You're serious?" Serling asked as we walked through the doors and into the lab. "The Atlantians have functional optical computers?"
"You can't expect people that live underwater to use electricity, right?" I said before I gave a shrug. "Though 'functional is a bit misleading. All the technology they actually use is magitech."
Serling frowned. "Magi-what?"
"A mix of magic and technology. The base of everything they make is mechanical, but they use magic to enhance its effects, or sometimes give it additional properties."
Atlantians had been refining their technology and magic for a long time, so it was no surprise that it was hard to tell where one ended and the other began. Still, their approach to developing magitech was usually to develop each half independently and then mix the two together. Their purely mundane optical computers only existed in their R&D labs, but they did exist. Mera hadn't even been aware they existed until she mentioned the problems she had testing my abilities to a coworker at the Conservatory of Sorcery.
Once Mera had sent one of these 'mundane' computers to me to analyze, I finally made some progress in understanding their magitech in general. Using Kaldur's Water-Bearers for comparison, I could finally sort out which bits were optical circuitry, which were arcane crystal lattices, and how the two meshed together. Didn't mean I suddenly could start using their magitech, though. Types of magic were not easily interchangeable, and technomany and geomancy weren't very similar.
We reached the workbench off to the side of the lab space, and Serling wasted no time fiddling with a projector looking device sitting on it. She had asked me to come by to observe the latest round of tests, but it seemed she had some last minute things to touch up. "That seems like cheating. I've spent my life pushing my technology as far as it could go, and they just get to go halfway and finish the job with magic?"
"It's not like they don't work hard at advancing their magic, either." I remarked. "And need I remind you that I'm sorta powered by magic these days?"
"No, you are powered by multi-dimensional manifold manipulation," she countered, remaining focused on the innards of the projector-thing. "You also sometimes emit a very exotic form of energy with unusual properties with regards to machinery. I'm sure I'll figure that out at some point."
I gave her a skeptical look, but she paid me no mind, silver covering her hands as she worked. It wasn't that Serling didn't believe in magic, it was just that she didn't believe I had magic. I wasn't sure, but I assumed that the woman had the idea that magic belonging to wizards in robes casting fireballs, and something like technomancy didn't fit into her worldview. Though I still didn't understand why she seemed so resistant to me showing her otherwise.
And the fact that Serling still had traces of the Algorithm in her nanites didn't help. It was possible they were soaking up ambient magic that I was giving off, but I hadn't run into any other technology that did that.
"Regardless," I continued. "It's still worth broadening your horizons in addition to… deepening them? Furthering them? Whatever, don't get tunnel vision."
"And yet without my laser sharp focus, I never would have made these." She replied, holding up a silver coated hand. "At least, not nearly as quickly as I did."
"Speaking of which, how are you doing on the transhumanist front? Everything settled in?"
"I am growing more accustomed to my second skin every day." She confirmed, and as if to demonstrate hand formed a number of fine tools before returning to work on the circuitry in front of her. "I'm also gaining an appreciation for how hard you must have had it starting out. I thought having designed these things from the ground up would have made it easier for them to adapt to my brain waves, but perfect mental control is taking a lot of work. I can't imagine what it would be like to have a bunch of functions I didn't even know about."
I shrugged. "Yeah, but sometime it's like getting a surprise present. Oh that reminds me, I did figure out why I have a limit to the number of nanites I can have at one time. As we guessed, the limitation is hardcoded into my software… and I'm pretty sure it's a safety feature."
She looked at me quizzically. "Against what? Getting too big?"
"Technically, yes. More accurately, it has to do with the 'multi-dimensional manifold manipulation'. Remember how I told you that each of my nanites has a tiny Bleed portal in it?" She nodded and I continued. "Well, there needs to be a lot of synchronizing between the portals so that they don't interfere with each other. Green Lantern said it was amazing that I worked as well as I did, but it turns out there's a limit."
"What happens if you go past your current limit?"
"At first, not much, but I start getting diminishing returns as more processing power and energy is needed to hold myself together. A bit more and I start losing power the more I add. And once it costs more energy to hold myself together than I'm producing… well, I don't know what happens when trillions upon trillions of tiny Bleed portals destabilize simultaneously, but it's probably bad."
Serling grunted, finishing the widget she had been assembling before pausing. "Don't you also keep some of your nanites in 'extra dimensional storage? If the problem is the number of portals themselves, why do they count against your limit?"
