Happy Harbor
June 12, 9:33
Clack! Clack! Clack!
Our bokkens struck each other in a wild flurry, the curved sticks dancing to the tune of well placed and well enacted hand and body movements.
Rob and I moved non-stop above the giant platform in the mission room, our spar getting more heated with each passing minute. He was by far the more skillful one, no doubt due to his mentor's training.
However, not only could I mimic his moves near perfectly, I also had a better command of my body thanks to my numerous advantages, my superior speed and agility making the matter of keeping up a cakewalk.
So though I was the less skilled one in this spar, I was proving more than a match for the young hero. And while normally this would make him even more angry with me, that wasn't the case today.
He wore an intense mask of concentration, one that had its seriousness undermined by the gleam in the eyes and the slight curve and upturn of his lips. Seems I wasn't the only one enjoying this.
For a few more minutes, only sharp exhales and faint exclamations overshadowed by the incessant clanks of our wooden swords could be heard. When the fight reached its peak—Rob had run out of moves to show me—I leapt back and put some distance between us.
"Let's take a break," I said and grabbed the bottle of water Mike offered.
"Why? Can't stay whelmed under the assault?" he said and drew closer, resting the bokken on his shoulders and resting both arms on them.
"Nah. Just wanna digest everything. We'll go again in five… with the gravity boots."
He laughed. "You're on."
"Woah! WoooaaAHH! WoaahhH!"
Arms flailing and legs zigzagging, Wally brushed past with a gust of wind and panicked yelps, the teen's feet skittering atop the air as if it had suddenly grown solid.
I had tuned out his exclamations at the start of the spar, hoping that by the end of it he'd have gained some mastery over the gifts I handed out to the team a few days ago. Turns out I had held out too much hope.
Apart from Rob and myself, no one else could use the boots with ease.
It wasn't even right to call them boots. The device responsible for this gravity defying spectacle was the size of a small phone battery, and it could be slotted into an inset in prepared footwear.
When two of these devices were fixed in place and activated, the shrunken repulsorlift tech pushed against gravity, lifting the boots and their user from the ground.
The simple application of the anti-grav technology gave rise to possibilities like higher leaps, falling from any height with no fear, and a solid improvement to sheer movement, not just in terms of speed but maneuverability as well.
On the subject of improved speed, it came as no surprise that Wally was the most excited of the boys. Unluckily for him, he was also the most unskillful with the tech, the combination of psi and haptic controls proving insufficient due to—this was just a guess—his jittery mind and lack of focus.
For this, he and Ron tied for last place on the list, the young Kryptonian having given up even faster on the boots. He could leap tall buildings in a single bound, so it was easy to see why he didn't think he needed them.
Even when he saw how Rob and I used them.
Above he and Wally, I was tempted to tie Roy and Kaldur. Why? Well Kaldur… he didn't really do footwear, even though he had the basics down in minutes upon trying the boots. Sadly, his skill with them wasn't enough to change his mind.
Luckily, I'd already foreseen this and prepared a different gadget for him; an attachment to his belt that could alter gravity around his body. Me giving him the boots was just a way to gauge how his experience underwater translated to pseudo flight.
Moving on to Roy, he was just a step behind Rob and I. He couldn't ski on air and do the sort of stunts and maneuvers like we could, but he was getting there. Just like Kaldur, he'd long mastered the basics.
He could jump higher, hover in place, and move in the four cardinal directions and anything in between with just a thought. If adjusting to his arm had taught me anything, it was that he would join us in the sky in no time.
While I handed the empty water bottle to Mike, I looked over to where Rob was headed and found the rest of the boys. They were seated in lawn chairs provided by Wally, feasting on snacks and drinks, probably his own.
Roy lay in the leftmost chair, a pair of shades concealing his eyes and his arms serving as pillows. In the middle, Ron, relaxed in a similar manner, watched a video on his holowatch while he munched on chips from a bag.
At the right end where Kaldur sat like it was a regular chair, Rob stopped and engaged in conversation with him. I took my eyes off them, checked the time to see there were four more minutes left and refocused on the flailing speedster.
My mind was elsewhere however, ruminating over yesterday's events.
Grace's DNA tests had confirmed my metahuman hunch. Zatara's tests that morning before any of the boys arrived had produced the same result regarding her Amazonian heritage. Her joy, though overwhelming, was kinda expected.
It was Wonder Woman's that caught me off guard. It seemed I had underestimated what this meant for her. And damn, did she look even more beautiful when she smiled.
All in all, it was a pretty good morning with many pleasant emotions to last me through the day. Unfortunately, the thing with Batman came afterward, and while I wouldn't go so far to call it a bummer, it was a heavy topic that undercut a bit of the morning's high note.
Offering me thanks for the news, Batman left to attend to whatever occupied his schedule and the confirmed sisters left, this time with the things I'd prepared for them; a watch for Grace, and the VR creation tools WW needed to create the swordfighting simulator.
Naturally, the topic of an all purpose combat simulator came up. Instead of just the sword, why not every available avenue of fighting experience she had. Nothing more would have made me happier to have that, but I reminded her about the time issue and her new charge, adding the promise that this was just the start.
And so with this and Rob's issue cleared off my list, Manhunter's travel plans came next. While I prepared to tackle the Subspace foray project in my workshop, he arrived and we spoke about his journey to Mars.
I still hadn't tested the interstellar capabilities of the improved Zeta-Tech, and his upcoming journey was the perfect opportunity to do so. It would take him about a month to reach Mars, and at various points on the journey he was going to check in with the communicators.
