Less Than Zero Chapter 39

Chapter 39: Control

With Kara still away doing her thing, and his visit with Anarky over with and done, Max returned to Gotham City, thinking over what he'd experienced at the juvenile detention facility.

Lonnie Machin's words drilled into his head. As much of an asshole as he thought the boy behind Anarky was, he was right. Max knew what he wanted to do with the information. He'd always known.

He wanted people to know. Not out of any sense of malice against the superhero community. But some kind of accountability had to be assigned. With the closest things to gods the world had ever seen, the only thing that seemed to sway them one way or another was the court of public opinion. Some well-established names would fall from grace along the way, but if criminals like him had to be held responsible for the morals behind their decisions, the ones tasked with keeping criminals in check had to as well.

He wasn't even saying that they were right or wrong. The villains that had been mentally altered... Max had read up on them. Up to a certain point in time, many of them had been sick, dangerous wretches. Dr. Arthur Light had been the most prominent in the files, as he had been the first.

Max had met some awful people, but he'd yet to find himself forced to deal with a superpowered serial rapist. A genius with little comparison that used his intellect and the power that intellect had given him to prey on others. That someone like him had gotten his brains scrambled to the point where he'd been a joke in the community... Max couldn't begin to find it in him to feel bad about it.

Then again, for some of the other names he'd found? The biggest contributing factor that led to them being magically mind-wiped and worse just so happened to be finding out the identities of a few more prominent Justice League members.

How much control was too much over the rehabilitation of those who had done wrong?

How much oversight was too much?

How much power and control was too much?

When the heroes were as powerful as they were, who was it that kept them in check? Who or what kept them from doing things they would have pursued and punished others for, even if it was to protect others from those who would do people harm? Was it self-policed?

Why did some villains get wiped, while others who were much worse were left alone? Max was from Gotham City. There were at least five people off the top of his head horrible enough to warrant similar treatment to Dr. Light. But instead, they sat in Blackgate Penitentiary or Arkham Asylum.

There were so many questions, and there was no one to answer them. This was what drew Max to the last place on Earth he wanted to be - the Batcave.

The previous way he had managed to slip in as Null had been revamped security-wise... which was fine, because Null just shorted out the security.

...It wasn't like he had beem trying to hide. He had made his presence as known as he could on his way in. After all, he had come to talk in the first place.

Batman was as hospitable and accommodating as one could expect.

"Get out," Were the first words to come out of Batman's mouth when Null presented himself. He didn't even bother turning around from his supercomputer.

Not expecting any warmer a reception, Null let it slide off of him and power through, "I have a question."

This would make the second visit in as many days that Batman wanted no part of, "I don't care. Leave."

Null scoffed at the frank dismissal, "You break into my house and harass me all the time."

"You're a criminal."

"Was a criminal. I've been exonerated."

"That's not what that means," Batman corrected, "No one ever found you innocent. You actually committed your crimes," He just got a sweetheart deal afterwards for helping to deal with someone much more dangerous than he was.

"Fine. Pardoned then," Null self-corrected. It was splitting hairs as far as he was concerned.

"We're not having this conversation," Batman said, resolute on having things his way.

Null, however, wasn't willing to play ball and cow just because Batman wasn't feeling sociable, "Good, because I don't want to. So, the sooner you shut up and open your pointy fucking ears to listen to why I am here, the sooner I'll be gone."

At that. Batman spun around in his chair and stood to his full height, towering four inches taller than the boy. He stomped over and went nose-to-nose with Null.

The Batman struck fear in the heart of criminals; his targets. The fear of being hunted down, locked away, punished by an indomitable, nigh unstoppable force. No one was immune to the sensation. Null would have had that fear as well. In fact, he had before... back when he actually had charges against him.

But now? Since the Batman had no reason to chase him down and mete out justice to him, what was there to be afraid of?

A lot, still. But a defiant side of Null pushed it down and replaced it with the ire he felt from his past interactions with the Dark Knight.

Where in the past, Null hadn't been able to so much as look the Batman in the eye, he now stared the man down without flinching, "What are you gonna do? Beat my ass again? Frame me again?"

"I didn't frame you," Batman replied.

Null scoffed, "No. You just knew I was being framed and went with it for your benefit. Means justify the end, eh? Guess you fit right in with your Justice League friends-."

The only thing that kept Null from getting clocked with a jaw-shattering punch was a combination of his enhanced reflexes, and a protective magnetic field that let him slip out of the way of the crushing blow before it could hit him.

Even so, despite not being punched, Max held the surprised expression of a man that had been unexpectedly slapped.

Batman threw the first punch; just from trading words. If Null ran back the conversation and went for 1000 different barbs to elicit a reaction out of him, he could have only gotten Batman to swing at him one time - that time.

"You remember," Null whispered, things slowly dawning upon him, "Holy crap, you remember being mindwiped," No wonder hearing about it made Batman want to kill him.

Batman had calmed down significantly. However, he was still positively livid, "What did you say?"

Despite needling Batman on, Null really hadn't come to fight. He needed to talk, "No... I know about it," He said, holding his hands up defensively, "I know what they did. Who did it… who they did it to... and that one of them was you. It's why I came here. They're your people, right?"

"They are not my people," Batman said coldly. He didn't know who out of them he could trust, which was a major problem for him, "I want as little to do with the Justice League as possible from here on out. Grill one of them about it yourself."

Null wasn't too sure how he felt about that idea, "Okay? Have any suggestions on who then?" If the wrong one had a similar reaction to Batman, it would probably take a bit more effort to keep them from unloading on him.

