Assimilation [Young Justice SI]

[Satire Swift]

=====A=====​

"Alright team, I want you to give a warm welcome to your new teammate, Artemis. She's my niece." Green Arrow said as he gestured to the teenage girl at his side. The lot of us had gathered in the main hall to meet the newcomer, having changed into our costumes beforehand (I shifted back into my armored form, though I kept my human head). Green Arrow, dressed very much like a modern take on Robin Hood, was flanked by Batman and Red Tornado, though everyone's attention was now on the new girl.

Artemis, as it turned out, was a blonde girl in her mid-teen dressed in green formfitting combat pants and what I could only describe as a combat halter top. It revealed her belly and left her arms bare (additional armguards notwithstanding), but also merged with the mask that covered most of her face. It revealed enough of her eyes and mouth that I could tell she had some Asian ancestry in her, but that was about it. Still, the bow and quiver on her back, along with how she stood next to Green Arrow, made it clear where her proficiency lay.

Starfire, as our intrepid leader, stepped up first to greet her. "Hello Artemis. It is my pleasure to welcome you to this team. May you find us your brothers and sisters on the battlefield." She said as she held out her hand.

I leaned over to Robin and whispered "I taught her that."

I am not certain what kind of reception Artemis was expecting, but it was clear from the look on her face that it wasn't the one Starfire had just given. She blinked owlishly for a moment before she took the woman's hand in kind. "Uh, yeah, sure. I'm here to fight the good fight and all that."

"Great!" Starfire said as she pulled her hand back. "I am Koriand'r, but my title is Starfire." She then turned to the rest of us and listed us off. "This is Machina, Superboy, Miss Martian, Aqualad, and Robin. We have one more member who will be along shortly, he was caught up in personal matters. Oh!" She turned back. "That reminds me, will you be living in the Mountain, or do you have your own arrangements?"

"Uh, I have a home. Wait, I don't have to live here do I? I… kinda want to keep my privacy." The girl said with sudden concern.

I stepped up. "Nah, that's only if you don't have anywhere else to go. Those of us that do live here don't have a secret identity or don't care."

"I do!" Miss Martian protested. "I just… haven't gotten around to using it yet."

"Oh, well, my apologies. Anyway, point is you only have to share as much as you feel comfortable with."

"Right, right…" Artemis said, glancing at the lot of us before she seemed to get her footing back under her. "So, got to say, thought I would recognize more of you. Aren't you supposed to be sidekicks?"

"We don't like to use that word." Robin said quickly.

"It's a little more complicated than that." I elaborated. "Several of us have only started hero work recently. As well, we come from a rather… wide range of origins."

"I can see that. I suppose I should have expected something like that joining a team of metahumans."

"Actually, Kid Flash is the only metahuman on the team." I said before pointing around the room. "Half-Kryptonian, Martian, Tamaranian, and Atlantian. Now that I think about it most of the team is physically non-human." I paused for a moment as a thought occurred to me, and I looked at Aqualad. "Err, do Atlantians consider themselves human? Or something else?"

The teen shifted uncomfortably. "That is a… complicated subject amongst Atlantians, particularly considering our origins. In general though my people consider themselves Atlantians before anything else."

For her part, Artemis just arched an eyebrow. "Neat. But what are you then?" she asked me pointedly.

"Post-human. I don't have the metagene… or any genes for that matter. I'm made of nanomachines."

"…How'd you manage that? Little too much iron in your diet?"

I shrugged. "Oh you know, just a tired old recipe I had to try. A cup of alien abduction, a tea spoon of unethical experiments, and just a dash of hyper advanced nanotech with a side of unexpected consciousness uploading. Now with forty percent more existential dread!"

Artemis looked put off for a moment before she frowned. "I-I think you should have stuck to paleo. Would have put on less weight that way."

I arched an eyebrow. "You could stand to put on a bit more. What are you, a hundred pounds even? My god, eat a muffin, girl."

She glared at me for that, so I glared back at her in response. I managed to hold the expression for a few seconds before I started to chuckle. I glanced back at the team. "She can stay."

I heard Artemis snort at that. "Well, I guess that makes it official then."

Starfire nodded. "Well enough. Now, while I would prefer more time for you to get acquainted with us as a group, I am afraid that with a mission imminent we must focus on other matters. Primarily, your role on our team and familiarizing you with all of our abilities and specialties. Given your use of the bow, you should be…"

Starfire then began to explain the abilities and roles of everyone on the team, so I took the opportunity to step away. She didn't need me for this, and there was something I wanted to take care of while I had the opportunity. I walked over to Batman and said in a low voice. "Can I talk to you privately?"

The man looked at me for a moment before he made a motion with his head and the two of us walked to the other end of the room. The main hall was huge, so we were a good fifty feet away from everyone else before we came to a stop. "What did you want to talk about?" Batman asked as he faced me.

"I want to be made a full member of the team."

The man's expression didn't noticeably change at my statement, but I got the impression that he was raising an eyebrow underneath his cowl. "I see. Why?"

"A few reasons. One of which being I'm not sure I should have been held from being a ful member in the first place. It was understandable given the conceit that I was significantly less trained than everyone else, but… sir, were you aware that Superboy had gotten almost zero combat conditioning when you put him on the team?" That had caught me off guard when I had finally learned the extent of Superboy's psychic education. Cadmus had made him to be a living weapon, and downloaded enough information into his brain that he could write a ten page essay on the Cotton Gin from memory… and yet somehow neglected to actually teach him how to fight. Actual martial arts might be excused, those require muscle memory and reflexes that perhaps the Genomorphs couldn't parse, but there's still no excuse for the lack of tactical knowledge.

Batman shifted slightly before he answered. "Superboy's temperament when we first found him was… defiant, to say the least. He would not have taken it well if I insisted that he was not a full member of the team that Robin, Aqualad, and Kid Flash formed. Enough that he might have chosen to leave. I decided to take the risk."

"But what if he didn't know his own strength? He could have killed someone." I insisted.

"Until he got the proper training, I only planned on sending the team on non-combat missions, or against targets that could take that level of punishment." Batman's mouth pressed into a thin line. "It hasn't quite work out that way, but like I said, it was a risk."

I wanted to argue the point some more, but I remembered that I was already arguing something else and moved on. "Regardless, my point is we started out with basically the same amount of training and experience. Hell, I might have more combat experience than him at the moment. And that brings me to my second point; I've played an active role in every combat I've been to anyway. Staying back now seems kind of pointless."

Batman's eyes narrowed slightly. "Just because your previous circumstances have been unique and extreme doesn't mean that every mission is going to be like that."

"Yes, but that's happened on every mission." I insisted. "Look, the world clearly isn't waiting for me to be fully prepared and trained up. If anything my experiences proved that my team needs me. I'm not going to start suddenly charging in head first, but I am going to start more actively supporting the mission. So, unless you think that my performance is lacking…"

Batman was silent for a long moment before he cast his gaze downward. "I am displeased with the circumstances that required your performance. I understand that our line of work is hardly safe, but I had hoped to see your actions in a more controlled environment first." He turned his gaze back up to me. "However, your points are valid. You have performed admirably under pressure, have not been reckless with your choices, and you have demonstrated a reasonable amount of restraint when dealing with baseline humans. There was only one requirement left you had you to fulfill to get full membership."

"And what was that?" I asked as I raised a questioning eyebrow.

"You had to ask for it." Batman said, and with that he stepped past me and walked back towards the group. I followed after him slightly confused, and when we reached the group he said. "Team, I have an announcement. In light of his performance, as of this moment Machina is a full member of this team, with all of the duties that entails."

"Oh, congratulations!" Miss Martian said excitedly.

"Pretty sure he was more or less one of us already…" Superboy said. "But yeah, welcome aboard, or whatever."

"Wait, he wasn't actually on the team?" Artemis asked.

I ignored them and looked at Batman. "Really? I had to ask?"

He looked back at me. "Caution and humility are good traits, but superhero work requires a certain degree of decisiveness. You can't just accept to being a hero. You have to choose it."

I opened my mouth before I closed it again. I didn't really have any response for that. Lucky for me, I didn't have to, as a second later the Zeta Tube activated.

"Recognized: Kid Flash, B-0-3."

When the light died down, it revealed Wally… dressed in swim trunks and carrying a huge load of beach gear (beach ball, beach umbrella, cooler, and a surfboard of all things) in his arms. Does… he not realize that the sun is already setting? I wondered.

Apparently not, as a moment later he started to run into the hall yelling "The Wall-man is here! Now let's get this party star-!"

That was as far as he got before his legs became entangled with the pole of the beach umbrella he was carrying. He crashed to the ground in a heap with all of his stuff. The volley ball bounced a couple of timed before it rolled off into the distance. The lot of us stared at him as Wally lifted his head. "-ted." He finished weakly.

"Wall-man, huh?" Artemis said with a smirk. "Love the uniform. What exactly are your powers?"

"Who is this?" Wally asked as he got to his feet, irritation in his voice.

"Artemis, your new teammate." She said.

"Kid Flash, never heard of you."

Damn it, Wally, I thought to myself. To be fair, I couldn't expect everyone to respond to snark with the same cheer that I do, be he could have handled that a bit more gracefully.

Green Arrow stepped up next to her. "She's my new protégé."

"W-what happened to the old one?!" Wally exclaimed. Before anyone could answer though the Zeta Tube behind him whirred to life again, and golden light flashed as the synthetic voice chimed.

"Recognized: Speedy, B-0-6"

The light faded to reveal a young man walking towards us, dressed in a black and red costume that was somewhere between Green Arrow's and Artemis's, with a domino mask on his face. "Well for starters, he doesn't go by Speedy anymore." He said with a slight growl. "Call me Red Arrow."

And here was our supposed mission giver. I had found it odd that it wasn't Batman giving us the briefing, but it seemed something went down earlier today which Red Arrow had been involved in, so it was decided that he would be giving the details. I remembered that other guys said something about hoping to wrangle this guy onto the team a few weeks back, but I had been distracted at the time so I never followed up on it. I just hope he's having a bad day and hasn't already shifted into edgelord Arsenal mode, I thought.

For his part, Green Arrow looked surprised. "Roy! You look-"

"Replaceable." The younger man said flatly as he walked towards up.

"It's not like that, you told me you were going solo."

"So why waste time finding a sub?" The red head snapped. "Does she even know how to use that bow?"

I arched an eyebrow at the exchange. Okay, there definitely had to be some context or subtext I was missing here. No way was this guy throwing a fit just because his mentor got a replacement after he left. Then again, his tone was kind of… edgy.

Artemis, not one to take such a comment lying down, stepped up to the much taller man. "Yes, she can." She said defiantly.

"Who are you?!" Wally insisted.

"She's my/I'm his niece." Artemis and Green Arrow said at once.

"She is not your replacement." Aqualad said as he walked up to Red Arrow. "We've always wanted you on the team, and we have no quota on Archers."

"And if we did, you know who we'd pick." Wally said.

God damn it Wally, I thought. This is going to make things difficult between the two of them later, I just knew it.

For the moment though Artemis just brushed the comment off. "Whatever Baywatch, I'm here to stay. Big Grey here confirmed it and everything."

Eyes turned on me, and I coughed awkwardly. "So, heard that you have a mission for us. What do you need us to do?"

"Protect Dr. Serling Roquette."

"You found Doctor Roquette?!" Everyone in the room started at that, mostly because I had just shouted. "What happened to her? Where is she? Is she alright?"

Red Arrow scowled at me. "She's fine. She was abducted two weeks ago, but I rescued her earlier today. What's it to you?"

"She's my acting physician." I said with a loud sigh of relief. "Thank Christ she's alright. I had been meaning to look into that again, but… things came up."

The other man's scowl did not lessen. "And just who are you?"

"Oh where are my manners," I said before I stepped towards him and extended my arm. "Machina. Joined the team about a month ago. Pleasure to meet you."

Red Arrow looked at my hand for a moment before he turned and looked back at the team. "The doctor was captured by the League of Shadows in order to build them a weapon. It's called the Fog."

He walked away from me and pulled out a device from his belt, and with a press of a button a holographic screen appeared and showed us data and an image of several individual nanites. I stood there awkwardly for a moment before I let my hand fall to my side.

Well then.

Wally, not caring about the social faux pas, perked up. "Whoa, the League of Shadows? That's hardcore!"

Red Arrow ignored him and continued. "Comprised of millions of microscopic infiltrators, these machines are capable of disintegrating anything in their path. Concrete, steel, flesh and bone."

God lord that's horrifying, I thought to myself. I mean, the idea that she was captured for her research had certainly occurred to me, but I was under the impression that she just worked with information systems. The fact that her creations could do all that… "Please tell me we're not looking at a grey goo scenario." I said. I doubted that Roquette managed to build these things with a functioning nuclear forge, but if she had…

Thankfully, Red Arrow shook his head. "No, they can't build more of themselves, and without the doctor the Shadows can't make more. But what they do have is dangerous enough, especially when it comes to what they were actually made for: data retrieval. These nanites can strip the data from any device they consume, before delivering the stolen intel the Shadows. Depending on their target, they could gain anything from military secrets to cutting edge technology."

Ah, there it is. Well, still wouldn't help them much if the data was strongly encrypted, I thought to myself. Of course, if these things can just tear through and consume any computer in a building, odds are there is still plenty valuable info it can pick up. Never mind if it just finds the encryption key. Putting all that aside, I asked "So, how do we stop it?"

"The doctor is working on a virus to neutralize the Fog, and a way to track it. But the moment she does start tracking it, the Shadows will know, and they'll target her. I have her stashed at a nearby highschool's computer lab."

"You left her alone?" Green Arrow asked incredulously.

"She's safe enough for now." Red Arrow said dismissively.

"Then let's you and I keep her that way." The older man insisted.

"You and I? Don't you want to take your new protégé?" The younger man said with the hint of a sneer.

Green Arrow looked like he was about to say more, but Batman put a hand on his shoulder. The two looked at each other before Green Arrow looked back at his former student. "You brought this to the team. It's their mission. Which means it's hers now too."

Red Arrow scoffed. "Then my job's done." He snapped, and walked back towards the Zeta Tube.

"Recognized: Speedy-"

"That's Red Arrow! B-0-6, update!" There was a flash of light and he was gone.

The room is silent for a long moment before I finally said "So… has he always had that arrow stuck up his-"

"Hey!" Wally protested.

Aqualad looked my way. "Sp- Red Arrow disagreed with how the League treated us. While he may not have made the best impression, do not disparage him. He is a valued comrade."

"If you insist…" I said, though I doubted I was going to warm up to the angsty teen anytime soon. I cast a glance at Batman. "In any case, this sounds pretty serious. Will we have any support from the League on this one?"

Batman shook his head. "The Justice League is already investigating the location the doctor was recovered from, but the island appears to be abandoned. Likely shortly after Red Arrow's rescue. We still need to check every lead before the trail runs cold however, which is why the mission of protecting Dr. Roquette and neutralizing the weapon falls to you."

Starfire clapped her hands together. "Well, then we have no time to waste. Kid Flash, get changed and meet us in the hanger. We leave for the high school in five minutes."

As the team started to move, I noticed Artemis slide up next to Superboy. "So… Superboy, huh?"

For his part, Wally looked despondent as he started gathering up all of the junk he had spilled. "Ah man, this sucks." he sighed. "I missed beach day, some chick is replacing Speedy… How could this get any worse?"

"You missed Kori in a V-style bikini." I offered.

He looked at me in horror before he collapsed to his knees. "NOOOOOO!"

I chuckled as I patted him on the shoulder. "Too slow, Wally. Too slow."

=====A=====​

 

[Satire Swift]

=====A=====​

"Why didn't you come save me?!"

"For the last time, I wanted to, but I had no idea what actually happened to you. No one did!"

"Well, arrow boy managed to figure it out and find me! And he did it all by himself!"

I let out an exasperated sigh, the sound echoing through the empty high school halls we were walking through. Considering that Roquette had spent the last two weeks held prisoner by an international terrorist organization, it was understandable that she was a little grumpy. I just wished that she didn't feel the need to take it out on me. "Well," I said evenly. "If you really want, we can let you get captured again, and then I can be the one to save you. Will that make you feel better?"

