25th April
10:21 GMT -6
"Thanks."
Beautia walks slightly ahead of me as we travel along a corridor away from the main facility.
Through the transparent walls dark storm clouds crowd out the yellow sky and splatter a liquid I know to be high strength sulphuric acid against our corridor. It's seven hundred degrees outside due to the runaway greenhouse effect and inside it's a pleasant
twenty. This place has been here for years at least and shows not the slightest sign of corrosion.
People were turning this man down for grant money!
Imbeciles!
"You're welcome. Do Thaddeus and Georgia argue like that all of the time?
"
"Not all the time. Just whenever they're not distracted with work."
Ring, passive monitoring. Is anyone watching us?
Minor increases in activity in local circuitry. Cannot determine precise cause without active scanning.
"Magnificus seemed a bit down.
"
"Who exactly is 'Nissa'? Do you know her?"
"She's a daughter of the probably-late and largely unlamented Ra's al Ghul. She's been working with Magnificus.. and more than a few others now, in Lex Luthor's alchemical research centre in India.
"
"Alchemy?" I nod. "Maybe that's the problem. I doubt many universities award doctorates for alchemical research, no matter
how original." He has a doctorate at eighteen and somehow still thinks that he's an underachiever. Bizarre. "Do you know what he's working on in particular?"
"Don't you?
"
She shakes her head, eyes dropping to the floor for a moment. "Magnificus and I… We're.. very.. different people. You know how you said I wanted to be a medical doctor because of my family karmic debt?"
"I was half joking-
" A brilliant bolt of lightning slams into the warehouse complex we're walking towards, momentarily lighting up the clouds.
"-about that. I haven't found out whether karma is actually a thing or not.
"
"Let me know when you
do." She smiles. "I'd like to find out how much overtime I need to put in."
"Or you could just convert to Hellenism. Hades is a very reasonable sort of God of the Dead.
" She snorts quietly.
"But what's that got to do with Magnificus?
"
"He doesn't care. I don't think he's committed any
crimes exactly, but… His professional ethics-."
"When I first met him he was working for Queen Bee.
"
"There you go."
"Of course,
now…
"
"What?"
"He's working to understand the underlying principles of alchemy. And their first project is to get the Danner Formula licensed for mass use.
"
She stops right in front of the door, staring at me in astonishment. "Really!? But… That…" Her eyes unfocus slightly. "Everyone with super strength, super toughness and accelerated perfect healing. I… I have no idea what that society would look like."
"Good job you've got a sister who studies social science then, isn't it?
"
She nods. "It kind of
is a soft subject, but-" She turns to the armoured door's control panel and begins entering her code. "-that doesn't mean that it isn't
useful. Where did Lex Luthor get his hands on that?"
"Some guy called Doctor Arnold Munro. He says he's Hugo Danner's son.
"
"Whaw, this is…" The door clanks, then opens with a slight hiss as the air pressure equalizes. "I've been wondering how long I could expect to live. How old
is Doctor Munro?"
"Sixty two. Though I'd say that he looks about ten years younger. If he started using hair dye, maybe twenty years younger.
"
Beautia leads the way inside the storage complex's reception area. I suppose it had to be big enough for doom robots. "His hair's gone grey already?"
"I don't know, maybe he bleaches it. Or maybe the stuff they stick in cows in Brazil is so noxious that-
" Beautia's eyes widen slightly as she slides forwards.
"-they found something that overpowers Danner regeneration.
" Beautia 'lands' on the wall in front of us, then stands up at ninety degrees to me. Heh.
"Artificial gravity on the blink?
"
She lifts her right foot off the wall experimentally, then lowers it. "Apparently."
"Feeling any heavier?
"
"I'd say.. about twice my normal weight." She lifts her foot up again. "Which is odd, because the artificial gravity system isn't designed to generate a gravitational field in this direction."
"Maybe one of your father's devices got turned on?
"
"Oh,
great. Well, 'down' appears to be-" She walks along the wall towards the door. "-in warehouse one, so at least I won't have to try the stairs like this."
I rise off the ground, orientate myself so that her down is my down and fly over to the opposite side of the reinforced doorway.
"Should we wait and get Thaddeus and Georgia to have a look at it?
"
"No, if it's only generating two g's then it's probably not that big a deal." She kneels down to enter a code in the door. "As long as the effect doesn't intensify, just disconnecting the power source should be enough to shut it down, and either of us-" She press the door open button. "-should be able to deal with it without any-" The door opens at speed. "-real difficulty."
We look inside, and a
horned, three-eyed humanoid made of a black star-filled void stares back at us.
I blink. He's standing in the middle of an aisle. Around him, areas of the floor are marked out in yellow 'do not cross' lines. Within these areas are devices which I can't readily identify. Some are exposed, others are covered in shimmering force fields and a few just have tarpaulins draped over them. The tarpaulins are draped in such a way which suggests that
he is now
down.
"Is that one of your father's projects?
"
"I.. don't.. think so..?" She kneels on the edge of the doorway. "Identify yourself."
The life form continues to stare. Ring, anything in the database about that?
Nearest match is Black Nebula of the Vanguard organisation.
Is she a
good match?
No.
O.. kay…
"I am Beautia Sivana. Identify yourself."
"SIVANA." It begins walking towards us.
"I AM HERE FOR THADDEUS BODOG SIVANA. YOU WILL TAKE ME TO HIM AND THEN YOU WILL DIE."
