12th September
14:31 GMT -5
"Intruder detected. Deploying-"
I don power armour and generate construct armour, then fold my arms.
"-countermeasures."
A laser turret to my right deploys and fires a weak beam at my helmet, aiming to blind me. Rubber bullets and beanbag rounds strike my construct armour to little effect. There's a quiet clang as gas and flashbang grenades land at my feet and a quiet hiss and not so quiet boom as they detonate.
"Batman?"
"Subject has metahuman durability. Escalating."
A metal rope bolas spins through the air and winds itself around me before flaring with electricity. Fortunately, constructs don't conduct electricity unless their user wants them to and it all arcs into the surrounding metalwork. Ooh, I would not want to have to repair that. Next come the low power plasma shots, causing weak ripples across my construct armour.
"Batman, I know you're there. I just came from seeing Di-."
I wince as the crumbler round triggers on my construct armour, destroying the outer layer. My return shot from a rapidly generated railgun smashes the turret responsible to pieces and penetrates the metal behind it, causing two of the nearby lights to go out.
"-ana seriously?!"
"Computer, stand down."
"Standing down."
I look around suspiciously for a moment, then deactivate my construct armour and float in the direction of Batman's work station. The man himself has his hood down… Which actually makes this the first time I've seen his face while he's wearing his costume. He's actually got noticeable mask-hair. It's off-puttingly humanising. It's.. not his Bruce Wayne persona, but I'm forced to relate to him as a person.
"I appreciate that we didn't part on particularly good terms, but I didn't think things were so bad that you were in a 'shooting on sight' kind of mood."
"The cave's defenses weren't set specifically to attack you. Until Diana notified me a moment ago, I didn't even know that you were on Earth."
I land and regard him for a moment. "That was a crumbler round."
"Crumbler rounds are highly effective against a wide variety of targets. As you know." His face remains remarkably expressionless. "I see that you've learned to teleport."
"Sort of."
"And found a way to bypass the wards protecting the cave."
"No, I-. Actually, I didn't try to scan for you. I just stepped out of the universe, looked for the patch of desires I know are you and then stepped back in. Since you're almost certainly only warded from other parts of the material universe, the only way to get around it would be to completely stop wanting things." We look at each other for a moment, though inside him I can see him starting to want a way to block that as well. "How have you been?"
"Busy. Crime didn't stop just because you left the planet."
Fair enough. I leave my armour on, but send my helmet back into subspace. "So… Diana gave me a summary of the League's feelings regarding the Nabu situation. Since your name wasn't specifically listed I'm going to assume you still aren't happy."
"You killed the League's magic expert without giving me any prior warning. Regardless of my feelings about your methodology, that created a major weakness in our ability to respond to magic threats."
"You've had eight years in which to find more magic users than the one you've been relying on. King Orin has dozens he could call upon, and I gave you a list last year. Did Diana speak to Doctor Tolon?"
"Doctor Tolon didn't feel that she could commit the time that League membership requires. The world wouldn't accept a Demon as a League member after the attack on Fawcett City, which makes Doctor Blood ineligible. And the Security Council has stated that they are reluctant to let the Justice League become 'an extension of the Atlantean military'."
"And the others?"
"They are proving somewhat difficult to locate. If you're interested, I would appreciate it if you could help us find a replacement."
"Were you not listening? Depending on one replacement is a bad idea. If you were planning on taking action against Nabu-"
"I was."
"-then-. Oh." I frown. "You didn't mention that."
"You have expressed an awareness of the fact that I have plans to counter the strengths of every League member." I nod. "Developing a method for combating Doctor Fate-. Nabu-"
"Nabu." Oh.
"-required knowledge well outside my normal area of expertise. In addition, I had to contend with the same need for secrecy that you did."
"I still managed it inside eight months."
"Yes. You did. Finding the right people or equipment to perform a task is something you've proven remarkably adept at."
Is he saying… That I out-Batmanned Batman? I guess that's a compliment.
"Okay, anyway… You need at least two. With a twenty one person Justice League four would be better, but…" Huh. She should be around… "I think I can.. get two within a reasonable timeframe. Neither are active superheroes, but they've got the magic skills you need."
"Is one of them the current owner of the Helmet of Fate?"
"Not unless things have gone seriously awry while I was away." Though I am going to need to speak to John… "I don't think… That person would be inclined to join the Justice League."
Batman looks at me, then his eyes narrow slightly. "John Constantine."
"I will neither confirm nor deny any guess-."
"He's a magic user you know well, believes himself to be in debt to Giovanni after the death of Sindella Zatara and has proven himself against stronger opponents on numerous occasions. What I'm not clear on is why he's keeping the Helmet. Or why -if the Helmet is intact- you claimed that Nabu was dead."
"Oh, Nabu's dead. Brain dead. If you read my full-."
"His consciousness was magic-based. Your mana batteries drained it when they overloaded."
"No, they deformatted it. Power still flows from the Plane of Order, but there's no mind present to do anything with it."
His face relaxes as he nods. "Except Constantine."
"I was gone two months. I don't know what he's doing with it now. But he was keeping hold of it when I left."
"Do you intend to return to active duty?"
"I'm the Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps. I'm always on active duty. What you mean is: do I intend to work for you?"
"If you prefer."
"You asked me to find two magic users and I'm planning on doing it. So it sounds like the answer's 'yes'."
