[11th November 2010]
[Mount Justice, Happy Harbour, Rhode Island]
Despite the awkwardness of my presence amongst the Justice League members in attendance, I was rather enjoying Wally's whole 'secret' surprise birthday party. Honestly the only really surprise about the whole thing was that my former teammate was really enjoying things and not complaining about anything as far as I could see. He'd even liked the (Zatara Approved even!) Ring of *Minor* Sustenance, and hopefully, it should prove useful in an emergency.
Well, he'd been happy, beyond the rather obvious, and failing, attempts to flirt with M'gann and weddle a kiss out of the Martian girl. And in all fairness M'gann was handling the whole 'not taking a hint' situation reasonably well in my opinion; at least outside of actually telling him no, or actually going out with him. Though the reticence was somewhat understandable after the continuing issues of their training debacle, followed by everyone nearly vanishing a week ago. Crazy stuff like all of that was not great for a stress-free life in essence.
"Looking forward to moving into the mountain?" I asked Zatanna before a moment later Robin wandered over and offered her a slice of cake. Offering cake and voicing his opinion that she'd love staying here with them and being part of the Team. Amusingly the Justice League had continued the trend of being bad at the Team's group dynamics by handing her 'my' brief room here in the mountain. Not that it bothered me, but it did seem to make her a little uneasy and would give the rather obvious impression that she was 'John Fortune's Replacement' to all the others.
"A little strange..." she brought her hands up and motioned that she wasn't unhappy to a sunglasses-cladRobin "...but not bad strange. Just it's a...big step, really isn't it?"
"You'll do great don't worry" both myself and Robin said simultaneously, placing a hand on her shoulder before I laughed softly at the identical gesture. She smiled, seeming to take heart at the support from both of us; her current teammate and myself for not pulling a Red Arrow about everything maybe. Because they all needed to work together and Zatanna was good albeit naive about dangers she'd face; such as her 'super-heroine gear' was her stage outfit. Rather fetching perhaps, but lacking anything that might stop a stray bullet, or a knife stab, let alone advanced shizo-tech or meta-human whatever power.
"Heh, thanks you guys" she murmured almost hugging herself before unzipping her heavy winter jacket. Rather warmly dressed in her winter clothes actually, seemed to be unusually bad winter weather going on outside and she and Artemis had popped out for a little bit before Wally had arrived.
Not that I had any intention of going out into it; relax and enjoy the party for a while then it was back to the Conference across the ocean and all the paperwork that it would entail after it finished. And...then it would be unto the situation in Tropico and the suddenly expanded plans now that Doctor Fate had been brought up to speed on the matter. Good and Bad of course, but mostly Good in my view as it would allow me more time to study magic and be at home rather than being El Presidente. Thank the heavens for the body doubles and secret cabal ruling the island in his (my) name!
"So you staying in the cave today Skulls or what?"
I shook my head back in answer to Robin's question "Nope, back later on to ye olde conclave of magic and then all the paperwork that it will cause me afterwards"
Sunglasses indoors merely added to the image of his smug smirk I found "See that's why it's better being a superhero than secret government agent magician and junior supervillain like you are Skull. You don't see me filling out piles of paperwork now do you?"
I smirked right back at him "Oh, oh you poor summer child you. You're Batman's apprentice my friend, and that means you're one of the Justice League's future admin and IT guy. So while I have a team of bureaucrats to write things up for me...You Team IT guy get to do all that on your own. Because do you see Connor, or M'gann...or Wallace" I nodded at the red head stuffing his face "...doing it?"
The look of dawning horror was rather amusing I found "See, there ya go. Thinking ahead, so I suggest finding a way to recruit trustworthy assistants to be deployed as The Amazing Paperwork Guy, or Gal, so you can go all punching bad guys in the face"
"You think my Father will let me go back to the Conference later on? Maybe if some of the rest of the Team went as well?" Zatanna asked quietly and I gave an amused snort.
"Nope, not a hope; though if you're lucky he'll be going back to watch all the nefarious goings on that the Justice League think we're up too. Us being chaperones to you...heh heh...yeah that's not going to earn any brownie points with him I'd expect"
"We'd make great chaperones" Robin stated confidently and getting a glance and a grin from Zatanna. I rolled my eyes and motioned at him, then at me, before finally pointing at the girl standing between us.
"You, and me, plus any boy on the team I expect...are the types of people that her father would rather be kept fffaaarrrrr away from his lovely daughter and not acting as any sort of chaperone let's say"
"Hey! But you've got an apprentice already so you're a responsible adult...technically I suppose"
I sighed as the girl gave a huff, folded arms across her chest, and gave me an annoyed look. Zatanna really wanted to get to the possibly once in a lifetime magical conference. Truth be told she'd been like a kid in a candy store in the times I'd seen her in the past few days at it, and with it reckoned to last at least another week so we could formalise everything...well, I'm sure her father had probably had to drag her kicking and scream back through the portal or Zeta Tube to be here for Kid Flash's birthday party. I glanced to my side as my shoulder received a playful punch as another of my teammates arrived "Hey!"
