TW:IM2

"I know this is going back to something we'd already covered but I think there's another reason Tony did everything he did the way he did," Dick commented into the silence that followed J'onn's words.

"Oh?" Raquel arched an eyebrow, interest clear in her eyes. "Wanna share?"

"It's related to all that guilt Canary and Bruce said he had on his shoulders," The younger Team member stated. "I think he doesn't want anyone to mourn him when he dies."

Dinah, having had a similar thought worrying away at the back of her mind, nodded. "Makes sense; makes a lot of sense, in fact."

"I'm sorry but how exactly does that make any sense?" Conner frowned. "Why wouldn't he want anyone to mourn him?"

"Perhaps because he feels his sins far outweigh any good he has done," Kaldur quietly stated. "Due to my father's… actions… against Atlantis, when the King chose to mentor me, I considered myself unworthy of such attention. I felt I did not deserve such an honor and that everyone was right to see me as the… Ulilngha'tele… the 'undeserving bastard.'" He noted how his friends -and a few Leaguers- winced at the harsh slur. "Because of this, I pushed myself to be better, to be the best at everything I did to prove that I was not my father. At the same time, I stayed away from everyone: I saw no reason to open myself up to the hurt of being rejected. Even after Queen Mera essentially adopted me, and Garth and Tula wormed their way into my heart, every attack my father carried out against Atlantis made me wonder if I would ever be able to bury the disgrace of his sins beneath the weight of my good deeds or, if I failed to do so, if I deserved to have the honor of a fallen warrior bestowed upon me should I die in battle."

"Well I don't know about what the Atlantean tradition for a 'fallen warrior' is but I know that anyone who thinks you don't deserve that honor should be drop-kicked to Pluto,"* Conner scowled even as he made a mental note to ask Dick about looking for Atlantean traditions. Kaldur's words just then had made the young Kryptonian realize that they really didn't know all that much about their friend's culture -or backstory. "I don't care what some old fart's done or what he's doing: you're the best, most decent guy I know and if some fishy idiots don't get that then maybe it's a good thing you're up here with us instead of being down there with them."

Though the words carried some heat -and could have been seen as being somewhat disrespectful of the Atlanteans- not a single person doubted the conviction in Conner's voice and Kaldur nodded gratefully to his friend. "Thank you, Conner, though I would argue that Superman deserves the 'most decent guy' title."

"He got all stuck up about the 'You're a clone of me!' thing," Conner deadpanned. "He lost major decency points for that."

"Be that as it may," Dinah said, wading in before the conversation could focus on Conner and Clark's frayed-but-slowly-mending relationship -'And God, it feels like I've always got to keep my eye on the proverbial rudder around here!'- "Kaldur's point makes a lot of sense: if he could feel so much guilt when he didn't have a direct hand in what was going on to the point of feeling like he didn't deserve any honors for doing such a good job -by the way, I both agree with Conner and want to smack you in the back of the head for that justifiable-but-ultimately-silly thought- how bad do you think Tony must feel when he literally created many of the weapons that took thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands, of innocent lives?"

It was a sobering thought and it really helped them understand just what Dick had been getting at.

"I need to make a call," Oliver murmured quietly, pressing his lips to Dinah's forehead before getting up. "Don't wait for me."

His movement seemed to snap everyone out of their thoughts and, after nodding to her mentor, Artemis played the movie.

1:01:35 - 1:01:51

"You'd think he just had a casual debate and stepped out for a quick coffee," Zatanna shook her head in disbelief as they stared at the billionaire casually lounging in the Rand's Donuts logo. "If I didn't know how much he cared about Rhodey, I'd have thought the whole fight didn't even bother him."

"He isn't the kind to sit around and brood," Dinah shrugged. "He's worn his unflappability like an armor for ages before he created the Power Suits; I'd have been more surprised if he hadn't switched to default mode."

1:01:54

"Hey, it's the guy from the bonus scene in the first movie!" M'gann pointed out excitedly.

Hal, however, was utterly lost. "What bonus scene?"

"There was a scene in the middle of the rolling credits," Dinah explained with the faintest hints of a teasing smirk dancing around the corner of her mouth as Tony peered over his shades to stare at the newcomer. "Eyepatch over there pulled a Batman and just showed up in Stark's living room; something about welcoming Iron Man into a wider world."

"Wider world, huh…?" Hal smiled nostalgically, the words reminding him of Kilowogg's infamous 'welcome to big city, farm boy!' speech.

