LoamyCoffee: I find it so wonderful how they're acting around each other.
Hmm, this is true as the Doc is a farmer now.
Would you call that DC's version of America's Ass?
Yes, movie night~
Makes me warm and fuzzy inside how she's opening up to him and the comfort that he's bring her.
Also are you magic? My thirst for Galatea is growing, which goes to show how great you're doing.
Re: To be fair, Galatea wouldn't have been so open to the idea of "letting him in" if he hadn't spat Rage Napalm on her during the whole "Pecking Order" episode.
There actually isn't much about Dr. Hamilton after the events of JLU in the Earth-12 Canon, as far as I know, so I just feel like him "retreating" to the countryside would've been the best course of action for him. What with all the "crimes against humanity" and such.
I feel like the title of DC Comics' "America's Ass" would either belong to Superman or Wonder Woman.
Galatea rightfully always had a Complex about being a Clone, so only someone incredibly Compassionate, yet firm, like Ventus would be able to actually reach her in this capacity.
Still surprised Galatea's name wasn't part of the Character List on the Justice League Unlimited tab.
*JLUxTT*
Elsewhere, enough time had opened up for the Justice League's more-senior members, that Mr. Terrific was able to arrange a conference meeting to appraise them of Amanda Waller's ongoing "operation". All of them had been given the cliff notes version of what was going on prior-to, given who was tangibly involved in the far-off proceedings, but this would be the first time they confronted the woman more or less in person.
"Thank you for taking the time to meet with me on such short notice," Amanda Waller opened, ceding to the fact that she'd called on one of "theirs" for help.
"Waller, we're to understand that Galatea has woken up?" Superman started, on conference call from another star system.
"The crazy Supergirl clone?" Flash hummed, back from Central City with a milkshake in hand.
"Technically we had her checked. Her sanity was well within acceptable deviations."
"Wow, what a ringing endorsement," Green Lantern rolled his eyes, an explosion going off in the background. "I am filled with confidence."
"I can understand why you'd think she were unstable. I'm sure the Question had all sorts of things to say about her and Cadmus."
"When he wasn't going on about mind-controlling shoelaces or digging through everyone's trash," Hawkgirl hummed, the backdrop of a joint police raid on another world behind her.
"We're to understand you called in one of our Reserve Members to deal with this sensitive issue," Batman said from a monitor labeled Audio Only.
"That's correct. I felt he was uniquely suited to the task at hand of rehabilitating her."
"While offering Galatea a second chance is a noble pursuit, is it safe for Ventus to be in such close proximity to her, so-far-away from potential reinforcements?" Wonder Woman inquired worriedly.
"I made him intimately aware of the risks going in. I did nothing to coerce him into playing welcome wagon. That he did go in to storm the trenches, means he's confident in his own chances to succeed."
"I assume you singled him out not only for the Power Ring he now wields, but also for his compassionate nature and previous track record," Superman hummed.
"Admittedly, he's one of the few who has successfully rehabilitated any of his 'rogues' in the long-term," Waller replied. "Cadmus has been keeping the two of them under surveillance, and apart from a brief altercation immediately after waking up, Galatea seems to have become quite comfortable around him."
"How 'comfortable' we talking?" Flash asked. "Because from the way Kid Flash put it, Vent's a bit of a ladies' man."
"Wait a second... Are you honey-dicking her?" Hawkgirl asked with a raised brow, Green Lantern sputtering off to the side.
"That was never my intent," Waller said raising her hands. "Cadmus' track record with crossbreeding of any kind hasn't exactly been exemplary."
"But you've anticipated it as a possibility," Batman said in an even tone.
"Mr. Valentine is a very charismatic sort of person. There's actually more fanart of him with other superhero women compared to the rest of his peers."
Waller didn't choose to learn that little tidbit, but when the psyche department prepared a dossier regarding the best ways to secure Ventus' cooperation, it was a topic that had come up. In particular, how Ventus himself had never done an "ego search" according to their own records of internet traffic coming-and-going from the Tower, and that it would probably be wise to not bring up that kernel of information, under any circumstance.
"Our tax dollars at work," Flash shrugged as he finished off his milkshake. "So how horngry is she going to be after that coma?"
