"Huh, so it works on divine items," Elliot muttered, seemingly lost in his own world.
Looking up from the dim, golden rope to find everyone present staring at him with narrowed eyes and varying levels of graveness, he uttered "I'll turn it off," loud enough for them to hear, and the lasso lit up right after.
Stunned even more but too old and too experienced to lose control of her emotions, Wonder Woman dived straight into the questioning. "State your full name."
"Elliot Dugan Rath."
"Tell a lie."
"What? But that'll… oh I see," Elliot nodded a few times and looked at the Amazonian princess. "I don't think you're beauti— Ow!"
That put a smile on her face and caused several of the onlooking expressions to ease up and others to even smile. "Did you send the letter to Batman?"
"Yes."
"What were your intentions?"
"I wanted you guys to know about The Light. I also wanted you guys to be better."
"Why reveal yourself now?"
Elliot looked uncomfortable, but he powered through it. "Like I told Batman. I got powers and my friend made me realise how childish it was to avoid you."
No questions came after that, just Martian Manhunter nodding at his colleagues. Batman took center stage after that and said, "We'll continue this at the Hall of Justice."
.
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.
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Operation Catch the Black Spider was a bust.
The combination of Mike and Felicity's gifts were a match that few systems could stand against. On the evening of the day I met the inquisitive blonde hacker, my digital friend had unearthed everything remotely related to my target.
I didn't just know where Eric Needham laid his head when night came, I now had the financial details of two of his secret bank accounts and three locations spread all over Gotham that he visited religiously once every month.
We tracked him the entire week I prepared to move, and this should've made catching him a quick and simple thing.
Unfortunately for me, I had underestimated the lengths The Light or maybe Needham himself had gone to in order to ensure his safety and keep his nightlife away from his day one.
The first thing I did in Gotham when I arrived was find a motel. Second thing was to rent a car which I drove to his apartment, foregoing the roofs of Gotham's buildings.
I had no interest in meeting the city's particular brand of crazy at this time, and I wanted my meeting with the Bat to be on my own terms.
With Mike, Tech-Adapting, and the many tools I'd built with M and E on my side, breaking into an apartment, even if it belonged to a villain and assassin, was so easy I might as well have phased through the wall.
Instead of finding the black haired male asleep in his bed though, what I found was his phone, the one Mike had been tracking around the city for the past week.
Disappointed but not entirely so, I searched the place with scanners I'd built for this exact purpose and found nothing to suggest that he was Black Spider. Not even a sample of his webs or even a safe.
The guy was cautious, but unluckily for him, I had an unfair advantage.
With nothing in the apartment to even remotely link him to the quippy and sadistic villain, Needham's first layer of defense in case his identity ever came out was solid. The ones that came after though, were less so.
Subsequent stops around the locations noted down earlier proved our theories right about them being safe and stash houses.
Apart from the security measures found at all of them which sent a live feed of whoever stumbled onto the secret location to Black Spider's real phone most likely, there was no difficulty in breaching them at all.
While Mike hijacked the local network set up for this express, notifying purpose, I cracked the locks on the safes and emptied them out.
Money in large denominations and different currencies, vintage guns, some gold plated and diamond studded, jewelry of all kinds and most important of all, a spare Black Spider suit, complete with a full batch of web fluid.
I had missed my real target—there was no way I'd establish myself as a spider themed hero (I was still undecided on that) if a villain with too similar a theme was up and about tarnishing that image. I could see those numerous headaches coming from miles away.
Black Spider needed to go down.
It took a while to find him—Mike had to coopt some satellites to track the destination of the video feed without actually sending anything, and the hit landed nowhere near Batman's stomping ground.
He was somewhere in the Caribbean, in a place Mike quickly identified as Infinity Island, the home of Ra's al Ghul and his League of Assassins. That brought my search to an abrupt end. No way I was getting to him there.
Multiple bags full of triple scanned money and gear, I returned to my motel, catalogued and arranged everything before stashing them in the trunk of my rented car.
I then drove out of the city, found a dark and secluded section of the forest lining the road that led to my destination and put the car in a place no one without super strength could move it from.
