In a dark room in one of his many safehouses, the man known as the Calculator seethed in rage. He had long since moved passed smashing things around him to vent his frustration, and instead moved on to trying to figure out where everything went wrong. Sure, Sunderland's plan was doomed to eventual failure at the rate he was going, but the man didn't care; he just needed it to hold together long enough to get paid and erase all traces of his involvement. Even the interference of those young heroes wasn't much of an issue; he had those well in hand.
The problem had been that damn AI had stabbed him in the back!
The Calculator knew that he was being too trusting of the entity he had found while he was browsing Sunderland's network. Though he had tried to create one himself on and off over the years, he had never run into an actual AI before, and had been curious to study it and see what it could do. And he figured if the thing ever got uppity, well, he could just take care of it.
And then it did… something. Something that wrested control the nanite swarm away from him, and restored it's 'personality'. Something that allowed it and the swarm to resist his direct control. Something that gave the swarm to ability to disrupt his own power, severing his connection to the augmented just before he physically crushed his own terminal.
Until then he had never considered that anything could trump his power, but the AI had clearly been biding it's time to discover a way to do just that. The man swore that when he found that malfunctioning waste of cpu cycles that he would tear it apart bit by bit to find its secrets. And then his power would be dominant once again.
His hand drifted to his chest, rubbing at the scar that had formed over his heart. It had just been a job, a client wanting him to crack the secrets of a bit of tech they managed to procure from a secret U.S. military vault. A bit of digging turned up that it was the result of experiments into vibrational frequencies in the 80's, and apparently during one experiment it resonated with something. Everything else he could find was redacted, but the point was there was a big cover up, and the only thing remaining was a blob of alien looking technology that wouldn't have looked out of place on the set of a Ridley Scott movie.
The Calculator had tried everything he could think out to get a response from the damn thing, but he just didn't have the right equipment. Hence stealing the alien computer from Intergang. As predicted by his calculations, the device was able to generate the proper quantum level oscillations to get a reaction from the techno-mass. What he did not predict though was the thing suddenly expanding and consuming everything around it at frightening speed, building a ramshackle body out of spare computer parts. The thing even stabbed him through the chest with a tendril in the process.
Needless to say, it was a good time to get metahuman powers.
The Calculator's sudden technopathy allowed him to take control of the nanite lattice that was spreading through his brain and seal up the wound, right before crushing the insolent piece of scrap into oblivion. Sure he defaulted on the contract, but with his new powers, he found new ways to deal with that.
Back in the present, the man eventually calmed down, leaning back in his chair as he let out a sigh. Cathartic as it was, brooding wasn't very productive. He had already burned bridges and covered his tracks to insure that he wouldn't immediately be found, but he still needed to plan for the future. His plan to remain in the background wasn't quite out of reach, but he would have to seriously cut back on any high profile jobs for the foreseeable future. The idea stung him quite a bit considering how eager he had been to exert his new powers, but with the Justice League on the lookout for him any job that looked like a technopath might have been involved would inevitably draw attention. Unless he found something to directly counteract the League, it would be a long while before he could revisit his long term plans.
In the mid term, he had to handle his client list. He couldn't just drop off the grid, that would be a show of weakness, but he still had to scale back or turn down any of the more extreme jobs. It would be tricky, seeing as how many weren't the kind of men you say no to, but he could do it. The Calculator focused on his computer and started going through the list of pending messages and job requests that had accumulated since he last checked, going through each and giving the appropriate response. I can manage that… I can scale back on that… going to have to cancel that... Hmm, reply that we can hash out details at a later date-
He was surprised when, only a few seconds after that last the message was sent out, he got a request to connect with video a few seconds later. He hesitated for a second, wondering if he was in the proper state to deal with someone face to face at the moment. He didn't consider it for long though, and set up the connection. If he couldn't even deal with a potential client that mean that the damnable swarm had gotten to him, and he refused to accept that.
When the connection was established though, he wasn't quite expecting the person on the other end. "Ah, Calculator," the image of Lex Luthor said, a small smirk on his face. "I've recently heard of your exploits, and a few associates of mine and I are very interested in a man of your capabilities..."
