There were last minute tweaks being made, but that was to be expected. Luthor understood the need for last minute adjustments and that was why he waited patiently. Magnus was finishing up the last changes to the last Responsometer.
The rest of these mechanical orbs were being held above a vat of liquid metal—lead, iron, tin, mercury, gold, and just recently platinum. All of it cost a pretty penny, especially the last one. While he understood the need for a delay, the results needed to match or be greater than the expense paid
Magnus made no comment as he pulled away from his workstation, marching to the last vat and placing the Responsometer in the lowering mechanism. Using the human hand was highly inadvisable. Raising an eyebrow when this young prodigy made no attempt at any kind of verbal speech, the business mogul decided to be the one who broke the silence.
"Everything in order?"
Magnus gave a jerk, then relaxed. "Oh, um, yes. Everything is ready, and I, uh, added what you wanted. I'm about to lower the Responsometers and yeah…"
Not one for social pleasantries. Very well.
Reaching his workstation, Magnus picked up and put on a pair of goggles. Pausing for a second, he picked up and tossed another pair at Luthor. Mercy caught the flying object, allowing the tycoon to glance down at it. "And this is for?"
"Just in case," Magnus said.
Eye protection. Why? Well, there was a chance that there could be injury since molten metal was involved. He highly doubted a pair of goggles would be effective protection, but he nonetheless took the one Mercy was holding and slipped them on.
By then, the young prodigy had taken his place opposite Luthor, the vats between the two of them. Slipping out a voice recorder, Magnus held it up and began to speak into it. "Day 582, hour fourteen, minute thirty seven, the Responsometers are complete and ready, and have been uploaded with individualized data as per the request of Lex Luthor. For the record, people are the problem."
Another raised eyebrow from Luthor. Interesting comment.
"People are unreliable. They make mistakes. They care only about themselves and will lie and pass blame to others. Reminds me of that one summer. Please see the file on day fifty two for that passage. The conclusion is that we cannot rely on people. So who can we rely on? The answer is robots.
"As of now, robots are clunky and limited. The most common ones around have trouble with stairs. It's worth celebrating when a model can go up a flight of stairs, and that's groundbreaking. Again, we base the structure and skeletons on ourselves. We move out of the realm of robots and into the android. The key to Project Metal Men is the Responsometer. Oh, and Dr. Morrow, if you are hearing this, they are not something from a dream. They're real and they are about to change everything we know about the construction of future robots.
"Simulations have been run, and they performed exceptionally. Based on my design, the Responsometers will release an electric signal, one that will bond with the selected metal permanently. From this point, the metal will be manipulated at the atomic level, atom by atom into any shape required for any disaster, be they natural or manmade."
Fascinating. Luthor put a hand to his chin while holding his elbow with his other arm. So that's how the Responsometer would work. He had his…concerns about the permanent bonding, but he could see a future with this kind of technology. These small orbs were the key, and if mass produced, who knows what else they could be used for?
This was definitely more than just a new kind of first responder. This could be the next step in military weaponry, in particular soldiers. Using Metal Men instead of flesh and bone humans would change the game entirely, especially if you could program the necessary fighting skills, then training could be a thing of the past.
"These six robots, each selected with a different metal, melted down into its liquid state, will be the first of what I hope will be the beginning of a new world. One of order and reliability," Magnus continued, reaching out his arms to a panel, inputting a command. The lowering mechanism activated, lowering the Responsometers into their respective vats.
Luthor watched as the second one of those orbs touched their selected metal, the lower mechanism released, and each one sank under, barely rippling the molten surfaces. Energy crackled out of each one, so bright that now Luthor understood the reason for the goggles. Mercy had to shield her eyes, leaving him vulnerable as a result.
Vulnerable, but not in danger. The energy moved about like electricity, keeping themselves centered around each vat. The metal began to slosh, not spilling out, but the movement was increasing steadily. The business mogul found himself holding his breath, waiting through each second that passed for what would happen next.
