I was sitting in my camper outside the jobsite. We had just finished pouring the foundation and it was going to take a few days to fully cure or harden. I was reading a book because I wasn't hooked up to power on the jobsite and someone would steal my batteries so I was using light from a streetlight. It was a book on the history of Khandaq, some place new to me. I was getting to the current day when there was a bright flash of light and an explosion that shook my camper a little. That made me close my book and step outside. I kind of had a small hope it wasn't something crazy but Gotham.
The sound on the other side of the fence was wild. It sounded like a tiger had escaped from the zoo and was fighting a war. There was smoke coming from a corner so it must have blown up because of the fighting. I leapt and landed on top of the fence and saw one of the crazier things since I got here. There was a cat lady in a one piece body suit running for her life. She was being helped by another person running around in a batsuit, Kate Kane. They were both pretty beat up and they were being chased by a tiger lady. She looked kind of like the guy I fought a few weeks ago, just more complete.
Whenever the Tiger lady would get close Batwoman would do something, probably mace, and the tiger lady would lose her shit. Right now the tiger lady was tearing up concrete chunks from the foundation and lobbing them at the two running and hiding. It was the most dangerous game of whack a mole. Batwoman was running with a limp and the cat lady was leaving a trail of blood where she was ducking and hiding.
The tiger lady had just thrown something at Batwoman then turned to leap at the cat lady when my fist met her cheek. She had quite the reaction time, i saw her pupil expand as if she saw what was happening just didn't have the speed to react to it. She was acting like a cat playing with a mouse. I felt teeth and bones break under my fist and she went cartwheeling through the air. She ragdolled so I knew she was out of it. She hit the ground and rolled to a stop, she stayed down and I heard the cat lady sigh from where I was standing.
I hit her with a glare from where she was poking her head up on the other side of some crates then turned and scanned the yard for damages. Batwoman limped over to me while waving to the cat lady to follow her. She watched me look at the yard before asking, "How bad is it?"
I pointed, "I'm going to have to tear that whole side of the foundation up and redo the whole side."
She hissed before saying, "I'll write a check."
I let out a grunt before holding out my hand. She sighed and pulled out a little med kit from the pouch she kept at her waist. I took it and turned to the cat lady, "Who are you supposed to be?"
She grunted when I started applying stitches to her side, "I'm Catwoman."
I nodded and kept channeling essence, "Why'd you guys pick my yard to have your fight in?"
Batwoman answered with a tilt of her head to the downed tiger lady, "Cheetah was chasing us and she fought Wonder Woman so I led us here."
I finished the final stitch on Catwoman and turned to Batwoman. She had a few bruised ribs and her knee was screwed up. I started fixing her up while asking, "What would you have done if I wasn't here?"
"You laid a big powerline that goes directly to the power plant."
I nodded. That would do it. I stood up when I was done fixing Batwoman and walked past Catwoman who was staring at her side where her wounds closed up in real time. I used my boot to roll Cheetah over then knelt down and opened her mouth. She was missing some teeth and her jaw was probably broken. She probably had some healing factor that my sun charged self stopped working. Going to be a surprise for her when she wakes up.
Catwoman and Batwoman eventually walked up to me so I asked, "Why was she chasing you?"
Catwoman answered, "The Fed's figured out who i was so they offered me a job to wipe my record clean. It turned into a whole thing." She waved at the down Cheetah ,"She was on the other end of it and I guess it pissed her off."
"I saw the train wreck coming and tried to stop it," Batwoman added, "it was a mess."
I stood up and waved at Cheetah, "What do we do with her?"
"What do you normally do with things like this?" Batwoman asked.
"Call Barbara, she normally has a good idea of what to do."
Batwoman let out a snort before she reached down and picked up Cheetah, "We take her to the feds. They probably have a cell ready for her."
I looked at Catwoman, "What about you? Are you going to go with her?"
"I have to. I need to make sure my deal is done."
I nodded then headed to the gate to let them out, "Have fun with that. I'm going to be busy cleaning up this mess."
They left and I turned back to the yard and looked around, "Guess I could start with the blood."
It was a few days later and I was at the clocktower hanging out with Barbara. It was about an hour before sunset and I was sitting down behind her throwing a ball up in the air and catching it while she was doing stuff on her crazy computer set up. "It turned out to be a pain in the ass to clean up."
Barbara did a few things on her PC before replying, "Did you get it cleaned up?"
"Yea, we even got the part that was destroyed by Cheetah picked up and rebuilt. It took a lot of know how but we did it."
"That's good. How much time was added to the construction?"
"A few days. You talk to Bruce lately? I'm kind of surprised he didn't stop by after that Rhas Al Ghul guy showed up."
"He's doing fine. I think he will struggle to talk to you but he will eventually get over it." She replied.
I tossed the ball up and caught it before I realized she had gone silent. I rolled off the couch and stood up to look at what she was focusing on. She was flipping through a bunch of camera feeds that showed a trail of destruction, "What is it?"
"I don't know. It showed up just outside of Metropolis and is trashing everything."