Serling groaned as she turned and walked away from her desk, heading to the kitchen to get another glass of wine. She knew it was a bad habit she developed recently, but it helped keep the edge off when her… personal project ran into roadblocks. Which wasn't to say she wasn't making any progress, in fact she was getting close to the end. It was just that while the mechanical, robotic parts were well within her capabilities, the biological component...
Walking back into her work room with a glass in hand, she glared at the petri dish on the desk and the ugly blob of red and silver contained within. The nanites just weren't bonding with the blood cells correctly. They would either fail to take hold at all or kill the cell and clot. Not for the first time she wondered if she should choose a different vector for distributing the nanites across the body, but again couldn't come up with a better solution.
She could manually implant clusters of nanites into specific regions of the body, but that was too awkward and would reduce functionality. She could try to make them even more tissue permeable, but that massively increased the risk of bodily damage. Ugh, if only she could have them constantly transmit data about the bonding process so they could all learn from each other simultaneously, but sheer data volume and speed required was computationally impossible with nanomachines of that size.
She thought in circles around the issue before she gave up, sitting down at her terminal to answer some emails for a change of pace. Let's see here… Ted wants to argue about why miniaturizing air compression tech was worthwhile, that might be a fun distraction... Machina needs to have another test session as soon as possible, as he has apparently developed some new abilities. Hmm, well, if nothing else that will give me more data to work with… wait, what the hell?
She stopped when she got to an email with a very large attached file. As in several gigabytes large. How is it getting past the normal attachment size limit? She wondered. The return address was a bunch of nonsense, and the email itself was empty save for a single line:
When you understand, come find us.
For a long moment she considered deleting the very suspicious email before her curiosity won out, moving over to a laptop and creating a secure partition before downloading the mysterious file.
Serling frowned as she scanned the attachment. Her antivirus software wasn't finding anything, and the file didn't have an executable. It just appeared to be a normal text file. A very large text file, but a normal one. After a couple of minutes of debating with herself she decided what the hell, and opened up the file.
Her frown increased as she quickly read through the text scrolling past on the screen. It was just page after page of equations and computer code. It wasn't even in the same programming language either, as she identified at least a dozen different types of syntax. At first she thought she was looking at some kind of mashed up text dump of scientific papers. But the more she stared at it, the more it seemed like the was a pattern to it. Almost like she was looking at-
Something clicked in the back of her mind, and she stopped scrolling. Wait, this part of the code… I recognize this, it's a heuristic approach to the traveling salesman problem, but if I'm reading this correctly… it's an entire order of complexity faster than it should be. That can't be right. To be sure she wrote a quick script to test the algorithm, and to her shock it worked. That-that's incredible! The computer science community would kill for this! How is it in here? Wait, what else is in here?
The more she looked and the closer she analyzed the more she found these solutions. Scattered haphazardly throughout the file in a myriad of different languages were solutions to encryption, queuing, sorting, parsing. Some of it was gibberish and didn't work, but other parts very more efficient than anything she had ever seen before. Encouraged, she start to search the file for traces of distributed systems and claytronic algorithms, particularly in regards to data transfer. And soon enough, she found them.
A few hours later, the nanomachines in the petri dish were bonding with the blood cells perfectly. Serling grinned.
Batman never cared for operating out of the Watchtower. There was no denying its use to the Justice League as a whole, and it's systems were more advanced than any (well, most) computers down planetside, but the whole structure always felt a little too alien for him. Of course, the station was constructed by aliens, and all of the massive corridors and wide open vertical spaces never failed to remind him that it was made for a wide variety of species. Nothing wrong with that, but the man was never entirely at ease unless he was in a space of his own design and control.
Still, it wouldn't do to conduct an inter-League effort from the Batcave, so Batman found himself, along with Superman and Wonder Woman, handling the last bits of the trafficking operation from the Watchtower's main console. The large, smooth terminal wrapped around in a half circle on a raised platform, large windows showing a view of the planet below. "Hawkman, Hawkwoman, have you cleared out the last of the Black Hound personnel from the bayou?" He asked one of the several holographic screens floating in front of him.
The image of the Thanagarian man nodded. "There were a few holdouts on the southern coast. Looked like they were waiting for transport to Mexico, hoping to dodge authorities and start up a new business down south. We managed to capture them with little fuss."
