[August 6th 2010]

[Temporary Government Headquarters, Tropico (Formerly Santa Prisca)]

"I like this plan, it sounds like a good plan doesn't it? So what ye all think of it and what can we do about it?" I replied with a cheerful nod as our impromptu 'Cabinet of Tropico' sat around the large wooden table we'd appropriated for our 'conference room' here in the mountain. In technically I was the ruler of the island, but since most of the day to day running of it was going to be through agents (via SHIELD and the Government) due to time constraints and my other life. Delegation was a vital function of any leader I'd found from past experience.

Constantine was looking at me funny "Mate ye...want to pay the fellas whose dosh we just stole to fund an attack upon the island?" he opened his hands helplessly and looked at the others "...don't this seem a bit mental to the rest of ya? And our Bosses are okay with this because?"

I don't know why it did personally. The Cartels we'd usurped control of the island from had been dealt a crushing body blow as their information leaked, their banks accounts were emptied, secure safe-houses full of product were found by law enforcement, and host of other problems...but the remnants, or competitors, were bound to try something with what they had left.

Even if just on the mistaken belief, rather more common on this Earth compared to my original, that taking out one critical person might undo all the damage somehow. Something to do with supervillian and superhero behaviour, or maybe the shizo-tech, I expect. So best to get inside their C network and direct said attack to our, my, liking and crush my enemies when they exposed themselves. Knowledge was Power, and should be ruthlessly exploited against enemies such as this in my opinion. I shrugged.

"Hey the Soviets pulled it off against the White's in Russia after the civil war, Collins against ye Brits, and they didn't have magic and mind control over certain key figures in the enemy forces. We haven't touched Miquel Nunes and his group yet, that he escaped and is now in hiding and planning revenge as far as everyone know. So use that, divert all the chatter about getting El Presidente into a coherent 'resistance' force, drag them out and cut them down when they attack. If we can pass the blame for failure on those channels and individuals not under our control and get them to fight each other...though that's a secondary goal in my view..." I replied, folding my fingers in best rendition of Gendo Ikari I could manage. It was best to appear like I had total confidence in what I was suggesting, and also knew what I was talking about despite my age "...it would at least give us some warning of the plan to kill moi. Something I'd like to avoid let me tell you!"

Constantine just gave an expression like I was mad, while at least Caprain McKenna nodded thoughtfully as he played with a pencil idly as he replied "I'll admit I hadn't expected such a proposal from one your age, but then I remember who've you've been trainin' with back home. Still it has a valid core strategy and is built upon expanding the planned operations with the Nunes Cartel that we had already sketched out. It wouldn't take much to encourage the remnants of the others, and those untouched as well, to follow under whoever takes the first step forward. Hmmm...if we got ahead of the rest of the pack do as you say would be feasible..." he hummed in thought "...you do understand that things will easily move beyond the control of one party in something like this though?"

I shrugged again "What can we do? It's not like we've got a large garrison here on the island. I'm sure some among our new minions are spill info, so telling our enemies the truth about lots of non-vital things isn't going to hurt much. Or we tell them big things like the Brits did to the Germans before D-Day, but just a bit too late for anyone to act on it. Resources and supposed inside resistance info should hopefully gets us a long way..." I sighed "...and worse case we do up a few 'screw it, Omega level threat scenario' and have a response in place to make it bloody as fuck for them"

Because while it was unlikely this lot with their current resources would be able to dreg up a meta-human threat like that, it wasn't beyond the impossible someone like the League of Shadows or a random major league Supervillain wouldn't. And Constantine and Finn tended to react badly...ie with an even worse threat...to surprises like that. War and Planning had long been my domains despite whatever I'd adopted over the decades, so best to plan this out. Overkill was fine as long as you knew what you were doing; both the costs to do so, and the consequences of doing so as well.

Honestly we were better setup for handling low-level or high-level threats bizarrely than anything in the middle thanks to minimal elite military numbers mixed with several mages and a force of dubious loyalty and poor weapons. I'll admit Bane signing up under a Geas was both a help and a hindrance, costly too on the payroll, but it was useful known quantity to use on weaker threats while holding back our actual strengths. Which of course had led into ensuring there was a believable distance between Skull Faced Young Magician and El Presidente; basically so they were thought of as the same person.

Right now Bane believed, after some...help...that Skull Magician worked for El Presidente, who himself was the Agent of some Shadowy British Necromancer Cabal that had recently come to power behind the signs. Something SHIELD was rather happy to support, along with the one or two individuals with MI6, through a layer of correspondence beneath the official stuff. After all hiding SHIELD and the Irish Government's involvement in this mess was rather important; Me and John being Mercenaries or Agents of The Dark, and as such allies of El Presidente as well. The Night was Dark, and Full of Terrors after all.