Barbara eventually found a feed of the thing. The camera was shaky because it was from a phone but it was wearing a weird green suit that had damage. The thing was throwing around cars and crushing any resistance. The Justice League showed up real fast. The feed we were watching blipped then showed they were miles away in a red blur, The Flash removing people from the area. Barbara hit some buttons on her keyboard and we got a view from a random camera down the street. It showed three Green Lanterns holding the thing in place while Wonder Woman beat on the thing with a mace that Hawkgirl carried around.
The thing broke out stunning the Lanterns before hitting Wonder Woman across the face with a huge fist. She went skipping down the street and through a building before the thing jumped at another Lantern. They zipped around and threw a bunch of stuff at it before it picked up a car and nailed one of them. That seemed to work for the thing and it started raining cars. Wonder Woman didn't come back so that hit must have laid her out. Flash picked up the mace and went to town. That worked for a bit before the thing hit him and we stopped seeing him zip around the camera feed.
Martian Manhunter showed up and started fighting the thing. It worked pretty well. Cyborg started hitting the thing with everything he had on his body. The thing grabbed Cyborg and tore him in half before catching J'onn and stunning him before he lobbed him through a few buildings. Batman poked his head out and distracted the thing before he took a grazing hit. Barbara gasped from where she was sitting but Batman got away. Eventually the Green Lanterns started fighting it again. They played tag one would hit it a few times then run while the other two were repositioning. Barbara hit a key on her keyboard and Batman spoke through the speakers, "Oracle, get a hold of Austin Lockwood. This thing is tearing us apart. We are going to need emergency healing."
She turned to look at me before replying, "Already on it. He's on standby."
The thing put down two of the Lanterns before the third grabbed them and ran away. The thing got sick of destroying stuff and hopped off. Barbara worked magic to follow it. Nightwing, Batwoman, Redhood and Red Robin showed up at the clock tower. We were all gathered around watching behind Barbara's chair. The thing started destroying stuff in Metropolis before Wonder Woman Showed up again.
She fought hard. At first I thought she was going to put it down. Then it started bouncing her off the ground and punting her through walls. The last Green Lantern showed up and started helping. She would create shields that would block blows for Wonder Woman and create openings for Wonder Woman to lay out punishment. That worked for a few times then the shields started breaking. Wonder Woman took a hard hit and went skipping down the street, when the Green Lantern turned to help the thing grabbed her leg and slammed her into the concrete before throwing her towards Wonder Woman, who was just starting to stand.
I felt like I could feel the hit from here. They bounced off each other when they connected. The thing leapt at them from where they laid still. I stood and took a step towards the balcony before Superman showed up and hit the thing from the air down the street. There was an invisible tension in the room that evaporated when he showed up. I could feel the people around me relax slightly. Superman landed by Wonder Woman and checked her before looking at the Green Lantern. He turned and shot off down the street at the thing where it met him.
It didnt take me long to realize shit was fucked. They started beating on each other and Barbara had to keep flipping to different cameras because the glass of the cameras kept cracking from the force of their blows. The sun was starting to set when Superman took a hit that threw him down the street. He caught himself and shot back into the fight where they met each other's hands. It was like they were having a test of strength that was forcing Superman to dig deep. I could see the slow trail Superman's feet were making as he was being pushed back.
Superman seemed to firm up and the thing stopped pushing him back before things got worse. One second they were equally matched the next the thing was shooting beams out of its eyes like Superman could. Superman took the unexpected hit and was blown back into a building. It was a few seconds before he flew back out and it was with a bit of caution. I burned some essence and called my bike to the clock tower. If Superman died I'd have to take his place and I wasn't letting that happen.
I started walking to the Balcony before Barbara called out to me, "wait!"
I turned and she lobbed something at me. I caught it and opened my palm to see a ear piece the Bats normally use to communicate, "I'll guide you in."
I turned and headed to the balcony again before meeting her eyes at a glance and growing myself over. I saw there were people standing below me and gave the building a shove so I landed further out into the street. I touched down and saw everyone was standing there watching a TV through the window seeing Superman trying to stop that thing. My bike rolled the last few feet from where it was and I swung my leg over it and laid down on it before taking off. I started channeling essence and laying the bike down on its side so I could corner faster. Gotham was oddly quiet, the people here have probably started realizing it was starting to get bad and only going to get worse.
It took a few minutes for me to get onto a highway where I really opened the bike up. I drove inches from the center line and floored it. There were some cars on the road but not as many as regularly. I even spotted some parked on the side of the road watching the stuff in Metropolis happen on their phones. The bike really impressed me even with all the work I did to it. It only took a few minutes of it screaming its life away to get me to Metropolis. I was crossing the huge bridge into Metropolis when I saw signs of the fighting. A huge chunk of the bridge was missing, both sides gone into the water below. A burst of essence had that bike in the air and I cleared that gap before slowing down at the other end of the bridge and pulling to the side. If the bridge was a sign I was better off on foot.
I left the bike ticking behind me as I headed into Metropolis. I could feel the impacts of the blows through the soles of my shoes. Metropolis was night and day compared to Gotham. Everything was clean and shiny if you ignored the damage from the fight. Following the fight was easy, catching up to it was another matter. It was like following two heavy weight MMA fighters fighting in a shoji walled house. The walls were paper and they ignored them. I caught up to them in a parking garage and Barbara was keeping me updated so what I saw didn't surprise me. Doomsday, someone named the thing, had gotten ahold of Superman's leg and was using him as a baseball bat to break the support pillars of the parking garage.