Roquette's face twisted and she looked like she was going to continue yelling at me, but she paused before she let out a sigh of her own. "Sorry," she said as she rubbed her eyes. "You don't deserve that. I just… while I was held captive I assumed that you were the one leading the search effort."

I felt guilt settle in the pit of my non-existent stomach at that. "I… I'm sorry about that. The League told me that they would handle the situation, so I wasn't really allowed to do anything. And then that damn android showed up and…" I trailed off.

Roquette looked curious for a moment before she let out a sigh of her own. "Yes, well, in light of recent events I'm not entirely sure we should be placing our faith so heavily in that particular bunch of metahumans."

I was about to point out that the majority of the League actually weren't metahumans when my mind caught something that she had said earlier, and I looked at her. "Wait, were you serious when you said Red Arrow was by himself?"

"Well, yeah. We wouldn't be in this situation if we had one other person to carry the Fog container. Why?"

"Just something for later," I said as a slight frown crossed my face. There was no way the Justice League would have let Red Arrow infiltrate a League of Shadows island on his own if they knew. Which meant the brat had managed to find the doctor all on his own. How the hell did he manage to find her when Batman and the rest of the League couldn't? I suppose this iteration of Roy Harper could be even more competent than usual, but something about the situation seemed off.

Regardless, I could work that out later. At the moment I had to focus on the mission. That said, there was one thing I had started to wonder about… "Doctor, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but if you don't mind my asking… did you ever consider using the Fog to escape? Or building in an easy to activate kill switch?"

I saw the woman's jaw clench at the question, but she continued to look straight ahead for several long moments before she answered. "I-I tried at first, but there wasn't time, and they were always watching me. Their programmers weren't as good as me, but they were good enough to spot anything obvious. The first time they caught me trying to slip extra command code in-" She cut herself off, taking a breath before she continued. "And then they kept mounting more and more pressure to get it working, and building a coherent nano swarm capable of dispersal and flight is far different from anything I had ever done before and-"

"Doctor, its fine." I said quickly, regretting bringing it up. "I just wanted to know in case it was relevant to what we're going to do."

Roquette's shoulders slumped a little before she recomposed herself. "And just why are we moving anyway?" She said as we turned a corner, the building's front doors now at the end of the hall for us.

"Well, we know that the moment you activate the tracer program, the League of Shadows will be able to backtrack the signal to your location…" I was certain there had to be a way to prevent or slow down being backtracked, but unfortunately neither I nor Roqutte had the networking knowledge to make that happen (adding yet another subject to the study docket). "So we decided that it would be best to keep you mobile to avoid assassins."

As we walked out the doors of the high school, we saw the bioship waiting for us just past the school courtyard. "And what better way to stay mobile than a flying ship that can turn invisible." I said with a gesture to the living vessel. Starfire had not liked the idea of just staying on the defensive and waiting for the League of Shadows to come to us, especially seeing as our goal was to just keep the doctor away from them rather than defeat them directly. As such, she decided that we would just keep her out of reach. And as far as we knew, the Shadows had nothing that could actually reach a Martian Bioship.

The doctor looked at the craft with some trepidation. "That's all well and good, but how am I supposed to do any work in that thing?" Roquette asked.

I held up what I was carrying. "My laptop. Relatively high spec and already loaded with a few programming IDEs. Including some basic claytronics software. At the very least should be miles better than whatever a high school computer lab has."

"Alright but what about-"

"And a remote satellite uplink." I continued as I held out the small dish-like device in my other hand. "Trust me doctor, you'll be perfectly safe and have everything you need."

She glanced between me and the ship for a moment before she took in a breath and walked forward. "Right, of course. I'm just… tired of being carted around everywhere."

"Well you won't have to put up with it much longer."

The entry ramp folded out as we approached it, and we were greeted by the rest of my team. Truth be told, while the bioship was about the size of a bus, the actual command deck was a little cramped with nine people inside it. It wasn't that bad but several of us would have to get a little comfortable with each other. Speaking of which, I didn't fail to notice that Kid Flash and Artemis had parked themselves on opposite sides of the command deck, occasionally shooting glares at each other.

I really hope they get over this quickly, I thought to myself. At the very least, I still wasn't entirely sure why Kid Flash seemed to have such a problem with her. I would have thought he would have liked another girl on the team.

In any case, I sat Roquette down at a flat console and set the laptop in front of her. About a minute later everything was set up and connected. "Hmm," The woman hummed as she cycled through the programs and checked the connection. "I can work with this."

"Good. Everyone ready?" Starfire asked as she looked around. "Miss Martian, link us up."

And then… everyone just sort of stood around looking at each other. I was confused for several long seconds before I realized what was happening. "Have you guys formed a psychic link?"

Miss Martian turned to me and nodded. "It's easier for us to keep in contact this way, and our communications can't be intercepted or overheard." Her expression turned apologetic. "I'm sorry that I can't include you too. If you want to change into your ansible form…"

I waved her off. "No, I wouldn't be of use to anyone like that. Just use the coms when you need to talk to me."

Several of the team looked at each other at that and… were they still talking to each other? I couldn't tell. I was suddenly very uncomfortable, in a way that I hadn't felt since high school. That mix of self-consciousness and social anxiety that comes from not knowing you place in a group of people, not knowing what they said about you when you weren't there. Funny this happens after I fully join the team, I thought blithely as I tried to push my sudden bout of emotions down. I was an adult damn it, I was better than this.

Miss Martian then finally shook her head. "But Machina can't hear us, and there's no reason to exclude him." She said out loud. "Besides, we should make sure that if there's mission critical information that he should be informed."

Starfire let out a breath. "In hindsight, we should have considered this. For this mission we'll have to rely on comlinks for communication, only use the telepathic link if the situation demands it."

Everyone on the command deck nodded, and I felt my social anxiety abate a little. Still, I couldn't help but feel a little mortified by how my addition to the team proper was screwing up tactics. "Thanks," I muttered before looking at the doctor. "Are you ready?"

"Just give me a few minutes to get the program set up."

Starfire looked at Miss Martian. "Prepare the ship to depart."

"Activating camouflage mode." The Martian said as she pressed her hands into the controls, and a moment later we rose into the air. We gained about 300 meters in altitude before the ship came to a stop. For a few minutes we hung there in silence, with nothing but the sound of doctor's typing filling the command deck.

Soon enough though, Roquette said "Alright, almost got it… there."

I leaned over her as she put in a few final keystrokes and a map pulled up on the screen. The image pulled in and after a few seconds I recognized the location. "Looks like the Fog is near Richmond."

Starfire nodded to Miss Martian. "Set a course."

And like that we were off.

----------------------​

We weren't long into our journey before Artemis spoke up. "So… what's the game plan when we get there?" she asked.

"Depends on the situation." Starfire replied. "If the weapon is contained when we reach them, we take out the Shadow agents and retrieve or destroy the nanomachines as quickly as possible. If the Fog has been deployed, we try to upload the doctor's virus to whatever system they're targeting."

"Alternatively, could we just throw a thumb dive with the virus at the thing?" I asked as I glanced at Roquette.

"Most likely." The woman muttered, not taking her eyes off the laptop. "The Fog should automatically assimilate any digital system that enters its volume. I did have to cut a few corners for time though, so don't throw it at dense material the Fog happens to be burrowing though at the moment."

Artemis frowned. "Alright, but what if the virus isn't ready and the Fog already deployed? What do the more squishy among us do then?"

"Stay back until it is contained again." Starfire said firmly. "From what little I understand of this technology, none of us have any weapons guaranteed to stop it. We should not engage it directly unless it is absolutely needed, and then only by those physically capable of withstanding it."

Artemis leaned back in her said "Yeah, I guess that makes sense." She didn't seem too happy about it. "Not much for me to do though…"

"Don't worry, us real superheroes will take care of it." Kid Flash said with a smirk.

Artemis's head snapped towards him, but I spoke up before she could. "Actually Kid Flash, you probably wouldn't be acting in that scenario either. We don't want to tip our hand to the Shadows while the weapon is active."

"It's not a weapon, its science!" The doctor suddenly shouted. "Brilliant science!"

I arched an eyebrow at her and said "I think that's semantics at this point," I was about to say something else when I caught a glance at the laptop screen. I watched it for a few moments longer before I said "Scratch Richmond, it's on the move. Pretty quickly too." I glanced back at the doctor. "How fast are these things?"

"Not that fast, but what we're tracking is not the Fog itself, but its container." She replied as she switched windows back to the programming software. "The nanites have only about 30 minutes of power before they have to return to their container to recharge and upload any data they're retrieved. Whoever has the container is the one moving fast."

"Where are they headed?" Aqualad asked.

"If they keep headed in a straight line… Philadelphia."

Robin sat up straighter at that. "There are any number of targets that the League of Shadows could be after in that city."

"Wayne Tech, STAR Labs, Lexcorp, any number of smaller companies with governmental or military contracts…" The lot of us turned to look at Artemis, who had been listing off names. She flinched a little at the stares and got defensive. "What? Those are the obvious ones, right?"

"Can we reach the city before they do?" Starfire asked.

I looked at the screen for a few seconds longer before I shook my head. "It will be close, but at our current rate they'll reach the city first by about 20 minutes."

"I can't push the bioship any harder." Miss Martian said. "As it is she's going to be feeling the strain tomorrow."

Starfire's mouth pressed into the thin line before she looked back out through the view port. "Well, then we will have to hope that they cannot do too much damage before we arrive."

--------------------​

By the time the ship reached the outskirts of Philadelphia about an hour later, night had fallen and everyone was a bit on edge. Roquette had confirmed that whoever had been carrying the fog had entered the city, but we had no idea what they were up to. We had to get closer before we could get a more precise location, and as such everyone was on the lookout for any sign of the enemy.

As such, I almost missed it when the doctor suddenly sat up a little bit straighter in her chair. Out of the comer of my eye I saw her brow furrow as her typing picked up speed, her expression becoming more confused and concerned as time went on. A full minute passed like this before I finally turned and looked at her. "Something wrong, doctor?"

She didn't acknowledge me at first, instead continuing to look at the laptop screen and mutter to herself. I could see the screen, but to me it was just a rapidly scrolling page of code and commands. I was about to ask again when she froze, her eyes going wide in shock. "Uh oh."

"…Uh oh? What 'uh oh'? I do not like 'uh oh's. There is no conceivable scenario were you saying 'uh oh' leads to our situation improving."

She looked back up at me, her expression a mix of fear and uncertainty. "I- I lost the signal from the Fog."

Robin took notice. "Wait, lost? How?"

"I don't know! I mean, it's possible that the container was damaged or destroyed. They might have tried to remove my ability to track it, but unless they have someone as smart as me there's no way they could have done it without wrecking the thing."

"So, best case, the Fog has been neutralized without us having to act," Starfire said. "But what is the worst case?"

Roquette's eyes darted to the side, not looking at any of us. I don't know why, but something seemed off about her reaction. Thus far she had mostly been composed since we picked her up, but now the fact that she had lost track of the Fog made her almost afraid. Before I could think on it more, she said. "30 minutes of destruction. But, while I may not be the best judge of a bunch of assassins, I don't think they'll decide to just destroy everything around them to get the most out of their toy."

"Nevertheless, the situation is more urgent than ever." Starfire said. "Do we know the Fog's last location?"

"I can tell you at least one place they've been." Everyone looked at Superboy, who was currently looking out the view port. We followed his gaze to a section of the Philadelphia skyline, and saw plumes of smoke drifting between the buildings.

Robin quickly checked his arm computer. "Estimating location and target… That's STAR Labs!"

The bioship altered course and headed straight for the smoke. We were forced to slow down once we hit the city proper, but when the bioship rounded the corner of the last building in our way…

Shit.

"We're too late." Robin said, voicing our thoughts as we gazed down at the pile of concrete and rubble that used to be STAR Labs. I had no idea what the building used to look like, but now all that remained was a smoking pile about half the size of a city block. "There's nothing left."

"But, why would they destroy the building?" I asked. "They were just after the computer systems, and you don't have to take out the whole building to get those."

"You do if you don't know where those systems are." I looked back at Roquette and she grimaced. "I… didn't have to time to program a proper sweep and search algorithm. So they search everything in the building. Including the walls."

I bit back a curse, forcing myself to focus on the task at hand. "Where was the last position?"

"About 900 meters to the west."

We didn't linger long on the rubble before we moved, traveling further downtown until we reached an intersection. It didn't take long to spot the point of interest. Starfire looked at Miss Martian. "Bring us down, we need to investigate."

"Wait." Eyes turned on Aqualad, and he continued. "The Fog may still be there. We should not take unnecessary risks."

Starfire thought about this for a moment before she nodded and looked at me. "Machina, go down and investigate."

I nodded in kind and got to my feet. Before we had picked up the doctor the team had discussed possible tactics and strategies if we had to face the Fog directly, and it was decided that I was the best candidate if one of us had to get close to the nanomachines. Considering that I had been able to resist Amazo's attempt to consume me (brief as it was), I was likely able to resist nano-scale attacks. Not exactly something I wanted to test of course, but still.

In short order I was lowered to the street by a line, and as I landed on the asphalt I took stock of what we had spotted from the air. There was what looked to be the shredded remains of a grey van which had smashed into a lamppost, the front half completely annihilated into a pile of metal parts and dust. There were a few civilians nearby, but thankfully they were only rubbernecking at the moment. "Stay back, don't touch anything!" I called out in what I hoped was an authoritative tone.

I walked up to the wreckage, keeping an eye out for any signs of an all-consuming technofog that was prepared to pounce. The mess remained still though, even as I reached it and started sifting through the pieces. It was only a few seconds before I found something, and I just knew that it couldn't mean anything good. "Machina to team, I'm pretty sure I just found the Fog container. Or at least, what's left of it."

"Wait, what do you mean what's left of it?" Roquette asked.

I bent down and picked up a curved piece of metal with some exposed circuity and a large red LED on it. The doctor had given us a description of the Fog's container before we left, and this seemed to match the front plate. "It's been torn to bits. Disintegrated." I sifted around the pile some more and found something I wish I hadn't. "I think I also found the Shadows agent. Or at least… what's left of them."

It wasn't a body so much as a smear of red mixed in with the rest of the ruined van. Wasn't exactly pleasant to look at though.

"So, does this mean the Fog malfunctioned or something?" Kid Flashed asked. "Does that mean our job's done?"

"It…" Roquette paused, her tone unsteady. "Possibly, though…"

A certain suspicion started to form in my mind. "Doctor…" I said. "Is there anything you want to tell us?"

"I don't know what-"

"Is there anything you want to tell us?" I said again, this time a bit more forcefully.

There was a long pause. For a moment I wondered if I was just being a jerk to her for no reason, but then… "I was running out of time!" She said frantically. "I had only made prototypes before, but they wanted something fully functional, and they had me working 18 hours a day! I needed to find a way to have the whole swarm keep cohesion to stave of physical and data entropy! Then… then I remembered the scans of your nanites, how you were constructed. So I made a few structural tweaks and repurposed their software into a full distributed neural network that could adapt and respond to any stress the swarm was put through. I made it resemble your own nanites as much as I could, but I never thought that-"

"Doctor Roquette." I said sharply, cutting her off. "What are the odds that the Fog has become self-aware?"

There was a long silence before she replied "…When you say self-aware-"

"God damn it, woman!"

"It's programmed to try to survive!" She continued over me. "At best it just has a sort of survival instinct! It's only supposed to work to keep it together and preventing it from destroying itself by touching something volatile. This though… this implies a sort of long term critical thinking I never programmed it with."

"Let me guess," I said flatly. "The Fog realized that doing what the Shadows agent told it to do was not good for its health in the long run, so it quit."

"Something like that." The doctor confirmed. "I never built the Fog for longevity. Even with constant recharging the nanites will break down with too much use. Though I don't understand how it gained the ability to think critically about its actions and existence like that."

"I think that may be because you built something partially based on hyperadvanced nanotech you don't really understand yet." I remarked in frustration. I knew that now really wasn't the time to be giving the expert sass, but I really couldn't help but be mad at the scientist for her lack of foresight. "Is it possible that the Fog might have internalized the data that the Shadows had it consume, and that catalyzed its change in behavior?"

