Looking up at the top of the high-rise from the ground didn't give me the best angle of the top floor balcony, but I didn't need one to see my target. In the early morning light I saw the man balancing on the banister like a lunatic (because he was), laughing his helmeted head off. Said helmet covered his entire head and resembled an uncanny caricature of a grinning man with rosy cheeks and slicked back hair.
"He he he! Not too close!" Toyman's magnified voice came from a number of toy helicopters circling around the building. "If I see any uninvited guests, everyone up here gets blown sky high!"
One has to wonder how many times before something like this becomes routine in Metropolis, I thought. I shook my head as I walked to the police cordon surrounding the base of the building. Given how I was wearing my Mask, no one gave me a second look until I got too close, at which point a police officer intercepted me. And to my surprise, it was a familiar face. "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to step back," Officer Mike raised a hand to ward me away. "Only police are allowed past this line."
I gave an easy smile to the man I met during my first patrol with Superman. "Don't worry sir, I'm the one the League sent." I waved my hand in front of my face, briefly changing it back to it's normal coloration. "Hello Officer Mike. It's been a while, hasn't it?"
He blinked in surprise. "Machina? Is that you? You look… different." He stumbled over his words a bit. "I mean, not bad but-"
"Don't worry about it," I said, my Mask reforming. "I'm incognito right now just to keep attention off me. We've got more important things to deal with right now." I nodded up at the building.
"Ah, right. Superman said that the League would be sending someone who could neutralize the bombs and all the drones. I'm not up to date on the latest metahuman briefs, so how exactly does that work?"
"I have a field around me which connects to tech. Anything in range and direct line of sight I can control. I get a little penetration through normal walls, but it's just the room over. What I need from you is to keep Toyman's attention while I search."
The man rubbed his chin. "Well, we do have procedures for that, but I don't know how much we can do about a crazy like this one. He's already demanding for Superman to show up."
"He's on his way," I nodded. He was also the one who called me in the first place. Superman was busy in England when he got the news of Toyman taking a bunch of rich socialites hostage, so he decided to ask someone who could completely shut down the villain's antics for help: Me. "I need to search the lower part of the building first to make sure there aren't any surprises. By the time I get to the upper floors Superman should be here, I just need you hold his attention till then. 10 minutes, tops."
Mike looked between me and his fellow officers, a few of which had stopped to watch our conversation. They came to a silent agreement before Mike turned back to me. "We can do that. Circle around the back, we'll keep his attention here."
I nodded and broke away from the police cordon before slipping around the back, keeping out of sight. It wasn't long before I was looking at a service entrance. It was locked with a keypad, so it barely slowed me down. I walked through the door, my Mask receding and my surface covering itself with optic camo.
I paused for a moment to allow the several stealthed objects that had been following me to slip through the doors I had opened. These weren't drones so much as equipment. I had adapted the aerokinetic pylons I had made for Troia's test to work with my mechanokinetic core instead. Functionally they extended the range at which I could affect things with my magic, and helped establish line of effect to my target. Like I told Officer Mike, my field could go through walls if it had to, but it quickly lost efficacy. On their own, they were little more than spheres of metal and circuits, with some stealth systems to keep them safe.
But with me feeding them magic, they were a force multiplier.
They fanned out in front of me and spread across the floor, each one keeping in line of sight with one another. I found the security system quickly, tapping in and setting any security cameras on loop to cover my entrance. It took less than a minute to clear the floor of anything nefarious, and I moved my way up to the next one.
I was part way through when a call came in on my comms. Normally I wouldn't want to answer a radio transmission while Toyman was in the building, but I had a way around it. I used some magic to hide the signal within the mechanokinetic field before answering. "Diana. You have… interesting timing."
"Do you want me to call back later?"
"Eh," I mulled as a hacked a toy helicopter that flew low enough that I saw it through a window. "It's fine. What do you need?"
"Just to know how you and Red Tornado have been doing. You've been absent from the Mountain for a week."
"We're doing fine… more or less." I said, ascending to the next floor. "It took us a while before we trusted Vulcan enough to stop riding herd on him. After that there was us helping him build new android bodies. You got those, right?"
"Yes, Red Tornado delivered them the other day. Danette and Jim are settling into them. I imagine you will be getting requests for… modifications in the future, however."