His suit was torn up and he was bleeding in a few places. I think this was one of the few times he fought someone as strong as him that just wanted him dead. Doomsday was big, I think he was almost touching eight feet tall covered in bone spikes and spurs. Doomsday was pulling back and aiming for another pillar when I hit him with a left hook. He made a nice Doomsday shaped hole when he left the parking garage and I was glowing so much I stopped having a shadow.
Superman pushed himself up off the ground where he fell with a grunt and gritted teeth. He was struggling a lot more than he let on. A charm let me know he has a few cracked bones that were healing now that I was here. I guess standing next to a walking talking sun is doing him some good. I walked to the hole Doomsday made and he followed, "you know what that thing is?"
"No, it came from space. J'onn says he doesn't think about anything other than destroying stuff. J'onn's not even sure it's sentient."
Doomsday was already picking itself up from where I hit it.Doomsday picked up a car and threw it towards us before chasing after it. I started channeling a few War charms, "Well lets go find out." I said before leaning forward and launching myself at Doomsday like a dart.
Doomsday did a little leap before I hit him like a spear. Doomsday folded around me and I twisted before planting my feet. I pulled back and downward, drawing him into a clinch when Superman came over the top and hit Doomsday in the head with a full on haymaker. Doomsday jerked from the blow so i let go of him a little, letting him take flight before I jumped up and grabbed what little hair he had on his head and used that as a handle to spike him into the ground. It pretty much disappeared down the hole it made in the ground.
I landed on the rim of the hole and looked down at it. I could hear Doomsday pick himself up and do something so I asked Superman who was hovering on the other side of the hole, "What's it doing?"
"I don't know. I can't see it. Lex Luthor uses a lot of lead in his underground workings in Metropolis."
"That guy's a real piece of work."
He looked a little frustrated and he nodded. I took a step forward and fell down the hole after Doomsday. He met me half way up with a swing so I stepped on a falling pebble and spun around him. He went from swinging at me to a spinning flail out of the hole. I pushed off the wall and bounced between them out of the hole. Superman was already fighting Doomsday so I just picked a side and started swinging.
Superman ducked a punch and hit back with a jab that rocked Doomsday to the side. I kicked at its knee where Doomsday was putting its weight causing him to stagger badly. Superman hit him with a haymaker that rocked him back to me so I put my fist into where his liver would be. War charms made us fight as one unit and Superman was fighting next to a walking talking sun so he was powerful enough to keep up. We just started pounding on Doomsday and walking him in a random direction.
Every time he would start shooting beams from his eyes one of us would his him with an upper cut, snapping his head skyward and making it useless. Superman was panting like a dog when I got here. Struggling for more air and his body wasn't taking enough in. Now he was healing as I watched. Doomsday was having problems. His bone spurs started chipping off and he started bleeding. Eventually Doomsday went flying after a nice uppercut from Superman and he paused, "Why isn't it adapting to you like it did me?"
"I'm Exalted. I hit on a higher order than you." I started heading to where Doomsday landed, "You punch people with your fist, I hit people with the concept of a sun powered fist. Let's put this thing down."
My aura was touching the sky when we engaged again. It showed my anima in its full glory, a roofing hammer slamming down on a nail. What was left of Superman's suit was starting to turn white from standing so close to me when I was glowing this bad. We eventually found Doomsday. It was struggling to stand with how bad we had fucked it up. "Are you ready for this?"
Superman frowned a little before nodding and saying, "I don't think it will stop."
I nodded before I jumped at Doomsday and tackled him. He struggled for a bit before I pinned his arms behind his back and lifted him up. The ending to the fight was brutal. I locked myself in place and Superman started pounding on Doomsday's chest with everything he had. I could feel myself sliding back with how much force Superman was putting into his blows which surprised me. It still took some time for Doomsday to die. I felt my essence eat away at his spirit so I dropped him, surprising Superman. I think he was prepared to pound Doomsday's chest flat.
"It's done."
He let out a sigh and landed on the ground. "This wasn't how I expected my night to go."
"You're starting to sound like me. Let's go get your friends so I can put them together and go home."
He let out a chuckle before lifting off the ground again. He waved in a direction, "Wonder Woman and Green Lantern are over there. I'll bring the rest there and meet you there if that's ok?"
I gave him a nod and started walking, Barbara chose that moment to speak into my ear piece causing me to jump a little. I forgot I had the thing in, "That thing dead?"
I stopped and turned around. Grabbing Doomsday by his hair and dragging him with me, "Should be."
"You are going to be famous."
"Glory is its own reward"
"Batman has everyone gathered so Superman shouldn't have to find them."
Barbara chatted with me and guided me to where Wonder Woman and Green Lantern were laying. There was an ambulance there and some paramedics were running between it and them. My aura eventually calmed down from touching the sky to just a few feet above my head. I let go of Doomsday's body and grabbed a running paramedic and dragged them over to where Wonder Woman laid. He freaked out a bit until I started putting Wonder Woman back together. She had some busted up ribs and a collar bone that needed to be set. Everyone kind of gave Doomsday's body a wide berth, not that I could blame them. If I saw what that thing could do I wouldn't be in the same state as it if I wasn't exalted. Superman showed up with some people and the Paramedics set up an area where i could help people.