"It's possible, but I don't know what the Philadelphia STAR Labs was working on. But if it can internalize the data it assimilates, the virus I've been writing won't be good enough anymore."

Before I could respond, a new voice cut in on the com. "This speculation is all well and good, but we need to act soon given there is an incredibly destructive weapon loose in the city." Aqualad said. "Doctor, do you have any idea where the Fog might have gone?"

"Well, I have a guess…"

=====A=====​

 

[Satire Swift]

=====A=====​

I landed with a heavy thud on the rooftop, keeping my momentum as I ran to my next destination. The line of buildings in front of me were all of different heights, but they were close enough that I had no trouble jumping from one to the next. "I'll be at 7th and 43rd in a few seconds." I said over the coms, keeping everyone else informed.

"Copy, arriving at 7th and 42nd now." I heard Aqualad reply. I glanced in that direction, but of course I couldn't see anything as he would be on ground level.

"Corner of 9th and 24th clear, moving to next." Kid Flash said. "Still a little confused as to why we're checking intersections rather than tech companies."

"Because we have no idea which one the Fog will head to." I replied. "We're not even sure what, if anything, it wants beyond its own survival. But we are pretty sure that it needs power, and the only place it can do that is near the main city transformers at intersections."

The doctor had originally tried to build the Fog to only be able to recharge inside its container, but it turned out that when she had made her last minute adjustments she had incidentally added second option (which she had declined to tell the Shadows): the Fog could draw power from magnetic fields. It wasn't very quick and required a powerful field, but it could do it. And the only places in the city that had a powerful enough field were the main power transforms under the street.

So, we had split up to cover as much ground as quickly as possible. Admittedly Kid Flash was doing most of the work by volume, but when you have to search every intersection within a 30 block radius, you need all the hands you can get. Well, save for one, but Robin had a different job. "I'll see if I can give you a target in a few minutes, KF." Robin said. "While the STAR Labs branch here might have been destroyed, they must have recorded something about what they were doing and sent it to main office. If it has anything to do with what the Fog wants, that will tell us where to go." I had no idea where or how Robin was getting access to STAR Lab's network or servers, but for now I had other things to worry about.

"Maybe," Kid Flash said, sounding unconvinced. "But I feel like we're not going to find it like this before its starts carving its way through the city."

It was then that Roquette's voice came up over the coms. "You won't find it tearing through walls. That takes too much energy, which the Fog can't afford to spare now that its recharge hub is destroyed. It will be sliding along the ground, slipping through cracks and gaps until it absolutely has to act."

I reached the end of the line of buildings and slid to a stop just before the roof ended. I looked down at the street seven stories below and did a quick scan to see if anything was amiss, vainly hoping that I wouldn't have to yet again go down under the street to check the transformer in person. It was more tedious than anything else, but it didn't change the fact that I wished I had more advanced scanning abilities. Well, I technically did, but I still didn't know how to use them or if they would even work on the Fog. I had the processing system I had gotten from Amazo running throughout my body to see if it would help, but thus far nothing.

I was about to jump down and investigate in person when it happened. It was such a small thing that I almost missed it, a slight shimmer seeping up through the cracks around a sewer lid. I focused my vision in and saw what looked to be silver-ish sand flowing down the street, a compressed mass not much bigger than a person. Though my vision wasn't good enough to see down to a microscopic level, I had no doubt that I had found what we were looking for.

"I see it. It's moving south down 43rd street." I said, glancing at the various civilians milling about on the sidewalk. There weren't that many at this time of night, and none of them had the top-down view of the street that I had, but it wouldn't be long before someone noticed that odd substance slinking along the edges of the street. "It's keeping flat to the ground, seems to be avoiding contact with anything."

"Stay there, we are on our way." Starfire said. "Be ready in case the Fog becomes aggressive."

"Hard to say, but it doesn't seem like it's going to do that anytime soon." I said as the mass slid closer to my location. For a moment I found myself wondering just what I was looking at. Was it a newly born creature trying to survive in a world it didn't understand? Did it somehow become a person? Or was it weapon with drives and motivations that were alien to everything else on the planet? "Even if it does I'm hesitant to try anything, especially with all of these bystanders. Do we have any-"

That was as far as I got. One second the Fog was creeping down the street in my direction, the next it had exploded into upward motion straight at me. I had only about a second to react before the now bus sized cloud to nanites passed through the space I used to occupy. I rolled to my feet before I jumped even further back the cloud moving relentlessly after me. "Scratch that, the Fog is after me! Why is the Fog after me?!"

"What?! Machina, hold on, I will be there in a few seconds!" Aqualad said.

I didn't bother responding as I dodged to the side, the cloud rushing me yet again. I had to focus on just how to deal with the threat in front of me. My mind rapidly cycled through all the weapons and tech I had a my disposal, but I quickly realized that the thing that would be most useful was still the particular bit of tech I had been using the most, if more than I ever had before. As the aerokinetic core took shape in my chest, the surface of my whole body grew rough and angular, swept back spikes taking shape. I didn't have enough time to complete my transformation though, as only a second later the Fog spread itself wide before trying to encompass me. After being pushed back so far I only have one way left to escape, and I took it by launching myself off the building just as the Fog reached me.

The drop to the street must have only lasted just a second or two, but for me it felt like it was happening in slow motion. I twisted in the air to look back at the shimmering cloud that was almost touching me, my hand sweeping out in front of me. My skin shifted and rippled as the Fog reached me, the edge of the cloud touching my extended hand-

-0f#o7SuRviVe5ib%RvjE3gRowS$vJ3TwhYvj&P9IwhaTogaa55a4ecOnsuME'-

And then my body finished shifting, and with a scream both lightning and wind tore outwards from me uncontrolled. The Fog drew back from me just before I hit the ground with a thud, landing on my back. It wasn't quite as hard as I was expecting. What the fuck was that? I didn't have time to think about before the swarm darted back in. Acting more on reflex than anything else, I scrambled to my feet and cast out my hand at the thing, just trying to keep it away.

Something… processed. Even as lightning surged along my arm, the limb opened and transformed, air being sucked in to the newly formed gaps and channels. An aperture opened where my palm was, and the electricity that tore away from me was accompanied by a burst of wind that staggered me back, but also blowing a hole in the nanite cloud.

I blinked and looked at my arm as it shifted back to normal. Huh. Filing that away for later.

Lightning surged all over my body as the Fog and I collected ourselves, and I took the moment to take stock of my surrounding. I had fallen down onto a side street that was thankfully more or less devoid of civilians, a few parked cars lining the sides of the road. I could see a few people about 15 meters down the street who were taking notice of the impromptu thunderstorm, but hopefully I could keep the Fog's attention on me. I… I still wasn't sure just what the hell had happened a second earlier, but I knew that I definitely had the thing's interest. And that it was hungry.

The Fog emitted a noise that was a mix of high pitched synthetic tones and reverb, the sound echoing down the street at it drew itself up. I paused. Did… it just growl at me?

Suddenly there was a torrent of water between me and the Fog, and the cloud pulled back. Off to the side, Aqualad stood next to an open fire hydrant, the water pouring out following the motions of the pair of sword hilts held in his hands. As he flicked his wrist the stream broke into several tendrils and lashed out at the Fog from several directions. Some of the streams missed while other broke apart and splashed on the ground uselessly, but a few managed to hit the mass of nanites. Steam erupted wherever they made contact, the water being pulled apart as the Fog dismantled it to keep from being swept away.

The Fog decided it had enough of that and shot toward Aqualad, but the Atlantian was ready. He pulled his arms in, and suddenly water began to flow around him into a shell. In a matter of moments he was floating in a bubble of water, and I just managed to catch sight of his tattoos starting to glow before the Fog enveloped him. I felt a small surge of terror as a plume of steam erupted, but just as suddenly there was a burst of electricity. The nanite cloud let out that digital shriek again as it pulled back.

The Fog then seemed to realize that it was not going to be able to take us down, and before I could clear the distance the swarm pulled in on itself and bolted out of sight down a nearby alley. There was a beat before Aqualad dropped the shell of water around himself and settled to the ground.

"That was dangerous of you." I said as I ran past him into the alley.

Aqualad fell in line behind me. "It was a risk, but I felt it was a sound one. Especially after you just demonstrated the efficacy of electricity."

I grunted at him before I got back on the coms. "Fog's on the move again." I said as the two of us burst out of the alley and back onto the main street, juking to the side to avoid a car before tearing off after it. "It's headed down 43rd again. Aqualad and I are in pursuit."

"I'm afraid… that's not accurate." I looked back at Aqualad, who to my surprise was falling behind rather quickly. He simply wasn't as fast as either the Fog or myself. "Go!" He yelled at me. I looked back forward and started to pull on speed, my feet hammering into the street with sparks following my steps. While I normally defaulted back to my xenomorph form when I needed speed, and that form was more maneuverable, I could move at a pretty good clip as a humanoid when it came down to it.

And right now I needed the ability to aim. My arm snapped out in front of me and fired off a couple of low powered bolts, but I had a difficult time getting a bead on the thing. The cloud flew in an extremely erratic pattern, switching from spirals to zig-zag, flowing underneath and around cars whenever it could. I took shots at it when I thought it was safe, but I only landed a few hits. But for all its dodging, it was doing something odd: it wasn't trying to lose me. There were plenty of chances for the nanite swarm to change direction and go into a building, or down a side street, or though the sewers. But instead it just kept flying down the street. And I had a guess why.

"Guys, it looks like the Fog is headed somewhere specific." I said over coms. "Robin if you have any ideas-"

Robin's voice interrupted me before I could finish. "Got it! Cryptarch Industries!"

Huh, never heard of it, I thought to myself as I vaulted over another car. I would have guessed the Fog would have tried to go after one of the larger tech companies. "Alright. Any idea why?"

"In STAR Labs project records there's mention of a collaboration project between it and Cryptarch involving molecular assembly and rearrangement. The latest prototype had been sent back to Cryptarch for analysis. Sounds like exactly the sort of thing the Fog needs to make more of itself."

"If it's managed to figure out its own composition and structure… yeah that might do it."

"It gets worse. Cryptarch is a big time military contractor. It works on things ranging from weapons to electronic warfare and cryptography. If the Fog gets its hands on that the US military's network could be comprised."

"Because the stakes weren't high enough already…" I muttered to myself before I said "Is there any way to stop it before it reaches the building?"

"I'm just about done on the new virus." Roquette's voice suddenly spoke up over the com. "The old one caused a feedback loop that caused the nanites processors to burn out, but that wouldn'y work anymore if it's capable of self-analysis. So instead, I'm going to try to use that against it by forcing itself into a constant state of meta-analysis. This will flood its predictive algorithms with so many possibilities and scenarios that it will be unable to take action and either run out of power or explode."

I was silent for a moment to consider this before I said "You're going to shut down the Fog… by giving it an existential crisis?"

"Not how I would have put it, but yes. Unfortunately, I need to put the virus into system before the Fog co-op it."

"Right, hand it off to me and-"

"There's no time! Besides, do you know how to sneak a computer virus on to a prototype molecular forge?" I was silent for a long moment, and she continued. "I have to do it, but I need a little more time."

"Then we will have to slow it down as much as possible to give you that time." Starfire said. "Miss Martian, bring the doctor to Cyptarch. Kid Flash, take point and make sure the building is cleared out of civilians. Everyone else regroup at Cryptarch but do not engage. I have almost reached your position Machina, I'll intercept and harry the Fog to slow it down."

"Starfire-"

"I will not get close." She insisted. "But my star bolts should be enough to at least hurt it a little. Be ready… now!"

Sure enough, a moment later Starfire appeared from around the corner of an intersection just ahead and streaked down, flames longer than the length of her body trailing off her hair as several green bolts rained down on her target. The Fog twisted in a serpentine pattern to avoid the shots, but I still saw a few chunks of it get vaporized. I think the cloud was starting to look a little smaller than when I first spotted it, but that might have been my imagination.

The Fog made another one of its strange shrieks before it shot upwards towards Starfire. She immediately pulled back and flew upwards, quickly outpacing the nanite swarm as she shot into the sky. The Fog only followed her a short ways before it started to fly back down again and resumed its course, but not before it had to dodge a few more lightning bolts from me. And once it did fly back down, Starfire followed and opened fire on it again.

This pattern continued for a while, Starfire dashing in and out of range to attack while I followed close behind and took shots whenever I had a clear one. But for all that the Fog was too quick, to strange and amorphous a target to really pin down. We may have slowed it down some, but all too quickly Cryptarch's building was in sight. It wasn't as large as the STAR lab's building that had been destroyed, but it was a bland, six story building that I would have never looked twice at under normal circumstances.

I spied the bioship hovering near the building, with Miss Martian and Superboy standing in front of the building itself. As they caught sight of us approaching, Miss Martian rose into the air along with several bits of random detritus she had apparently gathered (cinderblocks, metal sheets, a tire, ect.) She cast out her arm and the pieces shot straight at the oncoming Fog, forcing it to dodge or chew through the improvised projectiles. The bad news was that it wasn't enough to slow the nanite cloud down much.

The good news was that Miss Martian's barrage was just a distraction for when Superboy hurled a dumpster at it.

The Fog though decided that it was done dodging and started to churn and swirl. The moment before the dumpster hit, the Fog narrowed in the front and simply speared straight through the thing. The dumpster all but disintegrated as the nanite swarm passed though it and shot upwards. For a brief, terrifying moment I thought it was going for Miss Martian, but it shot past her and plowed into the building, boring a hole at the fifth floor.

I couldn't quite jump up that high in my current configuration though. I could scale the wall, but I would lose precious seconds I didn't feel I had to spare. But how could I propel myself with enough force-

"Superboy, launch!" I shouted as I altered my direction slightly towards him.

In spite of how the teen only had a second to hear and parse what I said, Superboy reacted the moment I reached him by grabbing me and spinning, adding to my own momentum before he hurled me up to the fifth floor.

Unfortunately, he didn't have a lot of practice hurling people with accuracy, because rather than sailing toward the opening the Fog made I rapidly found myself approaching a solid section of wall about ten feet to the right of it. Before I could brace myself for impact though, a chunk of the destroyed dumpster flew in front of me (courtesy of Miss Martian), impacting the wall and causing it to crumble. I went clear through the hole and landed in a roll. I took stock of the hallway I had landing in with my blindsight, noting the doors lining one side and windows on the other. And as for the Fog-

Before I even got to my feet though, the Fog changed directions from moving down the hall away from me to coming straight at me, clearly hoping to reach me before I could get my footing.

"Down!" I heard Artemis yelled over the coms.

A second later the window next to the Fog breached, and I briefly caught sight of a strangely shaped arrow before it exploded. The Fog screeched and retreated back down hall. I only had sight on it for a second before I saw it flow into a vent at the base of the wall and disappeared. I bit back a curse as I briefly considered diving in after it, but I decided against it. Even with my shapeshifting this building had modern ventilation, which meant that the vents were only a few hands wide. I had limits, and the Fog would have a clear advantage in such small spaces. "I lost sight of the target." I said over the coms. "Doctor Roquette, are you in position? Because if so the Fog is coming straight to you." There was a long pause where I got no response, and I started to get worried. "Doctor, respond!"

Miss Martian's voice came over the com. "The device is in the basement testing lab. I left her there, but the whole area is EM shielded. I'm contacting her now with my telepathy."

"Wait she's alone- tell her to get out of there, now!" I yelled as I bolted for the stairwell, smashing the door open and hurling myself down the middle gap. It was an awkward fall as I had to pull my limbs in to fit in the narrow space, and I stumbled as I hit the ground hard. "If that place has ventilation, the Fog can head right for it!"

"She- she says she can't!" Miss Martian said. "Some kind of lock down has been initiated in response to the Fog! The whole lab is sealed shut!"

"God damn it, we have to get into that lab!" I yelled as I bolted from the stairwell, and promptly cursed again when I found that I was only on the first floor in the lobby. If the lab was important enough to have lockdown procedures, then it likely had a special entrance. One that would be no doubt shut anyway. It only took a second to decide on a course of action, and I quickly moved past the front desk to the center of the floor. "This basement lab, does it take up the whole foundation?"