From there, I walked the rest of the way to the Wayne Manor, and that's how I ended up here, in an empty alley with Batman and Wonder Woman, about to experience my first ever teleport.
As soon as I laid eyes on the device, Tech-Adapting went to work while Batman summoned a hologram and did something—likely recalibrating the Zeta-Tube so it would work for me.
There was something I needed to tell him though, especially if I wanted him and the League to trust me. "Before we go," I said, "You need to know… I'm not alone."
Batman stopped and turned around. "Explain."
Pulling back the sleeve covering my left arm, I revealed the plain silver bracelet Mike inhabited and the wrist-mounted computer I'd built so he could help me in the field.
"This is Mike, my friend. He's an A.I."
"Hello," Mike greeted out loud.
Only Wonder Woman returned the greeting. "Hello Michael. It's nice to meet you."
"The pleasure is mine."
"Just so you don't think I'm trying anything, I'm going to disconnect him from the computer," I said and removed him from the slot I'd affixed him to.
"He needs physical contact to access any system," I added and wore him on my right hand where I pulled the sleeve back and showed my bare forearm.
There was no other reaction from Batman and neither Wonder Woman. I thought they'd refuse and confiscate him, but turns out I was wrong. And though it kinda made sense for both of them to be masters of their emotions, something still fell amiss.
Then I remembered Martian Manhunter and narrowed my eyes. "...You already knew."
Saying nothing in response, Batman, who had long turned around, finished what he was doing and dismissed the hologram before walking into the high tech tube. I followed him with Wonder Woman close behind and let the enlightening tendrils of Tech-Adapting loose.
At the very end of the tube, the iris concealing the Zeta-Beam projector spun and shrunk out of sight to reveal a font of pale golden light. I couldn't help the smile on my face when I heard the computer's voice.
"Recognized- Batman: 01. Wonder Woman: 03. Access Granted- Elliot Rath: A03. Authorization- Batman 01."
Bright but not blinding light filled my vision and receded a moment later, revealing a huge library and more League members. I dropped my smile immediately to hide my embarrassment and took in their numbers and expressions.
Red Tornado was here, and so was Aquaman, Green Arrow, and Captain Atom. Weird lineup that one. Did Batman wake them up or did they come here on their own?
For some of them I could tell pretty easily. Green Arrow's emotions couldn't be hidden behind that thing he called a mask. Captain Atom's silvery expression was unreadable, but his gaze held a certain intensity that made it impossible to ignore.
For the rest, the most I could make out was curiosity and a little hint of caution. Red Tornado was unreadable.
"I need to build something that can read facial expressions and body language," I said to Mike while I looked around the room, finding it somewhat familiar.
This is where Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, and clone Speedy were asked to wait in episode one. I was sure of it. Though the large glass pane that allowed visitors to observe the league from above had been tinted.
'Never knew it had that function,' I thought. 'Makes sense though.'
"Hi," I greeted the League members and pocketed both hands, unsure of what was going to happen next. Surely there'd be more questions… that's all I could think of at least.
Aquaman was the first to respond. "Hello young man," but Captain Atom was the one who took a step forward with his arm outstretched.
"Elliot is it?" he asked, to which I answered by nodding and accepting the handshake. "Nice to finally put a face to the name. Though I've never seen a first impression like yours."
He must've registered my confusion instantly because he didn't hesitate to answer. "Your letter. You managed to give most of us sleepless nights. Not many can do that."
"Well…" I thought carefully about my response, brainstorming a better way to say 'that's the exact reaction I wanted.'
"I wanted you guys to know what I knew, you know," I swept my gaze across the room, "feel what I felt. So I'm glad it worked."
"You don't know the half of it kid," Green Arrow chimed in.
Again, being called a kid. The temptation to rebut was strong, but I fought it, aware that doing so would only reinforce that image in their minds. Besides, they were all older than me so I'd let them have that.
"Start with how you came by the information," Batman said as Wonder Woman walked up to me with her lasso in hand.
Conflicted and unsure about what I was about to do, I grabbed it and plopped onto one of the single seater couches, wondering if this was the right way to go about this and if it was, where exactly to start.
