"This is the Hall of Justice," I couldn't keep the raw awe out of my voice. The entire building was a half circle in the front, with large glass panels being interchanged with stark white pillars till they met in the middle were two large brown doors. The only ostentatious thing about the building was the size of the thing, being more than ten stories high, and the giant gold statue outside of the five members with Superman in the center.
Of course, he wasn't the only member to note. Hawkwoman, WonderWoman, Batman, Green Lantern(Jon Stewart), and the Flash. All solid gold, with the details of their costumes being engraved into the material.
This was the lineup I personally thought of when it came to the Justice League. Even if it wasn't the most popular comic line-up according to those writing the books, they were just the team in my mind. I did wonder if these were just the founders of the League here if they'd even expanded once yet? But those thoughts were swept away as Louise and I followed Superman inside the building.
Aldric Killian was taken in by some of Metropolios's Science Police Squads. The equipment they had was pretty advanced, they were very close to wearing power armor. More importantly, the armors were heat resistant, far more than Stark's actual power armor was. The entire squad came in, held Killian down, and injected him with some sort of knocker serum then when Killian attempted to explode before it became effective? They sprayed him down with foam and some sort of hyper-cooling fluid.
It was the funniest thing I had ever seen, I watched him slip and slide around the ground. It was like something out of a mild version of a Merry Melody. Then they forced him into some sort of cryogenic chamber, not the kind you sleep in but rather it ensured that in spite of his warm temperature he wouldn't be able to produce heat enough for flames.
"The Hall of Justice."
Superman openly chuckled at my awe, smiling as he led us toward the left side of the building. My eyes took in the large portrait at the entrance, a picture of the Flash with his wide smile and a thumbs-up displayed against an entrance sign to Central City.
I noticed that there were some other pictures around, but with the other League members in their own cities. Or in the case of Green Lantern, it was a pic with other Green Lanterns. Two white guys and a very old man in a wheelchair.
I'd guess the last one was Alan Scott just off the top of my hand.
"This is the medical wing of the Hall," Superman explained to Louise. "We don't personally operate it ourselves twenty-four seven. It usually acts as another emergency medical facility to most folks in the nearby area. But it has the most advanced medical equipment in this part of the country, so we should at least be able to check in on your condition while some of the others are going through the data we scanned when you arrived here."
"Do you need a hand moving that room we arrived in?" I asked, wondering how the League was going to deal with that aspect. Not only couldn't they leave the thing there in the middle of a busy Metropolis street, but there were probably devices and equipment there that helped bring us here.
"I think you need to worry about getting dressed before you start parading around the streets at least," Louise interceded before Superman could open his mouth. She had been given some sort of sci-fi jacket by the Science Police, something that helped keep her body cool. It was really more of a placebo than anything that would save her life, probably helped firefighters in this world though. "The last thing we need is for you to become known as the nude superhero."
"You make it sound like I regularly go around in the nude."
"I'm just saying that you go around showing off those abbs a bit too much for this to be an accident."
"There aren't a lot of real fireproof clothing, Louise," I responded as we passed by the displays of battles the League had gone through over the years. There was one showing them beating up Lex Luthor in a giant mech that reminded me of that anime, Evangelion. There was another showing them over the defeated form of Darkseid. "Fire resistant sure, but proof? Nope."
It was only my worry for Louise that stopped me from rushing about the place and just looking at the array of victories this mighty team had managed over the years. Nice as they all looked, as nostalgic as this all made me, Louise was more important than a brunch of art pieces that probably were viewable online in this world.
"Yeah, that would be valid if you hadn't already been given a pair of such outfits."
"This was a disguise," I replied heartily. "And don't you be throwing stones in that glass house. I didn't go for an alias that was my name with one less letter."
Hearing about her attempt at disguising herself as 'Lois' was as funny as Killian's attempts to stand on his two feet. Really, the fact that I was meeting Superman now pushed it just a bit ahead. Though, Louise herself missed what made this attempted alias.
"Shayera," Superman's use of her name as a greeting caught my attention. "Thought Diana was manning the medical station today?"
Shayera was the first name of the superhero known as Hawkgirl or Hawkwoman. This person had such a messy history in the comics it was actually impossible for me to guess if she was human or if she was an alien. Some versions were aliens that had been stranded on Earth but eventually decided to stay here as a protector, other versions were the reincarnation of an alien that did the same thousands of years ago where they now used modern versions of said ancient equipment.
I think once they fused with Hawkman into a god or something? Not too sure about the context for that event. But my point stands, there was no way for me till which version this was without x-raying her skeleton or somesuch.
She wasn't wearing the costume I was most familiar with. Her helmet was less ornate and more streamlined. It still had the long wing-like sides peeking up from the sides, but they had less detail. Hawkwoman's torso was covered in a black top without sleeves and a v-cut that showed her chest off.
"You know how things are on Themyscira right now," Hawkwoman shrugged with the nonchalance coming from this being a common issue. This told me that this was either a small problem or a big one that had become so routine that it no longer felt like one. "So our travelers from another universe, I caught the story from J'onn. I'm Shayera Hol, but most people call me Hawkwoman."
"I'm Lugh, but friends call me Pat," I replied, pointing towards my friend with my thumb afterward. "My 'danger attracting' friend here is Louise, no alias."
"Danger attracting?"
"Danger attracting?"
The two women spoke at once, Louise with a raised brow and Hawkwoman's face was harder to read with the helmet but it didn't think superpowers to read amusement. Louise appeared to have wanted a genuine explanation.