"Yes, but it's a little difficult to get access to. It will take a few steps-"

"I can do it in one." I said as slid to a stop and my arm shifted. I hadn't experimented with the plasma rifle I had gotten from Sportsmaster much because it was too lethal to use casually, but I had learned that while it was capable of dealing a lot of damage in bursts, it had a bit of an overheating problem. Fortunately, I was able to get around this with the traditional solution to heat dissipation in firearms.

As soon as my arm finished taking shape, the plasma rotary cannon spun to life. I pointed it at the floor and fired, rapidly cutting a hole though the tiles, reinforced concrete, and steel. In short order a roughly circular section of the floor dropped down and I quickly dropped through the gap after it. I fell about 20 feet and landed in a large concrete room, the whole space littered with benches and electronic hardware, with rows of parts and mechanical waldos. It was also a wreck, as one side of the room was occupied by a swarming cloud of nanites. And on the other side me, just a few feet shy of being crushed by a piece of falling ceiling, was Doctor Roquette. The woman had fallen back on her rear, and was now staring up at me and her creation in wide eyed terror.

I didn't have time to think as the swarm shifted in response to me, I just thrust out my humanoid arm and with a shout let loose as powerful a blast of lightning as I dared. I didn't try to direct it other than forward, simply trying to destroy everything in front of me. I could only keep it up for a few seconds before my shout turned into a scream of pain. In my haste, I had forgotten to put electric shielding on my gun arm, and more than a little of the wild torrent of electricity had found its way to the unprotected limb. The lightning cut of as my arm fell to my side, a partially melted, disintegrating mess.

When the light show stopped I got a good look at what I had done. Metal and circuity melted, a few fires scattered around the room, and a lot of nanite dust littering the floor. But, at the other end of the lab I spotted a device that looked like a high-tech kiln, about nine feet tall and covered in a thick layer of nanites. Nanites, which I could see with my enhanced vision, that had formed into a mesh similar to the one covering my own body.

Damn it, stealing things is my thing.

I took a step back as the lights on the machine turned on, and the whole apparatus started to let out an ominous hum. I turned slightly, putting my damaged arm behind me as I looked back. "Doctor, is that…?"

"Y-yes. The molecular assembler." She confirmed as she shakily got to her feet. "I finished, but I couldn't get it installed in time."

I grunted as I returned my attention back to the thing in front of me. If I didn't finish this in the next few seconds, things would get very bad. And yet, even as I watch the surface of the device writhe with the damn things, I couldn't help but think how alive it seemed. For all its erratic motions and strange nature, it struggled to live. That strange presence I felt earlier…

I took a deep breath, and while I made a few gestures with the arm behind my back, I called out "If you can understand me, we don't have to do this! We don't have to fight!"

At my words, the movement of the swarm started slow. For a long moment, I wondered if it had actually listened to me. But that moment passed, and the Fog let out that digital scream before the mouth of the molecular assembler blazed to life, and a whole new cloud of nanites spewed forth from the opening.

I was out of time. Without wasting another second, I sprinted forward and cleared the distance, punching my rebuilt, unprotected arm into the device and the swarm surrounding it.

My assimilation spikes deployed, the Fog swarmed, and on a microscopic scale a war was waged. The Fog could only touch the part of me that wasn't coursing with electricity, so it focused all of it mass on my hand. This time I was ready and managed to keep that scraping, scratching on the edges of my mind out as my spikes spread wide. Nanites tore each other apart as each tried to gain ground, the broken and dead being replaced as quickly as they were lost. Then, the flow shifted and the Fog made a direct move as a dense spear of nanites surged forward and pieced into the center of my limb, trying to consume it from the inside out.

It might have worked… if the center of my arm hadn't contained the virus-laden flash drive Roquette had slipped me while my arm was reforming.

The flash drive was torn apart, and The Fog's motion suddenly stopped. I ripped my arm out of the mass, and I jumped back to level my now forming plasma cannon at the nanite swarm in case it started moving again. But, for the first few seconds, nothing happened. Then there was a faint humming sound, and as the sound grew louder I realized that the swarm was vibrating. It grew louder and louder, and the sound of its scream twisted and distorted. The sound became deafening as it rapidly shifted pitch and cadence, until it seemed like the air would tear itself apart.

And then it was silent.

"…buT wHy?"

There was a flash of light and the Fog disintegrated.

----------------------​

Watching from a rooftop about a block away, Cyrptarch was a mess of activity in the form of police, fire fighters and EMTs. My team and I looked on, keeping an eye on things while we regrouped. Roquette was back in the bioship, shaken by her close encounter with her 'brilliant science', but otherwise alright. And as for me… well I wasn't sure.

Did I just kill another sapient? Roquette reassured me that the thing wasn't really alive, but I don't think she heard what I did, those last words before it… ended. What if, even more horrifyingly, that virus gave it sapience, just so it could die from the shock of it all?

I sighed as I leaned on the lip of the roof, looking down at the mess I was partially responsible for. I'd probably never get an answer, and either way it didn't matter. Whether it was malicious or acting out of self-defense, the Fog was likely going to consume everything around it, and a lot of people would have died as a result. I just had to wonder 'what if'?

I became aware of someone settling next to me. "How much longer are we waiting?" Artemis asked as she sat on the lip.

"Till Robin gets here. And until the Cryptarch technicians arrive and make sure everything is clear." I said. "I consumed every trace of the Fog I could find, but I don't want to take any chances. If we missed something we should be around in case the action's not over yet."

Artemis let out a sigh. "Man, this superhero thing can be tedious sometimes, huh? Is this what it's like on every mission?"

"Several hours of travel, 90 minutes of waiting around, and 1000 seconds of pure chaos." I said as I turned to look at her. "Yeah, that's been my experience so far. Except for that one time a supervillain attacked right outside my house. Then it was right to the chaos."

This prompted a snort from the blonde girl before she looked at the ground. "Yeah well, think I missed most of it this time. Only fired one arrow."

"But it was a well-placed arrow." I said. "Besides, this was a weird one. Next mission I'm sure you can take point while I hang back. You know, take a well-deserved rest on my laurels and all that."

Artemis glared at me for a moment before she smirked and got up. "And here I was assuming it would be because you got all fat from pigging out on crunchy robot bits." She remarked as she started to walk away from me.

"Wha- don't you sass me girl!"

"You know you like it." She called back without turning around.

I stared after her for a moment before I muttered "Damn it she's right."

=====A=====​

 

[Satire Swift]

=====A=====​

Avery Carlton Sunderland scowled as he stepped out of his limo and surveyed the damage to Cryptarch Industries headquarters. The older man had not been pleased when he had been informed in the middle of his business trip that one of the subsidiaries of his main company had some under some sort of attack, but he had assumed it was some sort of corporate espionage. Now seeing the building in person though, he realized that the message at been more literal than he had originally thought. It was hour later and there were still firefighters and police cordoning off the building. They let him pass though; he had called ahead to let them know he was coming, and they knew better than to interfere with Sunderland.

A quick sweep of the inside did not improve his mood one bit. Much of the basement lab and the equipment therein had been completely destroyed, and for some reason several of the walls had massive holes and structural damage extending all the way down from the top floor. And yet still none of the various technicians uselessly milling about the place could give him a straight answer!

Eventually Sunderland hunted down the one man who should absolutely know what was going on (because if he didn't he would shortly be out of a job). He found the man in the main server room, located near the center of the building. Aside from the basement lab it was the most well-fortified room in the building, and thankfully was left untouched. In addition to the server racks lining the walls, the center of the room was dominated by an ABACUS-3 supercomputer that did most of the company's data analysis. Curiously enough there was a video camera set up on a tripod pointed at one of the monitors attached to the mainframe, but Sunderland ignored that and focused on the man fiddling with it. "Hank." He said sharply.

The man started and turned away from the monitor covered in rapidly scrolling text. "General!" he said in surprise as he straightened, and Sunderland did not fail to notice how he had to physically stop himself from giving a salute out of reflex. "I-I didn't know you were coming."

Normally Sunderland would remind his old subordinate that both their military days were behind them, but at the moment he was too angry to bother. "Neither did I. Then I was informed that something attacked one of my companies, and not a single damn person can tell me what it was. So what. The hell. Happened here?"

One of the reasons that Sunderland had made Hank Mitchel the CTO of Cryptarch Industries (aside from his technical expertise) was that the man knew how to cut through the shit and explain things. It was only a moment before Hank regained his composure and said "The police are still assembling the picture, but it looks like this is Meta related, possibly League business. There were reports of a man shooting lightning and a flying woman trailing fire chasing after some sort of living cloud. Last anyone saw they were headed in this direction. And given the things that happened here, I'd wager the cloud was a sort of all-consuming techno-swarm."

Sunderland gave a disgusted snort, but his anger faded a little at the news (or at least was redirected). Of course it was some metahumans causing a mess again. Damn freaks always did. And the League was almost as bad as the criminals for how unaccountable they were. Sunderland could send them a complaint over the damages, but all he would get in return was a half-assed apology. Small mercy that with Cryptarch being a military contractor they essentially had federal insurance against metahuman related damages. But that still didn't account for the time they'd loss as they rebuilt everything. "What's the setback estimate?"

"Well, the building can be repaired, but a few parts are unusable. There servers are also out of commission until they've been properly scrubbed. That on top of the material and technology destroyed in the basement, it will be about 3 to 4 months before we're back at full production."

The former general's teeth clenched "Months? I need that data for Project Weedkiller in a few weeks!"

Hank cringed a little. "It's worse than that. Something, a program, managed to get into the supercomputer. From what I can tell it originated from the prototype molecular assembler just before its destruction; we had it hooked up so that it could run diagnostics and double check results."

Sunderland pinched the bridge of his nose. That supercomputer was one of the most advanced machines you could get for commercial purposes. It wouldn't just be a cost issue to replace it, the things just weren't mass produced. It would take time for another one to be built. "Do we have to replace the entire company network?" He asked.

"Thankfully, no. The building's connection to the outside internet was cut the moment the lockdown protocols were engaged. We're scrubbing all the local computers to be sure, but it looks like only the main computer has been compromised. And nothing's gone out since then."

The older man felt a small bit of relief at that. "Alright. So what exactly is it, a virus? Probably trying to steal data for other organizations or the black market…" He mused. Considering Cryptarch handled some of the US military's encryption, it was possible that the company had been the target of this whole fiasco from the start.

Hank paused for a moment and shifted uncomfortably. "To be honest… I'm not sure. I thought it was at first, especially when it started rewriting parts of the OS, but… Sir, the computer has gotten faster."

That was not was Sunderland was expecting. "What do you mean faster?"

The man gestured frantically. "I mean it's doing things which I thought were algorithmicly impossible! We had a lineup of mass encrypted data on the mainframe for it to process for a week, and it's already done it in a couple of hours! Then it made whole new cryptographic algorithm that was better than anything else we have on file! The program is constantly parsing and analyzing any information that it finds, and it's changing its own code as it does so!" He said, his tone filled with a sort of awe. "It's like nothing I've ever seen before."

Sunderland was not a scientist or engineer, and the science he did know was centered around more biological matters. But he did have a least of passing knowledge of technological matters, and this 'program' was reminding him of something. "Do you think that it's an AI?"

Hank snapped out of his thoughts and looked a bit sheepish. "Maybe, but I'm not sure. It's certainly done things of its own accord, but it hasn't tried to communicate or behaved in any way I'd expect an intelligence would. All it's done is parse data, any data it can get. It has broken down and rebuilt its OS several times, but only when it ran out of other things to do. The moment more data is introduced, it stops and focuses on the new stuff. If it was trying to bootstrap itself to more intelligence I figure it would prioritize that instead."

The older man frowned at that. "'More data introduced'? And how did that happen?"

"I put in a few flash drives with the data from Sunderland Corporation you sent." The other man replied before he held up his hands. "Everything's air gapped, and I destroyed drives immediately after I did so. I've already got the results here." He offered the older man a sheaf of paper.

Sunderland scowled as he snatched the papers from the other man, but the expression faded as he started reading. The data that had been given to the computer had been relating to several events and phenomena involving a certain… chemical formula that had been proving troublesome as of late, and he wanted to know more about it. But the conclusion the computer had come to… "But that would mean he's-" he started to mutter in shock before he remembered where was and shut up. "I see." He eventually said before looking back at Hank. "How would this kind of situation normally be handled?"

The CTO snapped out of his thoughts before putting on a grimace. "Well… it's a foreign program that's taken over the OS. Normally we'd do a full wipe of the system and reboot from scratch, plus checking all the hardware bits to make sure nothing got damaged or that the foreign code got really creative."

"And how do you actually want it to be handled?"

Hank gave a giddy smile. "If I can figure out how this program is doing what it is and replicate it, the gains would be massive. And we can still make use of it now if we're careful. I can get the output data to display on the monitors and record it on high speed cameras. It's not the most efficient method of data transfer, and we'll have to have the other servers parse it, but its still orders of magnitude better than before. What do you think sir?"

Sunderland stared at the computer for a long minute as thoughts rolled about in his head, ideas and possibilities dancing though his brain. Eventually, a wicked grin crept over his face.

"That there's a certain… thing, I think this can help us with."

---------------------​

Diana fought down the urge to stretch as she shifted her chair, idly noticing that several of her compatriots around the U-shaped table were doing the same. To be honest, she wasn't really tired as much as frustrated. When the Justice League had gotten word that Roy had found a League of Shadows base the call had gone out to everyone available to help investigate. Herself and Clark had joined in the event strength was required, and Bruce and Ollie of course were already on the case. They managed to get J'onn, Hal, Shayera, and Katar as well, and now the lot had convened in the Watchtower to go over what they learned.

Which wasn't much.

"…so in short, we got nowhere." Hal said. "I scanned every damn speck of dirt on that rock and I found nothing. If I didn't know any better I'd say that island had been abandoned for years. You sure Roy gave you the right coordinates?"

"…Yes." Bruce said after a moment. "The structures on the island may have been rubble, but there was clear evidence of recent explosive detonations. The League of Shadows has covered their tracks well. Again." It was only because she had known him for so long that Diana could hear the faint tone of frustration beneath Bruce's growl. The League of Shadows had been antagonizing the man since the very beginning of his crime fighting career, and Diana knew how much he wished to be rid of the organization that represented a twisted reflection of his ideals.

"If you ask me, we should have had more people on this." Katar remarked as he made a gesture. "Are we really all that you could scrounge up?"

"The rest of the League was either preoccupied with other pressing matters or were in the middle of our efforts at closing down Intergang." Bruce replied. "You've read the brief. Stepping up our efforts to prevent their… backer from gaining a foothold on Earth takes top priority. Even versus the League of Shadows."

"Considering how thinly stretched we are with that matter, we are fortunate that the junior team was able to thwart the Shadows latest plot." J'onn said.

"Speaking of which, just how did the team fare?" Ollie asked. "I heard about STAR Labs, but I assume they managed to keep the doctor safe long enough to stop it there."

"Yes, though the circumstances of the mission changed rather dramatically partway though." Bruce said with a hint of annoyance. "Again."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Ollie asked with an arched eyebrow.

"The Fog apparently gained limited sentience after STAR labs, and destroyed the means of tracking it while killing the Shadows agent responsible for it. The team was forced to hunt it down and destroy it before it secured a means of self-replication."

"…We've gotta start vetting these missions better." Ollie said before he face palmed. "For Christ's sake, these are supposed to be easy ones! I don't want to have to tell Artemis's mom she got killed on one of these things!"

J'onn on the other hand had a different opinion. "While your concern is valid, I am proud of my niece and the team. They have triumphed against challenges which would have given even us some trouble."

"Yeah, well… still think we should be easing them into it a bit more than that."

J'onn's face fell a bit. "You are not the only one to think that."

"How is he doing?" Diana asked, the subject clear to both of them.

"Fairly well, if a little tense." J'onn replied, and with a wave of his hand the holo-emitters in the table came to life. The holoscreen resolved itself into a set of videos of Jacob and J'onn training in the Mountain, each morphing into different shapes as they tried to gain leverage over each other. "He has thrown himself into his studies and training, and he has made respectable progress over the past week. On a personal level though, I am worried that he is a little too focused. M'gann expressed a few concerns over how reclusive he has become."