'Fuck it. I'm sure they've seen and heard weirder stuff.'
I started from the very top, giving them a brief overview of my earth and the "unique" way they existed there before explaining how I died, my meeting with the entity, and then the trickery involved in my rebirth.
"Comic books and tv shows. That sounds…" said Wonder Woman.
"Insane? Made up? Trust me. I wanted to make up a whole other story. Anything else would be easier than telling obviously real people they're just characters in a story. Or at least they used to be. Now I know it's all real," I laughed, the situation dawning on me again all of a sudden.
I was talking to the Justice League face to face, trying to convince them I wasn't an enemy or someone sent to infiltrate them.
"Let's continue," Batman steered us back on topic.
"Where was I? Yeah, the entity. Mike and I think he or she, if they have a gender, is a higher dimensional one. Likely 5th or higher."
"Mxyzptlk?" Wonder Woman asked.
"I don't know. The trickery makes sense if you squint a bit but I don't think it's him."
"You mentioned getting powers. Explain," Batman continued the questioning.
"A few days after I sent the package, I got a message, telling me I'd completed a quest," I said and waved my hand in front of me to demonstrate how the message appeared. "Inform the Justice League of future events."
I looked around to find everyone attentive, so I continued. "While I was going through the rewards, a spider came out of nowhere and bit me. When I woke up, I looked like this," I leaned forward and waved a hand up and down, gesturing at my toned physique.
"I was stronger, faster, smarter, but not smart in the sense of being a genius, just suddenly aware of a lot of tech stuff overnight."
If Batman or the rest of the league were shocked or in disbelief, they damn sure hid it well. "Have you gotten more messages?"
"Yeah. I got one when I built a generator for my hideout and another when I stopped my first crime."
"How sure are you that revealing yourself to us will get you another message?" Aquaman asked.
"Quite sure."
Red Tornado's question came next. "Who do you believe is sending them?"
"The entity," I said and held open my arms. "It's the only thing that makes sense."
The League members save for Red Tornado, shared a few looks, likely communicating mentally. If the kids could think of it, it made sense for the adults to do so as well.
Their short-lived meeting ended when Green Arrow took up his own line of questioning. "Your letter was very detailed, and we're grateful, but do you remember anything else? We still haven't found Roy."
They must've checked out Tibet like I suggested.
"Roy was moved to Tibet at a later date now that I think about it," I paused to think, wracking my mind for any clues and chiding myself for not rewatching the show at least once.
"Cadmus. That's where he is. It's the only place that makes sense," I said and looked around, finding every eye on me. "Roy was subject zero. I don't know if I'm using that term correctly.
What I mean is, they used him to perfect their cloning technique. Luthor and The Light built Cadmus for that purpose—to make or replace anyone they needed under their control. So it makes sense that he'd still be there. However, if he's not, can't you use magic to find him?"
"We tried," Green Arrow said, his expression alternating between fury and helplessness.
"That leaves infiltration. I know you guys can't go in there. The Light would know something was amiss right away, so you must be sending the team," I said and gauged their reactions, or rather the lack of it.
These guys were good. That didn't matter to me though. They had gotten what they wanted from me. Now it was my turn. "I want in, and before you refuse I'll have you know I was planning to go there myself."
They did that thing again, suddenly going silent but obviously communicating. Well, obvious to me. I don't think a regular joe on the street would be able to tell.
"A man's strength comes not from his brawn and intelligence, but also from his allies," I said suddenly, recalling this out of the blue. "I don't remember where I heard that, but it's why I came to you guys. I'm strong and I can build stuff, but that's it. I was a cop for a month, but you tell me if that's enough experience.
I want training. I want experience. And I want allies. Do you know it took me a week to go outside after I woke up in that motel? I was so afraid that a villain would attack, or there'd be an alien invasion, or the earth would just blow up.
This universe has so many threats, and I'm cursed to live with knowledge of them everyday. I did my part by sending you the letter, and I was going to do more by seeking the right training and support.
Mike told me I could get that by coming to you guys. So tell me, was he wrong?"