If transmissions were perfected up till when he reached the red planet, then the test of the platform would happen. The thought of the device so far out would have bothered me if not for the wealth of failsafes I'd packed in it.
However, this train of thought brought to mind a long forgotten memory of Martians that found themselves under The Light's employ. The name Ma'alefa'akk, or Malefic Jonzz, jumped to mind.
When I relayed the information to Manhunter, he showed no reaction. Between him and Batman I didn't know who was more stoic, but I put my bets on the guy with the power to control his own mind.
He simply acknowledged my words and we moved on, the last thing we talked about being M'gann. For that, I let my mind do the talking, letting my memories of the show do the convincing.
Sure, I wanted M'gann to be here to make things seem a bit more like what I knew, but I wasn't going to persuade the Martian into bringing his niece here. That was his decision to make.
We concluded our discussions there and he left with a platform, leaving me to focus on my projects. I had about seven hours of free time and I focused on both, splitting my time between them while Mike unraveled the tangled steel web that was Bludhaven's dirty secrets.
When it was evening, I met Felicity at a charity fundraiser event for our third date. Just like the two previous ones, it went beyond well and we ended up in her apartment, making out on her couch.
Things didn't go any further than that, but they certainly went further than our last "session." I suggested a movie, A New Hope, and I received an incredulous stare and some teasing.
Was it really that weird that I hadn't watched any Star Wars movie? The boys and Felicity seemed to think so. I believed they were exaggerating.
With my girlfriend—was she my girlfriend? I'd have to talk to her about this—by my side, I managed to see the movie to the end, and I must say, it was pretty great. I finally got to see the origin of the "I felt a great disturbance in the force" meme.
Leaving Felicity's home with a faint pang of longing, I returned to the cave to track down the Blockbuster Clowns and instead found Rob waiting.
The ensuing conversation started off awkward, but by the midway and getting to the end, things returned to a new, enhanced equilibrium where the Boy Wonder no longer spoke to me with faint, almost undetectable hostility.
We spoke about my plan to rid the city of the gangs, crime families, and corrupt officials and what Batman had come up with to get his sister and mother out of the oncoming crossfire without letting them know of his secret identity.
The improved relations between us gave me enough reason to allow him a peek into what the purge would be like, something that ended with me promising to have the team help with the cleanup and protection of civilians.
Once he left, there was just one thing left on my plate; stopping by the locations revealed by the nanites I sprayed the assassins with. Unlike two days ago due to Grace's interruption, these checks and the general patrol went smoothly.
At the hideouts of each assassin, I'd gained access to computers and phones that bared secrets they would kill to maintain, such as offshore accounts, hidden assets, connections to some unsavory groups and individuals.
After a few more hours of knocking some heads in and shadowing some people so that they could get home safe, I went home and got some sleep. In the spirit of taking things slow today, the boys had come over to chill and hang out, leading to my spar with Rob and Wally's attempts to get the boots to listen to him.
Speaking of him, I shook my head and came back to reality, noting that I hadn't heard him in a while.
"Alright, you guys."
Ah, there he was.
"Spill," he said, alternating his gaze between me and Rob, his feet on the ground. Someone had had enough.
Ignoring the young speedster's searching and waiting gaze, I gave Rob a "you do it" look before focusing on my watch.
"Well?" Wally asked, and I tuned him and the rest out when Rob started to explain things.
Lines of data blurred past on the screen projected above my watch and I took in the work Mike had done in uncovering the intricately built web of obfuscation that had kept Redhorn multiple steps ahead of the feds and the criminals he lorded over for nearly two decades.
The instances of blackmail use to keep people in line were too many to count. Well paid informants in almost every group that could upturn his little empire—yes, this included the feds—shell companies upon shell companies, a litany of dead end accounts, and many, many more tricks scum like him employed.
Frankly, this was enough to get a generous number of agents to swoop upon the city like locusts, but there was still one thing we hadn't found. Even after Mike's nonstop efforts and the amount of secret locations and holdings I'd scanned from top to bottom.
"Still nothing on Redhorn's blackmail stash?"
"No sir. We have searched every possible location and explored most avenues. Whatever the Chief of Police is using to keep the criminal element on a right leash is not in the city."
I was about to nod when I thought about what he said more clearly. "Wait. You said most. As in most avenues, not all. Which haven't we explored?"
"Locations outside the city."
"But we've combed through all of his assets, he doesn't own any. None that we could find anyway."
"Precisely. However, Mr. Redhorn and his family go on at least two vacations each year. If we count the time before he and Mrs. Redhorn had their children, the instances are even higher."
"Huh, I see what you're saying. He could have secret holdings in some of those destinations. And what we're looking for may be in any of them. In fact, now that I think about it, one of these places could be where he plans to retire or escape to in case shit hits the fan."
"Yes. The stash will most likely be found there."
"Go through the data we have on his vacations and try to narrow it down."
"Yes sir. However…"
"Yes?"
"What if this avenue also proves to be a dead end?"
"Then we'll improvise," I said, looking away from him to the team.
While Mike went away with his tray and the new task, I drew closer to them, looking across their faces.
"Well?"
"Rob told us everything," said Wally. "How can we help?"
I put the tip of the bokken on the floor and rested both hands on it, nodding faintly. "Well, it's not time yet, but when the storm starts, keeping people safe will be the most important thing."
They nodded, and Roy chimed in. "So is catching the rats who will no doubt scurry away."
"Yeah. That too. Mike and I just got another lead on the one at the top of the food chain. I don't know when exactly things will be ready, but this whole thing should be wrapped up by the end of the month."
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