"Louise, so far you've been kidnapped, been almost sent to another universe once, " I started to count fingers alongside my statements. "Been attacked by robots, decided to help fight against a cyborg, an alien invasion, and a literal god, before being injected with a super serum that could cause you to explode at any moment and then actually sent to another universe by the alien the previously invaded Earth… You are the most danger attracting person in our entire universe."
The room was briefly silent for a moment, especially the two heroes. I suddenly grew concerned that I had used the wrong tone, it wasn't often I veered into that sheeringly Irish mocking mode. Where most of the joke was attempted to be conveyed in the tone alone. I kept myself from being like that around Americans, whom usually found it incredibly cruel but Louise had enough of a bonafide accent inherited from her dad that I tended to forget myself at times.
"Well, I have been told," Louise broke the silence with a laugh. A fairly meaty laugh too. "In my defensive, those were all awesome and I would do so again."
I pointed at Louise in an exaggerated fashion, nearly tipping up on my toes in order to enhance the effect. This finally got a small smile from the duo. But the attempts of getting a good vibe going between us all were stimied as the serious topic came to the fore.
"Getting on topic," Hawkwoman stated. "We're going to stick you in one of our Isolation units. They've integrated full-body scanners and cooling features meant to hold freshly emerged Meta-Humans with fire powers. A half-hour in there and we'll at least have a few readings that could help to reverse the process or stabilize you till you return to your universe."
I crossed my arms as I glanced over to the room the DC Hero pointed out. It was a solid room, but unlike that entire basement I had just been in, I could see right through it. Most of the sensors were along the floor and the ceiling, but a few were inside the walls. Then there was a couple of items and tools attached to liquids. The rest of the room was fully furnished with all someone needed, a stove, a closet, a bed, there was even a shower.
So it looked pretty legit to me.
"Okay, I just step inside and wait a few hours? That's it? No needles? No giant tubes that I need to stand in?" Louise asked openly, she stepped closer to the door, a larger transparent thing so thick that I could fit inside there if we were to hollow it out. "Reminds me of a hamster cage, one of the plastic ones."
"I don't know how advanced your Earth is but this one is advanced enough that for most examinations needles and such tool are more a hindrance than a help."
Louise glanced at me, wordlessly asking if it was safe. A nod was my only cue to affirm that it was safe. Hawkwoman followed after her, leaving me alone with Superman. Which suddenly left me with a startling realization that I had no top on.
"You got something for me to change into? Because as much as I like showing off, I do prefer to wear tops… just as a feature of being me."
"We should have something in the employee locker rooms," He replied, his hand scratching at his chin. "There's a few free sets of the staff uniform in case of accidents."
"That come often?"
"We once had a fifth-dimensional imp steal the clothes of every person that worked in this place," Superman replied dryly. "We've since had our uniforms spelled by Dr.Fate so they couldn't be magically stolen like that again. And a few spares for everyone as extra insurance."
Huh, that is pretty odd. Should see about getting my own clothes spelled by someone. I think Thor mentioned being able to summon his armor thanks to spells placed on it, that could be useful as wearing the suit under my clothes doesn't work out all that well. Maybe Asgard will be willing to sell magic clothes to Earth?
"I'm curious," Superman stated as we walked back through the halls. "You mention Brainiac sent you to this universe. How many other elements do our universe share?"
I was surprised it took so long for this question to be asked. I wondered briefly if Louise was being asked the same question by Hawkwoman, where they would then start to match up the answers to see if there were holes in our stories.
"Well, Metropolis isn't a place in that universe," I replied. "Which is the first thing to note, you guys aren't a thing. Instead, the closest thing we've got is the recently contracted Avengers team, which I am part of."
"No Metropolis? That's a rather big change," He mused with the interested air of an explorer learning of the New World. "What about Keystone, Central, Gotham? Ever hear of those cities."
"I've heard of them," I replied truthfully, "They just don't exist back there. There's been no Batman, WonderWoman, Flash, and I have not seen sight of a Green Lantern… though… I won't say they don't exist."
"Oh, not much space experience?"
"We've been invaded by aliens, sure, so I'm not without some interaction with the wider universe. But I have all the experience off my Earth in form of two other planets… at least one of those is here. So I can't say if they do exist. I would have to ask Thor."
"... Thor? The Norse God?"
"Yeah, he's actually an alien prince back home, prince of a space empire at that. So he would probably know more about what does and doesn't exist in space than I would. So when we get this all sorted out we can contact him to get those answers for you."
"I notice that you never said I didn't exist in your universe."
I considered my answer to this. There were a number of potential ways to answer that, alot of truthful ways to answer that. But I wondered, I really wondered for a moment just how my mind had shifted over this past year. Because I genuinely considered telling him that I was 'Superman' of my reality. It would be true from a certain point of view.
But I didn't think of myself that way. In fact, there were a number of oddities in my mind that I considered now. I wasn't even from that universe. It was just one of the things that I somehow couldn't consider back in New York for some reason. I went to answer him with the truth… when I instead said;
"That's because I'm basically you."
Author's Note: You know what. Fuck waiting. Going to go all out here. Maybe that will get me off my ass, maybe that will re-energize me for writing. I used to have insane levels of power, and I have this entire arc plotted out in great detail. So I should be able to do this.
Going to lay something out clear here. You all get what just happened clearer this time than before right? I know you can't guess why this bit happened, but I know that you all this time truly noticed this event.
I only say this before… I have gotten people complaining that this element was too subtle. That they didn't understand why Pat says and thinks things sometimes. It's because there is something going on with him.
Funny enough this mystery will be partially answered within this arc. Not the who, not that. But the "what" will finally be revealed.