I put the Justice League back together before helping anyone else. Working on alien Biology was a first for me, but essence knows where it likes to flow. Surprisingly there weren't a lot of wounded. Superman makes for a good target for rampaging monsters i guess. I headed over to the Justice League where they were talking around Doomsday's body but got caught before I could make it over. A woman with Black hair in a purple suit followed by a man with red head stuck a mic in my face, "Austin Lockwood. What drove you to come to Metropolis to help Superman today?"
I crossed my arms and burned some essence to call my bike to me, "He was getting pretty torn up and I don't want to have to take his place."
"You believe you could do what he does."
"No way. The guy makes a good target. I'm staying out of that."
"Did you understand what you were walking up to when you showed up?"
"I understood the thing needed to be stopped. Everything else probably not."
I started to push past her as my bike rolled down the street, "What are you going to do now?" She asked.
"Its pretty late." I hopped onto my bike, "I'm going to go home and try and sleep the rest of the night."
I watched one of the Green Lanterns pick up Doomsday's body and shoot off into the sky. Batman met my eyes and I nodded to him before turning my bike around and heading out. Looks like the charity work in Gotham is going to go on the back burner and I might need to throw some guys at Metropolis. Doomsday screwed up a lot of the city. There will be more than enough work to go around. When I get a chance ill pass some notes to Batman. Superman fights like a boxer when he should be fighting like a Kryptonian.
We were working on laying the ground floor of my building when someone popped the question. "So, what was he like?"
Work around us kind of slowed to a crawl, people were still doing things they just had most of their focus on me. Not that we were doing much work in the first place. Most of my people were running around Metropolis putting stuff back together. I thought about it for a bit before replying, "Who? Superman?"
When the guy nodded I started talking, "He's pretty much exactly as he shows. He really comes off as kind. He was getting his ass kicked when I showed up and I think he was still trying to think of reasons to capture Doomsday and not put it down."
We worked for a bit before someone replied, "Surprised Lex Luthor didn't show up."
Someone else replied, "He probably crawled in a hole and hid."
"Nah, he was probably waiting for his time to shine. He doesn't come off as a coward to me, he lives for pissing off superman. Brave. He has a lot of intelligence but barely any compassion, or wisdom." I threw out.
We worked some more, got very little done before another person spoke, "It is probably a good thing he didn't show up then. Would have bungled it."
"Bungled, What are you British?" someone threw out.
People bantered back and forth for a while then someone else asked, "Were you scared?"
"Not really. More nervous maybe. I don't think I can really feel fear from things like that. The process is there but feeling fear when you feel the things i do is kinda impossible in my opinion. I feel more fear that some day I'm going to fail and not be able to pay for all your salaries than when I fought that thing."
We started working again before someone spoke, "Superman would have won."
I didn't answer because I wasn't sure. If anything I think it would have been a mutual kill. Superman was fighting off his stored solar energy and it was night time. He would have to dig deep. I gave some letters to Barbara for Batman to pass to Superman and Wonder Woman. For Superman it was just a letter pointing out that his people probably had a martial arts he could learn and he should do so. I burned some essence while writing it so I imagine that was one of the first things he did.
Wonder Woman was different. She should have been able to fight Doomsday to a stand still but she couldn't. I don't think she was really taught how to use her powers. She is strong and fast but she should be more. I was going to try and fix that. My letter to her was an offer to come train. I didn't know how I was going to train her but if exalts are known for anything it's impossible. I'd figure it out.
The day eventually ended and people started packing up their things. They got into vans, I bought a lot of them, and left. I waited a bit before I channeled some stealth charms and snuck out. I slid past the reporters that were outside the gate. They knew better than to sneak onto the job site. It's Gotham they might end up stuffed in a random hole and buried if they see something. I called my bike then drove it out of the alley to let them see me. They would stand outside all night if not and that's not a good idea in Gotham.
Gotham hasn't changed much from my time here.There were still the cracked roads and boarded up buildings but now I could see places where work had been done. New sidewalks or new paint on buildings. Bruce had hit the lead paint hard. I had guys going around and scraping paint off walls then repainting them on Bruce's payroll. It was a generations worth of work but it was happening before my eyes. It made me feel warm inside knowing I was having an effect.
I rolled around to the bottom of the clocktower and pulled my bike into the elevator before hitting the button to go up. It slowed down four times before I got to the top. I pulled the bike off the elevator when it opened and stuck it out of the way before weaving my way up ramps to the top. Barbara glanced at me before returning to what she was doing and saying, "The reporters won't go away."
"I don't mind. I can turn into a reporter folk lore. Then some day a few years down the line I'll pick one off the street and ascend them into reporter legend."
She let out a little huff before asking, "Have you checked out your house?"
I shook my head so she hit a few buttons and brought up a street camera on the road where my house was. There were three vans sitting on the street, new vans with big numbers on the side and a few that I recognized from the job site. It turned into a line of vans sitting on the side of the street. They had interviewed a few of the people who worked under me and got some of their questions asked but I was the big ticket and they hunted for me. I crossed my arms and leaned back, "I'm going to have to use stealth charms to pick up my mail again."