"He'll be fine." Bruce assured. "He knew about the risks of being a superhero long before he came to us, maybe even better than us."

Ollie grunted. "Yeah, but from what I've heard he's not talking with Dinah, so I might want a second opinion on that."

Eyes inexorably turned to Diana, and she rolled her eyes. Normally Red Tornado would be the best to talk about the man, but he wasn't there as this wasn't a formal League meeting. And since Bruce was being… Bruce, that left her as the only other one present who had spent the most (meaningful) time with him. The superheroine hummed. "He has a good head and a good heart. He is not as inclined towards conflict as I thought he would be, but that is hardly a bad thing. Unsure of himself, but wants to do the right thing. It may be a bit rough, but I'm certain with a little support he will come out stronger for it." She looked towards Clark. "His temperament reminds me a little of you in the early days, actually."

The man straightened a little in surprise before he rubbed his chin. "Really? Hmm, maybe I could have another chat with him."

Bruce shot the man a strange look, but before Diana could question it Ollie spoke up again. "Well, that's something. While we're on the subject of new arrivals, what do you think of the team leader?"

Diana smiled as she said "Starfire would have fit in well back on Themyscira. She has the heart of a warrior, and the will of a leader. I expect great things from her, and I believe she's potential League material."

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were helping that along yourself." Eyes turned to Shayera, who gave a little shrug with her wings and a smirk. "Not that I'm complaining. Spirits know the League could use more women. Whatever happened to that other apprentice of yours though?"

"She wanted to focus on her studies until she finished High School." Diana explained. "I haven't abandoned her for a new student if that is what you're thinking."

Meanwhile on the holoscreen, the image had switched to footage of Koriand'r and Jacob in the sparring ring both doing an admirable effort to knock the other over. Kordiand'r's flight made it difficult for Jacob to get solid leverage, but by the same token he would just change his shape and limbs any time she tried to pin him down in kind.

The fight on the holoscreen finally came to a head when Jacob tried to dodge a punch by slipping through Koriand'r's legs. She saw this coming though and flipped in the air, grabbing her opponent and using his momentum to hurl him out of the ring. Jacob went flying head over heels smashing upside down into a wall and collapsing into a heap. Koriand'r promptly flew over to him and pulled him to his feet. There was no sound, but given the gestures of the two it looked like Jacob was trying to placate her as to not fuss over him. That was until he noticed a cut along her arm and promptly started fussing over her.

"So, are those two..." Heads turned to look at Hal as he trailed off, gesturing vaguely as the image of the pair.

Diana arched an eyebrow in amusement as she glanced back at the image, but Bruce's eyes narrowed. "That is not relevant to the current discussion." He said flatly. "You told me earlier about information you acquired on Machina, particularly on his origins. Perhaps now is a good time to share it, at least until the next official meeting."

Hal coughed awkwardly into his hand before he said. "Err, right. Well, unfortunately I can't really confirm anything that may or may not have happened in Vega. I did a flyby around the perimeter of the system to see if I could pick up any stray communications relating to those two, but I got nothing. Doesn't really mean anything though, I doubt the Psions would advertise the loss of their science experiments."

He leaned forward. "But, I did make a stop at Oa. I happened to be nearby when Jon sent me a copy of the scan of those nanites he's made up out of, so I figured I'd take a look at the archives to see where they came from. I thought it was weird how our rings weren't able to identify the origin of something that advanced, but hey, it's a big universe and our rings' databases focus on the sector we're assigned to. But when I queried the archive, things got weirder."

"You didn't find anything?" Diana asked.

"Didn't say that. The search tripped some red flags and before I knew it I had a pair of Alpha Lanterns escorting me to the Guardian's chamber." Hal scowled. "All I got off the archive were references to restricted files."

The heroes around the table looked at each other with trepidation. Thus far the Guardians of the Universe had seemed fairly reasonable to the League, but this behavior towards one of their own for asking questions was concerning. "Did they explain what the problem was?" Bruce asked.

"Not even a little." Hal said with a frustrated growl. "I told them about Machina and how he came to us, and they just ordered me to 'keep an eye on him' and sent me on my way. The Guardians clearly know something about what he is, but this is the first time I've seen them refuse to talk about something when asked."

"That is… ominous." Katar said after a moment. "If the Guardians are expressing worry about just what Machina is, we may have to be ready to take action."

The Thanagarian did not specify what he meant by 'action', but those around the table could guess. It was Diana's turn to scowl as she said "Machina has been nothing but cooperative and helpful since he arrived. If you are suggesting that he-"

"No one is suggesting that." Bruce cut her off. "We don't have enough information to take any sort of action, but we will need to keep our eyes open. If we're lucky Machina's collaboration with Kord and Roquette may reveal what the Guardians are concerned about."

Diana let out a breath as talk turned back to other matters, though part of her still worried this would create more trouble for Jacob in the future. Everyone had enough things to deal with at the moment.

--------------------​

Deep inside Lexcorp headquarters in Metropolis, Lex Luthor stepped through an elaborate array of biometric security devices and into a small, hidden room that very few people knew about. It was very sparsely equipped with only a small mainframe and several screens, though anyone technologically inclined would realize that this was some of the best communication equipment on the planet. Well, the best human made communication equipment in any case, but that was a point of pride for the man who took position in the center of the room.

Four of the monitors came to life and revealed portraits of Luthor's less well known partners, though three of them were merely silhouettes. That particular bit of obfuscation had always stuck him as pointlessly theatric; All of those who worked at the highest level of their little joint venture knew who the others were, and it wasn't like you couldn't guess the person's identity from their silhouette. Ra's al Ghul always wore a high collar cape, Vandal Savage was built like a small mountain, and the Brain was literally a brain inside a metal pillar. It was mostly a means of looking impressive in front of their subordinates.

The one whose image was clear was Sensei, and he did not look overly happy. "Masters, I am afraid that the mission was a failure. Partway through transferring the files from STAR labs, the connection became… erratic, and I lost contact with Professor Ojo. It seems that the weapon somehow gained a mind of its own. I… the Professor did not make it."

There was a moment of silence before Ra's said "A pity. I suppose it is a small mercy that the young heroes managed to clean up this mess for us. Though their apparent competence is becoming something of an irritation."

"The way this entire operation developed should not have happened." Savage rumbled. "Pray tell, how exactly did Red Arrow learn of the doctor and get it into his head to rescue her before we could deploy the weapon?"

Sensei shifted uncomfortably. "We had a temporary handler assigned to our inside agent after Sportsmaster was captured, but I'm afraid he was… careless in his instructions. Rest assured, he has been dealt with."

Savage started to say something else, but Ra's cut him off. "Let us focus on the matter at hand. I assume that you were unable to reacquire the doctor?"

Sensei shook his head. "No, they took her with them. I had thought that we could capture or eliminate her when she began to track the Fog, but unfortunately they were able to keep her mobile. By the time they reached Philadelphia and the Fog slipped out of our control, I decided there was little point in pursuing her further."

Savage let out a hum (that was closer to a growl in Luthor's opinion) before he said "An unexpected tactic, likely at the direction of their new leader. What do we know about this alien?"

Luthor let out a breath. "Very little beyond the League's official statement, I am afraid. I could ask our mutual friends if they have any information on her species, but for now we will have to take what they say at face value. She is a flying powerhouse with energy attacks, though her exact strength is unknown. I am more concerned with how she and the actions of her team will be more difficult to predict until we have more information on her."

"On the matter of unexpected arrivals, there is a specific concern I would like to raise about the other hero that has appeared, Machina." The Brain said. "Data on the individual is limited, but a certain trend is taking shape."

New screens opened, showing data and images of a certain android. "Machina was claimed the primary agent in the defeat of Amazo, but the final moments of the fight were not observed. There were no remains left. Similarly, while our onsite agents are still looking, they are yet to find and any substantial trace of Fog remains."

"What is your point?" Savage asked.

"The first foe the young heroes faced was Mister Twister, an android capable of controlling wind and electricity. At Santa Prisca, the cultist who last saw Sportsmaster reported seeing large electrical discharges. At Cryptarch, there is evidence of plasma discharge into the basement, similar to the weapon Sportsmaster had been equipped with on his last assignment. I estimate there is a 63% chance that Machina is a technovore."

"He consumes technology?" Ra's asked.

"And can replicate it, if my analysis is correct." The Brain confirmed. "He is also most likely the one responsible for the capture of Sportsmaster, suggesting a degree of competence or power we did not expect. We must be very careful about the technology we field against this team, lest we find it being used against us in turn."

"Agreed. I will start looking into possible counter measures." Luthor said before he let out a mirthless chuckle. "I suppose it is ironic that someone which such an ability is aligned against us. That power would be useful in realizing our goal."

"Then perhaps we should see if that can be arranged?" Raj asked. "We know little of this Machina, but perhaps he can be made… amenable to our cause?"

There was a series of affirmations from everyone present, and there was the unspoken understanding that Ra's would be the one to handle that matter. However, Savage remarked "In the event that fails, we should look into other means of control. He is a machine, after all."

"Well then," Luthor said, a grin creeping on to his face. "It seems that the Light may have to call on Doctor Roquette's services again sooner than we thought."

--------------------​

Serling Roquette slumped at her desk in her home, a glass in one hand and a half empty bottle of wine in the other. It was early morning by the time the kid superheroes finally declared her safe and dropped her back off at her house, and the woman decided that she needed to decompress a bit before she could go to sleep. Her home computer was a high-end setup with multiple monitors and diagnostic equipment on with which she could do her work from home, but at the moment it was being used to drunkenly watch adorable cat videos. Considering the shit she had just been through over the past few weeks, she figured she deserved to get completely smashed before passing out and sleeping for 14 hours straight.

And yet, she wasn't unwinding. He eyes were unfocused at the screen while the events of the night played out in her head over and over again. After two weeks of being a prisoner, she had intended to be the one to kill her creation. She had wrote the most beautiful piece of maladaptive code she had ever seen in the space of an hour, cracked the security on a piece of prototype tech she had never seen before in minutes, and had been seconds away from uploading it.

And then the Fog had slipped into the basement a little too soon and there was nothing she could do. Like everything she had done up to that point was pointless.

She let out a disgusted grunt as she took another drink. It was amazing how quickly the sense of control could be stripped away from a person. She had first felt that helplessness the first time her captors had punished her for slipping extra commands into the Fog, and she had felt in again in that basement. All she could do was back away as the Fog claimed that thing she had tried to turn into a trap, and she couldn't think of anything that could help. No solution, no ideas. Helpless.

But then, for a moment she saw something when Machina had come to her rescue. In that moment when he brought forth lightning to drive back the monster that would consume her. That thing she saw in both what she had created and the being that represented the pinnacle of what she had been studying all her life.

Power.

Serling shivered a little at the memory. She had never paid that much attention to metahumans or their antics, as they had never really interested her. Even for all of the interesting physics of their powers, the people who wielded them mostly just seemed to use them to punch people. Even watching videos of them in action had never had that much of an impact. But it was so different seeing that power in person. Not just that, but seeing power derived from something she understood.

Power that she could have for herself.

As she already had several times that night, Serling's hand traced over the small vial she had sitting on her desk, no larger than her finger. Inside looked to be nothing more than a grey-silver powder, but it was so much more than that. It had just… fallen into her hand when she handed Machina the flash drive with the virus, flaking off the arm as it rebuilt itself. The alien nanites may have been dead, bit even then the things she could learn from them…

She shouldn't have it. In fact, it was very much illegal for her to have this sample in her own home. Not only did she not have the clearance for it, but she hadn't asked Machina's permission to keep part of his body. One would wonder what she would even want it for considering she was already getting the chance to study his live nanites. She'd have plenty of chances to learn in Kord's lab.

And yet… for the idea that had started to take root in Roquette's mind, she needed something private. Because she knew that if she explained what she wanted to do, he would say no. There were dangers, there would be regulations and laws, and he probably wouldn't understand why she needed this. And once she told him, people would know and try to take it from her. Hell, people had kidnapped her because of something she could potentially create, so what would actually creating her idea do? She stared at the vial, the choice before her weighing on her mind.

Problem: you are helpless without superheroes. Solution:…

Finally, she slotted the vial into the scanner next to her computer tower.

Serling took a deep breath before she sat up straight, her hands reaching out the keyboard in front of her. With a couple of rapid commands she pulled up her nanorobotics CAD program on one screen and the scan diagnostic program on the other. She paused, and after a moment's thought she went to the University Scientific Network, searching for a paper she vaguely remembered reading a few months ago. After a few minutes she found it, a dissertation on the hurdles of microscale cybernetics by one Dr. Silas Stone, and downloaded it. And then she got to work.

In the end, she would have her solution. Even if she had to engineer her own.

=====A=====​

And we are now caught up.​

 

[Hestia&theCourt]

And we are now caught up.

Click to shrink...

Huzzah! Now I have one less tie to that goofy outdated SB!

Seriously, though, this is one of the best SIs I've ever read, because how many other SIs do you see failing to save people, and having to deal with it? Not very many, which makes this have not only a fresh angle that hasn't been played out yet, it also feels more human.

...this comment feels kinda disjointed, but hopefully you can understand it in the sense it was meant, because I can't seem to make it flow any better.

 

[Philosophysics]

Is it bad that I want our favorite non human nanomachine get a little sister in the form of the Fog?

 

[shypunk]

no no now that you have said it i want it to happen to a nerdy lil sister lol

 

[Philosophysics]

no no now that you have said it i want it to happen to a nerdy lil sister lol

Click to shrink...

I know right!?

Also I think every body needs family.

Be they robotic, synthetic, or organic! Or other!

 

[Satire Swift]

=====A=====​

The attack came in low, the chitinous limb trying to sweep me off my feet to set me up for a follow up attack. I managed to flip backwards and remain on my feet, my tail sweeping out behind me to help me maintain balance. My current form was lithe and flexible, somewhere between xenomorph and humanoid. It was the first time I was trying out that particular shape, but now seemed like as good a time as any to try, given the opponent skittering towards me.

Said opponent was currently a demented mix between a twelve legged spider and a crab, his various angular legs constantly in motion. He had a rounded main body with a pair of large compound eyes on the top and bottom. The spider-crab let out a strange sort of warble before he came at me again, several of his limbs stabbing at me in rapid succession. I tried to block and parry as best I could, but there were simply too many attacks to counter. My arms were swatted to the side before one of his larger limbs reeled back for a much heavier strike.

But then the spider-crab pulled back just before a long green arm shot between us. And by long, I mean about 15 feet. That distance away, M'gann was doing her best Dhalsim impression by lashing out with a series of arm-extending strikes. Our opponent tried to skitter away, but M'gann corralled him with whip like motions to keep his motion restricted. I waited for a few moments before I saw my opportunity, and as the spider-crab was forced back towards me I suddenly moved in and shifted.

As my limbs brushed his, the ridges that covered my body changed and contracted, forming into clamp like structures that captured most of the creature's legs. By the he realized it my opponent was completely ensnared by me, and could not even turn around to properly retaliate.

Unfortunately, my victory was short lived. A second later the surface of the spider-crab rippled and its limbs contorted and expanded. They grew so large and so fast that he burst out of my clamps (painfully, might I add), before several of the leg fused into one and shot towards me. The blow came in lightning fast, slipping past my guard and slamming me in the chest. I slid back across the floor from the impact, but I managed to keep my balance till I came to a stop. By the time I did though, my opponent had completed his transformation into a hulking ogre like monster half again my own height, with a maw of sharp teeth underneath a trio of eyes.

I ran back in and struck at his legs, but my attacks simply didn't have enough force behind them to move him. I managed to twist out of the way of a grab and slip between his legs, just barely getting out of the way of a follow up swing as he turned to face me.

Before he could chase after me though, M'gann came in from the side and physically checked him. And her attempt was far more successful than my own, as she was doing a surprisingly close impression of She-Hulk when she hit. She towered over myself and her musculature was far more developed than what you'd see on a normal human woman. She pulled back before settling into a boxing stance and firing off a series of jabs. The ogre took it in stride though, and managed to grab her arm before flipping her over.