Behind him Hawkwoman spoke up. "What about the rest of the company? I know we've captured everyone involved in the operation, but surely we're not letting the rest of them off the hook."
Batman shook his head. "The company is under federal investigation to determine the extent it is involved. It's highly unlikely the company will survive. As well, through my own investigations I've found the evidence linking the event to Sunderland, and gave it to the authorities. Warrants are being issued as we speak."
The woman nodded, and Batman turned to another screen. "Flash, how is the search and rescue effort?"
"We've managed to find everyone we've got a name for, and a few more besides." Flash said with a gesture. "From what I've heard from the guys at the hospital a few that we found later are showing exposure symptoms, but it's not that bad. With the help from the guys at STAR labs, they should make a full recovery." The man's shoulders slumped. "By the way, someone else want to try searching the swamp next time? Someone owes be a new pair of boots."
"Well, you can try trading places with me and try hauling in new power plant transformers." Superman said affably.
Flash just groaned, and Batman took that as his que to move on. "Zatara, have you learned anything new about the magic involved with these people."
On the screen, the Giovanni Zatara adjusted his top hat. "Only that the Green and the Red are not on the best of terms at the moment. To be honest I am surprised that things turned out as well as they did."
Wonder Woman nodded in agreement. "Indeed. I could tell that the… plant being was far stronger than it was letting on. That none of the poor souls forced to attack the being died was only because it choose not to kill them."
As he had been running mission control at the time, Batman had only a few overhead images available of when the Black Hounds enslaved encountered this 'Avatar of the Green', a massive man made of plants and vines. Wonder Woman had fought beside it for the few minutes before the Calculator had been neutralized. She said it looked like it was in pain the whole time, but nothing actually managed to hurt the being significantly. She tried to talk to it after the fight was done, but it simply walked into the underbrush and disappeared.
"Have you managed to make contact with the Green or the Red?" Batman asked. He was painfully aware of how little he knew in regards to these magical factions, and the last thing he wanted was to be caught off guard by some kind of magical civil war.
However, Zatara shook his head. "I am afraid not. I am no shaman, and have only the barest knowledge of the elemental Kingdoms. I have attempted to entreat with the avatar of the Green since, but they have shown no interest in responding. Perhaps it would be best if we found someone with more experience in the field."
Wonder Woman looked to the side in thought before looking back at the screen. "Perhaps Aquaman's wife, Mera? I have heard that she is a talented sorceress, and I recall that the Throne of Atlantis is tied to the ocean somehow."
Zatara nodded. "Perhaps. For now though, I cannot find any major disturbance in nature as a result of what happened. I think that we were lucky here."
"Acknowledged." Batman said. "I will send inquiries to Atlantis. Is there anything else?"
"Just one thing, Bats." Flash said. "I want to call an actual meeting about what the kids have been up to. I know Green Arrow's been having reservations, and after this…. One of the team getting mind controlled to kill the others is not what I thought the team would have to deal with."
"That particular event occured due to a completely unknown metahuman, and the team handled themselves satisfactorily regardless." He replied. "As well, Machina himself has recovered from the event with no ill effects, and has kept the team calm about the ordel. It is why we had someone of his age on the team to begin with." Batman noticed that Wonder Woman was giving him an odd look, but he wasn't sure why.
"That doesn't fill me with confidence, but we can talk about it later." Flash said.
After that the meeting wrapped up quickly, and everyone calling in remotely said their goodbyes. "So, Bruce," Diana said, turning to him now that the comms were closed. "Were you aware that Jacob is 28?"
Clark looked at her in surprise. "He is? I could have sworn he was younger."
Batman stared back at her for a long moment before replying "Not specifically, but I had assumed that he was around that age."
"And you still decided that he should be on a team with teenagers?"
"The main priority was getting him on a team period." Batman replied. "Aside from training, what Jacob needed most was a place he felt like he belonged. Letting him go off on his own, or even pairing him up with members of the League, wouldn't be enough. The League is… more of an association than a team. The team gave him the supported he needed, as well as allowing being an implicit authority figure based on his age."
Clark hummed. "I wasn't aware he had a leadership position on the team."
"He doesn't. But they listen to him."
Diana was silent for a long moment before arching an eyebrow. "I am… surprised. I didn't think you would take such a personal interest in the man."