See...that was the key to such hiding of organisations, or effectively making fictional groups; leave enough info to be believable that someone's hiding something, but matching misdirects to what exactly was being hidden. Since most of our actual info went through magical buffered sources, ie me, John, & Brendan, the non-magical electronic info tended towards part truths. I'm sure Batman and the Lanterns were rather grumpy at me in private over that. At least I hoped so.

McKenna snorted "Aye we can do that certainly now that we've figured how to get those machine presses and the forges up and running. Though not very heroic on your part Senor El Presidente I would say"

"Eh, El Presidente likes being alive and his enemies not thank you very much. While I'd prefer this go off without a hitch and any deaths I don't think any of us here expect people like this to turn up with flowers and boxes of chocolate so best to greet them in the manner they deserve. Our duty is to our people first and foremost, and our enemies welfare a secondary concern"

I let the discussion begin at that, the room was finally heavily warded thanks to the three of us mages, though Gemma had helped as part of her training, so we could be relatively open for now. Mr. Zatara was trying to view in I suspected, maybe the Lanterns too, as someone had been pinging at the wards since they'd gone up at various internals. Just like the one's I'd established in my room at the Mount Justice Facility got brushed against these past two days. Mages were snoopy bastards after all...I should know being one as well. So best to ward everything I could when possible – especially places I was establishing as Teleport transport conduits like here, Mt. Justice and Dublin!

Though I wouldn't criticise Giovanni too much, despite not being overly fond of John, or me by extension, he'd agreed to a 'secret identity geas' for My Team re secret identities and revealing such without permission. I trusted them, mostly, now but that didn't stop mind control, sleeper agent programming, stupidity, or just telling the wrong person. Agreed magical contracts did I found, especially ones related to not speaking or thinking on a matter when amongst those not in the know. After all keeping John Fortune and Ned, Glorious El Presidente of Tropico separate from even allies of the Justice League or Team was important. Screw telling Speedy in my view, I didn't know the colour coded not-Green Arrow for Jack! The more a secret was known the greater chance it would become publically known after all!

After a few minutes of talking, McKenna and Macklin seemed curious about what we meant be hopefully getting the enemy to attack areas of our choosing, and disguising natives. While they understood the benefit of such, the mention of using 'disguised native assets' confused them a moment. I gave a helpless shrug and nodded and Constantine and Finn "This is not my idea, though...I kinda think it's really good in its way"

Macklin's eyes narrowed "What have you and that bloody Sassenach thought up now with your screwy powers of evil?"

I sighed and spoke in an quiet tone, rubbing the back of my neck "Ehhh...zombie suicide bombers"

"Huh?" was the reply from him as Captain McKenna sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his nose, just like the Commandant had done when I suggested the idea to him back in SHIELD HQ "Okay, not that I want to understand but...explain?"

I pointed "It was his idea!"

"Oi fuck you mate!" an indignant voice huffed back "Ye thought it was a great bleedin' idea same as Brendan and meself did!"

"Still your idea John, so we can't blame this idea on me!" I retorted with a half-smile, before glancing back at the Captain, and current guy in charge of running the 'elite' part of Tropico's Glorious Army "...anyway, yeah. See there's all these bodies lying idle around the place, and we've lots of explosives but not many fellas to use'em...so, well...raise some dead, strap on some bombs, and illusion or two...and voila! Assassins and mercenaries have a bad, bad, day on the job"

The good Captain was still rubbing at the bridge of nose "So...you want to lure them in to attack a village filled with...hahhhh...zombie suicide bombers and start any fight that way?"

Kinda I admitted in my head, but gave a 'not entirely' gesture with my hands "Sorta...that's more his idea, but yeah it works for me too. Mine's to have a magical fog down, best an acid or death cloud variant, in place as well with all your guys with guns overlooking any entry point in case it fails. Then have the attack just...disappears into the darkness"

Because with enemies like this, and a precarious situation like ours, you needed to set down a marker for what happened to those that attacked you. I'd like to avoid unnecessary deaths of course, but winning came first, so best to be ready even if this could be weeks or months down the line. After all my Team had been attacked by bloody Robot Monkeys with Laser Eyes a few days ago...before Motherfuckin' Amazo had been turned on again. I'd say the Wicked Witch was stepping up her game but evidently it's some guy named Ivo who has the flying monkey fetish, and madness to build Amazo.

Boy had that been terrifying when I'd heard about it, that thing was way, way, overpowered but Superboy, Robin and Flash had managed to take it down thank the Gods. Because I vaguely remember that thing taking out the entire, much expanded, Justice League to get at Luthor; at least in one continuity he did, I'm pretty sure I remember that. Bloody terrifying thought that is though. So I needed to be on guard as best I could, crush my enemies to give us time to fortify this position, and then get me so researchers, civil engineers, and whatever shizo-tech I could...

--