1:02:01 - 1:02:27

"He's got guts," Zatanna winced slightly at the sight of the growing circuit-like pattern on Tony's neck. "Not many people would touch something they weren't sure wasn't contagious."

"Sometimes, they don't touch even when they know it isn't," Bruce remarked. "Still, I don't think he's as uninformed as you think." The Dark Knight added as a figure approached the seated duo.

1:02:32

"I honestly don't know why I didn't think she'd be with the Strategic Homeland-"

"SHIELD, Birdbrain," Wally interrupted. "Just stick with SHIELD."

The young acrobat shot her a disgruntled look. "Spoilsport. Anyway, I don't know why I didn't think of SHIELD when we were trying to figure out who she was working for. I mean, it seems so obvious now."

"Hindsight is always twenty-twenty," Kaldur pointed out. "It also didn't help that, as far as we'd seen, SHIELD was a relative unknown. There was little information about their means, their objectives, their reach or the thousand other little details that could have put them on our radar."

"Besides, we kinda got close," Conner shrugged as Oliver walked in. "They just weren't important enough for us to think of."

1:02:37 - 1:02:47

"Wait a second, just how in the blazing hells did they find out that he's ill when Rhodey and Pepper still don't know?!" Zatanna demanded.

"If I've learned anything from dealing with Waller all these years it's to ignore exactly how she gets her intel," Oliver sighed dramatically. "I know you guys are thinking how dangerous that kind of mentality is but trust me, trying to figure out how she knows? That way lay madness."

"Waller keeps tabs on anything she considers interesting," Bruce explained over Oliver's 'I'm going crazy' act. "Amanda's a firm believer in the 'every information is useful information' school of thought. She collects every bit of information -rumors included- she can lay her hands on and has an army of analysts run them through every test imaginable until she comes to either the truth or something annoyingly close."

"Wait, wait, wait," Wally shook his head. "Are you saying she could know who you are under the mask?"

"… She could."

"Holy…"

1:02:52 - 1:03:19

"Like we needed even more of a confirmation that Tony handed the suit over to Rhodey," Raquel punctuated her statement with a roll of her eyes.

"Funny, I was more concerned with the casual reveal that Agent 'I am the Shadow' Romanoff had access to Tony's database." Dick deadpanned.

"And that's something to worry about because…?" Raquel arched an eyebrow. "I mean, she was his girlfriend's assistant when said girlfriend was the CEO to his company and then he poached her to be his executive assistant or whatever he wanted to call her: it'd be weird if she didn't have access to the company database. And the guy's got an AI watching his systems: if it didn't throw up any alarms then maybe Spy-girl didn't get anywhere important."

"She accessed security guidelines relating to the Iron Man suits," The young acrobat pointed out.

"Yeah but she works for the guy who very publicly stated his connection to said heroic alter-ego." Artemis shrugged. "Plus, check out the way she worded that: redundancies to prevent unauthorized usage. Pretty sure -considering Tony's ego- he'd have made it mandatory that everyone learn that there are guidelines against wrongly using the suits."

1:03:20 - 1:03:38

"What did she-?!"

"Relax, M'gann, he isn't hurt," Dinah interjected, easing off the girl's tension as, onscreen, the circuit-like pattern on Tony's skin shrank back. "See? Whatever that was, it was a meant to help him; a quick-fix maybe; could even have been a cure."

"It was almost certainly a temporary measure," Alfred remarked mere seconds before Fury commented that the contents of the syringe -lithium dioxide- would help him 'take the edge off.' "Mister Stark is dealing with an illness that comes from, I'm guessing, a unique form of radiation poisoning. Something like that cannot be fixed by the contents of a bottle in a single go."

"But… how were you so sure of that?" M'gann asked, directing the question to the adults who hadn't flinched when Romanoff stabbed the genius. "You couldn't have been sure that the Director wasn't angry at Tony and-"

"Actually, we could and were dead certain that Eyepatch needed him alive and healthy." Oliver shrugged. "Chalk it up to experience dealing with the Wall: this guy's a lot more dramatic and playful but they've both got that 'eye on the bigger picture' mentality that forces them to never throw out what could be a useful resource."

"And, like it or not, Stark's brain might very well be one of the biggest resources anyone could tap in to." Hal concluded.*

1:03:56 - 1:04:13

"Hold the bloody phone," Raquel breathed in shock as the implications of the Director's words seeped into their minds. "Is he saying what I think he's saying?!"