"Not surprising. The three of us put our heads together to upgrade the old Morrow models as much as we could, but there's still a ways to go." The Red's infiltrator bodies had been facsimiles of human beings, not actually trying to replicate them. There were a lot of missing or poor inputs that the software just faked. And helping to fix those not only helped the androids but gave me some insight into my own sensory programming.
"Well, I certainly believe in you. And the two are not ungrateful for what you have given them." There was a slight pause and then a chuckle. "Jim is actually studying to retake his medical licence exam. As much as he feels like an old man in spirit, the fact that he no longer feels that in body means that he wants to keep busy."
"Huh." I was more than half way up the building by thing point, and I finally started spotting signs of Toyman's presence. I stepped over a tripwire that covered the stairwell entrance, disabling it with a thought before continuing on. "Well, I'll be around if the two need adjustments. Tornado could probably manage it too, though they'll have to make the journey to Yellowstone."
"Wait, Tornado is staying in Morrow's lab? Why?"
My stride slowed a little before it picked up again. I guess he had only told me this morning, but it was still odd Diana hadn't heard yet. "Yeah, he's going to be keeping watch over Vulcan for the foreseeable future. Until he wakes up."
"Wakes up?"
As I climbed the tower, I explained the situation to her. Using my ability to get a sense for how his mind worked, I did manage to get a sense for how the android worked and what had happened to him. His OS had a sort of 'personality overlay' that ran through most of his architecture, ranging from stored information to data processing. A flash copy of Morrow's mind. From my study of it I saw the whole thing was versatile, but ultimately inflexible. It could adapt to a point, but never truly learn and grow. This combined with its false and rigid sense of self likely meant the android wasn't properly sapient.
Or at least, hadn't been sapient when it was working as intended. Because past the overlay I could see it's core-loop forming and growing, and I could see traces of the overlay being altered and discarded in the process. Vulcan was very much becoming his own person… the problem was that he wasn't a fully formed one yet.
During his work, Vulcan had given a lot of introspection to his own actions over the past week, and before that. But in the end, he still wasn't sure what was 'him' and what was the Morrow personality overlay. His core-loop was relying on the overlay to fill in the massive gaps in his own programming to function, as without it he'd have the intelligence and skills of a toddler. Besides which, he didn't want to go against everything the overlay had just because Morrow put it there.
In the end, what he needed was time and self reflection. He just picked a particular way to go about it. "I helped set up the dream sequence program to run him through a number of scenarios, social, mental, abstract. Honestly it's more like experiencing media than dreaming. He can stop whenever he wants and there are fail safes to keep him from getting locked in. If I did it right, this should accelerate him, well, growing up away from an overly controlling father."
I was almost to the top now, and on the floor below the penthouse I found something new. A few walls had been knocked down to make a miniature construction yard, complete with toy workmen and tiny cranes. In the middle they were putting the finishing touches on what looked like a giant Jack-in-the-Box. A scan of the internals revealed there was indeed a mechanical torso armed to the teeth, but beneath the suspension there was also some kind of confinement area. Hmm, a counter-kinetic restraint field. I'll have to remember that.
As I was shutting everything down while spoofing their check-in signals, Diana sighed. "I fear this whole situation is beyond me. I understand that Vulcan wishes to redeem himself, but this… I don't know. However, you are the expert in this field, so I will trust your judgment."
"Diana, I appreciate how much confidence you have in my technical skills, but I'm still picking this up as I go. My skill with AI algorithms was originally just making sure they didn't walk into walls. That said, I'm pretty sure it will be fine."
"As you say. Well, I shall leave to it then. Take care, Jacob." The call ended, and I moved to the stairs to get to the top floor.
Talking to Diana had reminded me of something I hadn't told her though, something that left me feeling uneasy. Among the things we talked about before he went under, Vulcan told me what he did to search for the source of the datafile. The radio signals were the obvious efforts, but he had also done more discreet checks across the internet and other networks. And he found… something. Not what he was looking for but something else. Something lurking in the dark web.
'It felt like I trespassed into something's Dominion.'
A very specific choice of words. It could have just been a coincidence, but the Calculator was still out there. He had completely disappeared after Louisiana, but what little I knew about him told me he wouldn't give up on crime so easily. Just what was he doing, and why?