"Hey Zatanna, these two idiots bothering you?" she grinned at us, though any reply was cut off as the voice of Batman came over the computer of the cave.
"Attention Team! Suit up. Polar Stealth, Mission Briefing in Five"
"Aww Man..." I heard the whine from Wally as he stuffed another piece of cake into his mouth. Whelp, looked like the party was over sooner than expected and it would be back home for fairly soon I noted with a shake of my head. Hopefully this wasn't a major disaster...because there had been way too many of those in fairly rapid succession of late I'd found. With a sigh I took up another small plate of the cake into hand and took a bit as the others hurried off to do as ordered, though M'gann turned to me as she noticed before the others I wasn't moving hurriedly.
"Ugh...isn't John coming with us?"
I glanced around as eyes came to look at me and gave a confused shrug, spreading my arms opening in a gesture of helplessness "Pretty sure not...since I'm not on the team anymore. Happy to help an' all that...but ya know. Official business and stuff"
Well this was an awkward way to put it, but it was true and in the wake of recent events the 'relationship' between the Justice League and SHIELD could be described as delicate in simplest terms.
Simply put I wasn't some minion of the Justice League and they didn't get to boss me around, nor was it entirely unlikely that they'd be unwelcome of my presence at such a briefing. Something rather apparent as some of the Justice League members present, Zatara, Black Canary, and Flash, glanced at each other while Red Tornado seemed to be staring off into the empty distance. Or at least he did for a few moments in the silence as I took another bite of the rather nice birthday cake. Hmmm, cream and jam with flavoured icing, nice choice of cake. Though such enjoyment of the dessert was ended as the cold mechanical tones of Red Tornado relied to my statement.
"Batman has requested your presence also"
I sighed and reached for the phone in my pocket "K, so while ye all get changed I'm ringing my bosses..."
--
[ 5 mins, Main Communications Room, Mount Justice]
Great, official SHIELD liaison to the Team, or Justice League...or whatever, who knows beyond help out where I can and voice an opinion if required. Something that was super-duper fantastic when I so much else to be doing right now...and would have to write up a report on this idiocy as well. Because really?
What kind of bloody lunatic sends ice-fortresses over North America to cause continent wide snow storms for what seemed like no apparent reason. They hadn't even sent any demands for money! That was some retarded silver age era super-villainy right there!
Either that it boiled down to aliens, or someone trying for a distraction probably. Though either of those seemed equally idiotic because – they had flying cruisers that could affect the weather as I watched the image being transmitted by Batman; Oh, and armed with laser guns evidently. Still I found myself having to ask a question now that I was being asked what aid to offer.
"Question; why isn't the USAF, or the RCAF, launching combat craft to blow these flying targets out of the sky?"
"They have not been able to adequately target them on their systems, nor would many of their aircraft be able to launch in their weather"
"Ughhhhh..." I blinked and then stated the obvious idly wonder was Batman deliberately leading the questions to get me to say something he couldn't get he wanted agreed too? "...but not all, and cruise missiles would definitely be usable. Plus, we can see them!"
I motioned at the location markers on the screen as my former teammates seemed a mixture of confused, bemused and in a hurry to join the fight "We've got the locations there! Ring them up and feed them the targeting data! It'd take less time than it would for the Team and many League members to arrive on site. Iff'n it fails to mission kill them then send in the Justice League...it's a job for the military since those things have no shields on them like you say!"
"Dude, it's our mission! The army can't handle threats like this!"
I sighed and resisted the urge to groan. The Hero Victory Disease was spreading to the younger generation from the looks of it "Robin, you and Artemis are baseline humans; humanity is perfectly capable of doing something like this with conventional tech. Or at least to try take some of them out first, and that frees up more of the Justice League to take out others. Also...has any contacted Green Lantern Gardener if the other two aren't around to complain about him?"
Batman frowned ever so faintly, then nodded "Agreed, if you have contacts please ring them now and Fortress-03 can be a test case, Kid Flash will begin his run immediately while we attempt to restore a Zeta Tube connection..."
While the Batman continued to give instructions I moved my hand through the contacts list of my warded mobile phone and brought up the number for Amanda Waller. I'd assumed she'd have immediate access to US military asset deployment...
--
[USS Omaha, Los Angeles Class SSN]
[Just below surface, North Atlantic Ocean]
"Launch codes are confirmed Captain. Full strike package, immediate deployment"
"This is the Captain speaking. All personnel are to prepare for missile launch. Conn, bring us to launch depth and prep the Tomahawks for launch. Targeting data to follow"
--
[11th November 2010]
[RCAF 14 Wing, CFB Greenwood, Nova Scotia]
"Get the Hornets into the air while the runways are clear enough to launch them. They will combine with fighters from the carrier USS Constellation at point..."
--