Each metal began to rise, expanding, and in some cases breaking out of their respective vats. Yet, there was no spillage, so no damage or threat. It was a marvel to behold as each one took a familiar shape…a humanoid shape. Two legs, two arms, a head, torso, though size differed with each metal.
Lead and iron were the ones that took up the most space, and as a result had been the ones to break out of their vats. They were easily the tallest and widest. The smallest went to tin, and for some reason it was lanky, seemingly too thin. Mercury was also short, but could be described better as lithe. Between these extremes were gold and platinum, though platinum took on more female characteristics.
Then they began to speak.
"Gold: Online," the Metal Man made of gold reported, as facial features smoothed out, creating the appearance of your typical All-American football jock, youthful and handsome, and this included the same kind of musculature. This here was a clear choice as a poster child…robot for the Metal Man project. It didn't hurt that he was made of gold, a personal favorite metal of the tycoon. "Online, and good looking. Damn good looking."
The beginnings of a frown creased Luthor's face.
"Tin: Online," the second Metal Man reported with a voice that was just as thin as the body, "and looking slightly b-b-better than average. V-vocal programming s-s-s-seems to be im-impaired."
Was that a stutter?
"Lead: Online," A deeper voice that didn't boom followed. "I. Am. Lead." The lead Metal Man was peering at its massive hands, turning them over from palm to back and back to palm.
"Iron: Online," another deep voice, but this one was far more assertive. "Ready to rumble." A pair of thick, muscular arms raised and flexed in demonstration. Fists clenched, and there was no scrapping of metal against metal as he would have expected.
"Mercury: Online." Red in color, the Metal Man made of mercury glanced about the lab and snorted. "What a dump."
Platinum: Online," the last and most expensive Metal Man reported, and even had vocal tones that were feminine. "I disagree. It looks homely. And cute." The platinum robot spotted Magnus, and added, "And so are you."
By now, Maguns had slipped his goggles off, staring wide eyed at the sight before him, voice recorder forgotten in hand. "It worked," he said, tailing off. "I…think it worked."
"No need to be shocked and astonished, Doc," Gold spoke up, friendly and jovial as it waved a hand dismissively. "We are your Metal Man, prime and ready for action."
Magnus continued to stare, then almost unconsciously raised his voice recorder closer to his mouth. "The Metal Men's programming has taken hold at a much more rapid pace than…than expected. Different appearances, and…personalities?"
"What, thought we were going to be the same?" Iron spoke, stretching and limbering itself. "What would be the point in that?"
"Iron makes a very good point," Gold agreed. "I mean, look at me! I'm one of the most malleable and conductive substances on the planet, no, the universe! Also, the most desired, meaning the most valuable. I gotta be worth, what, fifteen million just standing here? Twenty for inflation."
"Something's inflating and it's not those parts. You don't have the man meat for it," Mercury taunted. "And what's so special about gold anyway? I'm mercury." The mercury metal began to stretch, wrapping around the young scientist and prodigy until he was surrounded by coils of mercury, its metal body retaining some of its liquidity. "I'm the only metal that's a liquid at room temperature. There's no place on earth that can keep me out or in."
Ah, well that explained that. His fascination was only increasing.
"I-I-I know there is not t-t-that much s-s-s-pecial about me," Tin added, its body language shrinking its body. ""B-b-but I'll be my v-v-very b-b-b-best!"
"You do not need to worry, Tin," Platinum comforted the smallest Metal Man. "We each have our strengths. We'll find yours."
Magnus swallowed loudly. "I'm going to attempt to give a command." Turning his wide eyes onto Mercury, who was looking down on him, literally, "Mercury: form a sphere."
"What is this?" Mercury lowered itself so now it was invading the robotic engineer's personal space. "Are you giving me orders? Me?" The robot turned its head three hundred sixty degrees. "I don't see any others, so you must be talking to me. I don't take orders, meat bag. I do what I'm programmed to do."
And there we were. Different metals, different programming, different personalities. This was going to be a trial, but right now it was the best option Luthor had. So far, it did look promising, but then again so did Amazo.