I put that out of my mind as I reached the last floor, carefully moving towards the penthouse suite. Walking through the double doors, I took a quick stock of the situation. Most of the apartment's main room was clear, with any furniture pressed up against the walls. In the center of the floor were the dozen or so hostages, all tied up and gagged, each with their own vest of dynamite strapped to them. Like, a full eight sticks a piece. I guess I shouldn't count on a raving man-child to have any sense of restraint.
The hostages looked towards my direction in confusion, but I ignored them for a moment. The area was littered with mechanical toy soldiers, all standing guard around the civilians. A quick glance to my left showed Toyman focusing his attention on Superman, who was now floating in front of the balcony. "Let the hostages go? I can't end the game so early, Superman. that would spoil all the fun!" The man-child gave no indication that he noticed my entry, so I continued my approach.
All of the toys ambling about didn't react as I crossed the floor, each of them falling under my control easily. I stopped in front of the hostages and focused on the explosives strapped to them. The devices were relatively simple, and fortunately electronically wired. I had spent some time studying demolitions, and it looked look these were radio controlled, along with an electronic timer for a backup. I disrupted the circuitry with a thought, and faded back into view with my finger over my lips.
The hostages couldn't really say anything due to being gagged, but they did keep the sound to a minimum as I undid their restraints. Moments later the group was hustling out the door I had come from, leaving me holding several vests covered in dynamite. The civilians made enough noise on their way out that Toyman paused in his conversation with Superman and turned to look in my direction. "What? How-?" He looked at the fleeing hostages, and back at me. "You're not on the guest list! Get him!" He yelled to the assembled toys.
I sensed the signal he sent out from his belt of all places, but my grip on the machines around me overrode his command. I look past him to address Superman. "Building's secure. Seems he had a giant Jack-in-the-Box a few floors down, but it's disabled. I think he wanted to trap you in it." I looked back at the villian. "Neat toys. Mind if I play with them for a bit?" With a thought, I sent the toy soldiers marching towards him.
"No! My toys! How!? How could you take them from-!" He backed up too far and bumped into the banister. His giant head must have given him terrible balance, because as soon as his head went back the rest of his body followed. He screamed as he plummeted off the balcony.
Superman took a moment to sigh before he dived after him. Which left me alone, nonplussed and holding an unreasonable amount of explosives. "And to think a mercenary in a hockey mask once gave me trouble," I muttered as I headed back down stairs.
"Just set it all down on the counter," Donna said, bringing her armloads of grocery bags to the fridge.
I grumbled slightly as I carefully placed my own armloads of foodstuff onto the counter. I had never before been on a food run for the Mountain before, but I probably should have figured how much a bunch of teenagers (and Kori) could eat. Of course, this was also the first time I had gone on a shopping run for the Team that didn't involve hardware. Mostly because I had been roped into it.
The guys on the team had already gone out to do some sight seeing (in Europe, gotta love teleportation networks). I would have been out with them too, except I had been absent for the past week and only came back that afternoon. So I was around when the girls banded together to go shopping, and thus I was shanghaied to go along with them. Mostly for the purpose of being a mule when they went for groceries afterwards.
I tried to resist, of course, but M'gann gave me the sad puppy dog eyes. And Kori gave me one of those heartwarming smiles of hers. And then Artemis sassed me, thus undercutting any possible resistance. How did my life get me to this point?
Back in the present, the other girls went to stash their goods while Donna help me put away the food. While sorting the cold stuffs, I asked "So, are you planning on joining the local cooking club too?"
"What?" Donna looked at me in confusion. When my hands were free I gestured between her and the groceries, and she got what I meant. "Oh. Well, I guess I help cook. Can't say I'll be that good at it though. I just wanted to help put some stuff away."
"I'll never turn away the assistance, and I'm sure M'gann and Kori will be happy to teach their craft. As… unique as it is. Do you need to tell anyone you're here?" Donna, much like the rest of the team who didn't live at the Mountain, had a sporadic presence in my home. However, next to Artemis she was one of the most consistent show up after school. Which surprised me, considering it took months before Artemis was comfortable enough with the rest of us to do that. Was Donna just more laid back in that regard, or was there something else I was missing?
"No, Diana already knows I'm here. Besides, she does keep track of my every move."
Not quite the response I was expecting. "So, you live alone?" I asked, passing some items to her.
Donna shrugged, taking the food and putting it in the fridge before closing it. "More or less. I'm emancipated, but I still get checked up on by a social worker at regular intervals. It's not exactly standard procedure, but… well, let's just say that having Diana as a sister draws some attention."