"Excuse you?" Waller blinked.
"I mean, she was flash-grown, so wouldn't her hormones have gotten all thrown out of whack?"
"I assume there has been a resumation of her hormonal suppressants?" Martian Manhunter questioned, Cadmus' cloning method having come to light during the many, many oversight hearings following the Watchtower attack. Their files weren't made available to the public, but they were made available to the League.
" . . . "
"Oh my god, she is 'horngry'," Hawkgirl hummed.
"Oh good lord…" Green Lantern groaned, rubbing his face.
"Can anyone say 'death by snu-snu'?" Flash quipped.
"I do not know what this 'snu-snu' is of which you speak, but if Galatea truly is at risk of growing emotionally compromised, we need to separate the two of them immediately," Wonder Woman said rising from her chair.
She'd grown up on too many stories about mortals being driven mad into fits of lunacy and/or passion by the likes of Hera, Aphrodite, Dionysys, and so-on to not take this seriously.
"Diana, a moment," Martian Manhunter said raising his hand. "If a member of the Justice League attempts to intervene in such a fashion, it might trigger a combative response," he said before pulling up what the League knew about Galatea on his console. "Apart from Dr. Hamilton, no-one else in Cadmus was ever 'close' to her, were they?"
"From what I recall, no, they were not," Waller replied. "Then again, do people casually approach Superman?"
"Yes."
"Yu-huh."
"All the time."
"He's always way cool about selfies and handshakes."
"Let me rephrase that… Do people approach Batman casually? Because that was the sort of 'Boogeyman' reputation Galatea had among the ranks."
"Waller, is it truly your intention to rehabilitate Galatea, or is this another 'long game'?" Batman inquired.
"Oof, paranoid, much?" Flash asked.
"It's only 'paranoid' if people aren't out to get you. Remember the 'meat robots'?"
"Fair point," the speedster immediately conceded, he and the others practically hearing him making air-quotes.
"Full honesty, I'd rather not have Galatea pull an 'Eiling'. Especially while I'm still living in the US."
"To be fair, it wouldn't really matter where you were living if she felt like you owed her a pound or two," Hawkgirl hummed.
"Point taken," Waller said sarcastically.
At least no-one in the League had made another damn fat joke…
"So, what're the two lovebirds-in-the-making up to now?" Flash hummed aloud.
"For the past few days, whenever they haven't been talking, eating, or working out, they've been sitting in the lounge binge-watching on the streaming service."
"What're they watching?" Flash asked.
"According to the records, on their first 'movie night' they watched Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, followed by he and Galatea exchanging in a lengthy dialogue about what her Cadmus programming left her… unprepared, to decipher regarding the message, subtext, and so-on. The following night they watched Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, during which she expressed signs of both awe and fear at the cloning facilities on Kamino, followed by yet more dialogue into the night," Waller answered, reading the cliff notes version of what the psyche department had taken away from Galatea's observation. "At present, they appear to be binge-watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars."
"Fitting, and ironic~" Flash grinned.
"And also on-the-nose," Green Lantern hummed.
"I'm an alien and even I know what that last one's about," Hawk Girl chuckled.
"Yes, yes, laugh it up. The irony is not lost on me…" Waller groaned.
And it really wasn't. During one of the oversight hearings, the capital building had almost been held at siege by the 501st Legion "costuming organization". While Cadmus had been able to plug its own leaks regarding the "Ulti-legion", the same could not be said for the League's support staff, who were more than willing to post on their social media accounts that they were being attacked by mindless meat robots "courtesy of Maxwell Lord", who was publicly most-associated with the Ultimen.
Suffice it to say, Lord thusly went on to find the deepest hold he could find, and brought a shovel alongside.
"Galatea finding interests of her own beyond her Cadmus programming is still a good sign," Martian Manhunter hummed. "And although it saddens me to say this, she could not have chosen a better time to wake up. It is unlikely she'd have been amenable to the healing process, had Supergirl still been here."
A moment of sadness came upon the room, Superman and Green Lantern both shifting uncomfortably. Batman on the other hand, hidden behind his shroud of anonymity, treated his own observations as evidence that the reports regarding her death, might in fact have been "greatly exaggerated".
