Starmetal Adepts:
Immortal, no need to eat, drink, or sleep unless his powers require it for spells. Immune to critical hits, Banishment, Death spells, mental effect spells like charm or dominate. However unlike Warforged or Golems he counts as a monster as far as spells are concerned. 0 HP will kill him immediately, Ressurect spells cannot revive him, but he can however be resurrected if the body is repaired. His soul becomes bound to his body at Capstone Ascension.
It was one of the few habits he could allow himself.
Bruce Wayne could do almost whatever he liked, so long as it was within the image he'd built. He could get up and pace, run his hands through his hair, twirl a pen across his fingers.
No nail biting or pencil chewing, those kinds of habits were reserved for the intellectual types of celebrities.
Nose picking was just... Ew.
Batman, however, could not do any of those. Instead he was left clenching his fists as tightly as he could.
The sidekick team had been doing... Moderately well. There had already been a few severe hiccups, but nothing too disastrous as of yet.
So far it had just been joint training, letting the children fight each other and blow off steam.
Supervised, for the most part.
The two Kryptonian clones, Superboy and Power Girl, were struggling to moderate their strength when they got excited. That, combined with their abysmal ability to work with others, was going to be a long, long list of headaches.
Player One was, if at all possible, even worse. Even during training they would go for the weaknesses of their teammates. And outside of the Kryptonina duo, none of the other apprentices were capable of taking a solid hit from them without risking a serious injury.
Offering them criticism was proving to be difficult as well. For whatever reason, even after causing their opponent a potentially serious injury, they would jump to defend the grey clad child.
The other four were easier to deal with. Batman was fairly certain it was because they'd had previous experience taking orders and receiving training.
This was exactly why he'd agreed to hire Alchemist as a support and medical specialist, and the boy had been missing for almost two weeks.
He and Robin had found the apartment he'd been staying in, on the edge of the docks in Gotham. His laptop had still been plugged in, paused in the middle of an old interview where J'onn was explaining Martian culture.
The door had been locked and all of the windows were intact and closed, but he could teleport seemingly at will. The only things to suggest he hadn't disappeared voluntarily was the half-eaten sandwich on a metal camping plate and a nearly empty bottle of juice.
Yesterday, half of the team had been in Star City and run into the unaccounted for clone of Roy Harper. There was apparently some confusion, and Batman hadn't been able to get a solid grasp on the details, but the clone firmly believed he was the original and refused to come with the team.
Batman would have liked to have heard about that sooner, but he had to set that aside for the moment.
He still set a reminder to inform Green Arrow. The man had been beside himself since the whole thing had come to light, and he desperately wanted to know of any updates involving the clone.
Today, the entirety of the team had gotten into a fight with a superpowered android distinctly similar to Red Tornado.
It was utterly pulverized.
The Justice League had some of the best technical analysts on call, but none of them could extract data from a memory drive that was shattered.
Batman finally logged the last of the recovered robots components and checked his communicator.
Two messages today. Both from J'onn.
Alchemist had turned up.
He'd been trapped in a spirit realm?
Batman needed more details, but J'onn was his equal in being infuriatingly brief.
-----
"Batman, Zero-Two" Rang out loudly in the Hall of Justice.
J'onn, still at the computer terminal, turned to face the oncoming source of -Determination-.
"Alchemist has returned?" Batman was stressed and tired, though he did an admirable job masking it.
"Yes. I sent him to the gym showers. I was uncertain when he last had an opportunity to bathe." It was fascinating to be a psychic when giving a man like Bruce such a statement. Feeling his mind make connections, run through and discard assumptions and finally create a list of possible answers.
All of it based off of two insignificant sentences.
"He has been asleep for nearly six hours in the changing room. I would advise caution when waking him."
Passing by him, Bruce muttered three simple words.
"Thank you, J'onn."
-----
Batman is unsure what to make of what he sees when he finds Alchemist.
The young man is clean, which is good. He's dressed, which is better. Parts of his hair are clearly burned... And he's sitting on the floor, half laying against a long, oval object roughly the size of a small barrel.
Reaching out, Batman gently grabs one of his shoulders and gives it a small shake.
And then another.
Alchemist's eyes snap open in an instant, looking around the room in a half-mad panic before calming down. He reaches up, pushing the palm of his hand against his brow, just above his left eye.
"Alchemist." The boys vision is blocked by his arm, but the way he moves shows he's focusing on Bruce. "You've been missing for two weeks. Are you alright?"
The boy leaned back, curiously turning to look at what he's against. He regarded it for several moments before letting out a slow, heavy breath.
"No." The boy was a curious mix of honest and secretive. He refused to say where he was learning his magic from, but at the same time did nothing to exxagerate himself or his condition. "Haven't eaten for a few days, barely slept in god knows how long. And I've apparently decided to pick up a huge responsibility while I was running on autopilot."