Still, on the surface, this was a marvel. Even after taking his goggles off, he could see how each one moved. There were no jerking motions, no pauses, nothing to suggest deliberate movement. Each one moved so smoothly, and the bodies reflected it. It was like watching how a human moved, how muscles relaxed and contracted under skin, so fluid and natural, how you noticed how the lab's lighting created a sheen, you would not suspect there was an absence of skin and organs and tissue.
Holding his goggles out to Mercy, who took them, Luthor gave a loud clap with his hands, drawing all attention to him.
"And who's this meat bag?" Mercury demanded.
With a disarming smile, Luthor said, "My name is Lex Luthor, and we have much to discuss. There is a crisis and humanity itself needs…rescuing. Shall we speak of the details?"
Unknown to him, peeking between his collar and necktie was the head of a fly. He had no idea it was there, and even if he had, he wouldn't have paid any attention to it so long as it didn't bother him. That would mean he missed its green color and the complete absence of typical fly behavior.
Dude, this circus just got so much crazier.
LexCorp felt like a monolith from where the group of seven stood. It was the middle of the afternoon now and the majority of the team that had gone inside were now out. For now, they were waiting, but that didn't mean they weren't busy.
"This is some crazy stuff," Cyborg muttered. He had been going through all the data Kid Flash had retrieved for him while having some passive probes make their way through the rest of LexCorp's cyberinfrastructure. Crazy might be an understatement; insane was pretty close to the mark.
It was something for him to do while the others had to keep themselves busy. Every once in a while, he would tune in, listen for a bit, then get his attention back on all this information. There was a lot, and what it consisted of was initially worth a whistle.
"I have noticed you have all been in states of heightened stress. Has this mission caused you so much stress?" Starfire asked. It had been just the two of them before, waiting in case of trouble, which for once didn't happen. He felt a little pride there.
"LexCorp and its owner Lex Luthor have a reputation, depending on who you ask," Red Robin responded, clearly who Starfire had been talking to. Cyborg never once let his eyes leave the skyscraper. "In our circles, it's not a good one, Luthor especially so. Remember that video that came out, the one that both had you and Cyborg in it? I've been told that it came from here. Speaking of, Cyborg, have you found it yet?"
Having just tuned in, he could give a quick answer. "Nope, still checking. It's gotta be in there somewhere and I'm willing to bet it'll have firewalls, lots of them. No way would a guy like Luthor do anything less."
"I feel like we didn't learn anything," Wonder Girl huffed, her arms crossed while she stood next to Red. "Was it just me, or was everything in the tour staged? Like putting up a front?"
"Many of them believe in the illusion," Raven said. "Part of the tour was real. Luthor seems to have a talent with mixing fantasy and reality together so that you can't tell which is which. There are legitimate employees who think what they are doing is exactly what they think it is. I would imagine that the real projects are located elsewhere, like below the building. After what Kid Flash told us, there's more below than above."
"I might not have paid any attention to stuff that didn't involve Flash, but Luthor did come up every now and then," Kid Flash admitted, rubbing the back of his head. "He's one of the big ones, one of the biggest of the bads. Like Reverse Flash but without the superspeed."
"He tries to take on Superman; you don't play on that level and have Luthor's kind of record without being good. That robot we fought on the beach while Blackfire was having her fun also came from here," Red pointed out.
Meaning, while they were handling Starfire's crazy sister, the League had been up against this guy, and so far had not been able to retaliate. At the very least, they were able to stop Blackfire, but knowing that Luthor was still at large could not have been a nice thing to know. Maybe that was why Batman had recruited them, so that the League could focus on the stuff with the Thanagarians. Speaking of which…
"So, Red, when's your boss man going to show up?" Cyborg asked.
This got a snort out of Wonder Girl. "Odds are, he's already here, and is waiting right behind us."
It was quiet all of a sudden, then all of them spun around, Cyborg keeping his position and only turning his head. Nothing, nothing but the skyline of Metropolis. Nope, not behind them.