Batman was about to tell him to figure it out himself when he remembered a recent interaction, "Blue Beetle. You can find him in Chicago."

Blue Beetle had worked his nerves the other day when he'd come bothering him about his money issues, but he did believe Ted Kord was a good man. He just couldn't afford to trust anyone outside of his immediate influence; or as Null would have put it, his people.

For Null, that idea worked. From what he knew of heroes, Blue Beetle was a smart guy. A genius, actually. He had no metapowers of his own, but instead designed all of his equipment that allowed him to keep pace with others. That kind of hustle was something he could respect.

"Cool," Null said, beginning to start on his way out of the Batcave. He stopped for a moment and spared a glance back at Batman, who had by then taken to ignoring him once more, returning to his work.

That was fine. Null had his own things to do as well.

XxX

(Star City, California)

Supergirl had tried to think things over on her own. After departing Max's home in Gotham City, she'd flown around, doing her job to help out where she could, but her mind was elsewhere.

A part of her felt guilty. Max had given her something with which she could potentially do a lot of good, but also potentially do a lot of damage. And here she was, waffling on what to do. She was an intelligent girl, but there were some things that she considered beyond her.

She required context. She had to speak to someone and get the kinds of details she needed to make an informed decision. Supergirl wanted no part of grilling Zatanna Zatara, lest things get heated. Magic was a noted Achilles' heel of hers. Fortunately, she had a list of others to choose from: The Flash, Hawkman, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Green Arrow, and a few more. Unfortunately, her options were limited due to circumstance. Many of the others were working around the clock trying to thwart The Society or dealing with incidents in space.

When it rained, it poured. It seemed like everything wanted to hit the fan all at once. But she still had people she could speak to.

The moment she had some free time, Kara made her way to Star City. She had gone there to find Green Arrow, but when she couldn't locate him, she turned her search to her second choice of Black Canary.

Many cities were going without their chief protectors dedicating the bulk of their time to them. With Society incursions happening all over the world, the best-equipped individuals to deal with the coordinated villains were asked to move around to where they were needed. Kara knew this very well.

The bigger the name you were and/or the stronger you were, the more in-demand your assistance was. That meant less time roaming about one's own stomping grounds. Oftentimes, however, there were others in place to help pick up the slack.

Black Canary was one of those heroes in Star City. Apt, as she was Green Arrow's wife. That alone gave her the respect of the man's apprentices. Between that, her own extensive experience, and her own high-ranking place in the Justice League at one time, there were few better suited than she was for the position.

Without a mission somewhere on the other side of the world to occupy her, Supergirl was free to fly to Star City for her own reasons. Sure, she took a little time to help with the workload, but it was the least she could do for the uncomfortable conversation she'd planned on having.

As if fate wished to force the issue, while Supergirl overlooked the city, trying to think of the best way to broach the subject, Black Canary came to find her.

"Thanks for taking up some of the workload, Kara," The older blonde woman said amicably, "I know you said you wanted to talk about something, and here we put you to work."

Supergirl laughed, a nervous timbre to her voice, "It's okay. I'm happy to help," She meant it, yet sounded unconvincing despite the honesty. Black Canary noticed. Quite the banner way to start, 'Maybe I should have asked Max to handle this. He's better with this kind of thing than I am.'

Max had a knack for dealing with others, even if he didn't realize it.

As Supergirl settled down alongside the target of her interrogation, she felt some nerves start to creep in. Who was she to try and insert herself into something like this? But just as quickly, she pushed the feeling down.

"I'm happy to help…" Supergirl reiterated, wringing her hands in front of her as she resolved to go through with her reason for being there, "But I did come to talk, about something that's going to be hard to bring up."

Black Canary would have needed to be blind to miss Supergirl's body language, "I'm listening."

"The mindwipes," Supergirl said bluntly, deciding to pull the band-aid right off and get to the point. The moment she brought it up, she could feel the shift in demeanor, "Dinah... I know about them. More than you probably want anyone to."

Black Canary pulled away a tad. Just enough for Supergirl to notice, "If you know, then what is there to talk about?" The elder blonde asked cagily.

Supergirl sighed, "Because I want perspective. Because I want to know what was in your heads when you decided to go through with it."

Did anyone involved regret it? Did they regret what they had to do to keep it a secret for as long as they did?

Would they do it again if they had the means? Zatanna was no longer willing to wipe minds, but that didn't mean another method couldn't come up in the future.

Supergirl expected anger, or some kind of defensive aggression directed her way. Instead, she got a reaction of resignation – as though it were a matter of time before this blew back onto her in some way, "I'm honestly surprised it took this long for someone like you to bring it up. Even Superman has been dancing around it… and Batman won't even speak to anyone."

Supergirl could see why. But she wanted to be a hero; to do the right thing. Sometimes, doing the right thing felt uncomfortable.

…And this was going to be uncomfortable.

"Well?" Supergirl urged.

Black Canary took a moment to measure her words and decide how she wanted to approach things, "Everyone thinks Superman or Batman lead the Justice League. But they're so busy dealing with their own problems, fighting their own enemies…" She started to explain, "Someone had to actually take responsibility. Take charge. As it turns out, it took a few somebodies."

Membership had fluctuated over the years as people came and went. There were also other groups affiliated with the Justice League all over the world; many that deferred to them and took leadership from them. The most famous of them were busy protecting the entire world (Superman), or swamped with a workload or other responsibilities that kept them unavailable for lesser problems (Batman, Wonder Woman).

When other groups or lesser individual heroes needed to look somewhere for guidance, they had to get it from somewhere.