She let out a chuckle before saying, "Thats pretty bad, Bruce has all his mail sent to Wayne Enterprise."
I nodded, "Yea, I'm going to get hate mail soon I think. Quite a few people would have been happy to see either Superman or Doomsday dead at the end of the day."
She shook her head before saying, "Well the couch is open for you. You can stay here as long as you need."
I was reading my mail and using a charm to write replies at crazy speeds. Eventually this was not going to be sustainable and I would have to quit writing back to people but I was going to try anyway. Not like I needed sleep. Any hatemail I threw into a pile on my left I would later shred and donate it to some arts and craft store. I reached into the pile and pulled out another letter, cracking it open and I saw who wrote it. Lex Luthor.
I'm Lex Luthor, yadda yadda yadda. Nice to meet you, yadda yadda yadda. I would like to set up a meeting, yadda yadda yadda. I set the letter to the side, id think about it later. He wanted to meet me and chat but i didnt think I would go. Not my style of event. I had a lot of work to do and my time was worth a lot more than Luthors in my opinion.
I was stuffed in my house with the blinds closed. The reporters had some crazy cameras.The lights were out and it was late. We were going to start working on the second floor of my building tomorrow. I was kind of excited about that. It was a big step going forward. I grabbed another letter and read it. It was a person thanking me for helping Superman. I wrote a reply then reached for another letter when my hand came up empty.
I leaned back and stretched for a bit. Well that's done for the day. Time to relax I guess. I rolled my chair back, stood up and headed to the kitchen. I grabbed some ingredients and threw together some bachelor chow. I entered my living room, grabbed the remote and flopped down onto the couch. I turned on the TV and flipped through some channels until I landed on a documentary of world war two. They aren't as common as in my world. They have other crazy stuff to focus on.
I was enjoying watching it when my phone started going crazy. I reached over and picked it up to see if the world ended. It was Barbara telling me to turn on the TV and find a channel. I flipped to the channel and my decision to meet Lex was made for me. The TV showed me the front of Lex Corp tower with Alexander Luthor getting perp walked. Some lady was talking but I was focused on Lex. He looked more frustrated than worried.
I muted the TV then started digging for stuff on my phone. Hacking into everything. Money was changing hands in a lot of places so I followed it and started guiding the feds looking for it. Lawyers were getting money deposited in their bank accounts and it was like watching two sides prepare for war. Accounts were frozen and new ones were opened. Lex was good at hiding his money but I had free time.
I kept glancing back at the TV and texting Barbara as all this unfolded. Eventually the reason he was arrested was thrown up on the TV. He had an underground lab in Metropolis he was doing scary shit in. The camera flipped and showed half humans half things wrapped in blankets looking around confused. It showed the inside of a lab that looked pretty destroyed. There was some blood on the floor and thats when I realized what happened. I threw doomsday down into the lab. He wrecked havoc for a bit before jumping back out. The people in the lab got caught by surprise and couldn't purge anything before he ended them. Doomsday must have damaged something important if Lex wasn't able to get inside and clean it up. He probably has quite a few skeletons in his closet.
I helped the government freeze quite a few accounts with my hacking. Barbara was on top of her game too. I'm sure Lex had a bunch of plans that didn't get very far with Barbara and I working together. I didn't know as much as Barbara about the guy but she didn't like him and trust is a thing. The night wound down with a war fought online and slowly things stopped happening. People went quiet online and the sun started to show through the gaps in my curtains.
I shut down my hacking and started my day. I cleaned the dishes from last night, packed my lunchbox and put on my boots. I locked everything down then activated my charms before hopping the fence in my back yard. I got to my bike and swung around the front of my house. Half the news vans were already gone with the others pulling out. I slowed to a stop and watched them leave. I knew deep down that they would return. It was inevitable, like taxes.
I was sitting on the second floor of my building. It was getting just high enough that I could start looking out across Gotham. I was tucked into a corner to stay out of the wind and it was after midnight so Gotham was a landscape of flickering yellow lights and a slight fog that hung around just enough to be visible from where I was sitting. I heard someone walk up behind me and when I glanced back I saw it was Batman carrying what looked like a folder filled to the brim. He stepped up beside me and looked out at Gotham with me before he held out the folder for me and said, "Lex Luthor is going to be going away for awhile. That lab of his was worse than anyone thought."
I took the folder and started shuffling through it. "What am I looking at here?"
"Scans from the people that were pulled from the lab. DNA mapping and everything that was done to them."
I flipped through them and started studying what I was reading. The more i learned the more fucked up it seemed. They were put together slopily, mutated, "they are dying. They all probably feel some type of pain."
Batman didn't say anything so I pulled out my phone and started giving orders. I had enough men that knew what they were doing that I didn't need to be here working on my building. I just sped up the construction of it. With tomorrow taken care of I stood up and turned to Batman, "Where are they?"
Batman started to walk and I followed, "We have them at a hospital in DC. The amazons took interest."
"Not the government?"
Batman led me down the building towards an alley, "Apollo showed up and the Amazons jumped on it."