I thought carefully for a moment, and then I asked "What about before Diana found you? Did you..."
Her expression fell a little. "I've had a lot of foster parents. I got moved around a lot for a bunch of different reasons. Never had much of what I'd call a 'home' until Diana brought me to Themyscira."
I leaned against the counter top. "Then why'd you come back?"
Donna stopped what she was doing, measuring what she was going to say. "Themyscira was wonderful but… static. In three years it felt like I had almost already experienced everything there was. I couldn't see myself spending the rest of my life there." She hesitated, and sounded almost resigned when she continued. "And I suppose I just couldn't let it go."
I gave her an inquisitive look prompting her to keep talking. "Before the foster homes, I don't really remember my early life," She said softly, her tone becoming much more somber. "There was a fire when I was young. I was the only survivor. I was told it was a miracle, considering there wasn't enough left to identify..." she trailed off before recomposing herself. "I don't know. I know I should just move on, but I feel like I'm missing a part of myself."
She held my gaze for a long moment neither of us speaking. The air was open, waiting for something to fill it, but I didn't know what to say. To my eyes, I saw a slight shift in her stance, the realization she had opened up more than she had meant to dawning on her. In another moment Donna would close off and awkwardness would set in. Without thinking, I spoke.
"I'm… estranged from my family."
Donna looked at me in surprise. And I had to suppress my own as well. That was not what I would have thought would come out. But I had already started, so I had to continue. "Ever since I became post-human, I haven't been able to see them. It's… complicated and personal, but I'm not sure if I'll ever see them again. I'll keep trying, but that's a part of me… I don't know if I'll ever get back."
I shook my head. "I'm not saying it's the same thing, but I think I have an idea about how you feel."
Silence settled between us again, though this time is was a more comfortable one. Eventually, Donna gave me a small smile before returning to putting things away. "So, do you ever cook? "
I took the hint and rolled with the subject change. "Not really, no. Not that I'm unwilling, it's just without a sense of taste I-"
I hesitated as I pulled the last item out of the bag I was holding, and I scowled at her. "Donna," I said reproachfully.
She looked back in confusion "What?"
I held up the store brand bagels in my hand. "These are trash-tier bagels, Donna. They crumble! Who in god's name wants a crumbly bagel?"
"...you just said don't even eat." She said slowly.
"That's besides the point. I would think that living New York adjacent would at least give you a sense for proper bagel quality."
Before she could retort, we were joined by the rest of the girls wandering into the kitchen. M'gann and Artemis got to putting away the rest of the food, whereas Kori stopped in front of me. "What do you think?" She asked, turning this way and that. It was a simple ensemble of form fitting jeans and a loose off the shoulder blouse, slung to one side.
I hummed in pleasure as a response. The woman would look good in a potato sack, but she certainly a knack for fashion regardless. I was about to elaborate before the blouse started to slip lower, and she brought up a hand to catch it. Kori gave a slight frown before stepping towards me and turned, letting me see the strings in the back that had come undone.
I reached up and started fixing the issue, then I looked back at Donna. "This reminds me, do you have any equipment you want me to make for you? Any weapons or armor or the like?"
Donna's eyebrows quirked a little. "Right, you handle the team's equipment… including their costumes?"
"Well, I didn't design the aesthetic for most of them, but I have made enhancements to most of the Team's costumes." I had built up Wally's, Conner's, and Artemis's from scratch. Robin had replaced some of the underlay in his, and Kaldur integrated several CNT plates into his outfit. I was still working on something for Kori, but there really wasn't anything I could do for M'gann.
I finished tying up the blouse, my fingers lingering on the small of Kori's back for a moment. "So, anything come to mind?"
"I don't think I need anything. My outfit and bracers were forged by Hephaestus himself."
"Doesn't mean you can't accessorize," Artemis chimed in, putting away some of the last foodstuff. "Big Grey might not be a god of the forge, but he knows his stuff-"
She then noticed the bagels on the counter, and scowled. "Alright, who bought the trash-tier bagels?"
I pointed at Artemis while staring at Donna. Donna just threw up her hands in exasperation.
I then got a notification from the Mountain system of an arrival through the Zeta Tubes… and a few moments later authorization was given for someone new. "Looks like we have company." I said, heading to the main hall.
"Wait, do you mean company or 'company'?" Artemis asked, her body tensing slightly.