"Green Arrow, Hawkman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Elongated Man, and me," Black Canary listed names, "We were the ones who made most of the difficult decisions."

Supergirl didn't mean to put as much vitriol into her tone as she did, but it just bled in, "The difficult decisions. Like, wiping minds and altering people's brains, difficult decisions," Black Canary didn't immediately answer. That only made things worse, "How did you even get away with this?"

She wanted to believe that Kal-El would never have allowed anything like this had he been aware of it. But how could his own friends manage to keep something so big from him?

"The biggest players were busy," Black Canary said, all but physically shrugging off the accusation, "Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman? They saw what they wanted to see."

"As in, they saw people they could trust," Supergirl uncharacteristically snapped. Black Canary didn't respond to that at first; but she didn't shrug it off so easily either. Supergirl felt her temper continue to mount, "Are you even going to defend it?"

Black Canary let out a tired sigh, "Kara, these aren't criminal headaches like your boyfriend we're talking about here. These are rapists. Mass murderers. Complete psychopaths – with the superpowers, resources, and intellect to hold entire cities at gunpoint."

And while Kara hadn't seen it herself, she'd heard of what could happen. She'd been told about more than one city on Earth being devastated by the machinations of one of its own inhabitants.

Black Canary crossed her arms over her chest, a grave expression on her face, "It was only done in the direst of cases, and none of us are proud of it."

Dire cases. What exactly did they consider dire? Villains like Dr. Destiny and Brainwave discovering their identities in the past was unfortunate, but it didn't count as dire. And they got their memories wiped for it.

"But you still did it, more than once," Supergirl said quietly, "You did it to Batman as well, and you hid it from everyone. So, why are you ashamed of it? Why did you keep it a secret?"

Because they knew it was wrong. Because while it had been understandable as to why, it was also the easy way out by comparison. But if one were looking at the situation like that, if it was to the point where they were fundamentally altering villains' brains to keep them from being a threat, why not kill them instead? One could argue, doing such a thing could be seen as the more merciful choice.

Well, that was because superheroes didn't kill. It was a bad look. Jumbling Dr. Arthur Light's brain to the point where he went from a threat to the Justice League to a bumbling foe for budding sidekicks to warm up on? That was apparently fine. Just as long as you weren't caught. The proper optics had to be upheld, after all.

What Black Canary said next stuck with Kara for some time afterwards.

"Superheroes don't get to make mistakes, Kara. When we screw up, people tend to get hurt. All we can do when we fuck up is do our best to salvage the situation," Blue eyes pierced into blue eyes at that moment, "That's all we're doing now; trying to salvage the situation. Not justify it."

It was the closest thing that Supergirl would get to a direct admission of fault on that evening.

XxX

(Northern Chicago, Illinois - Kord Industries Warehouse)

Ted Kord wasn't a stranger to finding himself in dangerous spots. It came with the territory of being a superhero, and as the second Blue Beetle, he was one without powers. And for some reason, he also didn't have access to the alien scarab that had given his predecessor superhuman abilities. Thus, he had to rely on technology of his own making, and his own ingenuity to get by.

This was a problem when he found himself in certain situations, such as being surrounded by a horde of rainbow-colored, grinning lunatics.

All he'd done was investigate a Kord Industries warehouse that had been broken into. It was, in fact, the last one his company still had to his name, and he couldn't even get any help from any other heroes to help him check it out. Once again, more evidence of the low esteem he and his contemporaries like Booster Gold and Guy Gardner were held in.

That really came back to bite him once he'd arrived and been attacked. Once it all started, Blue Beetle couldn't even get to his signature travel craft, the Bug, in order to get any weaponry to help even the odds.

He'd given them as much of a beating as he could hand-to-hand, but the numbers game came into play. The lenses of his goggles had been cracked in the ferocity of the fighting. He could feel a break in one of his ribs as they piled on and stomped him down.

If that weren't bad enough, the lot of them giggled like hyenas the entire time, even while Blue Beetle had been winning.

Blue Beetle thrashed and fought as his colorful assailants held him in place and picked up his fallen weapon of choice. His BB gun.

"They said make it quick. That's no fun," The maniacal criminal with Blue Beetle's gun said, placing the end of the barrel right under his chin, "But sometimes life can't be fun, can it?"

Before the trigger could be pulled, a figure dropped down from above and blasted one of Blue Beetle's attackers in the head with electricity. The electricity split off and chained around, incapacitating several of them instantly.

Having the tide turned so quickly by one lone individual spooked the rest of them enough to send them running off into the night, leaving Blue Beetle on his knees to nurse his injuries.

A hand from his savior reached down to help him up, "Blue Beetle?" The youthful voice belonging to the hooded figure asked.

Blue Beetle accepted the assistance and allowed the surprisingly strong teenager to pull him to his feet, "Who are you?"

He was greeted by a big, friendly grin on a face mostly shrouded in hood and shadow, "I'm Null. Batman sent me your way. It looks like I showed up at a good time. Who were those guys?"

Blue Beetle looked around at the enemies that Null had just put down, "The Madmen. A gang of hyped-up super junkies," He explained, before latching on to a specific part of Null's introduction, "Wait? You said Batman sent you?"

Null nodded, "Yeah."

Not wasting any time after his talk with Batman, Null had taken a Gravboard flight to Chicago to start looking for Blue Beetle. He hadn't expected to manage it so quickly, yet the ruckus Blue Beetle's fight with the Madmen caused made it far too easy.

At first, Blue Beetle felt a sense of hope and gratitude, but then realized that he knew next to nothing about this Null. Batman had sent him a second-tier name, just like him. He couldn't even bother to spare the time to help investigate himself.