"I… think he is," An equally wide-eyed Conner murmured. "But… Tony would have tried everything possible, right?"

"That sounds about right," Hal nodded. "But clearly, we -and Stark- are missing something."

"Let's consider the facts here," Dick stated, his wrist-mounted holo-computer out and running. "Tony says he's tried-"

"Start from the top," Artemis interjected. "Tony built the arc reactor to help him keep tiny weapons fragments from getting into his heart."

"Yes, but the reactor utilizes palladium cores which, for some reason we don't understand, is gradually poisoning him." Zatanna continued.

"I might have a theory on why the palladium core's killing Tony but we'll consider that later; what matters next is that Tony's in a dilemma," Wally said. "He can't take the core out cause without it he's got about half an hour to live but keeping it in is literally killing him."

"Luckily, Tony is a genius with an extremely advanced Artificial Intelligence assistant," Kaldur continued seamlessly. "Instead of taking the threat to his life lying down, he attacks the problem from just about every angle he can, including simulating possible alternatives to palladium as a reactor core."

"Unluckily, nothing seems to be working," Raquel finished. "Every element -and every possible combination of elements, per his own words- has failed to give a possible solution but out of nowhere, Director Eyepatch over there shows us and tells us that there's something else to try."

"Which leads us where we are now," Dick frowned. "Trying to figure out what the Director has to offer that we hadn't considered."

The Cave went silent for almost five minutes as the Team tried to solve the riddle until a clear tingling sound cut through the air.

"Alright, normally I'd leave you to puzzle things out on your own but I think I'll throw you guys a bone this time," Dinah smiled as she returned her glass to the table. "For all that Tony's tried everything he could think of to solve this problem, one thing this movie's gone out on a limb to show us is that he isn't all-knowing. The most glaring way that message was passed across was also the one thing that's really changed things up in this movie. Anybody wanna tell me what that 'big event' was?"

"Vanko's Whiplash Armor, if you could really call that thing 'armor anyway," Bruce answered. "Aside from not seeing the dangerous side-effects of palladium radiation, Stark believed his suit was more than a decade ahead of anything the rest of the world could achieve, something he made abundantly clear in the Senate hearing. Vanko's creation tossed that idea out the window."

"…I wanted the kids to figure that one out."

"You said 'anybody,'" Bruce shrugged, getting a groan from the woman.

"Okay, so our resident brainiac's correct: the Whiplash suit shows that Tony isn't all knowing but it also creates a chance for whoever's in possession of that thing -and yeah, Bruce, it's really more of a harness than actual armor- to sort of reverse engineer what Vanko did and look for how to make it better."

"Okay, but what's that got to do with what the Director's talking about?" M'gann asked.

"Remember when Stark met Vanko in the French holding cell?" They all nodded. "Well, Vanko hinted that he knew the dangers of using palladium as a core for a reactor-"

"So he probably used something else!" Conner exclaimed, finally cottoning on to Dinah's thoughts. "But… Tony looked over his… whatever you wanna call it, right? That's why he was able to suggest improvements to his design."

"He didn't look at the reactor, though," Raquel pointed out. "Tony ripped it right out of the harness and crushed it."

"Which means whatever secrets Vanko had lying in there died on the spot," Oliver started, "unless someone got their hands on the reactor and studied it."

"Someone like Director Fury," Kaldur nodded. "It is easy to think that he may not have known that it was the palladium that was poisoning him but with the revelation that Agent Romanoff was his spy all this while, it is not a reach to suggest that perhaps she had listened in to Tony's revelation of his condition to Lieutenant Rhodes."

"Which revealed that palladium -at least as far as they could ascertain- was part of what made up the reactor core," Wally said, following the train of thought. "If they did study Vanko's arc reactor then they would have noticed that Vanko the absence of palladium which could be the key Tony's been looking for."

"Man, I can't wait to see the look on Vanko's face when he realizes that he basically handed Tony the cure to his palladium problem!" Conner grinned fiercely.*

1:04:18

"I swear, I can't take this guy seriously," Raquel sniffed rudely as Hammer made a return to the screen, approaching Vanko's work-area with his assistant, Jack, holding onto a covered item. "He acts like he's in a permanent 'frat-boy' mode!"