I frowned. "Still not positive on that. There is still a connection to those 'dormant' nanites that's needs to be accounted for, but the cost is way lower. I should be able to have a vastly larger reserve held in storage compared to what I can have active, and yet..."
Serling looked off in thought for a moment before she shook her head, picking up the device of the table. "We're getting distracted. We have tests to run,"
I stepped up beside her, looking at the device with interest. I was curious what she thought of the specs I had sent her."So, what have you learned about these effectors?"
"Effectors?" Serling looked at me in confusion. "That's not- why would you call them that? They're electromagnetic field generators with novel interactive properties relative to specific types of matter."
"Yeah, effectors."
The woman looked at me flatly. "I've learned that they're a pain to make." She said after a bit. "I've been over the blueprints you sent me a dozen times, yet it's taken me forever to build a functional model. That doesn't explode."
"Ah, I think I know what you mean. Hold on, let me transfer the data I compiled reverse engineering Red Tornado's effectors."
I sent her the info with the thought, and her eyes flickered rapidly from side to side as she parsed what she was getting. She didn't have a direct information uplink to her brain, so she had to scan through the data manually. "These equations assume that electromagnetic fields can under certain conditions... act like a superfluid? How does that work? Scratch that, who would ever think to try that?"
"I've noticed that it's something of a common trend among Earth supertechnology." I said. "At the time that it's created, most of it takes advantage of physical properties or processes that no one could ever have predicted would work. Along with metahuman nonsense, I have a half-baked theory that Earth somehow has a higher probability of discovering emergent properties in physics."
Her expression went flat. "If that's true, I don't know if I should be excited or terrified."
"May you live in interesting spacetimes." I paraphrased at I continued. "I've been toying around with the effectors a lot, and I still feel like I'm only scratching the surface. Like you said, the fields can interact with certain kinds of matter, in an action-reaction displacement effect similar to what you see from telekinetics. It can move matter or, assuming that the fire android was using effectors, induce certain chemical reactions, but only for certain kinds of matter."
"For different kinds of matter..." Serling mulled. "Is it based on how they're configured?"
"I believe so, and I did some tinkering to find out. And to my surprise, I successfully made a universal effector generator."
"Really? Doesn't that mean you have artificial telekinesis?"
"Yep. There's just one problem: it sucks."
At Serling's confused look, the whole of my right arm shifted into an oblong techno-cylinder, bulky with a number of interlocking plates. I pointed the limb at the desk and put a fair amount of power into it… only to have a pencil slowly float upwards. "You lose a lot of efficiency and efficacy switching from specific purpose to general purpose. Part of it is probably due to this being my first attempt and my own inexperience with it, but I doubt the general effector will ever come anywhere close in power to its counterparts."
Serling's mouth twisted. "Disappointing, though there could still be uses for that. If the 'resolution' is good enough, being able to make force-tweezers would be an amazing help when working with small or delicate electronics."
I nodded, my arm changing back to normal. "I had the same thought, but considering someone is using this tech to try and kill me, I've had to shelve looking into more mundane uses for it. For now I've been looking into seeing just what new stuff I can do with it."
"Shouldn't you also be trying to find a counter, then?"
"Well… with you working on that, I decided to take a different approach. After all, if I learn more about how the technology can be used and how it works, there's a good chance I could stumble across something that could help us here. So, I tried an idea that had been floating in the back of my mind for a while."
"Which was…?"
I grinned. "It's funny we were talking about Atlantian technology-"
"Guys!" We turned to see Ted walk into the lab, a large box cradled in his arms. "I come bearing sacrifices, fresh from the nanoforge."
As he stopped next to us, I flipped open the box and looked inside. There were stacks of sealed petri dishes, but through their clear lids I could see a greyish substance swirling about, almost like it was alive. "Please don't suddenly turn sapient." I asked the collection of nanomachines. I know we needed them to run accurate tests, but I still felt a slight trepidation about it.
"Oh, there really isn't any worry of that." Ted assure me. "These things are much simpler than your's or Serling's, and they barely have any programming at all. My wristwatch has a more complex OS than these nanites. Now, let's see if this effector works as advertised."
"Oh god, not you too." Serling groaned.
Ted shrugged with a grin. "Hey, if the glove fits. To the testing area!"
