[July 29th 2010]
Temporary Government Headquarters, Tropico (Formerly Santa Prisca)
This had been one of the stupider ideas, well one of many stupid ideas, I silently admitted to myself as I thought back on the events of the past few weeks. Or the past week in particular to be honest since that was why I still here on this shitty little island that the rest of the world tried to pretend didn't exist. Which was just fine by me, and merry band of bosses and minions as well, at the moment I could admit as we would rather this all stayed that way.
Well at least to the general public anyway; for our efforts in the past few days had been rather glaringly obvious to national governments and all the people whose money we had been appropriating and selling out to various national police services. After all never do an enemy a small slight and hope they forget you because they won't. So if I was going to do something like this I was going to ensure the resulting enemies were utterly bankrupt, broken and crushed beneath my heel as a warning to my other foes. Of which there would be many of in the future I suspect considering my career choices so far.
"Right at least that's bloody well done" I muttered to the others as we finished the preparations on the large teleportation circle we'd created here in the now empty warehouse and glancing at the man giving the thumbs up on the computer screen. Truth be told I was pretty exhausted after several days of casting, after casting, after casting alongside burning through whatever sell items I'd created after months worth of effort. John shrugged back as we all stood back up from the chalk outline with interspersed gems.
"Eh, is all yer own fault now innit mate? Don't see me conquering small Caribbean islands now do ya?"
"Fuck you John. Just do the bloody chant we me and Brendan and get this over with" I muttered back, even if the English prat was right all in all, and began to draw in power to myself for the coming spell. It'd taken ages to figure out how to do this, and I dreaded how much effort and time would be needed for a network, but at least it made getting speedy and organised movement possible at least on the small scale as power mustered between the three of us. Within moments the bastardised version of Teleport Circle we created between us shimmered into blazing light between us as the chalk circle glowed brightly and hummed...
...before vanishing as swiftly as it had appeared, the glass gems crumbling into dust and the ritual lines burned away into nothingness. Standing where it had been were several small crates of supplies, three men in jungle camouflage, and a girl who really shouldn't be here with an unhappy face being made at me and Constantine as she strode forward arms folded unhappily across her chest.
I was the El Presidente of this crummy corrupt little island and I was getting glared down by a pouting teenager. For the Gods sake I'd had a shouting match with Batman only a few days over a screwed up mission and I suddenly felt guiltier right now than then! I rubbed the back of neck and gave a half-hearted chuckle, though thankfully Constantine was there was get himself in trouble instead of me "Gemma, love, ye can't be here. It's a dangerous island with dangerous people on it. Yer mam will bleedin kill me iff'n she finds out! Back ye go. Shoo-shoo!"
"John mate, that ain't gonna send her back ye know. Loik we just burn away the..." Brendan Finn managed to mutter back from the other side of the circle as the three rangers also began to unpack their gear and seemingly ignored the rest of us after a bit of disorientation. Magic tended to do that I found at your first taste of the higher level stuff. I just shrugged at Brendan as my apprentice marched over to Constantine and glared up at him.
"You abandoned me Uncle John! It's been so boring and I was promised magic lessons by..." she points at me while continuing to glare "...you! Then you went off and traveled the world and both of ye left me stuck in a dusty hole in the ground!"
"Hmmm...I was pretty sure we'd cleared all the dust out before we lef..." I started to mutter before catching myself and smiling as cheerfully and apologetically as I could at the same time "...on this dangerous mission to this jungle island. Which is why...hehe...hhe...that you weren't invited Gemma, and the whole Justice League incident and...well...ya know...stuff"
Sergeant Macklin stepped forward from the three uniformed new arrivals with a laptop case in hand "Well, Mr. El Presidente..." he greeted with an amused chuckle "...we all know what you've been up to the past few days let's say. So after we sketch out the next few days objectives you're taking a break for a day. Teaching Gemma here basically, and some sleep, that'll hopefully prevent you going mad from either the power or the stress"
"Your confidence in my sanity fills me with joy" I managed to mutter back with a sigh. Honestly though, it would be good to stop thinking about robbing drug lords blind while preventing their revenge against myself, and then dealing with 'minions' motivated by fear of myself by and large. Or well armoured and mask me anyway, along with having to still use Bane of all people till more support arrived. Bloody Justice League dragging the Team off back to Mount Justice for 'debrief and training' as they put it.
"You did take over an island when you left with the Justice League" Gemma supplied unhelpfully as Macklin nodded while motioning me to follow. Respect! Where was my bloody respect? I had conquered a small island after all!