Batman pulled out a remote, hit a few buttons then stepped forward and disappeared. Teleportation. That brought me to a stop before I forged ahead. One second I was in Gotham the next I was stepping out into an alley in DC. Batman was in front of me standing next to Wonder Woman. We turned and started heading to what looked like an armored limo. The doors closed before Wonder Woman started talking, "Apollo left. I think he was more curious as to what was done to the people than wanting to help."
"Did he leave anything behind?" Batman asked.
"No. Just looked at the people for a while then left."
I'm not sure I would get along with the Greek Gods. Might have to have words with them. "So.. he didn't help at all? How are the people?"
She shook her head before replying, "The people seem to be fine but the doctors watching over them are worried that they will fall apart into protoplasmic goo."
We pulled up to a big hospital somewhere in DC and stepped out. There were a few Amazons that greeted Diana when she stepped out. She nodded back before leading us inside and to a wing that was cleared out. The wing was a big room with hospital beds down both sides with the mutated people sitting on them. There were orderlies walking between them bouncing around the room.
I started channeling charms as I walked into the room looking at the people. Batman and Diana followed behind me. I was about a quarter the way through the room when I reached out and snatched an orderly, "That one's kidneys are slowly failing. Get them on dialysis."
The orderly looked pissed like I was stepping on their toes until they saw Batman and Diana standing behind me. They then turned and ran off to do as I said. I did that a few more times before I got to the end and checked the last person. Turning to Batman I said, "Get some lawyers in here. I can help them all by the end of the week but I'm going to put aside four months so when they leave they can interact with society."
Batman nodded, "Lawyers are already on the way."
Diana added, "I can use Apollo's attention to deflect the government away. That should be good for a few weeks."
I nodded, "Two weeks and we can get them out of here. Batman, do you have an idea of where to place them?"
Batman nodded, "I have a place to put them."
"I'll talk to them and get them to go along with it."
We started to head for the front of the hospital when a bunch of doctors walked past us with a dialysis machine. We planned about how we were going to do it when we got to the front of the hospital. Diana broke off and went to talk to the Amazons standing outside the hospital while Batman and I talked about getting Bruce Wayne to volunteer one of his planes to fly the people to where Batman wanted to set them down. Funny, I know.
We had just agreed on something when someone else showed up. The Amazons around us straightened up and turned towards them, Batman took a step towards the side and I turned towards the man. He was wearing a white toga with a golden belt and a helm with wings on it. He had a confident look on his face and a friendly smile while he waved an envelope back and forth in front of himself, "Letter for one Austin Lockwood."
"Hermes, Messenger of the Gods."
"Austin Lockwood," He looked me up and down, "Godling."
He said it like it was supposed to be an insult. I could tell I wouldn't like the contents of the letter. I reached out and snatched the envelope from his hands, earning a surprised look from him. We stared into each other's eyes before he said, "I need a reply."
I let out a snort before ripping open the letter. The letter was written with some crazy handwriting and golden ink, "Zeus write this?"
Hermes nodded so i started channeling charms and read it. I could understand the letter deeply. It was like reading a politician's letter but the politician was a master of the trade everyone else went to for ideas or to learn from. He wanted to set up a meeting and threw out a date two weeks from now. It was a whole page of winding words just to get that down. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a glowing golden pen made of essence. I flipped the paper around stepped to the wall of the hospital and wrote on the back of it in a script that was just as wordy and flowy. I was just replying to him saying two weeks from now wasn't a good idea. I would be busy for the foreseeable future. Then I threw out a date of when I might be free.
I stuffed the letter back into the envelope and held it out to Hermes. He looked down at the envelope then to me before taking it then turning and stepping away. He was there one second then gone the next. Batman and Diana stepped towards me, Batman asking, "What was that about."
"Zeus wanted a meeting. I told him I'm busy."
Diana bit her lip before saying, "The gods can be easily angered. Are you sure you didn't just insult them?"
I shrugged before replying, "I'm not worried. I was going to run into them eventually."
Wonder Woman looked to reply but Batman beat her to it, "Do you have it handled?"
I nodded before throwing out, "I'm probably going to need a guide when the meeting rolls around though."
Diana nodded "I'll be your guide."
We talked some more, setting up plans then split up. Wonder Woman headed to the amazon embassy while Batman took off into DC headed to the teleportation network they set up. I turned around and looked at the hospital. I had work to do. I pulled out my phone and let some people know I would be gone from work for awhile and to keep going without me before heading inside. I stepped into the wing and there were a lot more doctors than before. Checking graphs and tests.
I stepped up to the first bed and pulled up a chair. The person in it looked half human half walrus with a big tusk hanging down from their face and whiskers growing where their forehead is. I looked at them and asked, "You know why you're there?"
She shifted around. Watching me with eyes that didn't really understand what was happening, "We are dying and these people are trying to keep us alive."
I nodded, "Do you have a name?"
"They told us to pick one but I haven't decided yet."
I looked at all the doctors running around then said, "These are doctors. Good ones. That guy over there is fifty six and has been working in this hospital for most of that. His whole life revolves around helping the people who come to this hospital."
she looked at the doctor before returning to me, "What are you doing here then?"
"If he is the most skilled doctor on this continent then I'm the most skilled one on the plane of existence. The human body in this universe is really adaptable. You are the product of some ass hole looking into meta gene research. The gene that gives people random abilities. I'm going to take you apart and put you back together."