"Soooo…" Flash hummed aloud. "Is Galatea going to turn into some kind of shut-in or what?"
"I think what Flash is trying to say is, will Galatea's needs be 'provided for', even if she no longer chooses to work with Cadmus?" Wonder Woman questioned, her seemingly-perfect brows furrowing as she shot Waller a significant look.
Long Shadow's final days at the end of his "one month" had been among the hardest she'd ever experienced. Though he was a fully-grown man, the terror he expressed at the thought of death was practically child-like, having never truly enjoyed life to its fullest beyond memory implants and staged shows with paid actors.
What hurt her the most was there was nothing the League could've done about it, with Waller intentionally barring the League from any of the data which might've eased the young-ish clone's suffering any more than they had ultimately been able to. And yet despite how-little time the clone had had left, in his final moments he had passed with an air of dignity, his service to the League, as much as it was, having been distinguished and would always be remembered. The wake that followed had been a lovely affair, and she only wished she had been able to attend it in person, but to know that so-many would miss him, even though he were a clone, filled her with hope for "Man's World".
Which was why it had utterly galled her to learn that Long Shadow's memory had thusly been sullied at the hands of the "Ulti-legion" as some of the support staff and even some of the League had come to call them.
She supposed that the silver lining of the whole affair, was that when it came time to dispose of the bodies, the Long Shadow clones had been treated with a measure of respect and dignity; most if not all being given funerary shrouds prior to their cremation in the Watchtower incinerators. The other clones had more or less been cycled through the airlocks facing Earth, allowing re-entry to do the rest. Not exactly professional, but the support staff had been the most at-risk given when Waller meant "sanitize", that order applied to anything with a pulse.
So in the end, despite the fact that Long Shadow's phantom siblings had been made to attack the Watchtower, non-possessant of a will of their own, even then, he had still been one of "theirs".
Waller for her part, only learned of the aforementioned specifics when one of the League's support staff published an eBook concerning the month-long period Long Shadow had spent as a member of the League. That the book had covered the events of Cadmus' attack on the League, had not escaped Langley's attention, and thus, Waller could understand why Diana of Themyscira expressed such a stake in the proceedings. None of the League's founding members had ever encountered Galatea, but it was evident that Long Shadow's legacy would continue to impact League policy regarding clonated lifeforms.
"Backpay has been arranged," Waller answered looking Wonder Woman in the eye. "Galatea has also been granted full citizenship in the United States, should she so choose to accept it."
"I suppose it's a start," Diana said crossing her arms.
"Retreating to a previous topic," Martian Manhunter called in. "Should the two of them continue to grow closer, by Kid Flash's own estimation of events, as the League's leading expert in recreational cross-species breeding practices-"
"I can not believe you just said that out loud with a straight face…" Green Lantern groaned while Superman and Hawkgirl coughed awkwardly.
"-I feel it important to say that they should not be made to feel ashamed in regards to their physical cravings. While from a medical standpoint I am worried about what the act of recreational copulation might do to Ventus in the absence of a Red Sun lamp-"
"Could you at least not say the word 'copulation' with a straight face?" Hawkgirl pleaded.
"-at the same time, such a joining might in of itself become essential for the healing process. The physical act of joining can also be treated as a spiritual act, and is as-much a component of one's mental health as it is the physical."
"Well, you won't have to worry about any half-Argoan hybrids flying about if that does become the case," Waller stated, keeping a straight face of her own despite the complete absurdity of the topic at hand. "Galatea, like all the other Cadmus clones, is infertile."
"Here's hoping she doesn't want kids then, otherwise she really might come at you for that pound of flesh," the Flash hummed idly as he ran a rag over the Flash insignia on his chair.
"If Langley knew this was what we were talking about right now, I'd be the laughing stock of D.C…" Waller sighed to herself, rubbing her temples.
"How do you think we feel?" Green Lantern sighed, as Martian Manhunter remained completely nonplussed about the tangent he had gone on.
*JLUx TT*
Elsewhere, in Jump City…
"So Robin, how've things been going in the city lately?" Kid Flash hummed after his latest patrol in Central City.
