Eager to obtain some much needed magical knowledge and valuable insight into anything that could help bring down The Light, I took this rare chance to test the inhumane technology and the results were promising.
Flicking the screen of the tablet, I scrolled through the glimpses of decoded memory and smiled underneath my mask. "Mike, you getting this?"
"Crystal clear sir. Cataloguing as we speak."
"Great."
I retrieved the emptied device from the back of Faust's head and signaled Wonder Woman. She wouldn't find anything amiss. Not that it mattered. It was Hades that worried me a tiny bit.
The nanites now swimming in Faust's brain matter would repair any damage they caused and self-destruct when they were done. Whether that would help things—I doubted it highly. But I took solace in the knowledge that the death god probably wanted his soul and not his body.
Hopefully, I didn't kill the former.
Tucking the tablet at my side, I gazed about the area outside the warehouse. All the brutes were gone. So were the enforcers. Manhunter's stop over had been brief.
Mainly because he didn't want to leave his bioship stranded in space for too long. And also due to the fact that just like Wonder Woman's lasso confirmed, Psimon hadn't had much time to do anything in Will's mind.
He had however obtained information I would have killed him for. No question. On that end, the martian eased my concerns by wiping every trace of it from the rogue telepath's mind, citing that the latter's mental defenses were pitifully weak, almost non-existent.
Feigning cluelessness, I thanked Manhunter before he returned to continue his journey.
Of course they were weak. The sedative I dosed Psimon with was more than just something to keep him under. I had spiked it with nanites loaded with psi blockers and a few other functions.
Simply put, they didn't just bar him from using his powers, they also kept him in an indefinite coma. Even with his timely capture and even with Manhunter's assurance, a part of me refused to take any chance.
The thought of The Light knowing about me and what I told the League scared me more than I cared to admit. This was my way of putting my fears to rest. And I did not regret it.
Psimon would stay under until the day this forbidden knowledge—whether he had it or not—posed no threat to me and mine.
Reassuring myself that this was the right path, I went over the mental checklist of things to do before I could leave. The warehouse, the team's original goal for our coming to the island, had been wrecked.
Bane would have to spend a lot of time and money to get his operation up and running. Will had been rescued, the League of Assassins and by extension, The Light, weakened.
Psimon had been dealt with. Same with Faust and the brutes. Wonder Woman had the sorcerer bound in her lasso and slowly neared the platform. The boys were gone, some with their respective mentors.
Batman, Superman, Atom, and the Flash were present, discussing something. Probably about where to send Psimon. Looking at them brought Hal or John Stewart to mind.
A cursory scan of their rings would expose me in a heartbeat, but I had prepared for that eventuality. A more potent and deliberate form of the brain damage effects of Soulkiller had been programmed into the nanites.
If they sensed an attempt to disable and/or remove them, they'd fry Psimon's brain. If that also somehow failed, then I'd be kinda, sorta fucked. The League certainly wouldn't take to it kindly.
And honestly, I couldn't bring myself to care or be worried. It had been just a few months, but I was slowly getting to the point where I'd gotten most of what I wanted by approaching them anyway.
Furthermore, a recent floating idea about creating a corporate hero agency had lit further light bulbs in my head about my SHIELD idea. Day in and day out I was discovering how I'd limited myself in some ways.
The circumstances behind SHIELD's conception in Marvel, or more accurately, the MCU were to solve the specific issues of a certain time, and they had evolved from there.
I had unconsciously pigeonholed myself into trying to follow the same path when it was completely unnecessary. There was no reason to directly follow in my inspiration's footsteps other than nostalgia and some warped sense of propriety.
Suffice to say, things were looking up, and the day I'd split from the League and start my own thing was coming up quickly. Acquiring the contents of Faust's brain was certainly a significant boost to this.
I didn't need to go see Tala anymore and suffer through the god awful awkwardness.
Batman and Manhunter had given me ample warning about her hyperfixation on me due to the role I played in her rescue. I had listened and taken precautions, but I had severely underestimated what having a woman you barely knew see you as the light of her life meant.
Especially when you had someone else you felt, well, nearly the same way for.
It had taken everything not to just ignore her and leave. Instead, I let her down gently and escaped, throwing my idea of collaborating on some projects to the way side.
No need to give her ideas and create a ripe environment for whatever she dreamed of.
I had seen and experienced firsthand how people with no initial attraction for each other develop some level of it after working together—not even working—just doing things together for an extended amount of time.
So nope. I wasn't even going to try it. Felicity was the only woman on my mind. And I wanted to make our relationship work.