"Is it going to hurt? The tests the doctors from before did hurt."
"You're going to take a nap then wake up in a few hours feeling a whole lot better than you've ever experienced. You'll have a long life ahead of yourself."
I stood up and looked at all the doctors and nurses with an essence charged scan. I picked the most with the highest levels of compassion and called them over. One of them was the older man, "You guys are my assistance while I help these people. Get shifts sorted because you're full time until I'm done here."
"Who are you supposed to be?" one of them asked.
"Better than you, pay attention, you might learn something."
I watched them set themselves up for shifts calling home and arranging things. When everything was in order I stepped closer to the bed and started channeling teaching charms and medicine charms. I looked down at the walrus kid and asked, "You ready?"
When they nodded I reached down grabbed then pulled upwards hard. I caught her soul and mind in one hand and set the small, still growing, glowing balls of light down on the bed. Then reached up to the tangled web of her body. It looked like someone took two balls of yarn and tangled them together. I started unweaving it and straightening lines. There were a lot of knots that I had to untangle like untying shoe strings and some I had to wrap together so they held each other just right. Some of the string feel away in a little burst of light I replaced with my essence for the moment. The essence would get replaced as she ate food and water. It took quite awhile for me to finish working on her. I eventually reached down and grabbed the little balls of light and placed them in the pattern then slowly laid it all on the bed. I stepped back and where there once was a science experiment now was a little girl with black hair laying on the bed. She would be crazily strong and damn near immune to the cold with heighten senses but she was whole.
Some of the older doctors looked like life made sense now with the younger ones minds expanded on what they were learning. If they were just nurses before they would be doctors by the end of the week. I looked across the room at the other half of the people here. Some were looking at the little girl stunned. A few looked scared and some looked hungry. I would have to settle those before I worked on them. One down forty nine to go.
"And that's how you do taxes." I finished.
The fifty people sitting on desks in front of me scribbled some notes. We were on an old air force base Bruce picked up just for this. I had been hammering into them the things they needed to live in society and that was the last of it. I thought about expanding my stay away but I was worried Gotham would eat my building whole if I wasn't there. Some of the emails I got from the guys were alarming. Repair costs for the construction vehicles were ballooning alarmingly.
They shuffled around then came up to me with questions they wanted answered. I answered them before I really looked out across them. They kind of had this listlessness that you could see around depressed people. That made me chew on my thumb and start planning. I sat down in my chair before I spoke loud enough for everyone to hear me, "I'm done here. You all know enough to survive and thrive in society. I need to go back to Gotham and keep working there. You all have your papers, you can venture forth and get jobs, apartments, homes, or you can follow me back to Gotham. I'll continue training you. One hour a day until you find something in life that gives you purpose."
The echo of my essence fueled voice fell off and they shuffled around before Alex, The first person I helped stepped forward. She had sat on her bed that day and watched me go from person to person, talking to them just as I had her. She had a clarity in her eyes that most of them did not. There were a lot of them that looked like children, very few looked to be in their older teens. This was something I could work with. It would accelerate my plans in Gotham. Alex nodded at me then another person stepped out, soon everyone followed and I had the makings of an army. When I was done Gotham wouldn't know what hit it.
We cleaned up then stepped out of the building where I was teaching them. They headed towards the bunk house that they had been staying at. They all had a small laptop courtesy of Bruce and could go online to learn more about the world. They would write down questions and come ask me about them in the morning. My room had a pc so that i could monitor them. I was the ad block god. I stopped because someone was at the gate, leaning against it. Hermes was here again. I turned and headed towards him causing some of the people in the back of the group to slow down.
I met Hermes at the gate with crossed arms and a raised eyebrow. He gave me a little grin but didn't step over the entrance line. He kind of respected me after I slapped down his attempts at stealing from me. "What now?"
Hermes rocked back a little and answered with a cheeky grin, "Summons this time."
"Oh that's different. What changed?"
"I think he got frustrated." Hermes answered without saying Zeus' name.
Zeus and I had thrown letter after letter at each other trying to out politician the other. After my first reply his letters sparked and tried to turn to dust when I finished reading them. If he could get his letter to me and not receive a reply he would have won but i kept replying and changing dates. No letter this time means i won our little spar Zeus probably did thousands of times over the years. "When do I have to show up?"
He threw out a date which was a few days from now so i had to ask, "what happens if i dont show up?"
"Then Ares comes and gets you." He stopped smiling at that.
Hermes probably doesn't understand how powerful I am and I imagine Olympus is under the same idea. I let out a snort, "Diana knows where the place is, yes?"
He nodded,then asked ,"Not intimidated by Ares?"
"Not really. I think this meeting is going to be eye opening for Olympus."
"We have seen things like you before." He spoke slowly, looking me in the eyes.
"I really doubt that. I would be talking with them if you had."
He didn't like that. I could see it in his eyes. He stepped back, turned and left. Disappearing again. I turned away from the gate and headed towards the bunk house. The few people that waited outside for me watched me to see if I was fine before turning back and heading inside. I pulled out my phone and sent a text while I waited outside. It took a half an hour for a reply. Then another ten minutes for my phone to ring. "Hey Diana."