I hesitated as I watched the two wrestle, considering my options. After a few moments I came to a decision and my body changed again, reabsorbing my tail and growing heavier. I wasn't trying to match their scale though, instead focusing on creating mechanical actuators in all of my joints to give them extreme articulation. My joints expanded and my body lengthened as a result, but after a few second every part of me was capable of free rotation.

I wait until M'gann was thrown clear before I dashed in myself. My opponent saw me coming and tried to grab me again, and this time I let him catch my arm. The limb bent and rotated in response, putting him off balance and allowing me to toss him to the ground. The ogre tried to get back up but I was already on top of him, contorting around so that his legs were completely immobilized and he could find no purchase to pry me off. M'gann assisted a moment later by coming in and pressing down on his upper body and arms.

We only had him pinned for a moment though before his form changed once again, his arms slipping out of M'gann's grasp as the joints started to bend at strange angles. His leg fused into a single serpentine tail which whipped around and swept me completely into the air, sending me flying. His head formed into a sleek, swept back helm which slammed into M'gann's legs, knocking her off balance and allowing him to slip away.

The naga slid across the floor with surprising speed, dashing out before coming back in at M'gann. The girl just barely managed to get her footing before our opponent wrapped around her in a snake-like bind. M'gann struggled for a moment, but even with her current frame she was unable to free herself from the grapple. A second later her form shrunk a little and the coils around her loosened as a result. The naga tried to shift around and tighten his grip, but before he could I saw several sets of hands grab the coils and force them apart. With a cry of effort, she heaved and tossed our opponent off of her. She once again took stance, only this time she did so with four sets of arms.

There was a pause as we all assessed each other. M'gann was closer to our opponent and in between me and him, but at my current angle I still had a decent shot if I wanted to take it. Not wanting to waste time, I yelled "M'gann, tether ball!" before my arm changed into a large grapple device. When I fired, it launched a heavy weight at the end of a nanite cable straight at the naga.

Our opponent saw this coming of course and dodged out of the way, but I had never actually intended to hit him. Instead, as the cable just barely missed M'gann, one of her arms lashed out and grabbed the line. As she swung the cable around I was lifted off my feet, curling into a ball just before I collided with a very surprised naga. The force of the blow knocked him down and sent me sailing into the air above him.

As I arced through the air, dozens of small grapple launchers formed on my body. As I reached the height of my jump they all fired as one, lines shooting at creature beneath me. The result was a massive web of nanite cables that captured and pinned the naga to the ground, its body too larger to slip through the gaps. In that instant I had the launchers pull me in, and I rocketed towards the ground with my first cocked back. As I got in range I punched-

And hit nothing as the creature went intangible at the last second, letting me hit the ground as it smoothly phased through my trap and floated several feet away. "That is enough." The monstrosity twisted and shrank down, and in a matter of moments the form of Martian Manhunter was standing in front of us. "You have both done well, and I am pleased at your use of teamwork."

M'gann and I followed suit and shifted back into our human forms as well, the holographic score board of the Mountain's fighting ring flashing beside us. I quickly glanced at Kori and Superboy (who had been watching on the sidelines) before looking back at my teacher. "Thanks. We had the idea for that maneuver a few minutes before we started." I said.

A small smile graced the Martian's lips. "I shall have to think twice before asking for another two-on-one practice." He said before looking at me more directly. "Jacob, I am impressed with your creativity, but you should take more care in guarding you limbs. If enemies learn of how your body works, you can be sure that exposed limbs will be targeted."

He then looked at his niece. "M'gann, you are being more conservative than you need to be when it comes to your forms. I know that Black Canary has been training the team in human martial arts, but you should not feel restricted to being humanoid. You can draw on nature, Terran or Martian, if you need inspiration."

M'gann shifted a little. "I know, it's just… difficult for me. And I'm not very interested in learning more than I already know."

I turned to say something to her, but I paused as I looked at the Martian girl. I hadn't noticed it until that moment, but that she hadn't actually reverted back to normal her human state. While she had removed her extra arms, she had only shrunk down to a little shorter than myself, and her physique was more, well, Amazonian than usual. Even more curious was that she looked a bit older as well, her features less girlish and more mature. It was… quite appealing, actually. Looks like Kori's had a bit of an influence on her, I thought before I said "Trying something new?"

She blinked in confusion before I gestured at her body. She looked down at herself before she let out an 'eep!' and shrunk into herself. Literally.

It was interesting observing the differences between Martian shapeshifting and my own. When M'gann changed form, it usually rippled upwards from her feet, completely changing that part of her before moving on. This was opposed to my own, which initially affected every part of me in a quick burst of change, but then slowed down as more and more layers of details were added in.

It only took a moment for M'gaan to return to her normal teenager self, and she laughed nervously. "I… guess I wasn't paying attention."

I hesitated a little before I continued. "So, why aren't you interested in shapeshifting?"

M'gann shrugged. "I've never been that good at it. I'm not deficient or anything, but compared to most other Martians I'm nothing special. However, Uncle J'onn says my mental abilities are very strong. So, since the team already has you for shapeshifting, and Kori and Superboy for frontline melee, I figured that I should focus on the abilities which no one else in the team had."

I nodded. "That makes sense. That said, I still think it's a good idea that you're training with me. In this line of work you never know when the frontline will suddenly decide that those in the back have been having it too easy and slide up right next to you."

M'gann giggled at that while Manhunter hummed. "An unusual euphemism, but I agree with the sentiment. The Martian military has adopted a holistic approach to personal combat for a reason. To be honest, if I had brought any to Earth, I would also consider schooling you in basic Martian weapon training."

His comment reminded me of a thought I had a few days ago, so I took the opportunity to ask "Manhunter, do Martians have power armor? Or something similar?"

J'onn hesitated for a moment before he replied "Technically speaking yes… though it is rarely used."

I arched an eyebrow. "Well now you have me interested."

"The most common form of armor used by the Martian military is fundamentally the same as our morphic garments, save that the composition is much denser and harder." He explained. "It is much slower and more difficult to shapeshift in, but it offers good protection and allows for mounting of additional weaponry."

"…and that's not power armor?"

"By human standards, no. The purpose of human power armor is to enhance the physical capabilities of the wearer. Most Martian armor, while malleable and manageable, is still a hindrance to us physically. Creating something that could enhance us physically is possible, but there are… consequences."

M'gann stepped up. "The more advanced Martian biotechnology becomes, the more intelligent it becomes. All of our ships are made sentient in part because we can't stop them from becoming sentient. Armor that is advanced enough to seamlessly shapeshift with us would in turn have to have some kind of mind of its own. And having it properly synchronize with its host would require their minds to merge."

J'onn gave her a look and she blushed a little. "I've been doing some studying into biomechanical engineering."

Her uncle made a small sound before looking back at me. "Such melding of the minds is permanent, and inexorably changes the personalities of those involved. As you might imagine, this is not popular, and these Gestalts are rare. That said, there have been instances where soldiers have made that choice." The man looked to the side. "They… are seen by the Martian populous as living weapons, as many have had that mentality in the past. Why do you ask?"

"Well, while I've only consumed one piece of Martian biotech, I've managed to replicate it almost perfectly. Better than any Terran biology in any case." A week or so ago I had gotten around to attempting to assimilate a dead pig to see what would happen, and the results were… underwhelming. I could try to physically mimic the creature's internal structures, but they didn't actually do anything, and I was pretty sure I knew why: my body didn't really do chemistry, especially liquid chemistry. A bit ironic considering I was biomechanical, but the 'bio' part of me was strange, and almost entirely restricted to the inside of my nanites. The nanites interacted with each other mostly with fields or mechanically. They could emulate chemical reactions to an extent, but they really didn't work well with Earth biochemistry.

Martian biotech on the other hand was a very different matter. Martians themselves were a pseudo-protean mass of complex silicates and carbonates, and their tech had a similar composition. For whatever reason, my body had a much easier time mimicking that. "I'm still looking for something to give me back my sense of touch and taste, among other things, and I figured if anything would have that it would be equipment Martians wear."

J'onn nodded in understanding. "I see. Well, our advance armor would likely give you what you're looking for, but given that it is both very rare and sentient, I would advise against it. I… am not aware of anything else that would help you, but I don't see why it could not be made if you merely want physical senses."

I perked up. "That would be fantastic. Do I need to hire a Martian bio-sculptor, or…?"

"I shall make inquires the next time I am in communication with Mars." He replied. "Though I should warn you that there may be complications. The Martian Government is very strict about keeping its isolationism and technology. I do not know how they will respond to the request for biotechnology, even if it comes from one of Earth's heroes."

I felt a little disappointed with that response, but I still said "Thank you." It may behoove me to learn how to fly that Psion ship I came here in…

Martian Manhunter nodded before he glanced at the floating holographic screen and noticed the time. "It seems that we have run out of time, I need to be on patrol shortly." He looked back at the two of us. "We will resume training in a few days."

"Of course, looking forward to it!" M'gann said, while I just gave him a nod of my own. J'onn then turned walked to the Zeta Tubes, disappearing in a flash of golden light a few seconds later.

M'gaan and I then walked back over to our spectators, but as we moved I noticed with some surprise that there was a third person I hadn't noticed: it was Artemis, wearing normal civilian clothes. More surprising than her having shown up without my noticing though, was that she wasn't wearing a mask. I thought she wanted to keep her identity a secret from us. It was almost strange to me how normal looking she was. I had gotten used to every person around me having exotic backgrounds, so I guess I just assumed… Well, I guess I was being foolish. Not every woman I meet had to be destined for conflict.

…Though now that I think about it, the number of warrior princesses I'm on a first name basis with has increased by 200% in the last month alone. "M'gann, you're not secretly a warrior princess are you?"

"…No?"

"Because you'd tell me, right? Like, if you were secretly the heir to a long lost lineage of Martian royalty, who was usurped centuries ago and went into hiding until the prophesied child was born, who would then led her oppressed people against the corrupt regime-"

"No!"

I arched an eyebrow at that, but before I could say anything we had already reached the others. "You both did really well!" Kori exclaimed. "You have shown a lot of improvement over the past few weeks. I am curious to see what kind of warriors you will become."

"I see M'gann becoming a Magical Girl." I said. "Not sure about myself, but it will probably involve a great deal pontificating and dramatic poses."

"Oh, like in the traditional Tamaranian hero epics." Kori said. I gave her a curious look, and she proceeded to lift off the ground and spin in the air. When she stopped one leg was placed in front of the other, her hips and head were cocked to the side, and she pointed down at me with one arm while the other framed her chest. "You may have thought me dead, tyrant, but in the end your defeat shall come from me! Alisand'r!"

My mouth opened and closed for a few seconds before I said "You're going to have to tell me about these epics at some point. And I'm going to have to show you a certain Bizarre Adventure…"

"…You guys are weird." Artemis said after a moment.

I chuckled and looked at the blond girl. "I have to admit, I'm a little surprised to see you here."

She arched an eyebrow at me. "Why? It's still the summer, and I didn't get a chance to check this place out. Besides, I thought you guys, you know, hang out here and stuff."

"Well, most of us live here, but yes." I said. "The other guys have their own schedules and show up whenever. I've been trying to arrange a more regular 'causal day', but we haven't quite made it work yet."

"But you can show up whenever you want!" M'gann insisted. "You can even stay over, we have plenty of space."

"Cool, haven't had a slumber party in…" She trailed off before she blinked. "Actually I've never had a slumber party. That's depressing. Anyway, never got a chance to look around, but this place has got have some fun stuff, right? "

"Certainly! There's a kitchen, game center, and a private beach." Kori said. "Although Jacob informed me after the last time that I should unclothe when I get to the beach, rather than in my room first."

"Why would that be an iss- wait." Artemis said with mild alarm before she glanced at the rest of us. "When she says 'unclothe'…?"

I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly. "Err, Tamaranians are much more resilient to the elements than humans. As such clothing is slightly more optional for them… Which, in the course of living with her, she has shown us."

Superboy blushed and shifted uncomfortably. "Laundry day."

"I-I knocked first and she said she was decent!" M'gann insisted.

For her part, the Tamranian just seemed amused. "I am still baffled by how you lot consider a little nudity to be taboo."

Wanting to move the topic back to something slightly less awkward, I looked at Artemis and asked "So, I haven't caught your name yet."

She looked at me like I was an idiot. "…Artemis."

I blinked. "Wait, your real name actually is Artemis? Like, you just took your first name as your superhero name?"

She reeled back from me, her eyes going wide. "W-Wait, what?! No no no, not my real name, of course not! Why would you assume that?!"

"But, you just said that it was Artemis-"

"I meant why would you assume that's my real name?!"

"I… you're not wearing a mask," I said, my confusion growing. "I assumed that meant you were letting the team know your real identity."

"Well, no. I mean, yeah, you know what I look like but you're not going to try to use that to find out who I am, right?"

I opened my mouth before I closed it again. Eventually I managed to say. "Huh. That… is an oddly specific amount of trust that you're putting in us."

She frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I… nothing. It doesn't matter." I had briefly considered telling her about how the Mountain had cameras everywhere which were linked to a computer with excellent facial recognition software, but I decided against it. I didn't want to overly stress her at the moment. I should probably asked Batman if there is a way to blush out her face on the recordings.

When I came down to it, I didn't really care to try to find out who she really was. If she wanted to tell me she would tell me. Hell, I hadn't even bothered confirming who Robin was yet. I wasn't sure why he thought that a pair of sunglasses was enough to keep me from narrowing his identity down. I was still 95% sure that he was Dick Grayson, but I honestly didn't feel need to confirm that if he didn't want me to.

I sighed. "Alright, I guess it was a bit silly of me to seriously think you used your first name as your superhero name. I mean, no one's stupid enough to do that."

Artemis's eyes narrowed and I could see her jaw clench a little. "Yes. Very stupid. Of course." She said before she looked away and started muttering under her breath.

After a moment Superboy spoke up. "So, we doing something or what?"

I looked at him. "You got something in mind?"

He shrugged. "Not really, any time we've done something as a group I've just followed you guys' lead. I don't… really know what most normal people do for fun."

"Come on, you have to know of something. You were in Metropolis a week or two back, right? Did you find anything there you liked?"

A scowl suddenly formed on his face. "No." He said flatly.

My brow furrowed. That sounded like something had happened. But, before I could inquire further, Kori said "Well Jacob, how about you? What activities did you preform to create bonds with others before you came here?"

"Aside from life threatening combat? Typically getting intoxicated and doing something foolish together." I remarked. "My old standby used to be karaoke."

"Oh, I've been meaning to try that!" M'gann said excitedly. "Martians don't really sing, not vocally anyway, so I'd love to give it a shot together."

Kori mirrored the sentiment. "A marvelous idea! I haven't joined in a proper ballad in ages."

Superboy was much more reluctant though. "Singing? I don't like the sound of that."

"Well, we're supposed to be drunk and not care." I said. "But, unless Artemis is much older than she looks, none of us can or should consume alcohol. So, I'm not sure karaoke is the best thing here."

"Please, Jacob?" M'gann pleaded as she clasped her hands and leaned towards me.

"Look, I-" I started to say as I turned to face her, but I had a sudden flash of insight and covered my eyes with my hands. "Oh no."

"Jacob, what's wrong?" She asked.

"M'gann, are you giving me the sad puppy dog eyes?"

"No."

"I'm serious here. You know what I've said about you and that look."

"That it's an unfair use of my shapeshifting and natural adorableness to manipulate you to do things for me?"

"Yes that." I confirmed. "Hence the not looking."

"Jacob, I promise you I'm not giving you the sad puppy dog eyes."

"Alright… when I lower my hands, I'm expecting no sad puppy dog eyes."

I lowered my hands. She was giving me the sad puppy dog eyes.

"…I trusted you." I said bitterly.

----------------------​

"Alright, that should do it," I said with a sigh as I finished hooking up the common room TV to the Mountain's audio system. I walked in front of the large screen and pulled up karaoke program as everyone else settled onto the couch behind me. I volunteered to go first. It was technically my fault that we were doing this, so it was only right that I would be offering my dignity on the altar of sacrifice first.