"I would say that his actions point to something arguably worse," Alfred rejoined. "In my opinion, Mister Hammer is no more than a child with an inferiority complex. He so desperately wants to be seen as the 'coolest kid on the block,' so to speak, so he copies everything the actual coolest kid is doing but does it so badly that he comes off as poorly done caricature."

1:04:20 - 1:04:32

"Oh?" Zatanna seemed almost impressed. "Well, caricature or not, it looks like Justin's actually good for something. Maybe he could open a pet store…?"

1:04:33

"Or not, apparently."

"Okay, I never thought I'd side with Discount Tony but how the heck isn't that the right bird?" Conner frowned as Hammer sputtered about the bird's authenticity. "I mean, I know we didn't get a very good look at it but that sparrow-"

"Cockatoo," Dick corrected helpfully.

"Right, well, the cockatoo looks exactly like Vanko's." Conner stated. "And unless Vanko gave him a picture of the bird, Hammer could only have gotten one that matched it so well if he got the real one, right?"

1:04:44

"Vanko's playing with him," Bruce stated, at the same time Dinah muttered, "He's yanking Hammer's chain."

For a few moments, the only sounds came from the TV as Justin tried to reason with the Russian. Then, Kaldur asked for an explanation as they paused the movie.

"I wasn't sure of it earlier but Vanko's wording just now confirmed it: asking for the bird, dismissing this one without looking for any distinguishing marks, even ripping the helmet out of Hammer's prototypes and calling the software 'shit,' it's all been about pushing Hammer around."

Dinah continued from there: "I'm not dead certain but Vanko doesn't strike me as the type of guy to just accept being an underling. Oh, he can definitely keep himself in check if he feels like his boss is the kind that crushes insects with hammers but even then he'd keep an eye out for any openings that'd get him to the top spot."

"So he's a back-stabby kind of guy?" M'gann asked.

"More a 'climb on the corpses of whoever,'" Dinah replied. "Point is, Hammer doesn't exactly give off the kind of 'top dog, iron-fist ruler' vibe that'd keep a guy like Vanko in check. Vanko knows he's important from the start: you don't break a guy out of prison and offer him a fancy dinner if he isn't vital to your plans but the question Vanko had was exactly how valuable am I to this guy? How far can I push before I get to the boundaries of my new fishbowl?"

With the proverbial seed of knowledge planted, understanding slowly blossomed in the Team's minds.

"So insulting and wrecking Hammer's work on the first day-"

"-was his way of testing what Hammer would or wouldn't allow," Artemis concluded Kaldur's statement. "And when Hammer didn't stand up to that, Vanko had more space to play around."

"Which led to him asking about the bird." Wally continued. "Except he didn't ask, he demanded. And now Hammer's pulled a number of favors for a simple bird."

"More than just the fact that Hammer pulled in favors for something so trivial, it's how quickly he got this done. I mean, it's been what, a week since Vanko asked?"

"Could be up to two, three's my most extreme guess." Wally supplied.

"Right. So, Vanko makes a request and Hammer's basically jumping through hoops to get it done ASAP. Makes you really wonder who hired who."

"Okay, you guys present a good argument here but what if Hammer's just trying to keep what could be his biggest acquisition motivated? I mean, I've rushed a few QC* requests so I could keep my top researchers happy." Oliver stated, adding in a new angle.

"You may have rushed a few requests but I don't think you rushed a few stupid requests." Raquel stated. "And I know you didn't allow anyone to just get away with insulting your work."

"I've done it a few times," Oliver admitted freely, recalling a certain blonde IT whiz. "They weren't as condescending as Vanko, I'll give you that but when a certified computer genius takes a look at your systems and calls your entire setup 'so lazy even the early Sumerians could have done better' you learn to shut up and let them do the job you're paying them for."

"Okay, I'll give you that. But did this genius also ask for something stupid? And if they did, did you go running to get it for them and then make a grandstand presentation like a schoolboy looking for his mama's attention?" When Oliver didn't respond, Raquel smiled victoriously. "That's the difference between you and Justin 'Value-Pack Tony' Hammer: you knew when to shut up and accept genuine criticism and when to put your foot down. Even if Hammer felt getting the bird was necessary to Vanko's morale up he should have had the bird delivered without the fanfare. Just have a grunt drop the cage and walk away. The grandstanding just makes him come off as an overeager puppy."