The time it took for me to go on this little tangent was enough for the remaining Leaguers to go. Only Captain Atom remained, and we talked a bit before he also left, leaving me alone.
What I had been waiting for finally here, I used my watch to control the Zephyr, repositioning it right above me. I sent the larger platform back to the cave and jumped onto the smaller one.
I began to ascend right after under the effects of the tractor beam. Soon, I found myself in the ship's interior. Putting the platform in its rightful compartment, I found the pilot's seat and plotted a course for the cave.
"Mike," I called out while activating the auto-pilot.
"Sir."
"Start a global search for a Nyssa al Ghul."
"Sir?"
"Nyssa Raatko too… if I recall correctly. She's Talia's sister, and she may hold the key to removing the League of Assassins from the board entirely."
"I will get on it right away."
"Any updates? Anything I need to know?" I interlocked my fingers behind my head and leaned further back.
"There was a message from Agent Houston while you were on mission."
"Oh, are we finally getting the purge?"
"It would seem so. As we predicted, the amount of evidence we handed over has given the federal agencies enough certainty to descend on the city in force. Furthermore, you were right about the chief having a mole in the F.B.I.
When Agent Houston notified me that his superiors had made the decision, I checked the taps on the chief's many phones and discovered a warning message. I traced it back to the mole but have yet to forward his identity to Agent Houston."
"Have they been in regular contact?"
"None that I've been able to determine."
"Hmm," I huffed. "Yeah, hold off on that. Can't risk there being another one. We get Redhorn first and work from there."
"Noted."
"Anything else?"
"None for the time being sir. Though I have completed thorough examinations of seventeen percent of the data from Faust's mind. I should have the pertinent knowledge on magic and The Light ready by morning."
"Good work."
Things went silent and I fully relaxed, staring out at the endless ocean zipping by through the wide windscreen. I chose to return to the cave the long way for a reason. However it seems someone had other ideas.
Action: Defeat your first supervillain.
Reward: Specific Immunity[Electricity] (200 CP)
Action: Defeat your first villain team.
Reward: See Supernatural (200 CP). Diplomatic Immunity (100 CP)
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Somewhere over the Caribbean Sea
June 21, 04:35Chaos had descended on Bludhaven like a thief in the night—or in this case, dawn.
The army of feds I'd been chasing since I made the city my personal project had finally arrived, and they came with a vengeance.
Hideouts were rooted out, the mansions of crime families were ransacked, arrests upon arrests were made and gangs—both big and small—were disbanded, whole apartment complexes serving as strongholds raided by scores of operatives.
The dull and dreary atmosphere that pervaded the city had been upended overnight, like someone had lit a barrel of firecrackers and thrown it into a trench in WW2.
Working on my behalf, the boys, who were thankfully on vacation, protected the civilians and aided the cops and feds where necessary. I, on the other hand, had the thankless job of following the one person in this city who could absolutely not get away.
Like a sucker who thought himself smarter and better than everyone else, Delmore Redhorn had acted immediately when he was notified of the incoming shitstorm hurling towards his city.
The man apparently had a helicopter on standby just for this, and he'd called on it in the wee hours of the morning. Galvanising his wife and kids to action, they packed next to nothing and rushed to a secret location that wasn't so secret.
There, they got onto the getaway vehicle and the rest was history.
Inside the Zephyr and cloaked from sight, I checked the map, and studied the flight path the helicopter followed. It was headed towards South America. That was easy to determine.
However, it wasn't what I wanted. Finding out where they headed before we arrived wouldn't change anything. I would get what I wanted no matter what. Redhorn was finished. He just didn't know it yet.
Bringing up the list of his known holdings on the continent, I scrolled through them and determined which country and the resultant properties were directly in our path.
It ended up being a pretty short list, but trying to figure out which was which helped pass the time. In the end, all my predictions ended up being wrong.
Our destination was none of the countries or properties we had on file. It was an island off the coast, one I recognised from Arrow and a few comics I'd read; Corto Maltease.
'Redhorn. You sneaky bastard.'
High above the island and the private airfield the helicopter just landed on, I watched the main and tail rotors turn from blurs and slow down. The oblivious family alighted, the man helping his wife and the wife helping her sleepy and whiny kids.
Wearing clothes that would brand him a simple local, Redhorn went toward the man with sunglasses standing beside a family van waiting for them. They exchanged a wordless accord and the man passed him a set of keys before walking off to sit in the helicopter.