"Say, Cyborg, any heat vision or infrared you have there?" the armored blonde asked, licking her dry lips.
Say no more. The vision in his cybernetic eye changed, everything becoming a solid color, reds, oranges, and yellows giving away all kinds of heat signatures. He searched for anything human-shaped and at their level, but nothing. Returning back to regular human vision, Cyborg gave a shake of his head. "Nothing."
"So maybe we're just being kept waiting—" Wonder Girl began to say as she began to turn back to face LexCorp. They all were, to be honest, but what do you know?
This time, Cyborg was able to keep himself from screaming. A manly gasp, that's the noise he made. Couldn't say the same about Kid Flash or Terra. The shorter blonde was being really quiet over there, but hey, not everyone was a talker. Since this was Raven's first time, what with not being there the first time, he had been hoping for something. Nope, just a widening of the eyes, what a letdown. Starfire gave a gasp of her own, so props for the improvement there. Red, maybe surprisingly or unsurprisingly, didn't react, or at least show it. Wonder Girl on the other hand…
"How long have you been there?!" she exclaimed, glaring up at the Bat. Some balls, there.
"Long enough,' Batman replied from his place on the building ledge. He stood there as if he had been there the entire time, the LexCorp building forming the background. He took a step down, stepping off of it. "What did you find out?"
Red took his place in front of the Dark Knight—the Dark Knight!—and reported, "Kid Flash was able to upload Cyborg's hacking program. Cyborg's been going through it, but so far we haven't found that video footage. We were able to get something else though, from one of the lower level floors. Kid Flash was able to get some downloaded data and brought it back. It's not connected to the primary mainframe, so hacking in was a nonstarter so it can't all be verified. Cyborg, tell him what you've been finding out."
The eyes were on him now, blank and white, and oh how that man made it work. No wonder so many people were afraid of him! Still, he wasn't purposely trying to intimidate him—right?—and this was all business, so…
"I'm having a hard time believing what I'm seeing," is what he started with. His attention went inwards, to all the data and with a special focus on what Kid Flash brought back on that flash drive. "There's a lot of coding, doesn't make too much sense until you find the label on it. If I didn't know any better, I'd say Luthor has some kind server that stores coding for superpowers."
"Explain."
Tuning back in—whoa! How'd he get right up next to him…oh right, he wasn't paying attention and this was Batman. Also, he had his full undivided attention, yay.
"It's just like I said, coding for superpowers. There's superstrength, superspeed, flight, heat vision, ice breath, fire manipulation, ice manipulation, invincibility, shapeshifting, geokinesis; there's a bunch of them. I only figured some of that out because some of the file names have Superman or Hawkgirl on them." Looking away from Batman, Cyborg turned to Terra and said, "By the way, if this geokinesis is you, you're labeled Caucasian Female #2."
"Amazo," Batman growled, looking over the teenage cyborg.
"Is there something the matter?" Starfire asked, approaching the freaking Batman himself.
"You may wish to tell us what is going on," Raven said, stepping up. "We're in this now, we need to know what it is we're involved with."
Silence, possibly of the brooding kind, but they weren't hearing a no just yet. The man, the myth, the legend turned from them, taking a few steps away so his back was facing them. They waited still, though for how long was anyone's guess. A shame that BB was still in that building; odds were good Kid Flash would break first.
"Amazo operates by copying the abilities of metahumans." That almost caused a jump with how sudden Batman began to speak. "We figured by destroying the android that that would be the end. I had doubts, but I did not imagine this. Based on what you recovered, Luthor has a database with every power Amazo was able to copy prior to its defeat. If Luthor was to build a second Amazo, he could download all of the copied powers into the new android and start from there."
Okay, that sounded bad. Really bad. Cyborg found himself sharing looks with the others, even picked up that Raven was worried. Raven. This was bad when even she couldn't hide what she was feeling. It occurred to him, and he himself had not fought this Amazo, but if it saw him, would it be able to copy his sonic cannon? Everything else about him? Sure, he was a cyborg, so his "superpowers" were like that of Terra or Raven or Beast Boy, hell, throw in Kid Flash, but could he too be copied?
