My attempt to flowchart possible DC universe time-travel events was interrupted by Pooja. "An important matter has come up online."
"Let me guess," I said, a final flick of my finger sending my hopeless spaghetti-plate of arrows and lines off the screen. "Someone on the internet is wrong."
"Humorous," she said, dry and Britishy as usual. "A post was made thirty-two minutes ago on a superhero fan site, popular with ages 17-23. It was deleted five minutes later, but of course I have an offline copy. It may be of interest to you."
A window opened, showing a hip, minimal website. Nice, except for one of those infernal infinite scroll of doom things. The post was already expanded in the Web 3.0 treeview.
I started reading as Pooja continued, "It appears the writer was very distraught and likely reconsidered allowing such sensitive information onto the internet. However, nothing can be deleted from the internet, even without me around. She is not a tech expert, so the mistake is understandable."
Biographic information automatically opened on another screen. Birth certificate, past and current driver's licenses, and..whoa, a JSA holocard ID and communicator.
"The poster was the verified online ID of Starwoman," Pooja said, "formally Star-Spangled Kid, a junior member of the Justice Society of America; formally Stargirl—name changed after acquiring the Cosmic Staff; and now a full member of the JSA after turning eighteen and passing their review process. Post was under her heroic ID."
Pictures of a slim young woman—blond, blue-eyed, tanned, smiling. One set of pics with her wearing a red-white-and-blue outfit—thankfully not a spandex disaster, but still a tight, blue body-suit; full neck covering with white stars and red accents; a full-face integrated mask with a wide nose-to-throat cutout; a wide red belt; red goggles and gloves; and tall red lace-up boots. About what I remembered, but less creepy fetish-wear styling.
Her powers were ranged combat, the super-strength-speed-and-agility combo, force fields, and flight—if I remembered correctly. They worked best against single powerful threats. Possible stun blasts against computers and humans. Use multiple small but weapon-heavy drones to overwhelm...which I didn't have.
I didn't need Pooja to tell me Starwoman would annihilate me in a fight with my current near complete lack of equipment.
The other set of pictures were of casual and business civilian clothes that screamed well off in California styles. They were uninteresting, giving no more clues to her powers in this universe.
"Civilian name, Courtney Elizabeth Whitmore," Pooja said. "Currently studying at the University of California, Irvine, for a degree in...of course, Criminology, with a focus on metahuman criminal studies. And she has-"
"-lost her Cosmic Staff," I said, interrupting while continuing to read the rest of the now-deleted forum posts. "Leaving her with just the...Cosmic Belt?"
So. No flying or blasting for now, unless she still had the Cosmic Rod from the original SSK outfit. It should still work if she did. The Cosmic Staff and Belt (and Rod) were powered by the stars themselves. A sort of renewable and very powerful mystical resource and one of those "sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from science" things, but actually home-grown Earth tech for once. And they'd continue working basically forever, for whoever had them. Great.
"Correct," Pooja said. "More precisely, the Cosmic Staff has been stolen from...she didn't say in the post, but records show her civilian ID was living off campus, so likely from her apartment...yesterday morning. She'd been searching for it since with no leads, and was angry enough to post about it online."
"How could someone steal a superhero's main weapon?"
"Very carefully," Pooja said. "It was stolen while Courtney Whitmore was in class, under her civilian identity. This is based on when the area experienced an unusual power outage, likely to assist in the theft."
"And she didn't have it with her at all times, just in case? Hidden somehow in, I don't know, a dimensional pocket in her backpack?"
"The school has a policy of no weapons on campus. She is a hero. She doesn't wear the belt, either."
I opened my mouth, then closed it again with a snap. "Right. Okay. Yesterday...any relation to Slade Wilson's activities at TriD?"
"Possible," she said. "If so, the attack on TriD was most likely a cover or distraction given known relative values of the targets to Slade. The fact that he hit TriD second points at it being of lower importance as well. Perhaps it was a target of opportunity, or he suspected Starwoman would interfere somehow. Or..."