"It was pragmatic." He replied. "Machina is too potentially dangerous, both for his powers and his meta-knowledge, to risk losing. I did what I thought would be best to keep him in an emotionally stable state."
Clark chuckled. "If you say so. Still, it is a bit odd to have someone of his age around teenagers, at least in regards to being on the team and living with some of them."
Batman turned to look at him. "At this point, I doubt the team would function the same if we decided to remove him. Machina is one of them, and they would not care for it if he left."
"Some more than others." Diana muttered, and Batman caught the smallest smirk on her lips. Before he could ask, she said "By the way Bruce, you know that bet that's been going around the League lately..."
The girl sighed as she walked into her room, grudgingly heading over to her desk and pulling out a stack of papers. While she personally considered it a crime against everything that was right in the world for a school to a assign summer assignments, she still needed to do them. She had been working on it on and off all season, so she didn't have that much left thankfully. Considering that school was starting in a few days though, she just had to push through this last bit. And so, she sat down, pulled out a pencil and got started.
But only an hour in, she became so bored. The girl groaned as she leaned back in her chair, blowing her long dark hair out of her face as she did so. If high school work is this boring, I may want to reconsider trying to become a lawyer, She thought as she stared at the ceiling. When did all this start becoming to so dull? Though, if she was being honest, she knew the answer to that, and her eyes drifted over to her closet.
Maybe, just for a little while, she could- No. No, she would not give into temptation. She had made a big declaration to her sister and everything. She was going to be responsible and do her homework like a normal person.
The girl grit her teeth and sat back up, determined to get her work done. Though, she did make a concession in turning on her computer, thinking that having something going on in the background might make the task a little less arduous. She browsed across her normal websites for a moment before she settled on a newscast. That seemed reasonable, it was only good for her to stay informed on the goings-on of the world.
The video started to play, showing a pleasant looking man and woman sitting at a desk. The woman spoke."Our top story tonight, the ongoing criminal investigation of the Sunderland Corporation for their role in a massive human trafficking operation. New evidence has come to light that CEO Avery Sunderland was in fact involved in these criminal acts and perhaps ordered them himself. Investigators say that a top level investigation into Black Hound Securities has revealed orders coming from Sunderland Headquarters, specifically from Sunderland's offices. It has been announced that there is a warrant for Sunderland's arrest, but no word on whether or not he has been taken into custody."
The man took over. "In related news, the headquarters for Cryptarch Industries, another subsidiary of the Sunderland Corporation, suffered from a massive fire which destroyed much of the building and resources within. This is coming after the damages incurred from the terrorist incident a few weeks ago. Investigators are considering the possibility that Cryptarch was also involved in the human trafficking incident, but it will be difficult to obtain proof now."
"In any case, the Justice League is finishing up their support in the clean up of Lafayette..."
The girl tuned them out, half focusing on her homework and half mentally drifting. If I wasn't going to become a lawyer, what else would I be? How else do I help the world? Well, it would be nice to get out and about in the world… and it would be good to give something that would inspire people… hmm, maybe a photographer-
"So, how about Wonder Woman's new sidekick?"
The girl's head snapped up at this, and she saw the newswoman laughing softly at the man's comment. "Well, nothing's confirmed yet Dave, but there is a lot of speculation on the superheroine Starfire and her relationship with the Themysciran princess."
The background behind the two changed to indicate a new segment, a less serious one involving gossip about superheroes. "Arriving from space a few months ago, the alien beauty has been seen with Wonder Woman on a number of occasions, most recently helping clean up efforts in Louisiana. Starfire has said herself that Wonder Woman is showing her the ropes of how to be a superhero." A number of pictures appeared on screen, showing an orange skinned young woman with (literally) flaming red hair next to Diana. Some showed them talking, some flying, one of them fighting side by side. "While it's not clear how far this mentoring goes, this has boosted Starfire's popularity quite a bit from it's already considerable amount, as this is the first time in recent memory that Wonder Woman has taken such and interest in another hero. We'll just have to see how this develops."
The man took over. "Yes, though Starfire's not the only one with a lot of speculation around them, as the hero Machina showed up at the same time. This mysterious machine man has been seen with..."
Donna Troy looked at the TV for a long moment before she said "What the hell?"