The people that had told him to take a hike already... Hawkman, Doctor Fate, Nightwing, the Flash, and more. Some hadn't even been polite in blowing him off.

Blue Beetle's despondent demeanor was all over his face and in his body language. Null wanted to take offense. After all, anyone on the receiving end of the Secret Six's onslaught would know better than to underestimate him. Then again, the only superhero who was deeply aware of that mess was Supergirl. No villain was going to go and point out that an entire army of them had gotten the business from six people, half of them unknowns and previously jokes.

Aside from that, Null was self-depreciating enough to get where he was coming from, and at least be good-natured about it, "Hey, it could be worse. At least I kept those guys from doing what they were doing," He said brightly, "Anyway, news feeds from earlier in the night said this place was ripped off. What was inside?"

Uncertain of who he was speaking to, Blue Beetle treated Null warily, trying to downplay his connection to his own company. Heroes learned who he was over time, but this Null... something tugged at the back of his mind about the kid. He couldn't put his finger on it though. Better safe than sorry though.

"Kord Industries had a lot of surplus experimental tech in here," Blue Beetle said, "Over a hundred pounds of Kryptonite back from Supergirl's arrival was inside."

Confusion and surprise were evident on Null's face, "I thought S.T.A.R. Labs took that stuff," He said.

-Because the Kryptonite he'd stolen from S.T.A.R. Labs almost a year ago had also been from Supergirl's sudden crash-landing on Earth.

Blue Beetle shook his head, "Kord Industries was sub-contracted along with S.T.A.R. to collect and dispose of it."

'Fuck,' Null thought to himself, resolving to shoot Kara a text the first chance he got to keep her informed, 'Well, at least this time if it gets used, it isn't my fault.'

"Not a glimpse of a clue," Blue Beetle said, shaking his head pitifully, "What's left of this company is being torn apart piecemeal, and all I have to go on is a fucking acronym. O.M.A.C."

He told Null in the long shot chance that it would be familiar to him, but it wasn't. At that point, Blue Beetle would have taken any lead he could find.

"Do you really think this stuff is related?" Null felt the need to ask. There was always a chance that things could have been a coincidence.

Blue Beetle scowled at the terrible time he'd been having trying to convince credible crime fighters that there was something ominous afoot, "I've been suspiciously bankrupted, and now this," He gestured around them, to the robbed warehouse and the downed Madmen, "These guys didn't just attack me for no reason. Someone hired them, put them on to me. And if someone hired them, money changed hands. And nobody passes off cash in suitcases anymore."

"I've ripped off several payoffs that say otherwise," Null remarked.

"Ripped off?" All at once, things began to click for Blue Beetle as to the identity of his savior, "Oh, damn it. That's where I've heard of you before. You're a thief," He palmed his face, hand smacking off of his cracked goggles.

Null was entirely non-repentant over his salty past and present, "Heh-heh... yeah. Is that a problem?"

Blue Beetle looked around at the defeated Madmen, who, until Null's timely arrival, were about to turn him inside-out, "No. No, at this point I'll take what I can get," It wasn't like Kord Industries had anything else of value for Null to try and pilfer under his nose. He had nothing to lose.

It turned out, that was exactly what Null wanted to hear, "Good. Because I could use your help too."

"Are you serious?" Blue Beetle deadpanned in response.

"Of course I am. Quid pro quo," Null unashamedly confirmed. Unfortunately for Blue Beetle, Null was entirely prepared to utilize whatever leverage he had for his own means, "You're a good guy, so you're supposed to be all noble... unless you're one of the ones who aren't."

"What?"

"Nevermind," Null waved the back end of his previous comment off, "Anyway, if I help you with your thing, you have to help me with mine. It's not illegal. I promise."

Given that Blue Beetle knew he was a criminal, it was important to clarify the legality of his request.

"And just what is your thing?" Blue Beetle asked suspiciously.

At this, Null was a touch cagier about releasing the details, "I have some stuff that I need to get out in the open, and I have to come up with a good way to do it. I've got some help, but I can always use another person with a different perspective. You're smart enough to run a business, so..."

'Smart enough to run it into the ground, maybe,' Blue Beetle thought to himself, "Fine. IF you can actually help me, I'll help you."

That was fine with Null. He was prepared to offer to solve Blue Beetle's problem first before diving into his own. His seemed to be more pressing, after all. Besides, if this somehow turned fortunes around for Kord Industries, it would do him some good to be on the good side of a successful businessman.

He could blow a day or two trying to help a down-on-his-luck hero out. Earning favors from good guys to cash in later was a currency all its own. Also, in helping the man who ran Kord Industries, maybe he could even get some top-of-the line new toys out of it. His hideout needed a real upgrade.

That was all putting the cart before the horse, of course. Null was no stranger to a hard day's work. And there was much work to be done.

XxX

(Gotham City – The Hill – Society Headquarters)

There were still many villains out of commission after the debacle with the Secret Six. Despite the damage done from their interference in Society affairs however, many irons were still in the fire. Though recruitment had slowed to a crawl, moves were being made all over the world to secure their position.

Again though, there were difficulties that needed to be worked through.

Calculator massaged his temples. After spending time arranging personnel and a plan to liberate content from Kord Industries, all of a sudden, the intended score had been taken before he could get people on the job, "Not sure who raided it, but this means our Kryptonite will need to come from somewhere else," "I've contacted Doctor 104 and Shimmer, though I doubt they'll be able to duplicate the exact radiation frequency."

"There are other sources, Calculator. Other goals, as well."

"Blue Beetle is up to something. And Kord-."