Said test area was a space about 4 meters across in the center of the lab, a set of pylons sectioning off the area. In the center there was a small raised platform form, opposite a tripod that about a meter or so away. Serling walked into space and affixed the device she had been working on to the tripod, angling the aperture at the platform. At the same time, Ted placed a petri dish from the box down in the line of fire Serling was setting up.
The two walked back to me and took position. "Ok," Ted drawled as he pulled out a tablet. "This is the control test for nano disassembler prototype mark 9. You ready."
I nodded. Serling's did as well, though her nanites also flowed over her face, forming into a pair of laboratory goggles. I gave her a look. "You do realize that if we lose containment, the goggles will do nothing, right?"
"Hush, you."
Ted counted down, and a beam of white light briefly flashed from the tripod to the platform. A quick inspection showed that the nanites in the dish were unmoving and blackened. "Alright, looks like we can work with this." Ted said. We ran a few more control tests on various settings but everything looked to be functional.
Then came time for the real test. Ted walked up to the testing platform and placed down several devices around the perimeter that I recognized. "Did you manage to increase their performance?" I asked.
"No, but I have reworked them a bit." He replied, setting the last one down and walking back to us. "We just don't have advanced enough manufacturing to properly recreate your shields, but I did learn a thing or two from it. I can't replicate their ability to block solid matter just yet, but I did adapt the principles it uses to block electromagnetic phenomenon. In theory it should block the energy wave."
A few taps on his tablet, and the air around the platform rippled and darkened. A wavy black curtain obscured our view of the testing space, and even I was having trouble seeing through it. Ted counted down. "3, 2, 1..."
Again the white beam fired from the tripod, and when it hit the curtain there was distortion and sudden jolt of electricity. Fortunately it was grounded by the pylons, and in a few moments everything settled down. The curtain dropped to reveal… another blackened pile of dead nanites.
Serling scowled. "Damn it, it didn't work."
"Well, it wasn't a total failure," Ted said as he poured over the data on his tablet. "It looks like some of the energy was successfully diverted, it just wasn't enough. I think we're on the right track though, I just need to modify the frequency.."
Serling shook her head. "We could be on one of many tracks, most which will lead nowhere. But… you do have a good track record of turning nonsense into something functional." She looked at me. "What do you think? With you helping, we might have a shot at this."
"I'll help as long as I can, but I need to go in two hours. I'm meeting up with Red Tornado so we can track down the person who made these things in the first place."
Serling sighed. "As much as I'd like to argue, I can't say I enjoy not knowing what our mystery villain is up to. And leaving it to others is a sure way for nothing to get done. Alright, fine." She paused, considering something before looking me in the eye with an intense look. "Say you find them. What happens then?"
"Well, depending on what we find out, we come up with a plan of attack. And then we group up and go after them."
"And I'm coming with."
"And you're… wait what?"
Her gaze didn't waver. "The way I see it, I'm going to need some practice in using my second skin to protect myself. And since this new threat is potentially lethal to me, I should seek it out and put an end to it first."
Ted then poked his head in. "Serling, the fact that this tech can kill you is exactly why you shouldn't be going after them! Hell, Jacob probably shouldn't do it personally either! There are plenty of other superheroes who can handle this!"
Serling scowled, the nanites flowing away from her face but not disappearing completely. "I will not be left on the sidelines waiting for trouble to find me again! It's a threat to us, so I'm going to put an end to it myself!" She looked back at me. "You understand, don't you?"
I hesitated. I had no idea how Serling would react to being in the stress of a potentially lethal situation. She handled Deathstroke alright, but even then she took more risks than I had been comfortable with. Still… if the last few months had proven anything, she wasn't wrong about how trouble had a habit of seeking us out. Plus there was always the chance that she'd go off on her own if I said no.
Why am I suddenly feeling sympathy for Batman? I wondered as I weighed the risks in my mind. In the end, keeping an eye on here won out. "Alright, I'll talk to the League about it. But," I held up a finger. "You will be following my lead. If I say we hang back and let the others handle it, then we do just that. Are we clear?"
Serling grin with just a little too much teeth. "Crystal."
"So…" I said slowly, tracing my hand across the holographic map of the U.S. floating in front of me. "Here's the timeline: in 1945, you rebel against Morrow and he goes into hiding. At some point in the early 1980's, he comes into contact with Anthony Ivo and takes him on as an apprentice. And later that year, Ivo quits his job as a professor and starts Amazing Animatics Incorporated. The two are together for the better part of a decade before they have a falling out."
