Providence
October 11, 10:33
While the solution to Ivy's insanity problem required her to play the role of a planted seed again, the requirement for her to turn into green sludge had been waived.
Kept under heavy sedation tailored to her unique physiology (chlorophyll blood for example), I brought her out of stasis and transported her to a spot on the island with plain green grass for miles.
There, I created a neat hole with a flex of magic, injected her with the solution supposed to trigger her reconstruction, lowered her with telekinesis, and covered up the whole thing.
Next, came the magic. Zatara helped with this. Though his role was mainly serving as a proofreader of sorts. My mastery over the optimized completion ritual had only improved with Wally's speed fixing experiment months ago.
When things were green on all fronts, I waved at the guests—Batman, and Superman—to step back.
This was going to be a big one. Calling on the second heart beating like a shadow in my chest, I poured it all into the formation and the portion of the ground where Ivy had been buried. This fed not only the formation, but the tree that she'd grow into as well, speeding up its growth by titanic proportions.
First came the seedling breaking out the earth, whose existence was short-lived as it shot up and enlarged with visible speed, growing more leaves on its crown. Beneath our feet, the ground trembled faintly as thick roots coiled their way through solid earth, hooking themselves deeply.
Above ground, the tree now towered over us by more than a factor of four, and it kept climbing, its width increasing to keep things proportionate. Slowly, the young green denoting hasty growth shifted, the tree aging before our eyes.
My island senses constantly relayed what was happening anywhere on it—if I wished it. And they were telling me that Ivy's rebirth was complete. There was no need to pour more magic into the mix unless I wanted to increase the size of the island.
Since it was already big enough, I stopped there and focused on my tablet, summoning two nurse robots. They appeared with flashes of blue light and promptly flew to the top of the tree where a sleeping Ivy lay wrapped in a flower/seed coat/cocoon kinda thing.
"Operation Mustard Seed is a success."
I handed the tablet with Ivy's brain scans pre and post operation to Batman.
Superman chuckled at the name and peered at the screen. "Will she be okay now?"
"Compared to before, her mind is quiet now."
I supported Batman's answer. "Yep. We'll have to wait for her to wake up though. Talking to her is the best way to know what steps to take next."
The pair of nurse robots flew down from the crown with a cleaned and clothed Ivy, lying on a stretcher. With a wave, I summoned a portal and they flew straight into it.
"So," I clapped and rubbed my hands, doing away with the portal. "You guys didn't come here for just this, right?"
"Your prisoners. You need to hand them over."
I chuckled at Batman's statement, relishing the fact that he didn't beat about the bush. "To who? The three are cockroaches. Savage even more so. No prison can hold them permanently. They'll always find a way to weasel out."
"There are laws—" Superman tried to go that route, and I stopped him, holding the bridge of my nose.
"Vigilantism is also against the law," I moved my gaze to Superman. "Hell, how many sovereign airspaces do you fly into on the daily? Please, don't play the law game with me."
"This is different."
"No, mister vengeance, it isn't. If we're talking about authority, I have more legitimacy to act than you."
"What do you mean?"
Batman answered before I could. "He's expecting government approval."
"See, you guys are smart people. Let's not devolve into petty arguments like hypocrites. You have concerns, real ones, and since I'm neither unreasonable nor an asshole, I'll put your worries to rest."
A portal appeared at the end of my sentence and I waved for them to follow. "Come on."
It took us to a large room with nothing but steel gray walls on all sides. No windows, vents, peep holes, nothing.
"We're not on Earth," said Zatara.
"Yes," added Superman. "The air here's… different."
"We're not in space or halfway across the galaxy if that's what you're thinking," I said and went straight to the wall in front of us, tapping a random section in a peculiar pattern.
Triggered by more security measures than displayed, the wall shimmered and turned fully transparent. Beyond it, a lower floor with The Box's only inmates were unveiled, seated around a table in various states of discontent.
"Where are we?" Batman asked after stepping forward with the others.
"In another dimension. Small scale, portable, and with adjustable parameters."
"That's Lady Shiva."
"Of course you'd know her."
"Why is she here?"
"Anyone who hurts children deserves nothing but an unmarked grave. She's lucky to be alive."
"So what's the end goal of this?" asked Superman. "Just permanent incarceration till they die."
"They deserve nothing less."
"And it's all decided by you. Judge, Jury, Executioner."
"I mean, I've only executed two people but okay."
Now that got their attention. Batman's, most of all.
"What? Did you think Ra's just fell off the face of the planet?"
"You said you wanted to assuage our concerns, but you've done nothing of the sort. These people are at your mercy. There's no oversight, no regulations. You can do whatever you want to them with no consequences."
"Uhh… and? Is that any different from what they've done to countless other people? Tell me, how many people do you think Savage has killed? Think about it carefully. He's over 50,000 years old, and he sank Atlantis."
"..."
"That's not the point."
"It is the point! It's always the point! These filth deserve to die a thousand times over. Instead, I let them live.They get to breathe, eat and sleep like all the people they've deprived of those things. So don't come here with your high and mighty bullshit. And like I said, I'll soon have the authority to do this. So this, me showing you all this, is a courtesy. Don't forget that."
"They still need to be tried in the court of law. If we do this to every villain we don't like, we'd be no better than they are."
"That's what the leaks are for. Let the public decide. Besides, I'm sure the talk of trials will come up when I go to the Pentagon. But I have a guess as to how that's gonna go."
Things quieted down and Superman looked away from the window.
"Will there be visitations?"
"From who?" Who the hell would wanna visit these degenerates? I'm pretty sure all of them have killed at least one relative.
"Me. I'd like to talk to Luthor."
"As Superman or Clark Kent?"
"Does it matter?"