"Ted Kord will be lucky if he can afford a book of matches by next week. He's run his company into the ground. He's not a concern, no matter what rocks he thinks he's turning over."

"He may interfere with The Society."

"Interfere?" Luthor said with a disbelieving scoff, "Not when he's going in the complete wrong direction."

And even if he wasn't, what could he do without help? Blue Beetle was a second-tier hero at best - more known for get-rich-quick schemes alongside goof-offs like Booster Gold than actually making a difference in protecting the world.

He was boy-who-cried-wolf amongst the Justice League, lacking respect and credibility. Even if he found something to sink his teeth into, he'd never get anyone to go along with him capable of doing damage.

XxX

(With Null - Highland Park, Illinois)

Detective work wasn't Null's bag. Tracking down leads, following threads to larger happenings... not for him. Every time he'd had to do anything of the sort, it had always annoyed him. That was why he was fine with following Blue Beetle around as he did the investigating.

Said investigation took them to an upscale home where they spent the next few hours on a computer.

Null idly fiddled with his powers, patiently waiting while Blue Beetle did his thing. Regarding said abilities, Null had a lot to think about.

Things were different. He'd first noticed his control refine when he absorbed the electricity from Wonder Girl's Lasso of Lightning. It had almost immediately paid dividends in his dealing with the Auctioneer.

He'd gotten a jump in power as well. This, he had noticed, after taking three thunderbolts of Aton from Black Adam. His supercharged reserves wore off, but the potency of his normal reserves had seen an increase. In other words, he could do more with less.

He didn't know what the correlation was, and it was something that he could explore when he had more time to himself. It wasn't as though he expected to be in a situation where he needed to throw his weight around. If the worst things he fought were the Madmen from earlier, it would be better than the usual dangerous fare he more frequently found himself pitted against.

Honestly, despite how jittery Blue Beetle seemed, this was the most mellow hero/villain thing Null had involved himself with in some time.

'This is pretty chill,' Null thought to himself as he looked around the office of what he assumed was Blue Beetle's home.

It was a pretty nice place in a suburb outside of Chicago. The kind of spacious home he would have loved to have grown up in as a kid. The perfect center of boredom, with the option to head into the city for shenanigans if he so felt like it.

It was also kind of insane that a superhero just took him into his house like that. Maybe they all didn't have some kind of crazy, over-the-top secret facility like the Batcave? In hindsight, Batman's hideout was the only one he had ever seen.

Batman have been disgustingly loaded to afford his setup. Most superheroes were probably lucky to have something as rudimentary as Max's abandoned strip mall. At least it was an actual hideout, and not his house.

It was a nice house though, with plenty of valuable-looking things inside. Especially that blue scarab beetle thing in a glass case set on a podium. However, the fact that he was thinking of stealing something that distinct and specific meant he had finally gotten bored.

"This is taking forever," Null commented, checking his phone. They had been there for three hours, "You want to just call me when you have something?"

Blue Beetle rolled his eyes behind the goggles on his mask, "You could always help me, instead of playing with your powers," He offered, his attention focused on the computer in front of him.

Null supposed he could do something other than stand around and look pretty, "Fine. Move. Let me do a thing," Without waiting for Blue Beetle, he magnetically grabbed his chair and pushed it to the other side of the room, "What are you looking for?"

"... I have no idea," Blue Beetle admitted, stopping himself from sliding across the floor, "The only connection I have is O.M.A.C."

Blue Beetle threw the information out in the hopes that Null would recognize it somehow. Unfortunately, nothing of the sort occurred.

"Hm," Null mulled it over for a moment while he set up Blue Beetle's computer, "Don't know anything about that, but here. Try it now."

Upon his return, Blue Beetle noticed a significant difference in what he was looking at. The browser was entirely different from any he'd ever seen before, "What did you do?"

"This is the Ünternet," Null explained, "It's like an internet hidden separate from internet. It's not that old yet, and word-of-mouthy to get in, so not a lot of criminals use it. A hacker friend of mine showed me how to get in."

Waiting around the House of Secrets for Mockingbird to dole out missions had been incredibly boring. Not just for Null, but for the others as well. He'd spent his downtime doing more than just messing with ironsand and sleeping.

For instance, he'd spent a little time sparring with Catman and even helping Deadshot with target practice. Scandal had been bored enough to teach him some interesting nooks and crannies to exploit on the web. Probably because a part of her liked him, and because she was tired of being the only one on the team who knew enough about technology to do anything useful with it. The Secret Six had been full of luddites.

Blue Beetle dragged his seat back over to begin his search anew. As Null had alluded to, it was an entirely different web to weave through. He turned to question the boy about it, "If criminals use it, why are you showing me?"

"Because I don't use it," Null said, a measure of disgust in his voice, "The Ünternet is bad news. I checked it out once. Some dark shit gets set up there."

Things that Null wanted absolutely no part of. The darkest parts of human nature, in fact. Certain keys were needed to gain access, and for those who knew enough to desire such a thing, it cost a large amount of money. Mockingbird had somehow obtained access for Scandal, and she'd used it to help them get what certain details on The Society to set up their missions. Then, she'd passed the credentials on to Null.

Once he'd gotten a look at what was on there, he wanted no part. He'd rather use the regular internet for his stuff and just cover his tracks. When he left, he'd conveniently leave the Ünternet window open. Maybe Blue Beetle could use it to throw a wrench in some of the garbage going on there. If that happened, Null wouldn't shed any tears.

As the two went to switch places at the terminal, everything seemed to go sideways.