Several marks showed up on the map, with lines and dates drawn between them. "At this point Morrow's trail goes cold." I continued. "I've compiled a few odd incident involving robberies of electronic components and robotic entries, but nothing conclusive. As far as I can tell, if he's still alive, he's well and truly gone to ground."
The map changed slightly, overlaying a new set of points and lines. "As for Ivo, he first tried his hand at destroying superheroes in 1991. For reasons. After that Ivo popped up in 1995, 1997, and 2005, due to robberies and intentional altercations with the League, with that last one leading to his assumed death. Except not, given that time a few months ago. Have I missed anything?"
A short distance behind me, Red Tornado replied "That is an accurate summation of every first hand recorded instance of Dr. Morrow and Professor Ivo. At least as far as their criminal careers are concerned."
I sighed. "That's not a lot to go on. Though I suppose that if the League had more data, we would have found them by now." I muttered as I walked through the screen and towards the window staring down at the gorgeous vista of the planet below me.
While the Mountain did have a direct connection to the Justice League's main database, it didn't have access to all of the League's files and mission data. Authorization could have been given, but seeing as how I had a limited permission to visit the Watchtower, Red Tornado decided that it would be easier if we went over the data they had up on the satellite. At the moment we were on the Watchtower promenade, as we could go over the data from anywhere, and I was a fan of the view.
Red Tornado walked up beside me. "I am afraid that after finding no leads on his whereabouts, the League was forced to prioritize their efforts away from finding Ivo to more immediate issues."
"As I saw," I grumbled. In the process of going over the various case files on the pair of villains, I had gotten a good look at a number of other mission reports the League had created. I… didn't know how to feel about that. On the one hand I'm miffed that it only took them two weeks to give up, but on the other hand I now had some sympathy for how fast this whole superhero job moved. Hell, it was barely a month after Amazo before I sorta-died and gained magic powers. "So, now what?"
Red Tornado didn't respond at first, remaining motionless at my side. He then turned and brought the holographic screen in front of him, along with opening a few others. "Perhaps we can do a deeper analysis of the data, and isolate possibilities. It is likely it will generate several leads we will have to follow up on, but it will be a place to start.." I saw code rapidly scrawl across one of the screens as the android set up the impromptu analysis program. Before he executed it, he looked over at me. "If you have any additional parameters you would like to add..."
I consider for a few seconds before I said "Could you search the database for any suspicious sales or thefts of Osmium-Titanium metamaterials?"
Red Tornado gave me a quizzical look. And don't ask how I could tell, it was just something I had started to pick up after spending enough time with him. "I could, though I am not sure why we would want to."
I gestured. "Remember how Amazo had the one subsystem that I could never emulate? Without exploding, I mean. Well, I'm been trying to manually build one so that I could figure out how it worked and how to use it. Going over the 'metadata' for it I integrated into my own programing, I managed to piece some things together, like what substances it used. That metamaterial struck me as being really specific, I don't think there are a lot of applications for it."
The android turned back to the screen and put in the parameters, and a moment later the program was underway. I briefly considered using my magic to speed things up, but Batman had been clear that he didn't want me to use technomancy on the Watchtower's systems. Something about security concerns.
I didn't have long to dwell on it either, as a pair of figures entered the promenade and walked towards us. "You know," Hawkwoman drawled. "At this point it might be easier just to give you full access to the place, considering how often you're up here."
"If it's all the same, I'd prefer he stay supervised." Hawkman replied, shooting me a look which I was sure I didn't deserve. "So, we've been briefed on the situation. We'll be running point on the League side of this operation."
"Good to hear." I nodded. "Right now we're seeing if we can rustle up some leads, and then were going to do some old fashioned investigation. I know that you are police officers, but I don't suppose you were detectives, were you?"
"Not as such..." Hawkwoman said. "We weren't part of the Criminal Investigation Corp proper, but the unit we were a part of before we came here specialized in 'unusual' circumstances. We were tasked with situations that required a mixed approach of intelligence, tactics and combat, when time did not allow for a more structured approach. In any case, we've had training in intelligence operations."
"Interesting," I mulled. With such a varied skilled set, I guessed that was the reason their superiors chose to send them to Earth. "Do you guys run the League's intelligence operations, or is that mostly Batman?"