I watched the two with slight interest, wondering how they related to all this. They didn't seem like loyal followers, more like contractors. Still, it wouldn't hurt to record their information and keep track of them.
How many assholes had they helped get away?
Back on Redhorn, the man ushered his family into the van and got in the driver's seat. They took off and I followed, all the way to a gated mansion.
It had three floors, cream colored walls, a pool and a lot of green on the grounds. It was the perfect place for scum like Redhorn to retire with his family and live out of the rest of his days like many of his kind did.
I couldn't even get angry when I imagined how things would've gone without my presence here. The asshole would've gotten away scott free after ending and ruining an uncountable number of lives.
A happily ever after.
I smiled and stood up from the pilot's seat, knowing what I described wouldn't be happening today. Dropping from the Zephyr, I slowed my fall with a timely activation of the repulsors in my boots and quickly made entry into the building.
Actively checking the ongoing scans of the structure, I zipped about the house, feet inches from the ground. Redhorn was in the study opening a safe. I joined him in there right as he opened it and the gun left my holster.
My hand twitched. I wanted to shoot the guy really badly, but my patience ultimately won. Slowly inching myself around the table and hovering a fair distance behind the tall, muscled man, I zoomed in on the open briefcase in front of him.
Jackpot.
Quickly, I gave the open safe a quick glance to confirm there was nothing of note in there and focused on the oblivious former chief. He shut a suitcase with a click and his lips curved into a grin.
The gun came up and I shot him, the taser round hitting him in the side of the head. His face got stuck mid smile and he spasmed and went down. I switched the magazine, grabbed the suitcase and shot his prone form three more times.
Throwing him over my shoulder, I turned off the repulsors and dropped on the hardwood floor, camo following suit. With bold steps, I walked out of the study and went straight to the kitchen, my brazen behaviour announcing my presence.
"AAHH!" CLANG!
Mrs. Redhorn screamed and dropped a pan upon seeing me. Though I bet her unconscious husband made it worse. I wasn't wearing my spider suit, just a generic, ninja looking outfit.
"You will never see your husband again," I said to the panicking woman.
Tears began to pool in her eyes. The nerve.
"Don't try to look for him. Don't try calling anyone about him. I'll know if you do. You have your kids. Focus on them," I paused. "Don't. Make. Me. Come. Back. Here," I continued, the voice modulator doing the heavy lifting.
Wordless panic had devolved into silent sobbing, but her tears might as well have fallen in the desert, because I couldn't bring myself to care. Message delivered, I activated the cloak in my suit and extended its range.
Redhorn and I disappeared from sight and I slid away with the reactivated repulsorlifts.
-New Perks-
Name: Specific Immunity
Description: You are completely immune to harm or negative effects from a specific source or type. This could be a particular element, attacks from a specific species, or type of effect such as being knocked back or tripped. This can be taken multiple times, but you cannot take multiple Specific Immunities that combine into complete invulnerability.. At Street Tier this protects from a single element such as fire or cold. It could make you immune to being tripped or thrown off your feet. At National Tier you could be immune to attacks from the "classical" four elements or similar groupings. You could be immune to any form of firearms or to explosions, or to disease or poison. At Global Tier you can be immune to large categories of effects, like magic, technology, or psychic powers. You could be immune to all kinetic attacks, all biological attacks. You could even pull off a classic "No man born of woman can harm me" protection. At Cosmic Level you could be immune to divine attacks, or non-divine attacks. You could be fully immune to all physical attacks or all mental attacks, or even conceptual attacks.
Cost: 200 CP
Source: Celestial Mutation
Name: See Supernatural
Description: There are things that go bump in the dark, powers out there that few dare to imagine. Others laugh at the idea of wizards, of warriors who can call flame to their blades, of men who can move things with their minds. Not you. You can see magic as it occurs, see the glow of psychic power, the flow of Ki. Even if you can't manipulate those forces, you can see them.
Cost: 100 CP
Source: Darkest Tome
Name: Diplomatic Immunity
Description: You're from another world, and just like diplomats in foreign nations, you have immunity to certain laws. The Laws of Magic, that is. You suffer no consequence for breaking any of the laws of magic in this world, or any of the innate negative effects of magic like the Hex. That is, you suffer no magical consequences, like the insanity, soul taint or obsession that come to Warlocks under normal circumstances. If you're seen doing it, or word gets out, the Wardens will try to take your head off just like they do with all Warlocks.
Cost: 100 CP
Source: Celestial Grimoire
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1-10 advanced chapters on: https://patreon.com/MasterReigen