*BA-BOOM!*

In an instant, the computer blew up in a fiery explosion. The force of it blew Blue Beetle into the wall, hard. He had been spared the worst of the effects by the human meat shield that had been Null.

As the house began to burn around them, Blue Beetle shook off the cobwebs as quickly as he could. Null pulled himself away from the worst of the flames. Though he'd been hurt from the force of the blast, he hadn't been close enough for it to be a fatal or crippling injury. His suit had prevented him from suffering any severe burns before he could escape the fire.

The two were able to make it outside. There, they watched as the home burned. Sirens sounded as emergency crews approached. Null didn't bother running away. After all, it wasn't like he had done anything illegal.

As firefighters began working to break down the flames, Null looked at Blue Beetle and voiced the top question on his mind, "What the hell was that!?" His back had been turned when the explosion went off.

Blue Beetle silently shook his head, staring at one of the last things of value in his life burning before his eyes. His company was circling the drain, and now his home had been destroyed, "I don't know. I saw… a bolt of lightning."

Null gnashed his teeth angrily. Not a chance, "That wasn't lightning! I use electricity!"

He used it and knew what it felt like in its many forms. That had been nothing he'd ever dealt with before. Had it been a bolt of lightning, he would have felt it coming. He could have absorbed it.

What had come for them hadn't been natural electricity. What had come for them hadn't been magical electricity. After having absorbed both, Null knew the difference by now. Whatever had hit Blue Beetle's house, had it been aimed at Null, it wouldn't have been something he could have absorbed. It hadn't been electricity at all.

What the hell had he gotten himself into?

XxX

(Gotham City – Chinatown)

Chinatown had long been a section of Gotham considered separate from the rest of the city by elements of both crime and the law. Even Batman had treated Chinatown as a different beast altogether. But then after serious gang wars left the main triad organization without a leader, the power structure splintered. That left the criminals of Chinatown prime to be gobbled up by Black Mask.

As far as Red Hood was concerned, that made them just like all of the other criminals that he'd been dealing with in his effort to destroy Black Mask's power base. So, when he got wind of a transport moving into Chinatown, he had to follow it in order to find his next target.

He followed an unmarked truck to the alley of a restaurant known to be a front for the Lucky Hand Triad. The driver and the individuals who unloaded the vehicle were all known criminals connected to Black Mask. That was all the evidence he needed to take a closer look.

Red Hood marched right into the front door, ignoring the surprised and frightened looks of the denizens inside. The few patrons who were there quickly left, past him out into the street. Before most of the staff could do the same, Red Hood reached out and stopped who he recognized as the manager. They didn't speak the same language, so he didn't bother talking, even as the man tried to reason with him.

Eventually, the man stopped in the face of Red Hood's expressionless stare. Even if Red Hood's face couldn't be seen through the modified motorcycle helmet he wore, anyone who was aware of how he operated knew what he was after.

He had no interest in the front. He wanted to find what illegal activity the front was keeping concealed.

The manager led him to a tunnel in the kitchen, hidden in the floor of a storage room – likely connected to a building he had scouted earlier that had no discernable entrances.

Red Hood chuckled and dropped right down, caring little when the trapdoor shut behind him. Checking his weapons one last time, he walked to the end of the tunnel, set on pointing the barrel of his gun at the slide hatch peephole. He would knock and waited for the poor fool who would check on it before throwing a grenade or two inside and bringing hell to whoever thought they would defend against his subsequent entry.

It was then though, that Red Hood noticed charges hidden in the dim light of the tunnel; well-hidden enough that only someone who knew what they were looking for would know to check.

Red Hood didn't bother hesitating. He didn't question whether he could have been mistaken. He'd already died once in an explosion and didn't feel like repeating the experience.

The design of the trap door had traded concealability for durability, so when Red Hood threw his full body weight and strength into it, coupled with the adrenaline of needing to escape to survive, it broke open, allowing him to get clear before the charges were detonated.

*BOOM!*

Red Hood dove out of the storage room into the kitchen. The force of the blast sent him sliding out of control over the counter in the center of the room. He crashed at the other end, hitting the floor in a heap, with pots, pans, and other cooking utensils falling alongside him.

Ears ringing, Red Hood took his time getting back up, making sure he had his feet underneath him before he stumbled back out into the dining area.

It was there he found the original Ravager, Grant Wilson, clad in silver and black, lazily leaning against a wall, munching on a spring roll, a detonator in his other hand, "Wow," He said with his mouth full, "Should have guessed you'd have survived that," The detonator now useless, he threw the device aside, "That's fine though. Just means I get you all to myself."

Red Hood slowly paced around the restaurant floor, sizing up the man that had just attempted to kill him, "You cheeky dickwaffle. Was this for me?" He asked, sounding a tad impressed.

After running roughshod over so many of Gotham City's criminal elements for the past few months, having someone check him for once was something new. Admittedly, he might have been getting cocky. It had always been a bit of a flaw of his, even back when he'd been younger.

"Yeah, it was," Grant admitted, pushing himself off of the wall. He returned the previous favor of circling Red Hood, properly squaring off with him, "Trying to kill Robins is something of a family tradition."

Red Hood scoffed, "Yeah? How's that ever worked out for ol' Deathstroke? The last time I checked, Nightwing fucked him up every time he tried."

"Well, that's why I'm going after you," Grant said with a grin, "You're the first Robin that was ever terrible enough to get himself killed."

Red Hood had a retort right on the tip of his tongue and let it fly, "Too bad you're not the only one of Deathstroke's kids terrible enough to get themselves killed. What was your brother's name? Jericho?"

