Kenji sat in the far corner of the room, his back pressed against the cool, translucent crystalline wall of Kandor. He remained silent, a ghost in the periphery of the room, watching with detached interest as the heroes and rouges of this world tore into one another with nothing but desperate words.
Green Arrow, who was in Gotham with Batgirl, was on the projection showing him on his feet, his face flushed with a mixture of righteous fury and bone-deep exhaustion.
It was clear that he was pacing the small area that they were in as he grumbled. He looked annoyed at the other and angry too, as he gestured wildly toward the holographic map of the American Midwest.
He spoke of Smallville, and what was happening there, the town that had once been a small warm community and the home of Superman, the town that should have just been that, a normal town, was now a place of suffering for humans.
He spoke of the "Human Farms", grotesque holding pens where survivors were kept like cattle in a slaughterhouse, their veins tapped daily to feed the ever-growing vampire thirst.
Something the man was clearly showing that he didn't like and won't stand for as he made his case.
"We hit them fast, we hit them hard, and we get those people out!" Oliver shouted, his jaw tight enough to snap a bone. "Every day we sit here debating 'logistics' and 'risk assessments,' more kids are being drained dry, more men and women dying out there. We can't just leave them there to die because the math doesn't look pretty on a spreadsheet, Ray!"
The man wanted them to go and hit all the farms and save all the people there, he wanted to bring them to Kandor, where they could be safe and have a place to not fear.
Good when you say it like that, but...
Kenji didn't interrupt, but his Mind was already highlighting the glaring cracks in the plan. He saw the sentimentality that blinded Oliver to the reality of their situation. To Oliver, a life saved was a victory.
And no one would say it wasn't but that was only if they didn't lose something esle there, Kenji understood where the man stood with this but he could also see that risking their life and the lives of stronger and more important people for civilians when they would not be able to help in any way with the fight against the vampire king was not a smart move at all..
Beside Oliver, Big Barda cut in, her voice resounding across the room. She didn't seem to possess the archer's empathy, not even blinking as Oliver shouted at the others that they needed to help those poor people.
"None of that matters if the sun stays buried under all this ash," the New God stated, her arms crossed over her massive, armored chest. "The ash clouds are the priority. Clear the skies, and the vampires lose their greatest tactical advantage. They become the rats they were before, shadows hiding in holes, unable to move across open ground without turning to cinders. That is how you win a war, Archer. You control the environment. You don't waste lives on a rescue mission that leaves you with ten thousand mouths you can't feed."
Kenji inclined his head slightly in the shadows. Barda was right. From a purely strategic standpoint, regaining the sun was the only way to shift the global mess. Regain the greatest weapon man has against the blood suckers.
It would turn the entire planet into a weapon against the invaders, effectively cutting their mobility.
The new god made a good point, but it still seemed to anger the archer, making it so that even through the projection, it was clear just how red his face was as Black Canary put a hand on his shoulder to calm him down.
But then Barbara spoke, bringing in her own suggestions on how to go on from there.
"We go to Blüdhaven," Batgirl said. "As long as the vampire king is around, war continues, and we will continue to lose. We go to Gotham, and we kill Nightwing. We cut the head off the snake and end this nightmare of a war."
The room erupted. Arguments overlapped in a chaotic cacophony of voices. Plans clashed, egos flared, and for several minutes, nobody listened to anyone else. It was a symphony of dysfunction.
Kenji leaned back, his eyes half-lidded, watching it all unfold with a sense of clinical detachment.
'Heroes,' he thought as he watched them. There were so many of them in this room, yet none of them were actually thinking as they should, but he guessed that was a hero's mind.
They were still trapped in the antiquated mindset of "saving the day," failing to realize that the "day" had been dead and buried for a while now and that they couldn't just do one thing and ignore the other.
Green Arrow's plan was the "Right Thing" to do, morally speaking. But it was also a suicide. Freeing thousands of civilians from the farms meant immediate food shortages, protection issues, and relocation nightmares.
Fighters, rare and precious resources that they had now, would die rescuing and guarding the people who couldn't defend themselves, only to have those survivors perish from starvation weeks later.
The heroes were so focused on the heroic rescue that they ignored the logistical funeral that would inevitably follow.
And Barbara…
Kenji glanced at her briefly. For someone with a genius-level intellect, she was being painfully stupid when it came to Dick Grayson. She was thinking with her scars on her heart rather than her brain.
Killing Nightwing wouldn't magically turn the vampires back into humans or make them stop being hungry. It would create a power vacuum that would be filled in immediately with the thousands of vampires that were around, and that was even the safe option, what did she think would happen with the vampires broke off into small cells, all forming different factions.
It would be hell on earth than it already was.
Eventually, the meeting ended the only way it could, in a stalemate of frustration and bitterness.
People filtered out in small, fractured groups. The resistance was splintering because of the decision on how to go forward.
Kenji remained behind in the empty room after everyone left, the silence heavy, and the room was somewhat cold. He exhaled slowly, rubbing a hand over his face.
He wanted this mission to be over. He wanted to snatch the Chaos Shard, leave this dying, grey reality behind, and get back to a world, to his kids, to his wife.
But he knew the cost of haste. People would die, and he wasn't that much of a dick to get people intentionally killed like that, just because of his goal.
The heroes couldn't think of a way to win because they were too busy trying to remain "good." Kenji didn't have that.
The best path was indeed to clear the skies, but even sunlight wouldn't be a "Game Over" for the Vampire King. Nightwing had prepared for the return of the light.
Kenji's expression darkened as he thought of the secret weapon Nightwing was using to safeguard his elites.
Starfire's blood.
It was the missing piece of the puzzle that made the vampire hierarchy so resilient. It explained why Superman, essentially a living solar battery, hadn't burned out or lost his powers when he turned. Koriand'r's blood, rich in ultraviolet energy absorption properties, acted as a filter when processed by a vampire.
It granted high-tiers a degree of solar resistance, allowing them to walk in the light for limited windows, and it allowed the "Man of Steel" to fly above the ash and absorb solar radiation and keep his powers.
As long as they had her, the sun was only a minor inconvenience to the elite.
If the resistance wanted to win, that shield had to be removed. He needed to find Starfire.
The problem was, his memories of the original DC vs vampire timelines were fuzzy on her exact location. He wasn't even sure if she was a prisoner or if she had joined Nightwing.
He didn't know where she was, but he was sure she'd be kept close. She would be where Dick was.
Gotham or Blüdhaven.
So right now, he just needed to find her location.
Two days passed in a tense, suffocating quiet within Kandor. Then, it happened.
Vandalieu sent him a message. Green Arrow and Black Canary had slipped out of the city under, heading toward Smallville with a handful of people who favored action over debate. Shortly after, Barbara had vanished as well, taking Harley Quinn with her.
Van had offered to shadow her, but Kenji told him to let her go.
"She's not attacking the King yet," Kenji muttered to himself, standing alone. "She's smart enough to know two people can't take down a palace fortified. She's gone dark because she doesn't trust Sora and the others. She's going to find her own way to the heart of the city."
It was a mess.
A group of heroes had even split off to head toward Australia.
Kenji stood up, walking to the edge of the crystal balcony and looking out at the artificial skyline of the bottled city. He was alone with a choice that would likely decide the fate of the remaining human race.
"Australia… or Gotham," he whispered.
He could go to Australia and help clear the skies, giving the world its sun back and a fighting chance for the common survivor. Or he could use this chance to learn more about it.
He felt the weight of the Yamato in his hand as it was summoned.
"…Guess I can't wait any longer."
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