"Can you explain what happened, what that thing behind you is?"
"I'd forgotten one of the books I needed to read was sealed by a greater spirit. Or lesser god." The boy waved his right hand from side to side. "Not much difference. Had to pass its trials and earn what I was trying to learn before I could leave."
The boy leveled a disgruntled look at his backrest.
"And this thing is a dragon egg."
"... A dragon egg." There's a lot to unpack in that statement. Partially being that Batman had been certain dragons, real dragons and not just some empowered mystical form of a villain, didn't exist.
And then he rethought his position because he used to believe gods and goddesses didn't exist either.
"Flying, breathing fire and hoarding gold, that kind of dragon?"
"Except for the middle part, yeah. Not sure about this one actually, I don't really remember getting it. Problem is the color." Alchemist ran a finger down the side of the egg.
Bruce didn't understand what he meant by that. The shell was a pearlescent, almost shimmering white.
"Traditional fire breathing dragons have red eggs. This isn't the right white for a Frost Dragon, definitely not a Storm, their eggs are blue." Alchemist reached up to scratch at the back of his head, but froze when he felt a clump of singed hair. "Honestly I'm coming up blank. Suppose I'll know when it hatches."
He put his hand on the egg and it disappeared.
Batman inhaled slowly. He'd prefer to foist that off to an expert, but he was fairly certain none existed.
"Is there anything else I need to be made aware of?" It was good that Alchemist was back and relatively unharmed, but he brought back so many more questions than he did answers.
"Well, I've got some good news?" Alchemist pushed himself to his feet. "I've picked up two more spells for self defense, a kind of magical shield and another to hide with. And I also got a spell to repair things, even if they're entirely destroyed. That's been so incredibly useful, it's the only reason I still have clothes after the whole burning and explosions and godawful terror in the book realm."
That was... Potentially very useful.
"Good. We're glad to have you back. Be here tomorrow morning at eight. The team has been in desperate need of your medical abilities." Especially if they were going to train the Kryptonians and Player One in martial arts that didn't involve crippling people.
Maybe he needed to ask Diana again if she'd consider helping. Clark was still having a hard time accepting the existence of the clones, and couldn't bring himself to be near them.
A good thing, considering their conflicting programming.
Batman was glad Alchemist had thought to grab a copy of their medical notes.
Bruce, however, was beyond disgusted and furious enough to spit lead at what they contained.
"Can do, Boss."
Stats!
Name: (@**&@%$#%) Leslie Winters
Race: Human
Level: 21
GP: 220000
USD: $17000
Stats-
HP: 600
MP: 322
-STR: 10
-VIT: 30
-DEX: 6
-AGI: 10
-INT: 43
-WIS: 43
-LUK: 7
Abilities:
-Alchemy
--Transmutation (50)
--Conversion (1)
--Advanced Homonculus Creation (1)
-Divination
--Scrying (4)
-Magical Engineering
--Living Steel Manufacturing and Production (Max)
Spells:
--Final Fantasy series!
-Esuna (11)
-Life (16 -Max)
-Teleport (12)
-Cure (16 -Max)
-Blink (10)
-Protect (10)
-Toad (6)
-Flare (8)
-Osmose (16 -Max)
--Dark Souls series!
-Repair (10)
-Twisted Wall of Light (25)
-Hidden Weapon (1)
-Hidden Body (1)
-Cast Light (1)
Inventory:
-Weapons
--Nagrarok (Atk: 1, Evade +50%, On-hit: Toad)
-Skillbooks
-- Transmutation (read)
-- Scrying (read)
-- Advanced Homonculi by C.Grande (read)
-- De Le Metalica (Unread)
-Consumables
--Nectar X63
--Magic Carrot X77
--Heal Berry X99
-Spellbooks
-- Esuna (read)
-- Protect (read)
-- Cure (read)
-- Teleport (read)
-- Blink (read)
-- Life (read)
-- Toad (read)
-- Flare (read)
-- Osmose (read)
-- Golden Scroll (read)
-- Necronomicon X3 (Unread)
-Familiars
-- ??? Dragon Egg
Perks:
-Bright Soul (MP regen +50%)
-Shining Soul (MP +50%)
--Combined effect! Magical attunement is now visible!
-Metamagic: Expand (Double spell area of effect OR double spell duration)
-Metamagic: Lock (Persistent spell effects are more difficult to dispel based on level)
-Metamagic: Pierce (Spells ignore magic resistance. Up to 50% at max level)
-Metamagic: Minimum Powah! (Spells retain potency when multicast. Up to 50% at max level)
-Magically Apprenticed (Spell values are increased by 10%. Spell costs are reduced by 10%)
-Magically A-Practiced (Spell Values are increased by 20%. Spell costs are reduced by 20%0
Huh, if they're defending Player One after he injures them, does that mean he has Social Links that function like mind control/Master effects? If so, that's gonna be a big problem for the Justice League once they find out.