I snapped my fingers, and we were back on the island at the spot near Ivy's tree.
"It does if you get any funny ideas."
.
.
.
.
Star City
October 11, 11:03
At this point, I'd stopped counting how many times I checked my phone.
Back in Gotham, Felicity didn't answer when I called, filling her dad with more relief than anything. A few seconds of thinking made me understand why, and the reason wasn't that she was on a plane.
The phone I gave her didn't have such a problem. It was her reaction to my proposal. She didn't know how to respond to my utter acceptance of it. Or that I gave her the ring and told her to let me know when she was ready with a smile on my face.
By now though, she should have long arrived and spoken to her mother, who knew about the proposal beforehand because I spoke to her first. Maybe Felicity hadn't brought it up with her? Or was it something else?
Thankfully, I had work to do. My todo list for the day was packed, so I could distract myself from the fact that a single day was enough to miss my girlfriend. Huh… now that I think about it, it's extra proof that my decision to propose wasn't impulsive.
Putting away the message that informed me of a safe arrival and nothing else, I grabbed the tablet Dr. Spence offered and glanced up and down, inspecting the tube containing Nabu's clone body.
"Any complications?" I asked and went through the logs since the day I implemented the changes to the rapid growth formula and methodology.
"None sir," she said, and what I speedread backed up her statement.
This would have been implemented even if Kent hadn't passed, but his death did accelerate the timeline somewhat. Normally, it would've taken another two months for the body to reach full maturity.
However, we didn't have that long. At least, I assumed as much. Klarion's masters should've sensed his demise, and any day now, they would send his replacement. Presumably with more firepower.
Before that happened, we needed Dr. Fate in fighting shape, not wasting away in his helmet where he was of help to no one. To that end, I used the data gathered from Silas Stone's secret, accelerated research on the Kobra Venom cure to perfect my fleshcrafting tech.
Any and all hidden dangers and complications had been removed or smoothed over, leaving me with perhaps one of the most versatile capabilities in my arsenal. It would definitely be included in Project Ascension, but it had far more obvious uses, such us in this case.
In the tube the clone floated in, nanites loaded with bioprinters swam freely, converting the rapidly replenishing growth formula altered with the data on Kobra Venom into biomass.
Not just random flesh however, but targeted, microscopic tissues of all kinds, piercing them brick by brick into the growing body and accelerating its race to maturity.
The dense computations that had gone into making this as precise and error free as possible would take even Flash a few minutes to read. It was that much involved and intensive.
Difficult as putting it together was, having Nabu back in action in a mere three days was more than worth it.
I handed the tablet back to the doctor. "How is the world taking the upheavals?"
"Everyone wants to know where they came from."
"That's expected. That's what the future rumors are for."
"I saw those… that was your doing?"
"No. Just the internet and the rationalization of scientists doing its thing."
"Hm…" she pushed up her glasses. "We're working on the last bit of data. It should be ready for dissemination by the end of the week."
"You're thinking of what comes next."
"It has crossed a lot of minds."
"I'll send you a packet. I have an organisation where expertise like yours is needed. Share it with your team and let me know if they're interested."
"Not Rath International?"
"Oh, there are jobs there too if any of you wanna shift there. I just assumed you guys would be more interested in, well, interesting things."
"I'll be expecting your message then. Thank you, sir."
"You're welcome. Thank you too, for the trust."
She nodded and we parted ways there. She went back to her team and I teleported straight to the helicarrier, currently cloaked above… lemme check, New Valley, Nebraska. Huh, what were we doing here?
Economos, his features smoothed over and more slimmed down compared to when I first met him, looked up from his SHIELD issue laptop. True to his nature as combat averse, he'd opted for the quality of life and health focused implants.
He didn't even need to dye his beard anymore.
I chuckled inwardly and gave him a nod. "You got the locations ready?"
Since we had the meeting with DOD coming up, I felt that having proof of rehabilitating superpowered individuals and transforming them into beneficial members of society… ahem, valuable assets, would help my pitch a lot.
Hence, the recruitment drive planned for today.
"Yes, but there's something you must see."
Economos didn't waste time and quickly brought up a news feed showing a vehicle accident. One person, a young boy, had died. One look at the car told a clear enough story. It looked like a giant had grabbed the front end and twisted it like a corkscrew.
Multiple spots on the wreckage had been blurred out, but it was easy enough to pick up the gore.
Soon, the scene on the feed changed to a young girl, 14, 15 from the look of it. Frances Kane. Apparently, she was responsible for the ruined state of the car and the death of her brother.
"This happened right after the separation. The dad was driving the kids home when it happened. The car understandably veered out of control and then, you know the rest."
"It still doesn't explain how," I enlarged the image to get a closer look, "...that happened. It can't have been a simple accident."
"The girl's mother claims she's possessed by a demon. Has been since she was young. She's been very vocal about it," he ended by switching the news feed to one where the aforementioned mother cursed and disparaged her own daughter with much fervor.
"Where's the girl?"
"Hospital. She sustained injuries, but they're not life threatening. What's our play here sir?"
"Well, we can't just go in and 'save' her. Her mother is still in the picture. Assign agent Irina to her case and keep me updated."
"The newbie?"
"She's former CIA. Newbie is a stretch. Beam her down at the quickest."
"Sending her supervisor the mission details."
"The twins were number one on the list right?"
"Yes, and Killer Croc was number two."
"Good. Send me their locations."
"Both of them?"
"Yes. Something tells me the twins will need a little jail time to be convinced."
"Hm," the head analyst nodded and did as I asked.
I created a portal after taking a glance at the location of the Tuppence twins. Atlanta.
"Keep me informed."
Economos gave me an "okay" and I walked into the portal.
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