"Hello Austin. Do you have a date for the summons?" I told her the date and she continued, "You're going to have to meet Batman and take a Zeta tube over to Greece. Mount Olympus is where the entrance is."
"Damn that's going to be quite the walk."
"I'll have things ready by then. Don't be late."
The call ended so I flipped it to a different number and rang them. Bruce picked up on the second ring, "What do you need?"
"I'm done here but they all decided to follow me to Gotham so I could teach them more. I need a place to put them until my building is done. The fifty of them are a cluster so somewhere they can be together."
"I picked up one of the mansions from the people who were arrested during that court of owls thing. They can start there. I had Giovanni go through it to take out anything magical but you're going to need to go through it yourself and set up enough beds."
"I'll have some of the older guys go through it and build enough beds tonight. It should be good to go tomorrow night. They know enough to cook for themselves."
Bruce and I talked some more and settled plans before I went into the bunk house and spread the news. What Bruce did with the old airforce base was on him. I was going to be busy.
A few days later had me stepping out of a teleporter into Greece. Diana met me with a little car we drove off on. The streets reminded me a lot of the smaller towns at home. That hit me hard and I realized I still missed my home reality. I imagine that will lessen the longer I am here. We eventually pulled down some dirt road and parked then stepped out. "The entrance isn't far from here."
"Should I have brought snacks for the walk?" I asked Diana while channeling charms when we started treading through the woods off road.
"No, its not that far. Maybe a mile." She replied.
That didn't stop me from picking berries and stuff on the way. Diana started giving me weird looks the farther we got. I had folded my shirt and was using the front of it as a bag to hold everything I was collecting. I had enough to feed three people when we got to our destination. It was a set of marble stairs that went up about twenty feet and stopped. They looked old and worn. We were met by someone wearing a corinthian helm and toga with gold armor under it. She carried a spear and shield across her back and watched us approach with calm eyes. "Diana" She spoke, meeting Wonder Woman's eyes.
"Athena," she replied with a nod.
Athena turned to me to speak but paused when she say my pouch of berries and stuff. Hey mouth kinda fell open and she looked between it and me a few times. I figured she wanted some so I grabbed a handful and held it out to her. She took the handful and stared at it a few seconds before tucking it into the arm of her toga. She met my eyes before she spoke, "Olympus awaits."
She turned and led us up the little steps. Diana and I followed her and about half way up the steps everything changed. It was like teleportation but not. We walked through a gate way and suddenly we were among the clouds. There were pillars in the clouds holding nothing up and waterfalls that fell from other clouds. Athena looked at Diana once more then vanished. I could see a giant temple in the distance and Diana started heading in that direction. We passed by pools of water with heads poking out and Minotaurs wandering around carrying things. It was like walking down a main street bazaar with little stands on the side of the street, "You come here a lot?" I asked Diana.
"No, Themyscira is not connected to Olympus."
"What's Themyscira like?"
"It's a paradise. It is always sunny, warm. It's home."
"I'll have to visit some time."
She glanced at me before she turned forward and replied, "No male can set foot on Themysciran soil."
"Something to think about in the future. Wait. Can I send people there on vacation?"
"If they are women, yes." She answered.
Now that was really something to think about. That would be a crazy vacation. We made it to the base of the temple where there were steps leading up to it. Diana stopped while saying, "This is as far as I go. This is between you and the Gods."
That didn't seem right to me. She came off to me as a god. Something to look at in the future I guess. I started up the steps. The whole temple looked to be built out of marble with cracks in the steps that looked to be decoration. The temple looked like a roof held up by thick massive pillars. The roof started at about forty feet and the building was shaped like a rectangle. I walked between two pillars and the room opened up to me. There were twelve thrones and they were all filled with people sitting in them. They were arranged in a semi circle with Zeus and his white well groomed beard on a platinum throne in the middle. To his left was a buff blonde lady with a crown I pegged as Hera sitting on an Ivory throne.
Poseidon was on Zeus' right. His throne looked to be made of seal leather that swiveled. His skin was greenish and his hair and beard were untamed. He had good taste in chairs at least. Demeter was there. She had skin the color of grass and her hair appeared to be made of thick woven bundle of it. Her throne was green malachite decorated by carvings of wheat inlaid with gold. Apollo and Artemis were sitting close together sitting on gold and silver thrones. Apollo has obsidian skin with eyes the color of the sun and Artemis looked be be an energy being made from moonlight. Aphrodite sat on a throne made of silver and gems. Her hair changed color with every movement. Hermes sat on a throne made of grey rock, he looked pretty relaxed. Athena was sitting on a silver throne, I could see her occasionally eating berries. Hephaestus was on a throne hand crafted for him. He looked to be wearing power armor covering his legs.His throne was probably the best out of the bunch. It looked to have cup holders and all the bells and whistles.
Zeus started speaking, "Austin Lockwood you have been summoned blah blah blah."
I wasn't paying attention to him. I was eating my berries and having a staring contest with Ares. He was wearing armor that looked to be made from obsidian with forked horns on his head. He was leaning forward, grinning through his helmet with burning orange eyes. I was channeling integrity charms to throw off all the mental distractions of caused by meeting his eyes. I could already tell I was going to have to do something about him before I left. His throne was made of brass. It was well put together. My problem was it used human skin as the leather holding it together.