Huh, if they're defending Player One after he injures them, does that mean he has Social Links that function like mind control/Master effects? If so, that's gonna be a big problem for the Justice League once they find out.
The Gamer "usually" comes with a Loyalty/Affection/Obedience meter, and doesn't reduce those when you injure allies in context of training.
Note, also, that Player One walks around in a suit of human skin and not even Batman has noticed this: only not!Leslie. Even after telling Robin about it, Robin immediately forgot.
For what it's worth, that behavior is actually normal for Gamers. He's wearing gear made from instant dungeon zombie loot drops, which means he's still in the lower levels as a Gamer and probably doesn't have access to an Abyss Store.
For what it's worth, that behavior is actually normal for Gamers. He's wearing gear made from instant dungeon zombie loot drops, which means he's still in the lower levels as a Gamer and probably doesn't have access to an Abyss Store.
The Abyss Store/Auction shouldn't actually exist since it wasn't actually a Gamer thing, it was a thing that was real in the world Han lived in. Though he might have or get access to a store similar to what Alchemist has.
It's referencing the dichotomy that is Bruce Wayne/Batman. They're the same person, no split personality or any such jazz, but two different aspects that can show different reactions to the same stimuli.
In that case, it referred to the medical notes for the clones that were brought back. The more pragmatic part, the Batman part, finds it... Not good, not happy, at best it can be said that Batman finds it convenient that the medical notes were acquired.
The part of him that is Bruce Wayne is allowed to be more emotional. He sees weapons forged in the shape of children and he wants to rage against it.
The whole of him, the person behind the masks, takes that rage and disgust and heartbreak and turns it into the unyielding determination Batman is known for.
Not good, not happy, at best it can be said that Batman finds it convenient that the medical notes were acquired.
The part of him that is Bruce Wayne is allowed to be more emotional. He sees weapons forged in the shape of children and he wants to rage against it.
Shouldn't be too hard, you can just do this: "The implications of what's written in those documents make that part of him that is Bruce Wayne to be more emotional. They created weapons in the form of children, he wants nothing more than to rage against it."
Or something like that.
Gotham was like New York in a way; if you really looked for something, you could find it.
Like a barber at six in the morning.
Nice and clean, with no singed or melted hair, Leslie was feeling much more human.
Restocking food hadn't taken that long, but then, Leslie wasn't quite finished doing it either. A week and a half of general groceries in a time-frozen closet was nice. A six month supply of MRE's would be... Not nicer, but better than going hungry.
Maybe.
So long as he avoided the Five Fingers of Death. Or the military pizza.
But that was a problem for later. Right now it was closing in on seven forty-five in the morning and he was only just scanning into the Hall of Justice.
As he'd expected, Batman was already in the main hall. Robin and Player One were with him.
"Alchemist. Do you know why I asked you to come in today instead of telling you to take your two days off?" Batman was looking up at the giant computer monitor, letting various news stories play out in different corners.
Not actually knowing what the caped crusader wanted, Leslie instead said the first thing that came to mind.
"You found out I've been signing Lex Luthor's various business and personal email accounts up for hardcore fetish porn?"
The room was eerily silent except for the sound of Player One's clothes shifting as they turned around to look at Alchemist.
"You've been... What?"
"Okay, so not that then. Is this because I sent Mercy Graves a three legged horse costume with the message 'Take off the prosthetic, put this on and convince me not to put you out to pasture'? 'Cuz I told the guy making it to just use the letter L as the signature."
Now it was Robin's turn to turn and stare.
"No. No Alchemist, that's not why you're here."
"Okay, so... It's not because I ordered and paid for forty cakes to be delivered to Lexcorp on his birthday? I paid extra to get the Superman shield piped on to those. Though those would've been delivered last week..."
"Alchemist?" Robin started. "What? No, why. Just why?"
"Because, Robin. Forty is four tens, and that's terrible."
Finally Batman turned around.
"No, Alchemist. None of these are the reasons I requested your presence. However, since you've been kind enough to bring these issues to light, could you please explain why you are harassing Lex Luthor?"
In the background, Robin was talking to Player One.
"Is he quoting something? I think he's quoting at me."
"Absolutely Batman, and I'm so glad you asked!" Leslie piped up, putting his hands together behind his back and straightening his posture. "Out of all of the members of the Illuminati, Lex is the only one who's in a position that's easy to irritate while still not being able to openly have me murdered in my sleep! The other members are heads of state, related to heads of state, a talking brain, or else are so old they think the internet is a passing fad. And the evil Un-Child. We don't talk about the Un-Child."