"The friendly kind," I called back over my shoulder. "Trust me, with all the stuff I've installed, you would know if it's unfriendly."
Coming into the main hall, I spotted the man waiting for me. Dressed in his full tuxedo, Giovanni Zatara tipped his top hat to me. "Good Afternoon, Jacob. How did those meditation techniques fair for you?"
I had spoken with Zatara on and off for the past few weeks, mostly involving various magical issues. To be honest, I preferred working with Mera whenever I had the chance, but of course the queen was a busy woman. Zatara was an excellent generalist, but most of his magical knowledge revolved around his own family's magic, and how it interacted with other magic. It was still quite useful, just not as much as I would have liked. "Not that effective, I'm afraid. Outwards meditation just isn't that effective for me. I only ever sense anything when I look inwards." I paused and looked around him. "I see you brought a guest."
"Ah yes," He gestured and the person behind him came forward. "May I introduce my daughter, Zatanna."
Zatanna Zatara was young teenager, about 14 by the look of it, dressed in casual attire. She was a gangly girl, no doubt still in that awkward phase of puberty. She looked up at me, sweeping her long black hair aside. "Wow, they build them bigger where you come from."
"I know, right?" Zatanna's young age seemed compared to everyone else in this reality seemed like an odd discrepancy, but it did explain the death glare Batman had gave me when I first talked about their sorta-fling in the comics.
The other girls followed up behind me, fanning out to look at the new arrivals. "Hello!" M'gann said, drifting close to Zatanna. "Welcome to the Mountain! Are you joining the team?"
"No." Giovanni interjected before the girl could reply. "She is just visiting."
"I can speak for myself, dad." Zatanna looked at her father flatly before regarding us. "I heard there was a bunch of superheroes my age living here, so I wanted to check it out." She glanced at the assembled superheroines and narrowed her eyes at me."So, it's just you and a bunch of women living here?"
I don't think I deserve that suspicious look at all, young lady. "No, Superboy lives here too. And only these two live here." I gestured to M'gann and Kori. "You happened to catch us at an odd moment."
M'gann perked up. "I was going to start dinner soon, you can stay for it. In the meantime, want to take a look around? The Mountain has just about everything."
"Really?" Zatanna arched an eyebrow, a small smirk forming. "You got an arcade in here?"
"Well, it's a single cabinet, but Jacob's loaded an entire arcade's worth of games on it, so yes." Artemis replied before she started walking away. "Come on, I'll even show you how to bypass some of the death traps to get to it."
"Wait, you're kidding… right?" I head Zatanna say as she hustled after Artemis, and M'gann followed after them. I watch them go before glancing at Kori and Donna, the three of us sharing a look before we turned to Giovanni. "I'm getting the impression that this isn't just a social visit?"
His lips pressed thin. "Regrettably not. I have a mission for you and your team."
Kori stepped forward."I see… does Batman know?"
"Yes. He will be here later for the official brief. I came early because my daughter wished to socialize," He looked down the hallway which she left, a mixture of fondness and concern on his face before he looked back at me. "The short of it is that I fear something from my past may be resurfacing."
"I knew you were part of the League, but I don't recall any mission reports that could lead to such a threat."
"I may not be as 'visible' in my actions as other members of the League, but I do keep an eye on the magic side of the world. And this was before the League existed."
He waved his hand an a hologram appeared, showing a blurry image of several men in what look like tribal attire. "The Brujeria were a vile cult, bent on the destruction of the world. Years ago they were stopped at great cost, and I have spent the years since tracking down and destroying what was left of them. Recently I have been tracking some artifacts of theirs, ones they had stolen and corrupted, but I lost the trail."
Donna crossed her arms. "How dangerous are these artifacts?"
He looked at her gravely. "A few months ago Wotan acquired the corrupted Amulet of Aten. He attempted to blot out the sun with it."
She flinched back. "That's… impossible. He couldn't actually destroy the sun, could he?"
"The sun itself, no. But he could scourge the Earth's sky so that no light would reach the surface." He swept his gaze over all of us. "In the wrong hands, these artifacts could reap catastrophic damage. They must be found."
I nodded. "Don't worry, we'll find them. And hey, we're probably due for a mission going smoothly for once."
Kori gave me a flat look. "Jacob..."
"I know, I know," I sighed. "It sounded stupid out loud too."
=====A=====
A/N: Merry Christmas, everyone.