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See No Evil: Arms Race (ch. 79)
🕑 Added 2022-03-16 15:04:48 +0000 UTCDC humans were a different breed. They had to be. Since the nineteen-forties, the world had been a pretty wild place. Even before then, while DC's Earth followed the same general timeline as my Earth, there were enough wild events in history that really should have knocked the Earth clear off a similar timeline. That was never clearer than when the general response to a gigantic spaceship that was even bigger than the planet got a very firm 'Meh' by the world at large.
Some cared more than others. Particularly if they lived by the coast, because the tides were getting wrecked by the radical change in gravity. The Warworld hung back, staying even further away than the moon, which also messed with the moon because it was torn on which heavenly body it wanted to revolve around. Still, even at a distance, the Warworld could easily be seen and its presence could definitely be felt.
However, for most people, it was business as usual. Everyone alive today was a veteran when it came to staring down encroaching apocalypses. But to be fair, they also had a safety blanket. The panic should be far more intense, but instead, the people of Earth relied on their unshakable faith in the Justice League. The League had saved them every time so far, and it had become so routine that people just expected them to save the day again. The scale of the threat didn't matter. That was the kind of trust that the Justice League had instilled in the people of Earth.
Only problem was, the Justice League wasn't here.
"Please tell me you have something for this?" Jason requested as I looked up at the Warworld that loomed in the sky like a second moon. It was hard to believe that it was a couple million miles away.
"It's a warforged planetary-scale superweapon forged by an extinct warlike race that died millions of years ago, yet it's still somehow vastly more advanced than pretty much every other weapon in the universe. I’ve got nothing. I'm flattered you think I have an answer to every problem, though," I told Jason, earning a beat of silence as he was already off in his own head preparing to fight a planet. The phone we spoke through was on my windowsill while I remained in my hospital room. After all, I was technically under arrest, even if I wasn't under lock and key.
"But you do have something, right?" Jason pressed anyway, earning a faint smirk from me.
"Of course I do." I answered, my tone confident. As if it was even a question. The Warworld was something that I wanted, but not enough that I wanted to actually deal with it. Having my own planet would be nice, just not nice enough to risk this one getting blown up. That being said, I had long since been making preparations to deal with the Warworld. Some I was more confident in than others, and some plans were null and void on account of me currently being charged with a laundry list of federal and international crimes.
I heard Jason let out a breath of relief, "Right, what do you have?" He asked me with a sense of urgency in his tone. I frowned up at the Warworld for a long moment, idly filtering through my plans for the Warworld. The safest option was to blow it up. Get rid of it. Send it out of the system and trigger a self destruct after looting everything I could from it.
That was the safest option, but not necessarily the best option. The Warworld was an absolute game changer of a card to have up my sleeve. I knew that the Light wanted it for all the reasons I wanted it. Whoever got their hands on the Warworld gained a massive amount of hard power.
Currently, the Light and I were at odds. A little mass murder would do that to a relationship. They wanted me out of the way because I proved too unwieldy as a pawn. I didn't blame them for that. Nor did I blame them for trying to take my company from me because it was my power base -- I hated them and wanted them to all to die in mind shattering agony, but I didn't blame them.
The Warworld, however, could be my ticket out of this whole mess. I got control over it, and the Light would be forced to take the pressure off of me because I had a planet sized gun to their heads. That wouldn't stall them for long, granted, but I didn't need it to. I just needed the leverage for a short period of time. The fact I had the Warworld would be more valuable to me than the Warworld itself.
The issue with that was the fact that the heroes were giving me a decent amount of trust. No one really said anything about it, but they were assuming the worst of my deeds was due to the Light mind controlling me. It was completely untrue, but it was very convenient that they had made that assumption. I think some of them were just giving me enough rope to see if I hung myself with it, though. For that reason, I was leery of openly seizing the Warworld and betraying that trust.
It was a balancing act. After a short free fall, I was once again walking that tightrope of perception and alliances. If I fell again, then it wouldn't be a matter of falling. What lay beneath would rise up and swallow me -- I would be an outright enemy of both the Light and the Heroes.
"The Reach has a massive fleet hidden in the Pacific ocean," I answered, and I heard Jason take in a sharp breath. "The Light had me working on subverting it from Reach control and stealing the tech off their ships. The Reach don't know it yet, but their fleet no longer belongs to them. The unfortunate thing is, it belongs to the Light. They intend to reveal the fleet during the attack on Earth to protect it while revealing that the Reach are liars." That wasn't true. The fleet was mine. But, that's how I would use it and Jason and the heroes wouldn't have cause to look any deeper.