"And we're now in a armoured bunker in a mountain, that you technically own, as well. Hence why we're letting junior wizard here tag along. This place is better defended than...well...other available installations let's say and it's not like we've a vast number of wizards on the payroll as yet"
SHIELD of course being a major secret that we couldn't exactly blab about even here and now inside said mountain bunker at the back of the pharmaceutical facility. Not at least till we had anti-scrying wards in place and Mister Zatara probably wasn't watching us like a hawk from some remote location like the Watchtower. Yes I had fucked up badly with my actions here and it was mostly my fault...but dammit I wanted to blame someone not me for all the inconveniences and demands now placed upon myself. So all I could do was sigh in defeat as I was surrounded on all fronts it seemed. So I bravely decided to flee with Sgt. Macklin towards the meeting as the Constantine-Master's row started up behind us.
"Any further word on what support we're getting?" was the main question once we were out of earshot and walking down the whatever-steel hallway towards what I was calling my 'headquarters' on this island of merry corruption. It was all rather amusing in its horrifyingly bizarre way in truth; I was strictly speaking a billionaire right now, had my own banana republic island, and was all in all a quasi-figurehead in reality. Even the fact the public of this island didn't know my face, or actual name, as yet being solid proof of that...along with the bringing in foreign mercenaries to maintain order too.
"Well the British are sending a destroyer to support the 'New Leader of Santa Prisca' and have a squad of marines to 'help support the transition to law and order' alongside ourselves. Seems having the Prince of Wales put in a good word, help defend their embassy, and now cripple the drug trade in their jurisdiction has earned us some brownie points with the dirty Sassenach at least. Which is good because you get to be our merry little front man for this operation Senor El Presidente"
I hummed in thought as we walked "Hmmm...I'm guessing then we're going with plan B then?"
He shrugged "Looks like it, though it'll be decided in today's teleconference so tryin be persuasive lad if you wanna keep your secret identity. About the only thing I know fer sure is that they've signed off on yours and Constantine's plans for building those giant magical whatever-ya-calls-its wards yokes things here on the island as a test case. Seems since yer the one with magic mojo that got all these billions then best to turn this dump of an island around"
"And into a fallback fortress for major disasters?" I mused considering the options. Masquerading as a middle aged Latin American dictator-cum-future democratic liberator was a much better option in my opinion than marching around as John Fortune. Chaos-fu to m enemies had always be a great tactic I'd found, and it gave my more time to build up a power-base on this Earth. Plus it seemed my bosses didn't want to taint their magical wizard agent's name straight off the bat as a island conquering magician.
He nodded "That too, all this is off the books for the moment. Arms reach, black ops, etc, etc. Just another supervillain taking over the supervillain drug island from another supervillain. Just one that's more acceptable than the previous ones"
I frowned and huffed in indignation "I am not a supervillain!"
"Coulda fooled me Boss heh. But in all seriousness the Justice League want this buried, and so do the government beyond what a few other governments know of us...helping...this deployment along. G2 is trying to make it look like the Brits and Yanks were using us as front like the Mossad did a few years back, that we're only tangential and all that. Wouldn't go down too well with the voters if we're overthrowing foreign governments and conquering island nations with wizards now would it?"
"No that wouldn't it..." I glanced at the good sergeant "...your surprisingly knowledgeable today Sergeant? Are you warning me about something I need to know?"
"Nope, fraid not Boss. I'm to give you a summary before we setup the secure line so you and the others can have a talk on the detailed parts rather than you gettin' surprised and wasting time being surprised, or wanting to take time out on an issue"
Great, just great; No wonder they wanted to give me time off afterwards "So anything else I need to know?"
"Once we've got you enough 'minions' as you call them in place, purged and replaced the local gardai, we'll be sending you back to the Justice League. For training only this time fella...at least not without direct government permission anyway. We can't afford piss off the Justice League evidently, even if everyone is pissed off at them for this damned mess-slash-glorious success, and its best you make friendly with their sidekicks like you were doing. After all ye make a great team; takin down a terrorist cult, crushing a supervillian, and wiping out three of the world larger drug cartels on your first real mission together!"
Well I had been wondering about that since Zatara and Black Canary had whisked away my teammates who had been the core of my new administration in my mind. Corrupting them they said. I'd call it giving them an education in the consequences of nation building. Or just making my life easier by having superpowered individuals around to help crush my enemies like Superboy; and he was actually listening to me too...and Miss Martian would have been the best secret policeperson an El Presidente could want. I sighed. Mister Zatara seemed quite annoyed when I told them all that piece of information. Oh how that lot failed to make use of a shape-shifting mind-reader who could also turn invisible!
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