Unusual for Pooja, she paused in the middle of speaking. "New peripheral threat detected. Unknown computer agent remotely accessing FBI files: agency and police reports on yesterday's attack at TriD by Slade Wilson."
Windows with the files in question opened.
"Calculating possible threat levels from attacker...currently medium," Pooja said. "Unusual. ID used in FBI databases is internally linked to computer systems with CJIS certification. ID appears to belong to an independent contractor with unusual Federal law-enforcement records access. Filed paperwork on this ID is similar to a civilian specialist, but with far larger permissions scope.
"Checking accessing computer systems with passive analysis. Searching FBI records. NIST 800-53 protections in place on systems registered with this ID. Adjusting approach accordingly. Readying top-level attack vectors. Tracking back the FBI computer connection via compromised backbone routing points...ID is used by a computer agent, likely running in a private data center."
A map with oddly familiar names popped up on a monitor with a line extending into it, slowly turning green. Then it hopped and a new line was created while the map zoomed in. I leaned back, frowning.
"Location," Pooja said dramatically, "Gotham City, New Jersey, USA. WayneCorp owned property in-"
I rocked forward, stupidly slamming my elbow against the edge of the desk. "Agh! Stop immediately! Damn it!" My elbow felt like it was falling off as I cradled it against my side.
Well, haze of pain notwithstanding, it was good to know I wasn't in some extended version of the Batman: the Animated Series universe. Gotham wasn't in NY state here, or replacing NYC itself. Not sure how I'd missed that before. Maybe it was just my avoiding Batman at all cost plan causing me to not look.
The map went red and the lines disappeared. "Withdrawing active connections to compromised systems," Pooja said, speaking quickly. "All logs replaced with clean, spoofed records. No active exploit attempts were made during this penetration. Calculating...the chance of detection by counter-agents with mirrored capabilities to my own: less than 2%. Reason for termination of information-gathering hack?"
I rubbed my elbow, slowly lowering my head to rest on the cool desk surface and trying not to throw up. "Search your records for 'Oracle', tagged as related to Batman and Gotham crime fighting. If not so tagged, do that now. If missing, add that Oracle is a gray-hat computer hacker and crime fighter. Informational and communications support for several hero groups, including Batman, the Justice League, and most likely now the JSA. Please remind me to personally review your records on Oracle."
Hopefully Barbara hadn't noticed Pooja. Time to better inform my smarter half. "Ah. Also, add Bruce Wayne and related corporate entities to the list of 'do not mess with', cross-referencing to Batman and Oracle. No selling information on these items not publicly available. Exceptions for information confirmed as available to lower-level employees with just standard NDA coverage. No poking at their computer systems."
"Oh." For once Pooja sounded surprised.
Guess she really didn't know before that Bruce Wayne was Batman. I hadn't found it in her records, so that made sense. And strange that she'd emoted like that. Part of the affective computing program working to increase my empathy for her?
"Oh," she said again. "I...think I see. That makes sense. Thank you. Database carefully updated. Maximum level security and a sales hold in place on this information. That could have been awkward."
"No shit. Ensure we don't draw attention to this topic by a blanket refusal to touch it, as that will make it even more suspicious."
An unusually long pause. "Yes. I do know how to do my job. Let us not speak of this again. In relation to this revelation, you have also added to available information with your initial notes yesterday on possible threats. Though this bit was not included in that list, they are similar in that this information was not previously present in my records. Investigating Batman's closest circle of associates has previously been...strongly disallowed, and now you have also presented information that appears to be from...possible future events. So how-"
Again, she cut herself off. "Warning. Threat, tentatively identified as information gathering, sub-sentient software agent belonging 'Oracle', accessing copies of TriD security camera recordings. Attack shifting. TriD on-site systems now compromised. The onsite originals are being accessed. Now the employee records. Now business contracts and financials. Now..."
Pooja again trailed off. "Oh goodness. We have a problem."