1:05:00 - 1:05:23

"You're not supposed to fit a head in there," Hal scowled darkly, having a good idea what Vanko had planned. "You don't put anything in there except computer chips, an electric current and some easily programmed instructions that could get… compromised… by a bunch of radical idiots halfway across the world with a decent computer and a fast internet connection."

"Hal…" J'onn murmured, knowing now how much the Green Lantern detested the idea of programmable weapons.

"Come on, J'onn, are you going to tell me that I'm overreacting again?" Hal demanded, gesticulating sharply at the TV. "You gonna tell me that I'm being unreasonable when we both know easily shit like this can go sideways?"

1:05:40 - 1:05:48

"Can you hear that bullshit?" Hal snapped. "Drone better because people make problem. And what are those problems, you ask? 'Human errors.' Taking a shot five inches to the left of the actual target. Never mind the fact that drone better can cause an international incident if a single wire gets loose. No, of course drone better; drones don't have a conscience. They don't feel guilty about a so-called 'terrorist attack' and so they won't try to expose it for the cover up that it was!"

"Okay, Hal, I'm gonna ask that we table this discussion for later," Oliver cut in. "Because, as much as I get your point, I think we need to tackle this drone versus human thing from a more objective point of view."

"Oliver is right," J'onn agreed. "Perhaps we can continue this on the Watchtower?"

"Continue it wherever you want but you'll need one hell of an argument to convince me."

1:05:50 - 1:06:15

"Yeah, I can definitely see what you guys meant about their relationship," Conner shook his head as Hammer blustered through a loud -but utterly ineffective- demand. "Vanko doesn't see Hammer as anything worth respecting."

"It's probably even worse now that Hammer's pretty much just thrown away his last shot at gaining a modicum of respect from Vanko," Artemis agreed. "I hate to sound like my dad but Hammer should have done more than just talk back there. With Vanko clearly flouting his orders, Hammer should have reminded him exactly who the boss was."

"And how would you have done that?" Hal asked, his anger at the matter of the drones temporarily put on hold. Unlike most of the League, he didn't typically get the chance to peer into the heads of criminal masterminds since he usually handed such off to the Interrogations arm of the Corps. As such, he was really interested in what someone who had been raised by such a figure might have to share. "Put a gun to his head?"

"Per my father's loving advice? My first option would have been to beat the tar out of him," The blonde shrugged. "However, since Hammer's probably never seen the inside of a gym before, I wouldn't risk getting into a scuffle and losing both respect and dignity so I'd just shoot him." The casual, relaxed way she said that sent slight shivers down Zatanna and Mgann's spines. "Nowhere important, of course, just a flesh wound's enough, but the stage would be set: Vanko would be shocked that a weakling like Hammer could be so coldly violent and he'd be on the back foot. Then, I'd ask Jack to keep his gun trained on Vanko and I'd get up in his face; keep the gun dangling loosely to show that I'm not afraid of his next action because Jack'll blow his arm right off, then I'd remind him that I got him out of France to build suits that'd blow Iron Man's pants off. If the fugitive engineer had any thoughts of altering my plans he should bring them to me first. After that, I'd walk out of there and order him to get back to work. Oh, and I'd take the cockatoo back and maybe say something witty like 'bird watching privileges are temporarily revoked.'"*

The Cave was dead silent.

"What?"

"… kid, I ever tell you that you can be really scary sometimes?"

"Yeah, that time you and Speedy-"

"Yeah, well I'm gonna say it again: Artemis Crock, you are terrifying."

"Hey, it wasn't even me this time!" The blonde protested hotly. "Blame my stupid dad for teaching me more about taking over rival crime families than… than… I dunno, playing house or whatever!"

"Heh, your dad was too busy teaching you all about crookery…" Wally nudged his girlfriend's side with a snicker. "…to bother teaching you crockery! Get it?"

A round of exasperated groans rang around the room at the brain-scarring pun, forcing Conner to hit the play button.

1:06:39

"Ah dammit," Zatanna groaned as she watched the general stare at the silvery suit with Rhodey by his side. "Come on, Rhodey!"

"You sound surprised," Dick remarked.

"I'm not really surprised, just disappointed, y'know? I was really hoping that maybe he'd have a change of heart and return the suit or, I dunno, just stash it somewhere."

