The ride home was strangely quiet. The air was thick with tension and bottled animosity, and for once, I wasn't at the center of it. It was a physical thing. All the sidekicks hated Priya, and they had good reason to.
Robin and Wally West knew Canary best, but they had all felt her passing. She'd been Superboy's favorite Leaguer, Artemis's new mentor and role model, and Aqualad's therapist. They'd all volunteered for the mission, some even insisting they be involved when the fighting started, but Batman had been very specific about our timeline and the caliber of people we were fighting. They'd reluctantly agreed to stay back, but had kept a close eye on us throughout the entire operation, or as close an eye as they could manage.
It was anyone's guess whether they knew about the box I'd retrieved, its contents, and the body I'd recovered, but I had plans for all of them.
It took me no time at all to figure out what was inside the vials. A new serum of some kind, something that could finally push my physique over the edge. Not that I was truly struggling in that department.
Improved Nutrient Absorption → Greater Nutrient Absorption
Nutrient Absorption has been enhanced by 1200%. All waste is perfectly recycled and repurposed.
Cursed Body → Greater Cursed Body
Your body can run indefinitely on Cursed Energy.
Your body now runs primarily on Cursed Energy, using it as fuel to generate Stamina when needed at a ratio of 1:10.
Venom Body → Greater Venom Body
Natural Weapons: You can eject and grow bone constructs from all surfaces of your body at minor Stamina costs.
Durable Skin: Skin density has increased tenfold.
Dense Muscles: Muscle density has increased fifteenfold.
Major Shapeshifting: Manipulate bone structure, skin, and muscles with unnatural ease.
Poison Immunity → Venom Born
Complete immunity to all known toxins. You can also generate them at will.
But it wasn't nearly enough. Not with the odds I was facing. Mundane techniques weren't going to cut it, and that was why I needed the boost and the fresh technique I could extract from the dead enemy.
Per Wonder Woman's instructions, we transported the captive with meta-human inhibition manacles strapped around her hands and legs. They were designed to restrain most of her powers.
She couldn't leverage her monstrous strength, manipulate her physiology, tap into Cursed Energy, or transform at all. Batman had been very thorough when designing these.
He'd even flat-out told me they'd been tested against the sorcerers they'd managed to captured so far.
Priya spoke for the first time when we reached Mount Justice. George had walked over with a bag in his hand, ready to throw it over her head.
"I'm glad she didn't get you," she said, looking at George and Gina. "Both of you."
There was a flicker of something on George's face before the bag went on.
"What a fucking bitch," Wally muttered.
We marched her straight to the Zeta tube, and a few minutes later, we were behind the glass of a Justice League interrogation room, watching alongside a handful of Leaguers. Batman sat across from Priya in a room bathed in stark white light. She was still in her business-casual attire, manacled and anchored to the table.
Like everybody who'd taken the serum, she was breathtakingly beautiful, though I supposed that might have had nothing to do with the serum at all.
Looking at her still got my blood boiling, but I didn't get nearly as upset as I used to. Call it a function of my maxed-out Pain Tolerance or my first body evolution. In some ways, I was even grateful. I'd still slit her throat after all this was over, though. No doubt about that.
Batman looked ridiculous in tactical gear and a cape, even more so in the interrogation room. Priya seemed almost relaxed, likely planning to play some kind of complicated mind game to get her way without divulging much.
That plan went out the window the second Wonder Woman stepped in. Priya's face seemed to shrivel at the sight of her, and her breathing quickened. Wonder Woman wordlessly walked up to her, pulled her lasso from her waist, and wrapped it around her hands.
"Don't try to lie, Priya," she said, stone-faced. "The Lasso will not allow you."
The ropes looked like molten gold to ordinary human senses and like Enochian runes, bent and braided into a complicated thread, to my metaphysical ones.
I swallowed. However badly Wonder Woman had beaten my ass, she'd never pulled out the Lasso on the other sorcerers and me. In retrospect, she probably should have before we agreed to work together.
It would've been the smart call.
"It's been some time since New York," Batman said. He tried really hard to keep the anger from seeping into his voice, but I picked up on it easily.
His body hid his trauma well, but it poured off him like an aura.
My Will was currently 487, and the closer I got to 500, the more I could pick up from people. I was sure the skill would come eventually, but for now, I was stuck reading impressions and auras and going off hunches. They hadn't led me wrong so far.
"I… apologize for how I left things," Priya grunted, struggling against the noose around her hands. "What I did to your team member was in poor taste…"
"But if you could do it all over again, would you kill her?"
Priya pressed her mouth shut, but the Lasso pulled the truth from her anyway.
"Yes… I needed an exit strategy, and I needed a suitable distraction. I would've slit your throat if you'd been closer."
Batman didn't so much as flinch, but his aura roared. It went from the size of a small candle to a roaring fireplace.
"Is it true that you entered an informal deal with Shelim and Julius? The modification of a friend and information on Artisan in exchange for their help freeing the captured sorcerers?"
"Yes." She didn't try to fight this particular answer.
"Why did you break the deal?"
She scoffed and threw a harsh look in the direction of the glass.
"They were never going to be able to keep up with their end of the bargain. Too weak. Even if the boy is stronger than any Special Grade I've ever seen, I couldn't exactly turn to you either. So, I went to the one group who could actually deliver."
Batman had already concluded as much, but it was good not to rely on assumptions when you could confirm them directly.
"Julius and Shelim tell me you claim to do everything you do for the children," he said, his voice level.
"Yes. I'm tired of watching the children I helped raise get spent furthering some mad woman's vision of utopia," she said quickly, then winced. "But I also do it for me. You've seen what I accomplished with the Blockbuster Serum. Use your imagination. The serum I—"
Priya started coughing up blood, and that was when the Leaguers realized they might've been pushing the crazy doctor a little too hard without realizing it. Dr. Fate was called in to break all the vows she had with the Light, along with a few other sneaky soul spells Klarion had slapped on her.
Only then did they get to talk about Luthor, the Light, and their wider strategy.
Despite all the safeguards they'd put in place, Priya didn't know much beyond her own part in the operation, which, I supposed, was the point. I was certain it would be the same for the Artisan goons we managed to interrogate.
The serum Priya developed was everything I'd thought it would be and more. It was a perfected version of Slade Wilson's super-soldier serum, paired with the insights she'd gained from the Blockbuster Venom project. It was effective, turning a regular soldier into a city-level threat, one stronger than our current generation of sorcerers before they started their training. My guess was that they'd only get beefier with time.
You can imagine the immense pleasure I felt at having picked up the box. Since I'd been the last one on the scene, they naturally asked me about it, but I handily denied ever seeing it, instead volunteering the body of the sorcerer I'd taken. I'd made sure to take a thin slice from her neck before dumping her body in the morgue, though.
Things got a whole lot more interesting when the interview moved into speculation. Priya gave us everything she suspected about Luthor and the Light, providing pieces we hadn't even thought to look for.
Luthor was buying his new army outright, recruiting willing but competent mercenaries from the shadiest contractors in the world to pad his numbers and infusing them with Blockbuster Venom serums. They were just grunts, really, but they were powerful grunts.
Magicians and practitioners from all over were also going missing. Some were murdered; the rest were spirited away. And then there was Queen B. The person directing her army was apparently an android.
It didn't take a genius to figure out that they were gearing up for war. It was just a question of how to twist it to my benefit.
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