"So we break in and crash the database. That can't be too hard, right? I mean, I managed to get in, so someone pack me a bomb and I can take care of it in a minute, minute and a half tops," their local speedster suggested, his head turning to face anyone who might look towards him. Turns out, most of them were looking at him, so Kid Flash was trying to meet all their gazes.
"It's not that simple," Batman cut in, deigning to look over his shoulder at Kid Flash. "Luthor isn't stupid. By now, he would have backed up the whole database. He may even have multiple backups. Destroying the original would only play our hand to Luthor. We'll need to act smarter if we're to beat him here."
"Then do you have any ideas?" Red Robin asked. "Beast Boy is still undercover, and we can get new intel from him later. He might find or see something that could help."
Batman shook his head, turning fully to face them all. His black cape covered all of his body, and man was that a cool effect. "Keep him there with Luthor. With the Thanagarians here, you can be sure that Luthor will want to take advantage of the situation. I want to know what he's planning. In the meantime…" The Dark Knight paused, then quickly sought the cyborg out. "You mentioned you've been able to hack into LexCorp's servers."
Cyborg gave a nod of his head. "I'm trying to be quiet about it. Like you said, let's not tip our hand to him. Why, do you have an idea?"
Batman gave a quick nod. "You'll be the only one able to do it. I'll send you a communique with the details. Your email address hasn't changed, correct?"
"Depends on which email," Cyborg shrugged.
Without missing a beat, "Grandmasbumpkin84 at gmail dot com."
How'd he know about that?
The snorts and snickers he heard only caused his one remaining cheek to redden. Then he snapped to his "friends," "Hey! Someone needed to raise ol' Cyborg here when the 'rents wouldn't! I don't want to hear any of you badmouthing Granny!"
"I will send you the details and the schematics to that address," Batman cut in, as well as cutting off everyone else's mirth. "Continue surveillance until then. If anything happens, contact me immediately." The Bat's eyes then zeroed in Red Robin, and as a consequence, Cyborg followed. "Do you understand?"
Red Robin gave a sharp nod, standing taller. "We will." Their glorious leader then looked to the rest of them "Find different positions, keep LexCorp in sight at all times, alright guys? If Beast Boy makes contact, make sure to inform everyone." Red then turned back to Batman, his mouth opening, and then said nothing.
That was an interesting look. Following Red's gaze, Cyborg had to do a double take. What the?! Where'd he go? He had been right there!
"Whoa, did he just disappear?" Kid Flash exclaimed, rushing over to where they had last seen the Bat standing. The speedster's head whipped from left to right, searching for any signs of the world famous vigilante. "Where'd he go? He's gone!"
Wonder Girl then looked to Red. "Is this normal?"
Red gave a shrug of his shoulders. "You almost get used to it."
"But how?!" the armored blonde exclaimed. "How does he disappear like that? In broad daylight!"
Their leader looked thoughtful, going over his answer. Then, "Because he's Batman?"
That sounded about right.
Sand was all over the place, and dusty too. He didn't know which was worse, this place or the Outback. It was ridiculously hot out here and Boomerang briefly wondered why anyone would wear long sleeves out here. He had a coat, which counted, and he was sweating his ass off.
This whole Suicide Squad thing was a mistake. A horrible, terrible mistake. Why the hell did he ever agree to it? Sure, it sounded good at the time, cutting a deal to shorten his prison sentence. That had been before someone put a friggin' bomb in his head. He missed the days of robbing Central City blind. So much simpler times then.
Now he was sneaking around some alien's pet project and trying not to get caught. How was this a thing?
As much as he wanted to grumble, he didn't. Who knew how sharp these Thanagarians' hearing was? So he snuck about, searching for something, anything really, that would get that black bitch off his back. Something substantial, important. Yet, it couldn't and wouldn't be missed.