Red Hood knew it was a low blow to bring up the man's dead brother, but then again, he hadn't exactly enjoyed having his demise at the hands of the Joker brought up for insult fodder either. What was good for the goose was good for the gander.

Until the gander flew into a murderous rage and flung a table across the restaurant at the goose, at least.

Red Hood jumped out of the way of the table and opened fire on Grant with his handguns. Instead of pulling his own weapon, Grant pulled out another detonator. On the bottom side of the table he'd thrown, he'd planted more explosives.

*BOOM!*

Red Hood's deft movement got him far enough away from the table that the blast knocked him off his feet and nothing more. An acrobatic side roll put him back on his feet, in perfect position to catch Grant's foot as he moved to kick him in the chest. One hand moved up to shoot Grant, but the OG Ravager jumped and spun in the air, kicking Red Hood in his helmeted head, disorienting him.

Landing on his feet, Grant pulled out his sword and slashed at Red Hood, catching him in the hand. Red Hood was fortunate enough to keep all of his fingers, but he wound up dropping one of his guns. Grant smoothly moved from slashing to stabbing, intending to run Red Hood through. The violent vigilante adjusted, however, positioning his remaining gun so that the tip of Grant's sword went into the barrel. The two struggled back into the nearest wall.

"Not... bad," Grant said as he continued to overpower Red Hood. He grabbed him by the helmet and slammed the back of his head into the wall, "But I'm taking your head back to Black Mask!"

Red Hood kicked his heel against the floor, revealing a small blade from the tip of his boot. He went to kick Grant in the groin, who moved aside to avoid being split up the middle. The loss of leverage allowed Red Hood to avoid the sword by falling to the ground, lashing out with his feet to sweep at Grant's legs.

Grant jumped onto a table and aimed his own gun down at Red Hood. Not remaining idle, Red Hood scrambled along his trajectory and wound up under the same table. That didn't stop Grant from firing down, but none of the bullets hit. That gave Red Hood the chance to stand up and lift the table up off of the ground and over his head.

When Red Hood shook the table, Grant went spilling off the top of it, landing hard on the floor. The moment he hit, he took aim at Red Hood, firing more shots until he ran out of bullets. Red Hood went to slam the table on top of him to pin him down, but Grant skewered it with his sword, forcing him away from it.

Cutting through what was left, Grant jumped back to his feet and lunged at Red Hood with his sword. Red Hood rolled back over a table, using his feet to kick the point of Grant's sword into the air, exposing his body. Landing on his feet, Red Hood kicked the table forward, sending its edge into Grant's stomach. He then unloaded with his handgun, putting five rounds in Grant's chest.

The durability of the special body armor worn by the Wilson family allowed Grant to endure the barrage of bullets. Grant stumbled back, feeling the biting impact of each shot. As he tried to regain his footing, he reached to his utility belt and drew a small knife that he flung a short distance at Red Hood.

Red Hood took the sharp end of the hastily thrown knife in the shoulder, turning as he felt the metal pierce his flesh. He cursed to himself at not bringing ammunition with more of a punch, but then, he hadn't figured he would need anything more potent than standard rounds to deal with Black Mask's goons. Had he known he'd have to deal with a mercenary the likes of the original Ravager, he would have prepared more accordingly. Still, he had to work with what was available.

Giving his back to Grant for a split-second, Red Hood pulled a small incendiary grenade from his own utility belt, throwing it at Grant and hitting him flush. Immediately, fire spread across Grant's upper body, and he found it quite difficult to put out.

"GRAAAAH!" Grant roared. The armor covering him from head-to-toe greatly protected him, but the fire still burned. Mind working a mile a minute, he figured he wouldn't be able to extinguish the flames and fight simultaneously. Thus, he launched himself through the nearest window of the restaurant to beat a hasty retreat.

Red Hood followed him out as quickly as he could, but when he reached the street, all he found was broken glass pieces of the window frame. It was the only cue that Grant had even gone that way. There was no other sign of him.

Breathing heavily from the ferocity of the fight, Red Hood looked around both sides of the street. He could hear sirens approaching, signifying his need to depart. He went back inside to retrieve the firearm he had dropped and made himself scarce. He would accept a stalemate for the time being but didn't expect things to remain as such.

Black Mask had to be getting desperate to attempt to rely on any element of The Society to help him keep his grasp on Gotham City. Despite pulling the knife from his shoulder, Red Hood couldn't help but smile under his helmet.

This was good. It meant the threat he presented was being taken seriously.

XxX

(With Null)

After the destruction of what Null had gotten confirmed to have been Blue Beetle's home, they had taken refuge aboard his personal aircraft, a bug-shaped VTOL, appropriately named 'The Bug'.

It was an impressive piece of technology, up there with Cyborg's T-Jet when it came to how it was outfitted. Blue Beetle's ride was much cushier and more comfortable, however. Apparently, it was about the last thing of value he had in his possession – though Null noted that before leaving the ruins of his home, Blue Beetle made certain to pick up and take the blue scarab piece that had previously caught Null's eye with him.

Either way, that left them alone in what was one of the most awkward trips that Null had ever experienced. A fading hero and a rising criminal. An intellectual inventor and a punk kid still in high school. A businessman, albeit a currently failing one, and a thief; both sharing space in the middle of a mystery neither of them had a decent handle on.

Null's ears still rang from the explosion outside of Chicago, but he'd shaken off most of his disorientation by then, "So, where to now?" He asked.

Blue Beetle's demeanor was one of complete defeat, "Gotham City."

Null raised up in his seat. That was a curious choice. As far as he knew, they hadn't come across any lead before everything blew up, "Why? Is there something back there?"