I hummed as I cycled through the song list until I found the song I had spotted in the booklet. I had originally planned to do something by Queen (an old favorite and standby when it came to karaoke), but when I had spotted this particular number I knew that I had to do it at least once. I may not have been in front of a lounge, but I wasn't going to let that stop me.

As the sound of the piano started to play, I took a breath. "Am I bluuuue?~"

=====A=====​

M'gann's alternate response to Jacob's inquiry: "Who told you about my fanfiction?!"

 

[Zulaq]

I see four possible endings. Either he's a perfect singer, a terrible singer or a technically perfect singer (but not emotive). Or something interrupts...

I'm going to go with something interrupts.

 

[blazaboi95]

does anybody remember that episode of batman were he had to sing i am blue in the club? how funny would it be if batman walked in to this XD

 

[King Arthur]

"Oh, like in the traditional Tamaranian hero epics." Kori said. I gave her a curious look, and she proceeded to lift off the ground and spin in the air. When she stopped one leg was placed in front of the other, her hips and head were cocked to the side, and she pointed down at me with one arm while the other framed her chest. "You may have thought me dead, tyrant, but in the end your defeat shall come from me! Alisand'r!"

Click to shrink...

Starfire is, as always, the best.

I had originally planned to do something by Queen (an old favorite and standby when it came to karaoke)

Click to shrink...

Nice choice.

"Am I bluuuue?~"

Click to shrink...

Also a nice choice.

M'gann's alternate response to Jacob's inquiry: "Who told you about my fanfiction?!"

Click to shrink...

Hah!

I mean, I find real person fanfic's weird, but still, amusing.

 

[Blaflaix]

I see four possible endings. Either he's a perfect singer, a terrible singer or a technically perfect singer (but not emotive). Or something interrupts...

I'm going to go with something interrupts.

Click to shrink...

Option 5: He accidentally assimilates the karaoke machine, for the rest of the story he randomly starts playing music whenever he is emotional or trying to be sneaky.
Wally is intensely jealous that he has his own soundtrack.

 

[RocjawCypher]

Hey, this is good! Interesting concept, good characterization, butterflies are adding new plot points. Definitely something I'll watch

 

[Philosophysics]

Option 5: He accidentally assimilates the karaoke machine, for the rest of the story he randomly starts playing music whenever he is emotional or trying to be sneaky.
Wally is intensely jealous that he has his own soundtrack.

Click to shrink...

I vote for option 5.

 

[Satire Swift]

Here's a silly thing I forgot to post:

Jacob: Kori... What's that in the middle of your forehead? Because it better not be what I think it is.
Star SapphFire: I was in Coast City and there was this unpleasant woman bothering Lantern Jordan, so I headbutted her! And it stuck to me!
Jacob: You need to take it off, the thing's going to drive you crazy.
Star SapphFire: That's what Lantern Jordan said too, but I don't see the problem. I feel perfectly normal. Also Jacob, have I told you that I love you?
Jacob: That's the sapphire talking, Kori.
Star SapphFire: No, it's true! I love you the most! Except for M'gann. I love her the most! Except for Superboy and Diana. I love them the most too! Until I find someone else who I love even more the most!
Jacob: Why does this behavior seem oddly familiar for some reason... Wait, where are you going, get back here!
Star SapphFire: Hi there random citizen! I have just met you, and I love you!

 

[King Arthur]

Here's a silly thing I forgot to post:

Jacob: Kori... What's that in the middle of your forehead? Because it better not be what I think it is.
Star SapphFire: I was in Coast City and there was this unpleasant woman bothering Lantern Jordan, so I headbutted her! And it stuck to me!
Jacob: You need to take it off, the thing's going to drive you crazy.
Star SapphFire: That's what Lantern Jordan said too, but I don't see the problem. I feel perfectly normal. Also Jacob, have I told you that I love you?
Jacob: That's the sapphire talking, Kori.
Star SapphFire: No, it's true! I love you the most! Except for M'gann. I love her the most! Except for Superboy and Diana. I love them the most too! Until I find someone else who I love even more the most!
Jacob: Why does this behavior seem oddly familiar for some reason... Wait, where are you going, get back here!
Star SapphFire: Hi there random citizen! I have just met you, and I love you!

Click to shrink...

Seems normal to me, I don't know what you're talking about Jacob.

 

[Philosophysics]

Does anyone think that while Lantern Rings are all cool as fuck, that the balancing of them have a LOT remaining to fix?

 

[Blaflaix]

Does anyone think that while Lantern Rings are all cool as fuck, that the balancing of them have a LOT remaining to fix?

Click to shrink...

From what I understand, the Guardians specifically focused on the Green rings because they (mostly) didn't drive people crazy.

The rest of them are like using toxic waste as an energy drink.

 

[Philosophysics]

From what I understand, the Guardians specifically focused on the Green rings because they (mostly) didn't drive people crazy.

The rest of them are like using toxic waste as an energy drink.

Click to shrink...

Good point.

But it doesn't help that the Guardians go batshit insane later in the series.

 

[madderbatter]

The further away the color is from green, the stronger the mind-whammy. Green still has some influence though, so it's not that surprising the Guardians went nuts after eons of using it.

Also Star SapphFire reminds me of Dug from Up.

 

[White Lantern]

This is awesome

I thought it was a xenomorph si at 1st (which is sadly not a thing) but it's nanomachines does his xenomorph form have the inner moth because ypu should totally have it fire something like a gun

 

[Nitronorm5688]

I see four possible endings. Either he's a perfect singer, a terrible singer or a technically perfect singer (but not emotive). Or something interrupts...

Click to shrink...

Or he becomes a Pluto

 

[Krazyfan1]

..wonder if he would be able to shapeshift extra mouths, to act as backup singers?
or, he shapeshifts extra bodies (connected by a cordto the real him) to be his backup dancers as well..

 

[Satire Swift]

=====A=====​

I walked across the cargo bay towards the school bus sized, oblong object that was M'gann's bioship. The biomechanical construct was a deep red color and had a sort of pebbly texture while in that state, but otherwise was completely featureless. I wasn't sure how aware she was of her surroundings while resting, but I got the impression that she started paying attention to me as I came to a stop next to her.

I looked at the ship for a few moments before I reached into the bag I held and pulled out a cube, about four inches on each side. I held the cube out to the pod, and after a second the surface bulged outward and enveloped my hand. When the mass pulled back the cube was gone, and the bioship made a sound I could only describe as a trill.

"Good Moya." I said, patting her surface before I started fishing around for more in my bag. "How has your week been?"

"Eh, not bad."

My free arm formed into a laser cannon as I turned, but I stopped when I found Robin standing behind me with a grin. I forced myself to calm down as I glared at him. "You know, a lot of the mystique is lost when I know that you're basically just holding your cape in front of your face like an idiot."

"You'd have to actually see me doing it for it to count, though."

My laugh was flat as I took note of his costume. "So, what's up? Is there a mission?"

"Nah, had some free time so I thought I'd swing by for some teamwork training." The boy said. "I got some maneuvers I'd like to try out before we use it on a mission."

I hummed as my arm returned to normal, fishing another cube out of the bag. "Well, while I appreciate the sentiment, you will have to make do with Superboy or M'gann. Kori and I are going out on patrol with Wonder Woman again today."

I could see him arch an eyebrow through his domino mask. "Then what are you waiting around here for?"

I offered another cube to the bioship as I said "It was a bit spur of the moment on Wonder Woman's part, and she said she's meet us here first. Didn't give us a solid time, but she should be here soon. So I decided to spend a little time feeding Moya, and last I left Kori she and M'gann were watching cooking shows." I frowned and looked off to the side. "I hope they're learning something. Last time I walked in on the two of them in the kitchen I found them covered in flour and cake batter."

"… I get the feeling that if Wally knew about half the stuff the girls got up to in this mountain he would insist on moving in." Robin said.

"He must never know." I replied solemnly.

"Uh huh. And the cubes?"

"They're silicate-carbon lattices filled with highly charged ions." I said. "They're basically sugar cubes for bioships."

As I spoke, Moya started to get impatient and her mass started to engulf the rest of my arm. I turned back and tried to pull my arm out. "No, bad Moya! No eating me so you can get the rest of the sugar cubes!"

"Moya?" Robin asked.

"My name for the bioship," I said as I managed to pull my arm free. "She technically does have a name, but it's purely telepathic. So I've settled on Moya."

He gave me a look. "And where did that name come from?"

"Nowhere in particular." I said. Unfortunately, I had to revise my earlier assessment of this being the best of all universes, seeing as how apparently Farscape didn't exist here.

There was a pause before he changed subject. "So… what was your home life like?" I gave him a look, and he held up his hands placating. "You know, before all this."

I hesitated at the non-sequitur for a moment before I replied "Good. Normal, but good. My family's spread out all over the east coast, so we didn't see each other as much as we should have, but it was good."

"And you've got none left?" He asked. "Every time someone's asked you about it you just say 'there's nothing to go back to'."

A frown settled on my face as I resumed feeding the bioship. "I really don't care to talk about it."

"Dude, it's ok. I know."

I turned to look at him fully. "You… know?"

"Batman told me about where you came from."

My eyebrows rose. That wasn't what I was expecting. "I see. So you know about… the thing."

"Yeah, I know about the thing." Robin said, matching my tone.

I took a deep breath. "Wow, I wasn't expecting this. I knew that I had to talk about the thing eventually, but man… its serious business, the thing. I mean it's not as bad as the stuff, but the thing is something else."

Robin rolled his eyes. "Alright, you don't have to be that snarky about it."

The corners of my mouth quirked upwards. "Well, what do you expect? I mean, the old 'pretend that you already know the secret' trick? Come on Robin, give me a little credit."

He grinned as he perked up. "So you are hiding something!"

I shrugged. If he already suspected something, there was no way I was going to hide the fact that I was hiding something from the apprentice to the world's greatest detective. "So what if I am, Mr. Dark Shades?" I asked pointedly.

"Because you don't make sense!" He insisted. "Prior to showing up from outer space, you didn't exist. There isn't a single person matching your profile or given background I can find."

A frown formed on my face. "Wait, you've been trying to snoop into my past without telling me? What the hell, kid?!"

He shrugged. "Hey, I was trained by Batman. I snoop on everyone I know as a matter of course."

"That doesn't make it alright. Seriously, people aren't going to trust you if you act like that."

"So what, I should just accept what people tell me as the truth without checking?" He argued back. "That's a quick way of getting yourself killed when you thought you were safe."

"Well, if it bothers you so much, why didn't you just ask Batman who I am?" Robin grimaced and looked off to the side, and I made a small noise. "You already did, didn't you?"

"He wants me to find out on my own, that's all." Robin insisted as he looked back at me. "He likes to set up challenges like that."

I sighed. "Look, I'm going to ask this once." I said. "Can you please just wait for me to tell you what it is when I'm ready? It's not great for team cohesion if we're all trying to uncover each other's secrets."

The boy just smiled at that, though. "What, you think you can find out my secret identity first? Challenge accepted."

I groaned as I pinched the bridge of my nose. To be honest, I wasn't all that concerned for myself. After all if he somehow found my family I'd be way too excited by how he found an interdimensional portal to care about anything else. No, I was more worried that he would take the same sort of attitude with Artemis. I had half a mind to ask him not to do that do her, but given his last response, it'd probably just encourage him.

The Mountian's audio system came to life, and Wonder Woman's voice came through. "Starfire, Machina, I have arrived. Met me in the main hall."

I didn't want to deal with Robin right then. I decided to take it up with Batman later, and hopefully I wouldn't have to get too confrontational.

So, I just let out a huff as I turned my back to him, walking down the tunnel to the main room. "You are such a dick sometimes."

I didn't look back, but with my blindsight I could see him stiffen just a little. That should mess with him for a while.

I stopped by the lab to drop off my bag of 'sugar cubes' before resuming course. When I got to the main chamber, I found Kori and Diana waiting for me. "Jacob, ready to insure the safety of the populous again?" Kori asked.

"Hopefully better than last time," I remarked. "If we encounter another League-level threat I think I'll let someone else take point."

"But if your abilities are needed again, you will take the point regardless. Oh, I know! Perhaps you could form yourself into a weapon to be wielded by your comrade. Then they can take the point, and the point will be you!"

I raise and finger and opened my mouth, but no response came. After a moment I just hung my head in defeat.

Diana chuckled before she turned to look at me. "Actually, there has been a change of plans. Today it is just going to be myself and Starfire."

I blinked. "Oh. Uh, alright." I will admit I felt a little let down at that. Ok, more than a little let down, but to be honest I had been surprised by the invite the first time. I assumed it was because Kori, kind hearted soul that she was, had took it upon herself to bring me along.

And sure enough, Kori turned to Diana and opened her mouth to say something, but the other woman held her hand up first. "You are going out today, Jacob, just not with me. Another League member has expressed interest."

Before I could ask who, the Zeta Tube whirred to life. "Recognized: Superman, 0-1."

The Man of Steel walked out of the light and smiled at us. "Hope I'm not too late. Had to help put out a fire on my way here."

Oh, I wasn't patrolling with Wonder Woman because Superman wanted to hang out with me today.

…

Holy shit, Superman wanted to hang out with me today!

"You're on time." Diana said, unaware of my internal fanboy. "I was just informing Machina how you'd be the one mentoring him today." She looked at me. "Is this alright with you?"

"Yes, yes of course!" I said just a little too loudly. "I mean, I still can't fly, but I've gotten a bit better with the grapple lines, so if we stay in the city it shouldn't be too much of a problem, unless you have to get somewhere super-fast, but then I can catch up, and I'm going to stop talking now." My mouth clicked shut.

Superman just laughed. "It's good to see you're so enthusiastic. Let's put that energy to use, shall we?" he said as he gestured back at the Zeta Tubes.

"Ah, right." I said as I started to move, but I stopped as a thought occurred to me. "Actually, could Superboy come along too? I think he'd really appreciate it." The kid still had a bit of a complex when it came to Superman, so getting some encouragement from the man himself would probably help. If nothing else the time together it should help reduce Superboy's perception of his progenitor being this distant, unachievable thing.

However, Superman filched as I said it. He schooled his features quick enough that I almost missed it, but I still saw his mouth twitch a little before he said "Actually, I'd prefer if it was just you and me. Keep things one-on-one, you know?"

"Oh. Alright." I said, and the smile returned as we both made our way to the Zeta Tube. I was about to say something else, but after a moment I shook my head and decided not to.

----------------------​

To my surprise, the day passed without incident.

Alright, that wasn't really true. There were two muggings, one car theft, a small gang fight, and one incident of a construction worker falling off the top of a half done building. But those were all relatively mundane things that were resolved quickly and easily. And man, doesn't saying that show just how much my perception of things have already become skewed? But nevertheless, as the day wore on I realized something: I was actually enjoying myself a little.

Certainly that was thanks in no small part to Superman. I was spending time with the most iconic superhero ever, and the man himself was just generally pleasant to be around. But more that, I found I wasn't as anxious as I normally was when doing superhero stuff. After all, Superman was here. Of course everything would be alright.

It was edging into late afternoon when we found ourselves taking a break near the top of one of the taller buildings. I was stuck to the side like a certain wall-crawler while he floated nearby. "You know, we don't have any cities like this back where I come from?" I said as I gestured to the Metropolis skyline. "This particular architectural style I mean. This sort of art deco simply never made it into practical use." Wait, was Metropolis art deco, or was I thinking of Gotham? I'll look it up later.

Superman nodded. "It's the only one of its kind here. It was built to be The City of Tomorrow, so they hired some architects to make sure it looked the part. These days I couldn't imagine living anywhere else." He glanced at me. "If you ever want to move out of Mount Justice, I could recommend a few places."

I shrugged. "Living in the Mountain is less stressful, though. I only have to worry about my teammates. Having a city to patrol all the time must be exhausting." I paused. "If you don't mind my asking, how do you… not go crazy from having to constantly hear people in trouble?"

"I think you are assuming that my hearing is better than it is." He remarked. "True I can hear accurately out to several blocks, and less accurately many more blocks beyond that, but I can't hear what is going on in the entire city. As well, the crime rate in Metropolis isn't so bad that that I am constantly being pulled away from what I am doing. Most days anyway."