Ducking quickly, he spied out a small group of Thanagarians leaving from one of their big ass ships. They were using a ramp and as soon as they were several meters from it, they spread their wings and took off, flying over to where all the construction was. Boomerang watched them then turned his sights on that ship with its open ramp.
Maybe there might be something in there.
Checking around, the man really taking in his surroundings, he grimaced. There was a wide, empty space between where he was and where that ramp rested on the ground. It was too open and he'd be too visible. Blue tended to stick out in a desert. And there were no other spots to seek cover from. He'd have to make a dash of it.
Or…
Giving a quick nod and slapping both of his cheeks—and quickly cursing in his head—he stood up and began strolling his way to the spaceship. He didn't run, didn't skulk, just walked calmly and with purpose. If nothing else, he'd claim he was part of the Justice League and slip away if he was caught. Somehow. No idea on how he'd pull that off.
Lady Luck was on his side today as he reached the ramp with no issues. Nice. Next, he walked up the ramp and into the ship proper. Slipping out a boomerang, he kept it close as he now went skulking about, searching for anything that would satisfy his mission here. There was nothing yet, just a long hallway, but that was to be suspected.
No one ever kept anything important by the front door. No, you had to work for it if you wanted to find it, so it more than likely would be in an offshoot corridor. Still, everything looked the same, and that included the doors. He wondered if they slid open like automatic doors. So far, none were opening when he passed by, so maybe they needed some kind of key?
Well, that was just perfect. Swell, even. And here he was risking his head, literally, and for what? This was insane, but he still had to go through with it.
His exploration continued, taking him through several corridors and hallways, closed doors all around, and none of them open. He was about to call it a day when finally he hit a stroke of luck. The Aussie had almost walked past it too and everything, but thinking something was up, he stopped, took a couple steps back, then peered down an intersecting hallway that he had just happen to pass.
It was further down, but there. Could it be? Taking the gamble, he crept down the hallway and yes, he hadn't imagined it! An opened door! Hopefully there would be something of value in there.
There was one of those winged aliens, Thanagarian or close enough, sitting at a terminal, fingers tapping on a display. Oh man, now this was what he was looking for! That had to be a computer and some kind of keyboard, but that could be figured out later. First, that alien needed to be taken care of. Did he have the strength and skill to do it? Who knows, but he had a little something special just in case.
That something special was a pipe, one that came with a dart. Pulling it out from his coat, Boomerang inserted the dart into the pipe, brought it up to his mouth, then aimed. He was only going to get one shot at this, so he needed to be…very…careful…and…
He blew, the dart fired, and its needle tip struck the neck of the alien. Lowering the pipe, Boomerang smirked, his smirk dying immediately as the winged alien grabbed and pulled the dart out. The alien's head snapped to one side, and fierce, angry eyes spotted the trespasser. The expert boomerang thrower felt his heart stop, "shit!" on repeat in his head.
"You!" the alien snarled, getting up from his seat and making to charge only for his legs to buckle and take the rest of him down too. Suddenly remembering that it needed to beat, Boomerang now felt his heart hammering in his chest. He waited several seconds, then took a few steps closer.
With one foot, he nudged the comatose body and pulled back almost immediately. When there was no reaction, he then raised and pressed his foot into the alien's shoulder and pushed. This got him a good look for rolled up eyes and some drool. Huh, must have been a delayed reaction with the sedative.
Now, to business.
Tucking his pipe away, Boomerang stole the recently vacated seat. Alright, time to see if he could find…anything…
The monitor might as well be gibberish because he didn't understand a single thing he was seeing. None of it was in English, so bullocks. Looking down at what the alien was using, there was a display, but how the hell did he use it? There were no keys, so what gives? Touching it didn't do anything. Moving his finger up and down on it did—oh wait, the monitor was changing. Oh, he was scrolling up and down.
And this helped him how? Doing a quick look around, nothing showed even a sign of a USB port. Fine then, he had a backup plan just in case.