Jason made a noise of acknowledgment. "And human traffickers. If we reveal that the Reach has been experimenting on humans, it should be enough to get them to leave Earth." He pointed out, and I thought as much too. The Reach had been here for less than a month. They made some great PR, but their image wasn't set in stone. Revealing all that PR was just a cover to traffick humans and prepare for an invasion, it would shatter their fragile image and it would be a race to kick them off the planet.
"One problem at a time. The Warworld can shatter the planet, but as far as I know, it has two weaknesses -- it has a single power source, and a single person controls the Warworld. Get rid of either one, and the Warworld will be nullified. The issue being you're going to have to fight through a planet's worth of enemies to get to whichever one you pick." I told him, leaning against the window as I gazed up at the Warworld, making my own plans.
"Don't suppose you know where either are?" He questioned. I was actually pretty sure I did.
"My bet would be the center of the planet. It's the most protected place," I ventured. "I can get you all a stealth ship, but that's about it. I managed to keep a nest egg of supplies from the public and the Light, but without access to my company, my hands are tied." Not true at all, but something that the heroes believed because I was supposed to just be a proxy for the Light. I wasn't supposed to have my own resources because my off the records stuff was meant to be utilized by the Light, and only the Light.
"Thanks, V," Jason said before the call ended. I scratched at the bandages on my face, looking up at the clear blue sky as if the sky itself wanted to show off the Warworld. After a long moment, I turned around to see my girls.
Tifa, Cass, 2B, and Miranda were all decked out in combat gear. My off the books resources were plentiful and well hidden. With the creation of the Sentinels, there were many prototypes and pieces of advanced equipment made that either didn't make the cut, or was good enough that I wanted to reserve it for something special. For example -- keeping the people I cared about safe while we assaulted a massive spaceship designed to be impenetrable and able to annihilate planets.
All three of them had a suit that was tailor made for their strengths and weaknesses. In addition to having a baseline of abilities, like being able to turn invisible, high end inertia dampeners on top of a barrier that was just as good as mine. I gave them every tool that they needed.
I wanted to go with them, I thought to myself as I gave them a lopsided smile. Tifa gave me a sweet smile back, while Cass shook her head, reading my desire. "No. You're hurt," Cass chidded me, pointing to the bed I should be resting in. "Sleep."
"Can't say I'll be doing any of that," I told them, walking forward with a slight limp. You never knew how important your ribs were until you walked with some fractured ones. "You know the plan?"
Miranda gave me a dutiful nod, "We have been briefed and we are prepared." She stood tall, puffing out her chest like a soldier entrusted with an important mission. Which she was, when it came down to it. I needed to get my hands on the Warworld. It was the perfect leverage. With it, even if I did make an enemy of both the Light and Heroes, I could survive. There was a faint smile on her lips, and she spoke up when I cocked an eyebrow. "I was worried that this experience might have… humbled you. I'm glad to see that it hasn't."
That was an opinion that Tifa didn't seem to share based on her sharp look.
"Humbled or not, we can't let something like this slip between our fingers," I told her before my gaze was drawn to 2B. She, like Miranda, stood like a soldier being sent off on a mission. I reached out and squeezed her hand. She hesitated a moment, her black blindfold once again secured into her face, but she smiled back faintly and returned the squeeze.
There was a lot that I wanted to say. I wanted to check every individual piece of equipment. I wanted to give them more. I knew what the impulses were -- I was sending people that I cared about into danger. At the same time, I had always known that I was the least capable of them all. Even if I went with them, I'd only be dead weight. My fighting skills were passable at best and the situation they were going into wasn't one where they could just rely on tech.
"Be safe. All of you. I'd rather lose the Warworld than any of you, so don't even think of dying up there. Understood?" I said, deciding to end the moment before I could overthink things and miss our chance entirely. Cass smiled at that before leaning forward and giving me a light kiss as all of them pressed a button on their wrists. I kissed her back, pressing her close to my body, right up until I realized I was holding empty air as Cassandra was teleported away.
They all were. First, they would be teleported to a spaceship I had prepared. A couple million miles away was a huge amount of distance, but for my fastest ship, it would be a fifteen minute drive. As a two way trip. The design was one of our space ships, just modified with everything that I could think of that would signify speed -- mass amounts of the Flash merchandise because he was what everyone thought of when they thought of something fast. It had obviously worked, because it was my fastest ship by far.