"Neither of those options would fit his character," Bruce said. "For all his loyalty to Stark, Lieutenant Rhodes is a man that believes in doing his duty. Returning the suit to Stark would go against his sense of duty -not to mention how it would nullify the whole point of taking the suit in the first place. As for keeping the suit for himself… Well, I can almost bet that the thought never even crossed his mind. A selfish thought like that -one that would fly in the face of both his sense of duty and his loyalty- would be hard-pressed to even be formed, to say nothing of it actually taking root in his mind."

Faced with the knowledge that no sane version of the Lieutenant would have done what she wished, Zatanna sighed and gestured for Conner to get them going again.

1:06:40 - 1:06:44

"I can almost see the general doing that cheesy villain hand rub and cackling to himself," Wally remarked.

1:06:45 - 1:06:53

"Really makes you wonder what they'd have done if Rhodey didn't get them the suit," Dick murmured, sarcasm bleeding into his words.

1:06:54 - 1:07:08

"The look on the Colonel's face makes me think he's not so sure about picking duty over loyalty right about now," Kaldur noted as the scene ended.

"I agree," Dinah nodded. "But I'm actually more bothered by the fact that Hammer -and by extension Vanko- is about to get his hands on a fully functional 'mission capable' Iron Man suit. Prototype version or not, that's still a lot of power to hand over to people like that."

"And with Mister Stark's death date looming ever larger, the idea of such men as Hammer and Vanko being in control of power armor becomes even more terrifying." Alfred noted.

1:07:19

"Wait. The arc reactor's unfinished?" Oliver asked in amazement. "But… Stark had that giant version in his HQ…?"

1:07:20 - 1:08:09

Without realizing it, Dick, Wally, Raquel and Bruce had all shifted to the edge of their seats, eager to hear more about this new development.

1:08:10 - 1:08:33

"Why's he so dead-set on his dad seeing him as a failure?"Conner asked, a frown etched on his face. "I mean, his old man didn't look like the kind of guy to hate his son, right?"

"Appearances can be deceiving, Con," Artemis said quietly. "Most of the kids and parents in my grade school would happily swear that my dad was the picture-perfect image of a loving father."

"I'm sorry if I'm sounding rude here, Artemis, but Sportsmaster?" Dick frowned. "Isn't he like, the king of gruff violence?"

"He is," She admitted freely. "But that's Sportsmaster, not Lawrence Crock. I still remember this one time in fifth grade when Jade had screwed up a job they'd been on the night before and he had to show up for an open house: I was there when he ripped into Jade like a hurricane and then thirty minutes later, he was chatting with Miss Wilkes like they were old friends." The slightly unfocused look that came with recollection faded from her eyes, replaced with a cold, hardened look that bore a startling resemblance to her father's. "Believe me Dick, if he wanted to, he'd charm the pants off just about anyone."

"She's right." Oliver added quietly. "There's also the fact that a lot of times, we remember our parents from the faces they showed us which, in itself, was often an incomplete image of them. Take my parents: they were the power couple of Star City, crazy rich philanthropists and Thea and I remember them as the best parents any kid could ever wish for. Fast forward a couple of years and I discover that my parents were among the founding members of the group that planned to level an entire section of the city so they could 'wipe away the ugliness in the city and build something greater.'" No one spoke for a few moments: the Team struggled yet again to adjust to this new tidbit about one of their heroes' personal lives while the members of the League remembered Moira Queen's fateful news broadcast all those years ago. "I guess my example's sort of the opposite of what Tony's facing but-"

"But it's not a complete opposite of his," Zatanna said softly. "He sees his dad as this guy that hated him and didn't care the slightest about him; you saw your parents as being near perfect saints who couldn't do any wrong. Except, you came to see that your parents had skeletons, just like pretty much anyone else and now he's seeing that his dad had a completely different side he didn't know about."

Oliver nodded at the young Homo Magi. "That about sums it up."

"So the question now is how Stark will respond to this," Bruce summarized even as he brushed aside the tiny voice that wondered if his parents had any secrets lurking in the shadows…

1:08:34 - 1:08:58

Simultaneous cries of "He was what?!" rang around the room, in perfect sync with Tony's own shocked response.

1:09:00 - 1:09:07

"Really?! He's really about to just leave after dropping that mega-bomb?!" Wally was practically yelling at the screen, not that anyone seemed ready to stop him; most of them were just as incensed as the young speedster was and the few who weren't understood what the Director had done and why.

1:09:09 - 1:09:21

"And that's how you deliver a pun," M'gann whispered to Conner with a small grin.