Slipping out a nifty camera, he made sure to scroll up on the monitor, then began taking pictures. He kept scrolling the image down, making sure to not clip anything out by accident and taking the following picture, and so on and so forth. When he could not go down further, he put the camera back in its pocket, then got out of seat to get the hell out of here.
Sure, he understood nothing of what he saw, but that wasn't his problem now, was it? That was for Waller and he was more than willing to let her handle the headache from this shit.
Getting out felt more urgent now, and Boomerang felt creeping paranoia as he checked around every corner and behind him. He did his best to try and remember how many turns he had made, and in time, he found the descending ramp that led to quasi-freedom. Oh, he could still be caught, seeing as how much land these aliens were taking up to build whatever it is that they were building.
Once he was able to slip out of here, he'd make his way to where he had last seen Force, and then wait for everyone else to show up.
That sounded like a good plan, and soon enough, he was stepping off that ramp and strolling back to the cover that he had first left when sneaking aboard. Just keep it cool, George. Keep cool, and you'd be out here—
A red blur came to a sudden stop right in front of him, and one more time his heart stopped. Of all the people to be here, it had to be the Flash, the bastard blinking dumbly at him.
"Hey, Captain Boomerang! What're you doing here?!" the red menace exclaimed, his voice way too loud for Boomerang's liking. However, before the Aussie could respond, Flash frowned and began to look at him suspiciously. "Say, aren't you supposed to be in prison?"
Swallowing, Boomerang gave the best answer he could. "Time off for good behavior."
"Really? Well, that's great! Starting to turn your life around, huh?" Flash said, reminding him of a dumb dingo pup. "So what brings you here? What are you doing in the middle of the Gobi? Kinda far for you, isn't it?"
"Yeah, well, I heard about, well, you know, the crazy stuff happening," Boomerang answered, slightly proud that he hadn't stuttered yet. "Thought I might lend a 'and, ya know? It's our world too, ain't it? But I wasn't expecting all…this." He gestured wildly with an arm at all the construction. "Really startin' to feel outta my depth. Say, you wouldn't mind helping a fella get outta 'ere? I don't want to be caught under foot, if ya catch my drift."
"No prob," Flash told him, waving a hand dismissively. That hand suddenly latched onto Boomerang's shoulder and then the whole world was a blur. It was a good thing he hadn't eaten before because he would have sworn everything that was still in his stomach was pressed to one side and causing a lot of discomfort.
Just as quickly as it started, it was over, and Boomerang was fighting to keep his balance now. Flash looked proud of himself for all of two seconds, then caught on to what was happening.
"Ooh, I really keep forgetting about that. Take your time, rest a bit and…say, you sure you're going to be alright? We're in a desert, miles of sand in every direction. If you want I can—"
"No!" That almost caused a heave, and Boomerang held up a hand in the universal stop gesture. "No! I'll be good. I'll figure it out! Just go…go and do your Flash stuff. I'll be fine. I'll be fine."
Flash was practically studying him. Then giving a shrug of his shoulders, he said, "If you change your mind, you know where to find me. Take a break right here and don't go wandering off. I don't think you'll survive."
"Fine. Okay." Something was starting to come up. "Just go."
Giving another shrug of his shoulders, Flash finally listened and took off. Just in time to, because Boomerang couldn't hold it in any longer.
Night had set in on Gobi, but that didn't stop the Thanagarians. Lights from the spaceships overhead lit the area up almost as if it were day. They continued laboring on the Defense Shield Generator, their level of activity not once slowing down.
Captain Atom and Firestorm had been relieved of their service and each man went to recuperate elsewhere. Whether that was on the Watchtower, or their respective homes, was unknown. Flash had gone back to Central City to attend to some business there.
That left Superman watching the construction with John, the two men hovering in midair from a distance away. Considering the size this thing was going to be, they were a few miles away and it didn't even seem like the place had shrunk in size.
"This…is going to be big," Superman had found himself saying for what felt like the hundredth time that day. "How far along do you think it is?"
"Not even one percent," John answered him. "I've seen generators like this before and they're usually big. Maybe not as big as this one will be, but the outer frame should be done in the next few days, and then comes the real work."