A sigh escaped me as I made it to my bed and sat heavily. Already, I was getting worried. The plan has already commenced, but it was that twilight time where it could still be called off. It would be a lie to say that I wasn't tempted to do so. I was fine with taking risks when it was my health on the line. I was far less fine with taking risks when they involved people that I cared about.
They would make it to the Warworld just fine. Between the four of them, they could handle pretty much anything.
Still, I wanted to go. Or call it off.
"They have their beast to slay," I muttered, running a hand through my hair before I took out my deck of cards. I had been experimenting a little. Ever since Dr. Fate called the cards a training tool. However, I didn't have any luck with using my magic without the cards. And I couldn't afford to use it on something like I was making.
I took out Order, the revolver I had made for the sole purpose of killing the Joker. The weapon felt heavy in my hand, the sleek gold metal of the blocky revolver shining under the fluorescent lighting of the hospital. I hadn't taken it out since I put it to the Joker's forehead and pulled the trigger.
Placing the gun back into its card, I summoned another card to my waiting fingers. A jet black card that appeared as a featureless void.
It was the help that Klarion had offered.
Chaos Magic S-Rank
Holding the two cards up, my gaze flickered between them, silently wondering if I wanted to complete the action. Almost of their own will, my hands inches closer to each other until the edges of the cards began to touch and the shapes began to merge together. I knew exactly what I wanted from the combination. The cards blended together in a swirl, the intensity of the combination far beyond anything I had ever experienced before.
All the same, when I only held a single card in my hand, I had what I wanted.
Unsealing the gun, it fell heavily into my palm -- it's once stainless gold surface was marred with black designs tinged with red. Magic wasn't really something you could feel tangibly, but I could feel the intensity of the completely at odds magic struggling for balance within the revolver. I didn't shoot it as I tested its weight in my hand, lining up a shot at a particularly bland vase. The gun was what I hoped that it would be.
A revolver empowered with two primordial forces of the universe -- Order and Chaos.
"I almost have what I need," I muttered to myself, sealing the gun away. The surface of the card staring up at me -- Duality SSS-Rank. The single highest ranking card that I had managed to create. And I was barely excited for it because it didn't help with distracting me from the fact that my girls were on a mission to go punch Mongul in the face and carjack his planet.
"They'll be fine," I told myself, leaning back and laying down on the bed. "I'll get everything that I need… and they'll be fine."
They had to be.
…
Since Tifa found herself in this new and strange world, she had experienced a lot of things. Living under the thumb of a gangster, becoming a pimp, falling in love, being worried out of her mind, becoming friends with a powerful Amazonian Princess, and finding common ground with a King under the sea on stances on pollution and the effects it had. Rapidly traveling through space, leaving an entire planet behind…
"This is kinda boring. Poor Revy," Tifa remarked to herself as they sailed to the Warworld. She was expecting something more… dramatic. Instead, it was like going for a drive. Just in space.
"Revy has every single soap opera downloaded for the trip. She'll be fine," Miranda reassured as 2B focused on guiding the ship to its designated point. A copy of Pod was with them in case they needed to hack something, but so far, Pod admitted that the Warworld systems were simply too advanced for him to seize control of. However, that brief attempt to breach the Warworld's network defenses was enough for Pod to figure out that they were hardly the first to attempt to do the same.
Meaning that, for the most part, they would be going in blind. Vergil gave them access to the Sentinels' systems, and they were launching a multi-pronged attack and full scale assault with the Team. So, maybe they aren't going in completely blind.
"Low profile for as long as we can, then we hit Mongul hard," Tifa told the rest of the group. She didn't know when acting like a leader started to feel so natural to her, but it felt normal when people looked to her for answers now. Tifa turned her gaze to the Warworld itself and just like the sun, it was amazing how perspective could deceive the eye. When she first saw the Warworld, she had mistaken it for the moon.
It's surface was covered in metal, treating armor plating as the landscape while deep trenches seemed to act as fault lines for the planet to shift. For what purpose, Tifa wasn't sure she wanted to know. But, if Vergil thought it would be the answer to their current problems, then Tifa knew it had to be powerful. Everything that they had managed to build together was crumbling away and in danger of being stolen from them. She wouldn't let that happen. Tifa didn't see any obvious turrets or defenses, but for that matter, she also didn't see an entrance.
Their approach was unnoticed thanks to the cloaking tech, but when they were about to slam into the Warworld, 2B didn't slow down. Instead, she activated the phasing technology in the ship, and their ship passed through what turned out to be miles upon miles of armor plating. But, after a long minute of phasing their way through, they entered a drone bay like Vergil had included in his briefing.
Tifa took in a slow breath and let it out.
"Let's steal a planet."
