room at the Watchtower space station as well as views through the windows of several apartments and homes through the world. Pictures of Wonder Woman coming out of the steam room, pictures of Hawkgirl with even less on than what she wore in the video that Xander had taken of her while fighting his robot Hitme filled the screen. The screen was filled images of almost every heroine that Xander could think of, from the teenaged version of clay girl Anna, all the way to the magician Zatanna.
"Damn man! Peep much?" Xander questioned form within his mask, shocked and flabbergasted.
Inside Xander's brain a little voice was going crazy, 'Dude! Dude! Harem Harem Harem! Oh, look at Wonder Woman, I bet Amazons are flexible. Oh Oh, and there's the Black Canary, wow, she really is a true blonde! Wow, Huntress is hot! Happy Dance.' The sounds of the little pervert in the back of Xander's mind tap dancing the Scooby dance were rattling around in Xander's brain as he turned and looked at The Question.
Smirking under his helmet, Xander spoke to The Question. "You know, I was a bit concerned about how to keep what you have found out about me from spilling to the Justice League, as I didn't want to hurt you. But, you know what, I think I can get you to agree to keep this a secret between us, and I know you can keep a secret, especially if your life is on the line. Just so you know, I'm recording this entire session, and if I find out you spilled any information about me I'll make sure to send this recording to each one of these female Justice League members. I'm sure you can imagine the type of pain you would be in for if they found out you had peeped on them when they were naked." Xander finished.
On the screen behind Xander the images changed to that of The Flash in the medical suites of the Watchtower, the Martian Manhunter was passed out on one of the medical tables. The image replayed The Flash turning to respond to Wonder Woman, only to put his hands out and squeeze the Amazon's breasts, "Mmmm, firm yet pleasantly squishy." Wally stated in the memory. The image then showed The Flash being punched in the face so hard that he flew right through the bulkhead, the memory continued to relay the sounds of several other metal walls breaking and screeching of metal as Wally continued to fly through several walls.
Xander was gobbsmacked at what he had seen; obviously The Flash was a bit nuts too. Fortunately for Xander, the black facemask covered over his reaction, so his staring wasn't noticed.
"Ahem, I think I rest my case." The Leviathan stated after the image of The Flash getting a beating stopped. "Do we have a deal?" The Leviathan asked The Question.
Victor Sage bit his lip, his thoughts about wanting to tell Batman and Superman what he had learned clearly flashing on the wall. But eventually the thoughts focused in on a thought of Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl playing ping pong with a ball shaped like Vic's head; and that seemed to cement his answer.
"Fine, we have a deal." The Question answered with a bit of sadness.
Xander smiled underneath his mask. Nodding, he walked over to the work bench and picked up the flesh colored mask that The Question normally wore. Turning, Xander walked over to where The Question was still restrained and firmly pressed the mask onto The Questions face; turning the hero back into the faceless vigilante.
"There you go, oh, and don't forget your parting gift. Bye Bye now." Xander said, snapping his fingers once and causing a transporter beam to pluck The Question off of the table and into the cafeteria on the Watchtower.
On the Watchtower, The Question appeared right in the middle of the cafeteria, standing right on the table in front of the Huntress who was enjoying lunch with the Black Canary; The Question's foot was in what was formerly the Huntress's blue jello. A couple of other things seemed to happen at the same time.
First, The Question realized he was in the middle of a very full cafeteria right as a zapping sound was heard above his head. An instant later his head was covered by some white material.
Quickly whipping the cloth off his face, he held it out in front of himself and looked at what it was.
It was a white t-shirt, and on it was written, "I went to Romania to spy on The Leviathan, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt."
Looking down stunned at the t-shirt in his hands, The Question realized two other things.
One, everybody in the cafeteria was staring at him wide eyed and open mouthed. Two, it was a bit drafty being naked in the Watchtower.
Vic was quick to use the t-shirt to shield his privates and then sprinted out of the room; doing a bit of a sliding hop on one foot to turn the corner into the doorway out into the halt due to the blue jello still smeared on his feet.
Behind him he left a gob smacked mixed gender audience of heroes, and one heroine named the Huntress who decided it may be a good idea to get to know The Question better.
Back in Romania the Leviathan took off his helmet, revealing a Xander Harris who started to laugh out loud as the nano-clanks that had hitched a return ride with The Question reported the reactions of the Justice League back to the screen in Xander's lab.
Laughing to himself, Xander pressed a few buttons on his remote control and moved the metal table to a horizontal position upon which Xander could sit on and watch the actions in the Watchtower. Soon the single screen became two split screens, and then multiple split screens as the nano-clanks that Xander had injected into The Question dispersed themselves through the station and connected to Xander's Sparkbucks spy network. The nano-clanks would be fully out of Vic's system within the hour, and Xander had given The Question a large enough injection to pretty much saturate the nooks and crannies of the Watchtower with his little spies.
Xander kicked back and just enjoyed the sights as the nano-clanks in the Watchtower filtered through the air ducts out of halls that The Questions ran through, the remainder would leave his system when Vic reached his room before scattering throughout the space station.
Smiling to himself, Xander congratulated the Castle, "Good job on planning everything and capturing The Question, Bob. Just wondering, at what point did you realize that he was an intruder?" Xander asked, while still focusing on the view of the Watch Tower.
"I think it was a bit clear when a male farmer disappeared into the main bookstore's bathroom only to come out sporting the same dimensions of last year's February Playboy centerfold of the month. Trust me, that's the type of thing that I always monitor." The voice of Bob issued to Xander, chuckling a bit at the end.
Xander continued to smile and nodded in understanding, which was until a thought bounced through his head, "Hey, um Bob, does that mean you peep on the hot girls here in the castle and throughout the country?"
There was silence for a few moments, and then finally Bob answered back.
"Um, I plead the fifth Xander." Bob stated solemnly.
"Bob, I hate to break it to you, but we're not in the United States, there is no fifth amendment here." Xander replied with a bit of a smirk on his face, he couldn't really fault Bob from looking at the girls; after all, Bob's personality was patterned after Xander.
"Well in that case, I just refuse to answer due to my self preservation protocols." Bob mumbled.
Xander laughed and clicked the off button on the remote before hopping off the table and heading for the door.
"Well that went well." Xander said to himself as he wandered out of the room.
Suddenly, the lights in the hall around Xander turned red, and a klaxon began to sound at the same time that Bob's voice announced.
"Battle Stations, Battle Stations, the border is under attack. Repeat, the border is under attack. Heavy bombardment is inbound from Kaznia, activate all military units and stand by for orders. Repeat, please proceed immediately to Battle Stations"
Xander's eyes got large, and as the portal that would bring him to the command center opened before Xander, he cursed to himself, "When will I ever learn to keep my big mouth shut."
AN: A bit of a cliffy, sorry about that, but if I didn't end it there though this wouldn't be out for another week. Figured to keep it around the 8k word size rather than break the 15k threshold. If you like it and you want me to continue this, please review. They inspire me, they help my muse, and they get me writing more; so really it's a win win situation all around.
POLL: Should I make this a series, an epic long story, or just end it now? I'm at the point where I could keep this going or just focus on other works of fiction. Let me know.