It took almost a solid minute before anyone spoke.
"Alchemist?"
"Yes boss?"
"Refrain from having extended contact with The Question in the future."
"Can do, boss."
Another minute passed, the dark and broody trio all facing Alchemist as he leaned back and forth on his feet.
"The reason I requested your attendance is both simple and straightforward. The team you'll be supporting has expanded since your... Absence. As such, you'll need to familiarize yourself with the new members, as well as their equipment."
"Alright, fair enough." Leslie looked at the two standing behind the Batman. "Hey, Player One. Still have your broken bat, or did you replace it yet?"
Rather than verbally responding, Player One held out both hands. The cleanly snapped pieces appeared in an instant.
"Nifty. Alright." Alchemist grabbed both pieces, holding them together. A soft golden glow flowed over the broken wood for a few seconds before fading away.
Leslie held it back out, handle first. Player One grabbed it, rolling it between their hands for a moment before it disappeared into their inventory.
"Thank you." Their voice was very soft, very quiet. Leslie nodded in acceptance.
"I suppose that works as a demonstration. Come on. We need to get to the actual base."
-----
Leslie had an easier time with the Zeta Tube coming in to Mt.Justice.
Not a significantly easier time, but still. Not trying to lose your breakfast is a major plus.
He didn't understand what the problem was. It looked and felt like it was creating a tunnel, like he was just walking through a short hallway. As soon as he was on the other side, though, it felt like another part of him was just realizing he was gone and trying to catch up.
Any which way, he was left holding his stomach as the entry room for the mountain came into focus.
"Oh. Hey." A significantly taller boy noticed him, as well as the others. "It's you. From Cadmus. Robin said you were gone."
"I got better. How's life outside the tube?"
"It's very loud." The boy, the hybrid from the lab, stared at Leslie.
Leslie stared back.
"Ookay. Alchemist, that's Superboy. Superboy, you met Alchemist. Once. He's supposed to be our medic and support staff." Robin finally interjected.
Robin was starting to realize there were a few too many people who were happy with uncomfortable silences in this mountain.
"I thought he did the teleport thing." Superboy finally said after several moments of contemplation.
"I do, in fact, do the teleport thing." Leslie agreed.
Robin's hand finally met his face.
"See? He does the teleport thing."
"What's the teleport thing?" Came a new voice into the room. This one came from a green skinned girl with red hair and freckles.
"Hey M'gann, this is the teleport guy, he helped us all get out of Cadmus and found Power Girl. It kind of felt like getting punched in the stomach that one time the Flash helped with training, but one second we were all in the lab, and then the next most of us were up in the lobby."
"That sounds really neat! Is teleporting your power?" The girl turned from Superboy back over to Alchemist.
The movement was actually rather exaggerated but it definitely showed where she was focusing.
"Nope!" Superboy looked confused, and it seemed M'gann was following his cues.
"It's not? Then, what is your power?" She seemed to be the one doing the talking now. Superboy seemed more comfortable to let someone else speak.
"I'm a wizard." Near the entrance to the room Leslie could see Robin grabbing Kid Flash.
He wondered briefly what that was about.
"Wait, so like a stage wizard?" M'gann moved her hands apart at her chest, mimicking something opening, or exploding. "With the doves and girls in boxes being cut in half?"
"Wrong on the first part! And the rest. That's showmanship, which is not my specialty. Instead, I do things like this!" Latching on to the other two teens, he teleported onto the roof of the apartment he'd been staying at in Gotham.
Superboy and M'gann both looked incredibly discomforted for a second before he hit them both with Cure and Life.
"Real magic. Almost as good as stage magic." The two of them looked around, awed at the instant change in scenery. From the artificial lights of the cool, chilly cave to the natural sunlight and summer heat.
"Was that the teleport thing?" M'gann asked Superboy.
To be kind of blunt... a lot of this chapter was really stupid, as opposed to what I think you were going for - funny. Not even stupid in a funny way. Just stupid. It felt like a tonal shift to something a 13 year old might write. I bring it up because it stuck out in what has otherwise been a really good fic.
If you aren't killing them then harass them out of country or planet no galaxy if we're talking DC and even then they might come back with some out of nowhere army to ruin your day
If you aren't killing them then harass them out of country or planet no galaxy if we're talking DC and even then they might come back with some out of nowhere army to ruin your day
I think its being ignored. I mentioned it pages back after reading ahead, mostly because the obvious story beats of the only ways to deal with it in a DC universe annoy the fuck out of me and the only comment I got was 'eh, I read it all too and didn't see that'.
And good on him for harassing Lex, he really deserves it.