"Huh." I said. I had never really payed too much attention to the power scale between different versions of the DC universes, but that was definitely 'less' than any other version of Superman I had ever seen. I decided to focus on something else though. "In the… stories I've read there are a lot of plot lines that focus on the difficulties of living two lives. I suppose I'm lucky I don't have my own city to patrol on top over everything else. That said I'm glad for the chance to get to do any good really. I mean, it's still kinda my job and all."

Superman arched an eyebrow at that. "I don't think most superheroes consider their work to be their 'job', at least not like you're implying. Are you saying you have no interest in a normal job?"

"A bit hard to hold down a 9 to 5 with this complexion." I said as I gestured at myself.

"What if that wasn't a problem? Would you not want a secret identity?"

I had asked myself that question before, and had already come to a conclusion. "To be honest, I don't feel like I need one. I'm getting most of what I want out of life right now. I live in a high tech mountain fortress with access to a global teleportation network. I hang out and do things with my roommates, and on occasion the rest of the team. I'm even getting to know Doctor Roquette and Kord Tech's scientists better. I'm not sure what a secret identity would get me."

"A chance to be normal?" He said softly. "A chance to go back-"

"No." Superman pulled back at my sudden response, and I shook my head. "Sorry. I don't mean wouldn't want that exactly, I just… I don't want to try to replace what I've lost. I have a chance to do something new. Something extraordinary. I feel like, for what this has cost me, I should take it as far as I can."

Superman was silent for a long moment, taking in what I said. Before he could respond though, our coms activated. "Batman to Superman and Machina."

Superman's hand went to his ear. "Copy."

"Martian Manhunter's investigations have revealed an Intergang weapons cache in Metropolis. Data shows that it just received a shipment up from Miami, and is going to be shipped off to parts unknown in a few hours. The location is a warehouse down by the docks, Pier 13, 5th from the back."

"Right. We'll take care of it." Superman took his hand off his ear and looked at me. "Looks like we have a little more work to do before we're done today. You up for it?"

"Of course."

-------------------​

It wasn't long before we found ourselves down by the Metropolis waterfront, standing on top the warehouse adjacent to the one Batman had told us about. It was… well, it was exactly what you would expect a warehouse to look like. It was three stories tall and about the size of a small city block. Neither I nor Superman wanted to barge in right away, so we took a minute to scope out the place.

And by that, I meant Superman was scanning every inch of it with his X-ray vision while I kind of awkwardly stood off to the side. After a minute or so he said "This is definitely the place. I can see several crates full of equipment that are not terrestrial in origin."

"Apokolipian tech?" I asked.

"I'm not that familiar with it yet, but probably." He said. "There are about two dozen men spread throughout the warehouse-" He stopped and tensed a little. "And one hostage up in the offices, unless Intergang's usual method of entertaining guests includes tying them to a chair and bringing out the bolt cutters."

"Now that's just excessive." I muttered, looking at the warehouse as my mouth twisted.

He turned to look at me. "We don't have a lot of time before things get ugly, so let's keep it simple. I'll rescue the hostage and take care of the men upstairs, you head in through the ground floor and make sure no one gets away. You can handle baseline humans with guns, right?"

I nodded. "Yes."

"Good. Go!" And without wasting another second Superman flew up into the air and came right back down through the warehouse roof. I blinked for a second before I fired a grapple line at the edge of the roof and swung down. "Man, superheroes in this universe really don't like wasting time…"

I swung around back to the loading bay and landed with a heavy thud at the entrance. The shutters were all closed, but I could hear some activity inside. I took a moment to configure my internals before I simply punched the shutters, tearing through the metal sheet and stepping into the warehouse. In that moment I took stock of the dozen or so men that turned to face me, all dressed in a variety of workman clothes but clearly armed.

Wait, should I say something? This feels like the right moment for a superhero one liner. But I was drawing a blank. Shit! A screw it, I'll let the Bruce handle this one.

"I would have knocked, but my fist had other plans."

And then everyone pulled their guns and opened fire on me.

I was hit with a barrage of bullets from a variety of handguns and automatic weapons, but for a few seconds I simply stood my ground and took it. The kinetic manipulators I had gotten from Amazo nullified the impacts to the point where I almost felt nothing. I had yet to really test them out in the field since I had gotten them, but the results I was getting right then certainly seemed exceptional.

I used the time to scope out the room and the people in it. The warehouse floor was massive, but most of the floor near the wall was staked with crates and boxes arranged in aisles, so the open space was merely large. There was a van in the middle of the floor which six men had been loading up with some of those crates. Three men had been positioned near the door until I had done my impression of the Kool-Aid man and they backed off. And finally, there were three more men up in the catwalks above, all of which were shooting at me.

I needed to take out the guys shooting from the catwalk before they hit one of their own, but I was hesitant to just start throwing lightning. There was a lot of metal in this warehouse (the catwalk included), and I did not trust myself to have the proper control to knock them out without doing permanent damage. So, I had to try something else. My right arm morphed into a cannon configuration, and as I aimed it at them waves of sound ripped forth from it, the air visibly distorting from the force of it. The men were knocked off their feet by the blast and sent tumbling over the railing, crashing into a tall pile of crates below.

Technically another thing I had gotten from Amazo, but I had been experimenting with sonic cannons long before him. This was just the first time where it seemed like the best solution

With that taken care of I folded my arm back to normal and moved forward towards the nearest group of three thugs. By the time they had finally realized that guns weren't going to work I was already on top of them. Careful now, I thought as I punched the first man's sternum. He collapsed and evacuated his stomach on the ground, but I hadn't felt anything break. The man next to him tried to pistol whip me, but I grabbed his arm before it could connect and hurled him at the third man. The two crashed into each other before sliding to a stop some distance away.

I could have shocked them to unconsciousness, but I needed to learn proper strength control when it came to normal humans. If I was always afraid of hurting people it would cut down on my options in combat, and I didn't think I could afford that in the long run.

My attention snapped back to the van as I heard the screeching of tires and the vehicle accelerated towards me. I could have gotten out of the way, but the man I had just punched out was still curled into a ball at my feet. Ah god damn it, I thought as charged forward, my frame expanding as I met the front of the car head on and grabbed it. I grit my teeth as I was pushed back, the floor of the warehouse tearing up beneath my feet. With a grunt I got my hands underneath the front bumper and lifted, removing the front wheels from the ground and cutting off its forward acceleration. A second later I hoisted the whole van into the air and, turning it way from the man I had downed, smashed the front into the warehouse floor. Two men came tumbling out through the windshield and onto the floor, groaning but otherwise unmoving. I set the vehicle down carefully and mentally congratulated myself on how I handled the situation.

…Wait a second, wouldn't it have been way safer and easier it I had just picked the downed thug up and moved him out of the way rather than trying to lift the van? Damn it! No one must know.

Well, eight down, four to go, and it looked like the remaining criminals had run deeper into the warehouse to get away from me. Or, considering that they were supposed to be transporting weapons, to get better armaments. I didn't want to give them the chance and took off running down the aisles of crates after them.

It only took me a few seconds to locate them. They weren't exactly trying to be stealthy, so my enhanced hearing was able to pick out their location quickly, though they were in aisle right next to mine. I jumped over a twenty foot pile of crates and saw my quarry underneath me as I moved through the air, three men looking around nervously while the fourth desperately pried open a container with a crowbar. I landed with a heavy thud behind them before I turned, sweeping out with my leg and knocking one of the men to the ground. I tried to move to the man who was unboxing something, but another got in my way as he tried to bull rush me over. I was much studier than he thought though, and I simply grabbed him and flipped him over my shoulder. I heard him scream before it was cut off by the sound of crashing wood.

Still, he had given his friend the time he needed to pull a weapon of some kind out of the crate. It looked to be some sort of bladed staff, covered in those circles and angular line patterns which had always been used for New God technology in the comics. The head of the weapon crackled with some form of red energy as the thug swung at my center of mass, and I danced back out of range. The man pushed forwards swinging wildly, and I was forced to juke to the side as he thrust the spear at me. The container the tip of the staff touched simply disintegrated at the contact.

Definitely not getting touched by that, I thought as my arms reconfigured to channel lightning. I swiftly stepped into the thug's reach as he tried to reset his stance, and when we swung again the half of the staff hit my side as I was too close. One arm wrapped around the weapon while the other reached out and grabbed his chest, shocking him into unconsciousness. I glanced at the weapon I held in my hand. If I remembered correctly, Apokolipian tech was supposed to be some of the most advanced in the universe. It was also, if I remembered correctly, powered by a form of energy that was the antithesis to free will.

Think I'll play it safe, I though as I tossed the staff back into its container. I hadn't forgotten about the last man, but he has started to make a run for it after his buddy tried to engage me in glorious melee. I let out a breath as I saw him bolt around the corner at the far end of the aisle and followed after him, putting on enough speed that I had to slide around the corner to make the turn

And I stood just in time for the man, who had stopped just out of sight to take aim, to level his pistol at my face point blank and fire.

My head snapped back, more out of reflex than anything else, but after a moment I realized something. Holy shit, did I just…? Slowly, I turned my head to look at the frozen thug standing in front of me. I then smiled, showing the bullet I had managed to catch between my teeth by pure chance (not that he needed to know that).

He stared at me for a moment longer before he dropped the gun and put his hands in the air. "I think I'll go to jail now."

--------------------​

"…and then I tied them all up and waited for you to show up." I told the police officer about ten minutes later, the middle aged man nodding as he jotted it down in his note pad. "Do you need anything else?"

"No, I think that about covers it." The man said as he put the pad away. "Next time though, you think you could manage not to leave a mangled van for us to clean up?"

"Oh, uh, sorry." I apologized.

However, the cop just laughed, his weathered face gaining a mess of wrinkles in the process. "Ah, I'm just busting your chops, kid. You have any idea the kind of messes we have to clean up after Big Blue? This is nothing compared to that giant robot that went sightseeing downtown a few years back." The man then narrowed his eyes a little as he looked at me. "Hey, I know you're not from around here, but you look familiar."

I shifted a little. "Well, I've never been to Metropolis before… but you might have heard of me a few weeks back. I was the one who took down that android in New York."

"Ah yeah, now I remember. There was this big deal about how it was your first day but you had to do it on your own. Caused a minor media ruckus when the casualties came out."

I winced. "I haven't really been paying attention to the news. Should I be worried or…"

The man waved me off. "Screw 'em. There's always someone complaining about superheroes not doing a perfect job. They don't understand you don't always get the perfect circumstances, that you have to make do with what you've got. I'm sure you did the best you could. And hey, if Superman likes you enough to let you tag along, I'm sure he thinks so to."

I was silent for a long moment before I said "Thank you, officer."

"Call me Mike." He said with a smile and a nod before he walked off. "See you around, kid."

I smiled, and then I frowned. "Wait, kid?" I said, but the officer had already left. I rolled my eyes before looking around. The various Intergang thugs were being herded into a police lock-up van, though it was slow going as some of them had gotten a bit busted up. And right next to the van was a man who was, I had been informed, the now freed hostage, an average looking man with glasses and receding brown hair. And I found him looking back at me. It… actually made me surprisingly uncomfortable, like he was staring right through me or something…

"You did a good job." I gave a start as Superman floated down next to me. "You'd think the bad guys in this city would to only fire a couple a bullets and check if it actually works rather than emptying their entire clips."

"Oh, thanks." I said, snapping out of my thoughts.

He tilted his head a little. "Something wrong?"

I shook my head. "No, nothing. So, who exactly-" I turned to point at the former hostage, but for to my surprised that he was gone. "What the… the hostage was right here."

Superman looked around before he shrugged. "Must have wandered off, the man was pretty shaken up. He told me that he works inventory for the docks and came in after finding a clerical error in the manifest, and stumbled on the men we stopped. Not exactly the problem he was expecting."

"Right…" I said before I looked back at him. "So, are we done here?"

"More or less. I took a quick stock of the Apokolipian tech and compared it to figures Batman gave me from his last investigation of Intergang. It seems to be almost the entirety of their remaining alien tech. A few bits are left though, but whether they were moved from here or sent elsewhere I don't know. Do you have any investigation training?"

My mouth pressed thin. "I'm afraid not. Robin usually handles that for the team. I do technically have sensor technology, but I don't really know how to use it correctly. Not with my software issues."

He nodded. "I couldn't find any clues either, so let's leave it to the detectives for now. That said, Batman will likely be taking a look himself later." He glanced at the reddening sky, the sun just barely visible on the horizon. "Well, I'd say this was a fairly successful day. Do you want to head back to the Mountain? You can stay in the city if want."

I glanced at the city skyline before looking back at him. "No, I think I'll just head back home. No offense, I'd just rather have a full day to explore a new city."

"Alright, if there's anything you need, just let me know." He said as he started to take off.

At his words a though occurred to me, and I reached out to him. "Actually, I do have something of a request."

Superman stopped before he floated back down next to me. "What is?" He asked.

"Could you give me any medical data you have on Kryptonians?"

Superman went still at this, and I could feel the intensity of his gaze as he asked "Why?"

I glanced around before lowering my voice. "Well, Superboy has been feeling… frustrated at his limitations due to being a hybrid, especially in comparison to you. I promised him that I would try to bring out his full potential, but that has been difficult to say the least."

"What do you mean by 'full potential'?"

"In the comics Superboy's power was always described as tactile telekinesis, sort of a result of his mixed heritage. As time went on he developed completely unique abilities based on this. I was hoping to find a way to help that along." I sighed. "Unfortunately, the only thing I've learned after a couple of weeks of study is that I have no idea how Kryptonian biology works. I've read up all the literature I can find, but..."

"What about the notes we retrieved from Cadmus's computers?"

"They have been helpful, but are incomplete. Most of the files relate to the Genomorphs rather than Superboy himself, and what there was seemed to mostly about his containment and upkeep. I'm pretty sure that facility was only where they were keeping him, not where he was… made. Have you made any progress on finding anyone else involved in his creation?"

"Unfortunately, no. The facility in which we found Superboy was apparently made to function with minimal oversight. As far as we can tell there were only a dozen people - well, humans - working there, with Dr. Desmond at the head. There are no records of anyone else being involved."

I sighed. "I've already checked the info on all of those scientists, none of them were involved in his creation. The one lead I have is a single memo that arrived with Superboy the day he showed up to the facility, detailing nutrient and sunlight levels while he was kept in stasis. On that memo is a signature that doesn't match any of the scientists that worked there. Well, just initials really: CF. The last time I ask Batman about it he said he was still looking into it."

Superman's mouth pressed into a thin line before he looked off to the side. "I'm… a bit reluctant. STAR labs does have some information on my physiology, but I assume what you are asking for is what I keep in my fortress?" I nodded and he continued. "I've never moved any of the data off the crystals as a security measure. If detailed knowledge of Krypontian technology, or my own biology, ever fell into the wrong hands…"

"I think the ship has sailed on that last one," I pointed out.

Superman's actually winced a little before looking at me. "Are you are sure that this information will help him?"

I shrugged. "I can't be certain of anything at this point, but if nothing else, it will help me understand Kryptonian biology more. Which I imagine will be very useful as I think I might kinda be the team medic now." He looked at me with an arched eyebrow and I continued. "I can mimic a good amount of the equipment in the med bay and have been studying the physiologies of my teammates for comparisons. Someone's gotta make sure they come out ok."

"I see." He said as he nodded to himself. "You are the one helping him. Right." He took a breath. "Alright. I'll see what I can do about converting the files into something the Mountain's computer can parse, and send it over. Then you can… do what you have to do."

I smiled, but in truth I was starting to feel a little concerned. Superman… was being hesitant and awkward. It was just wrong to see the world's greatest superhero act like that somehow, like something fundamental with the world was off. "Thank you. But, sir…" I said hesitantly. "If you don't mind my asking, is something wrong?"

He looked taken aback at that. "What? No, no! Of course not." He shifted a bit before he rose into the air. "I'll see about getting you those files. Keep up the good work!" And in a blue blur he was gone.

I stared after him for a long moment before I said to the open air "What the hell was that?"

=====A=====​

This chapter is a little more scattered than I wanted it to be, but hopeful it still flows alright.