Yeah, the Kryptonian figured as much. Putting together the power source, wiring everything, installing software and integrating it into the system would take much longer. The sooner they started on that process, the better. "Maybe if the Thanagarians are planning on working day and night, it might quicken the process," he suggested.
"Without a doubt, but that's standard operating procedure for them," the Green Lantern replied. "I was talking with a few of them earlier and they were talking about working in consistent shifts. They're not going to stop working, period."
Superman nodded in response, but said nothing more. Gazing towards the construction site, he couldn't help but remember Flash's words on the state of the League. While more optimistic than Batman's—though that wasn't that hard of a hurdle to jump—it still plagued him. It was like finding out your parents were planning on divorcing, but neither party had filed the paperwork. They were in a limbo where maybe things could be salvaged, or they would tip over into breaking up.
He had two opinions, he might as well get a third.
"Can I ask you something, John?" the dark-haired man asked after several moments.
"Shoot," John replied.
"I've…been talking to a few members on where they stand on the League lately. I've gotten less than satisfactory answers. I wanted to see what you thought."
John was silent for a moment. "I'm guessing this is in regard to everything that happened before the Tamaraneans tried to terraform Earth."
"Yeah, it is."
"Long term, I think the League will be just fine. It's made of sterner stuff than you would think. Short term, yeah, I think things will be bumpy. The antagonism between the Founders strained relationships, not to mention put us in a bad light with the new recruits."
To hear that John thought the League would survive was reassuring. Even the acknowledgement that they were going to have bumps didn't seem as bad as when Flash had mentioned them. The Green Lantern glanced towards him. "Who have you spoken to so far?" he asked.
"Flash not too long ago. He pretty much said everyone needed time."
John nodded. "It's surprising the kid would say something like that, but maybe after everything that's happened, he's just trying to take this one step at a time. I guess we can say he's maturing."
There was a moment of silence before, "I spoke to Batman too. He was less than optimistic."
The Green Lantern snorted. "That isn't surprising. He lives in doom and gloom. It's not the first time I've wondered why we brought him back."
"You've been thinking that?"
"He kept this whole future thing quiet when he should have told us about it. After that brainwashing, I'm certain that if we knew about it, we would have been able to tell something was wrong instead of just accepting it."
"I do wonder that," the Kryptonian murmured. If they had known about the future, would the Legion's brainwashing be as effective as it was? They had no way of knowing now, but that was a point to consider.
"Not to play Devil's Advocate here, but we did attack Batman, at his home no less," he pointed out then. "Even attacked his protege, whom I learned he calls family."
"Really? They're family?" John questioned.
"Yeah. He straight up called her his daughter. In light of that, would you have done things differently?"
The dark-skinned man was quiet. "I still think that had I gone through what he had with experiencing the future, I still would have told everyone. That's the only solution I can think of that would have prevented this latest crisis."
"Even though he's been the one to pay the largest price? His home is wrecked, if not destroyed. He's determined to keep Batgirl safe from us, so there's no telling where he's hiding her now. He had his greatest paranoia realized. He's practically doubling down on his action."
"It sounds like you agree with him," John pointed out.
"I can't help but see his point," Superman admitted. "Which is why I'm worried that maybe this might be something the League wouldn't recover from. I can't ask J'onn, Diana, or Hawkgirl about this since they left, which just leaves the four of us, plus the new members. I can only imagine how many want to stay now considering everything."
"Maybe you should find out," John suggested. "Ultimately, the League can't have people that aren't steadfast in their beliefs. I hate that they had to go through this as their introduction into the League, but we have to make this work for us now. We may lose some members, but we'll know who still believes in what the League represents and those that don't."
That was an interesting viewpoint. In fact, that was what Superman would do. He'd go ask the other members how they feel about the League. If they lost a few, or even all of them, then perhaps that was for the best. Hopefully some of them would stay.
Hopefully.
To Guest: Zatanna will return...eventually lol. I'm glad you like her. She's always fun to write for.