"The same as usual, or you wouldn't be so eager to skip town at every opportunity," the Boy Wonder groaned, looking at another news report concerning one of Ventus' "girls" putting the fear of one or more gods into the hearts of Jump City criminals.
"Just be glad it isn't all the girls interested in our wayward warden, otherwise we'd be a little outnumbered."
"What about Eugene or Wintergreen?" Beast Boy cut in.
"Nuh-uh, no way. Not getting involved. In this circumstance I'm perfectly fine being a 'Mob Character'," Eugene said from his unobtrusive seat in the corner as he hid his face behind a comic book, a large stack of them besides his Teen Titans-themed beanbag chair.
"I'm subservient, not suicidal," Wintegreen said as he brewed green tea in preparation for Raven's momentary return from duty.
"Still, who'da thought Vent would be asked by Waller of all people, to look after Galatea of all people…" Cyborg hummed with crossed arms.
"Well, he does have a Power Ring, and he went toe to toe with Hal Jordan," Beast Boy asked.
"He did, but what kind of drawback does that ring have?" Eugene asked. "There's always a drawback with power-copying abilities. Just look at Rogue from the X-Men if you need an example."
"Still, it is good to know that master Valentine is being taken seriously by his peers," Wintergreen hummed.
"Which has me wondering… how-long will he stay here?" Robin asked aloud, voicing the thought that had been plaguing he and the others for the past couple of days.
"What, you mean leave the team?" Cyborg asked.
"No way, he'd never do that… Would he?" Beast Boy said worriedly.
"It is pretty tempting. I mean sure, now Metro Tower is the posting that everyone wants in at, but there's just something about a giant tower floating in space, overlooking the Earth…" Kid Flash hummed wistfully. "Even if they have artificial gravity going, that view…"
"Well, fingers crossed he doesn't take half the team with him when he does," Eugene hummed idly.
"No, we don't tell them about any of this," Robin stated. "Starfire might think it's the 'Rekma' driving a wedge between us."
"Except it wouldn't be on a permanent basis, would it?" Cyborg asked. "I mean… This is his home. He's shed sweat, blood, tears, and more blood for this place, in this place, than anyone here."
"He'll always have a place here, but we need to consider the possibility-"
"Possibility of what?" Raven asked, foul in mood as she floated in through a portal.
"The possibility that master Valentine might be bringing another member home with him following his… away mission," Wintergreen lied smoothly.
"I mean, it couldn't hurt having another 'flying brick' around," Eugene hummed, doing his part.
"Another girl. Fantastic," Raven muttered, hair swirling around her like the fog of a certain "Forbidden" Pokémon, her expression softening as the waft of green tea met her nose.
"Green tea, Rachael?" Wintergreen offered.
"Yes, please," Raven hummed, her ire momentarily forgotten much to the relief of the others.
'Vent, I hope you come back soon,' Robin mused to himself as the other girls began to filter back into the Tower, each in a worseningly-foul mood at what they weren't coming home to.
*JLUxTT*
I think my favorite part of writing this chapter, apart from Martian Manhunter calling himself the League's "leading expert in recreational cross-species breeding practices", was adding some retro-lore to Long Shadow and his passing.
Looking back on his character, I really feel like he'd have made a lasting impression on the League, as well as its Support Staff, and that they really might have treated the Long Shadow clones with some greater measure of dignity after Supergirl took out their commander. And while the Earth-12 version of Maxwell Lord is nowhere near as-much of a prick as his more-mainstream pre-New 52 counterpart, I feel just a pinch vindicated at what the "Ulti-legion"s attack on the Watchtower would've done for his reputation in-universe.
As for the home front… I feel like in the Teen Titans' case, that Ventus' presence, at least in "Earth-12V", would be one of those things that was taken for granted until it was no longer there; similar to Starfire's with Warp and that whole "divergent timeline" thing or whatever sort of "timeline" that was. Because that definitely was not any sort of "closed loop", otherwise Starfire would've run into her "future self" as well and… Okay now I'm rambling and I smell cooked bacon.
Anywho, tell me what you think of this chapter, what kind of stories you want to see, and I'll see you all, next time.