The two looked at each other with an expression I couldn't quite place before Hawkman looked back at me. "The League… doesn't really do intelligence operations. At least, not before your team was formed. We share everything we know, but it can be hard for superheroes to discreetly collect information. I supposed Batman does it the most, but we have no idea how." He had a sour look on his face as he told me this.
"Ah," I replied "Well… ah, never mind."
"Machina, what is it?" Red Tornado asked.
He's getting better at reading me, I thought before I said "The League… is really more of an alliance than a team, isn't it?" The three other superheroes gave me a look and I continued. "I mean, maybe I'm biased considering my own team experiences, but from where I'm standing you guys only work together if you have to. Which is understandable, considering you each have your own territory to cover, but a lot slips through the cracks as a result."
Hawkman's brow creased. "I understand where you're coming from, but you make it sound as if we are all at arm's length from each other."
"I'm not saying anything personal, I meant more from an operational standpoint. The vast majority of the time, you're all working alone. Err, present company excluded, of course." I gestured to the Hawks. "Aside from meetings, you only come together when a particular hero's expertise is needed, or if the threat is large enough. You also have a very loose command structure, as aside from the current leader there's not real seniority among members. A bit odd for a group this size."
"Do you have a point to make?" Hawkwoman asked.
I hesitated. "Not as such, it was just an observation. Going through all of these mission files has really helped me get a handle on how the League works. And just how much it deals with. It's just… I'm not sure the League is doing enough."
Hawkwoman snorted. "You're not wrong. About two dozen people, policing an entire planet? Especially one as crazy as Earth? It's a wonder anything gets done."
"Not quite what I meant," I clarified. "You guys are usually pretty good at prioritizing the bigger threats that show up on the radar. What I'm worried about are the threats we're not seeing."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
I brought up the statistics we had on various Global Threats and organizations. "The League of Shadows is estimated to have about 5,000 core personnel, with various skills and positions in society. Their combined wealth and resources is estimated to be greater than some countries, but we don't know for certain because their financial movements are so hard to track. And what they do with all of this… is make an orbital death ray satellite that had no chance in hell staying up for more than 5 minutes? Can you imagine how much damage they could have done spending all those resources on lobbying?"
"Lobbying?" Hawkman asked. "You mean… long form bribery? From what I understand, many countries have laws for tracking where your politicians get their money from. That much money would definitely set off some red flags."
I frowned. "Oh right, different history. Well, where I came from my nation was starting to run into serious problems systemic corruption and regulatory capture. My point is the League spends all day everyday punching bad guys in the face. Who certainly need punching, but as a result we don't see any of the more subtle stuff that these people are doing. Well, save for Batman, but he's only one man." I looked off to the side. "Probably why he had my team running covert ops."
Red Tornado considered this for a moment before replying "There are many practical and ethical limitations that would prevent the League from gathering the information required to fully track an organization such as the League of Shadows. Furthermore, it would go against the spirit of what the League stands for: we exist to handle the threats that the world cannot handle itself. In short, it is not our responsibility, and the United Nations tactfully wants to keep it that way."
"I'm not sure Batman got that memo." I said flatly.
"Batman keeps his nosing around to Gotham, as far as everyone knows." Hawkwoman pointed out. "They've accepted that's his territory. If nations though that he was looking into state secrets, they would be a lot less tolerant of him and the League as a whole. They're fine with us taking down supervillains and giant monster along with the occasional crook, but the spy game? They don't want us involved."
"Not as I would have put it," Red Tornado remarked. "But we must trust that Earth's various intelligence organizations are capable of dealing with the League of Shadows more… mundane crimes."
"Well, I certainly hope they are," I groused, looking back at the data in front of me. "Because if they're dropping the ball and expecting us to pick it up when things hit the fan, we'll all going to be screwed."
A chime sounded and I looked back at the other holographic display. The analysis had finished. "We've got a hit. Look like Amazing Animatics Incorporated had subsidiary that specialized in material science. They made a number of different materials, and the metamaterial was one of them. They don't sell it quite as much these days... except for two large purchases. The first was about a year ago, and the second was about a month ago. Both were shipped to the same location: a warehouse in New Jersey."
Hawkman perked up. "Amazing Animatics? That was Ivo's company, right?"
"Yep." I said as I looked at the spot on the map. The brief image of a terrified face flickered through my mind before I pushed it aside. "Let's go pay a visit."
=====A=====
A/N: This took longer than I meant, but real life got in the way.