1:09:25 - 1:09:56

"Well, that's certainly a good one," Alfred commented as Tony nodded casually like he hadn't just been threatened. "I'll have to keep that in mind next time I need to threaten certain individuals from engaging in their nightly persuasions."

"…I'm right here, Alfred."

"Oh my, did I say that out loud?" The Wayne butler almost sounded like he really had made a mistake. In fact, were it not for the teasing smile he bore, nearly everyone present would have been fooled. "Forgive me, Master Bruce, Mister Coulson's threat just seemed so very appropriate for you when you get particularly mulish."

"Someone's getting babied," Dick whispered in a lilting tone to Zatanna only for the grin on his face to get wiped out by the Butler.

"Don't think I don't know about your part in his escapades, Master Grayson. Of course, as you are only an accomplice rather than the mastermind, perhaps I'll hit you with a lower voltage and tie you up so we can watch Doctor Who reruns together."

1:10:05

"Well, there was a lot to unpack in that scene." Kaldur noted as he stretched, relief flooding through him as his joints popped. "Like the fact that we were, apparently, wrong about what Director Fury meant earlier."

"I don't- wait." Dinah narrowed her eyes. "You're talking about when Fury said Stark hadn't tried everything."

"I believe he is, Miss Lance." Alfred stated. "We believed it had something to do with Vanko's reactor potentially utilizing a different element that could save Tony's life. However, based on Director Fury's revelation, it would appear that we were quite a mark away from the target."

"Well, that definitely came out of no-" Artemis started before pausing to fish her vibrating cellphone out of her pocket. "Be right back, my mom's calling."

"You know, this whole thing with Fury and Tony's dad really makes me wonder just what's in that box," Conner said as the blonde walked out of the room.

"On the bright side, we should be getting an answer to that question in a short while," Oliver noted.

"Speaking of questions, I have one for you guys," Hal said. "Why do you think Fury acted like that?"

"You mean how he left Tony with the mother of all cliffhangers?" Raquel asked.

"That's one way to describe it but yeah. Let's go with that."

"I think Director Fury did it to make Tony want to figure out what his dad left for him," M'gann suggested. "We saw how Tony didn't believe that his dad cared for him or thought of him as anything to be proud of so, if the Director just left the box there, Tony -at least, the Tony before this scene- would have been more inclined to throw the whole thing into the ocean. But now that there's a little seed of doubt about who his dad actually was, he would want to get to the bottom of this because it would either prove him wrong and show that his memories of his was flawed…"

"Or it would prove that he was right and permanently cement his thoughts about his dad," Dick finished.

Hal nodded. "That's very spot on. In fact-"

"Wally!" Artemis poked her head into the living room and gestured for her boyfriend to follow her.

The speedster quickly bounced out of his seat and dashed over to where his girlfriend was just before she began speaking. "What's up?"

"Oh, good! You're here!" The blonde sounded exasperated by whatever was going on as she switched to loudspeaker mode. "Mom doesn't believe I'm here watching movies with you guys."

"Don't make me sound like the villain here, young lady!" Paula Crock -nee Nguyen- stated over the phone, her voice cracking like a whip. "Not only have you broken your curfew the last two times you were out 'watching movies with the Team' you came home covered in bruises this last time!"

Wally turned a wide-eyed gaze to her and the blonde had the decency to grow pink in the face. When she just mouthed an urgent, Later!, he returned his focus to the phone and spoke up: "Uh… Mrs Crock? This is Wally. Wally West. I'm, uh… I guarantee you that she's actually here with us and we're all watching a movie, ma'am." The ginger haired boy winced at how stilted he sounded.

"Watching a movie, you say, Mr West?" Something about the way she'd said that told him set alarm bells clanging in his skull. "Well, can I know the name of the movie?"

Artemis threw her head up and moaned an inaudible Why?

"It's actually something pretty unique, Mrs Crock. A friend of ours found it lying around and we're just-"

"Surely it has a name, yes?"

"I mean, it does, it does. It's just… not a very popular movie."

"There will be records I can find on the internet."

"Mom, I love you and I'll see you soon! Bye!" Artemis stabbed the power button with a vengeance and didn't let go until the phone powered off. Then, she staggered back until she hit the wall and slowly slid to the ground. "God, why does my mom have to be like this?"