Blue Beetle shook his head, "No. That's it. I'm cutting you loose."

"What?" It took a moment for things to dawn on Null, "Hey, we had a deal."

Blue Beetle wasn't willing to argue the point at first, "It's for the best. I don't know what Batman was thinking."

Probably that this wasn't a very big deal. But it was. And they still didn't have any real evidence to show that it was. If no one believed Blue Beetle enough to care before, they still wouldn't then. And Blue Beetle wanted to go it alone.

Or, at least, he wanted Null to think he wanted to go it alone. Null wasn't biting on that one.

"I don't care what he was thinking," Null snapped, his past grievances with Batman coloring his thoughts on the man's opinion with bias, "What I'm thinking is that you needed me to save your ass from those multicolored dorks at the warehouse. We almost got blown to hell in your house. And now you want to keep going without me?"

"We have no real leads," Blue Beetle argued, "Whatever this is, it's no place for you. It's not your responsibility, and it's too dangerous."

A few months ago, Null would have agreed and gladly gone home to try and forget about . But things had drastically changed since then.

His most recent revelation had come when he got out of the Secret Six's clash against The Society without being killed or requiring emergency medical attention. There were hordes of supers involved in that mess who couldn't say the same.

Swimming through that river of shit and coming out mostly clean on the other side had emboldened him. Maybe he was cut out for this life? Maybe Kara was right, that there was more to him than he thought.

He wasn't about to start throwing himself in front of moving trains or stopping random muggings on the street, and he'd still dabble in stealing whatever took his fancy at any given time, but if the mood took him, perhaps he could do something that he felt was a good deed? Why not? What good was his power if he couldn't at least try to do what he wanted with it?

"Have you ever taken a bolt from Black Adam to the face?" Null asked bluntly and cryptically.

Blue Beetle didn't know what to make of the question, "What? Hell no."

"Well, I have," Null said, "Look, I'm out of my depth when it comes to this investigation stuff. But at this point I like my chances of surviving whatever gets thrown at us more than I like yours. And if you get killed, I have to find someone else willing to hear me out."

Blue Beetle had to admit, young or not, if anything else potentially fatal befell them, Null was better equipped to deal with it and walk away than he was, "So…"

Null smiled as he could feel Blue Beetle soften in his stance, "So, you handle the brain stuff, and I'll deal with, let's call it operational security."

"Operational security?"

Null shrugged, "Hey, it sounds better than running away. I know how much you heroes hate that. By the way, I'm pretty good at running away, just so you know. In fact, I think running away is probably the best facet of my game overall."

Blue Beetle chuckled for the first time in a while at Null's self-depreciating brag. If Null was the only support he could rely on, he would take it. It was better than being all alone. At least one person was in a position that they believed him. After all, Null had seen it for himself.

The two rode in silence for a moment, until Null's phone went off. Checking the caller, he found that it had come from an unknown number. Odd, seeing as how there were only a handful of people with access to call him on his 'work phone'.

Null apologized to Blue Beetle before answering, "Sorry, I've got to take this," He said, before hitting the screen to answer, "Hello?"

"Null."

Null was very familiar with that voice. In fact, he'd heard it earlier that day, 'Lonnie?' He thought in surprise. He'd meant what he said when he told Lonnie he'd expected him to break out whenever he wanted. Twelve hours after he'd brought it up was a little early though, "How did you-?"

"Shut up," Anarky quickly diverted the conversation before any rambling could be done, "No time. What do you know about Brother Eye?"

"Nothing," Null deadpanned, "You already knew with your whole heart when you asked that I didn't know anything. What about it?"

"Like I said, no time," Anarky said, getting an irritated growl in response, "Look… just get to D.C. as soon as possible."

Null blinked, realizing he was in the perfect position to follow through with the request, "No problem. I'm already in the air. I've got a ride."

"Without Blue Beetle," Anarky specified. A jolt of surprise rolled through Null. How did he know he was with Blue Beetle? "Like I said, no time. Separate, and get here. I'll know when you're close," With that, the call went dead, leaving Null to sit and stew over the last few seconds.

Anarky was out, and he wanted to meet with him. Whatever it was for, it didn't seem like it was based on revenge or for anything malicious. After all, they were square as far as Null was concerned.

In fact, he seemed kind of frantic.

Frowning, Null turned to Blue Beetle, who sat at the controls waiting to hear the results of the call, "I've gotta go. It sounds important, and you said we don't have any leads, so-."

Blue Beetle held up a hand to stop Null from what he felt was rambling, "No need for excuses, kid. I'm the one who told you to get lost first, remember? Thanks for trying, at least," He said with smile as empty as the skies they were in, "So, do you need me to drop you somewhere, or-?"

Null pointed outside lamely, "If you open a hatch, I can get myself to where I'm going," He said, feeling a bit bad. He felt like he and Blue Beetle had just started to get along, "I'll get back in touch when I'm finished with this, alright?"

Blue Beetle nodded, but he didn't respond verbally. He didn't even bother looking back as Null headed to one of The Bug's escape hatches. Null could tell, Blue Beetle didn't think he would bother to link back up with him. He figured that Null would just cut and run, leaving him to press on alone.

It kind of pissed Null off to think about. He'd gone through his whole spiel to convince Blue Beetle that he was in whatever this was for the long haul, and he meant it. But he'd never heard Anarky like that before. His gut told him it was something important, and it wasn't like they were on a hot trail.

As the escape hatch opened, dropping Null into the sky, his Gravboard scooped him up before he could fall too far. With that, he set out to meet with Anarky.

Whatever it was couldn't have been something good if Anarky had chosen to reach out to him for it.