"I think it's a mom thing. Or at least, an older, responsible female thing." Wally replied as he joined her on the floor. "Iris is pretty much the same way. Though I have to ask, how did you manage to both miss curfew and get home all bruised up? We had close to an hour of time when we left last time."

The flush of embarrassment returned. "That one was mostly on me. After I got out of the Zeta tube, I decided to grab a few things from the store a few houses way before heading home. I was about ten minutes away from home when Jade got the jump on me and I… I kinda overreacted."

Wally smirked at her. "Meaning, you shot first and asked questions… never?"

"More like I asked questions after we'd beaten ourselves up a bit."

"And you say I'm impulsive."

"Shut up."

They sat there in companionable silence until Wally spoke up, "So, what did your sister want?"

"She, uh… she wanted to check up on mom, actually. She had a line on a scientist working on developing some kind of bionic chip that'd help mom walk again and she wanted me to help her feel mom out."

Wally slung an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. "I'll never understand why she doesn't just come out and admit that she cares for your mom."

"Yeah, I don't quite get that either," Artemis muttered. A few moments later, she wiggled her way out from his embrace and pushed to her feet. "Wanna head back?"

"Yeah. But I'm definitely escorting you home after this one's done."

"I can take care of myself, Baywatch."

"Oh I know." He took her outstretched arm and allowed her to pull him up. "But if we're together, maybe we can explain why your mom would never find Iron Man or The Incredible Hulk on the internet."

"Fair point."

*- Remember: this takes place in the gap between seasons 1 and 2; Kaldur hasn't taken time off for 'father-son villain-bonding' time just yet (and if this was a full story, that storyline would be heavily altered -if it even happened- due to some of the lessons they've learned, how they've matured individually and as a team and how much stronger their relationships have become, making it highly unlikely that Kaldur and Dick would play their black-ops solo)

*- Yes, I intentionally skipped over how SHIELD could have known that lithium oxide was a quick-fix to Tony's palladium poisoning when Tony himself didn't seem to know. To be honest, I'd already started down that line but I got to a point where I had to just skip it. Tony says he tried 'every element, every combination & permutation of every element' but he never noticed that Lithium Oxide could give him temporary reprieve from the effects? Come on! And I can't even claim that he didn't notice because he wasn't actively looking for a reprieve because he clearly was! That's the whole point of him sucking down the smoothies he was drinking: to help him fight the growing blood toxicity! If you're not claiming that he picked smoothies over LiO2 for some unspoken reason then this was a yawning plot hole!

*- One of the best things about writing this has been looking for logical ways the Team and the JL can pick up on tiny clues to make predictions of how the movie will go or what'll be revealed next. Sometimes, their thoughts line up perfectly and the predictions match the movie's outcomes… other times, they line up perfectly to provide logical answers that don't match the movie's outcome. This is fun because it allows me to give the characters a realistic experience similar to the early MCU fanbase when theories were slung about rapid fire and occasionally came close while others missed wildly. XD

*- QC here stands for Queen Consolidated.

*- I had a ton of fun thinking up this scene and the best part is, I can actually imagine Sportsmaster doing just that XD*- I'm altering the timeline so Bruce has no clue about the existence of the Court of Owls and any potential connections the Waynes may have had to them. That being said, using Oliver's backstory from Arrow season 1 worked out nicely.

*- Random blurb from when Natasha showed up in her super slinky spy-gear:

"Well… damn!" Artemis murmured, as surprised as just about every one of her teammates when they saw just who the new figure was. "I wonder if ol' Edna's willing to work on a new outfit for me. It's about time I ditched the green anyway."

"Hey! I thought you liked the green!" Oliver complained. "Made us a matching set and it went with the color of your eyes!"

"Sure, that's true, but I'm working on an espionage-ish team now," The younger archer countered. "Plus, it doesn't really go with the whole 'Goddess of the Hunt' thing like my name implies. Maybe a dark gray with silver and green highlights?"

And yes, it isthat Edna XD

I don't have all that much to say for this chapter except a huge THANK YOU to every one who has taken the time to review, favorite and follow this story. Your support keeps me going.

To Lady Katana of the Blade & Sir Vein Bloodborne who provided the transcripts for the first two fics in this series, and who constantly support this project, I greatly appreciate you guys

And to my editor and my friend; he who brought this idea to me and has helped me work through it at every stage, Mister War I salute you. Thank you for sticking with me even when I had to go radio-silent for weeks on end.

The Ethereal Lord.