16 Chapter 16: Power

02:00 AM 'The Citadel, Gotham City:

Arias was sitting opposite his new guest Dr.Veritas as they shared a bottle of wine while conversing. Dr.Veritas took a sip from her glass before looking at the man across her. She then parted her lips and spoke.

"Tell me Mr. Adriel just how much do you know about me?, and use is could a being such as myself have use for to a cosmic entity?".

Arias twirled his glass while piecing together what he remembered about her.

"Dr. Shay Veritas, you where a student at crucible academy at the inter-planetary academy that taught super heroes before building your own facility called the block near the earth's core.You also excel in mechanical engineering and science and have genius level intellect. It should be quite clear why I wish to work with you. As for how I know all this? I can't say just yet".

"I remember Superman once brought his cousin supergirl to you after she suffered from kryptonite poisoning, you pitied her but also considered her a ticking time bomb. After finding out what you thought of her, she felt betrayed by yet another person she thought she could trust which lead her into a meltdown that turned her into her red latern temporarily. Your facility was sucked into a maelstrom due to a failed dimensional experiment and I assume that's how you got here?"

A/N: that's basically her back story, there's not that much information about her.only difference I've made is instead of Superman saving her the space anomaly the maelstrom created brought her to the MC's world.

"Yes....."

Dr.Veritas answered with wide eyed look on her face as the man in front of her summarized the last moments in her world. Arias simply leaned back into the chair as he looked at the bewildered doctor. She took a deep breath and calmed herself before turning towards him and voicing her thoughts once more.

"Yes it is as you said, you must think me evil for abandoning the poor girl when she needed someone the most I take it?".

Arias stared at his glass while shaking his head before giving his response.

"Good and Evil mean nothing to me, I see no sense in living by what someone's view of right and wrong. I refuse to be bound by laws that only serve to limit me."

Dr. Veritas looked at the cosmic being in front of her who seemed to have his own convictions as well. Although she still held doubts of what or who he was, she had no proof to say otherwise and chose to observe for now.

They both stayed silent for a moment before Arias finished his glass and stood from his chair, he took out a small flash disk and a black card and handed them to Dr.Veritas.

"l'm leaving you in charge of a project named core, a temporary underground facility currently in construction, do with the project as you think best. The disk has contacts for any material you may need or want if unavailable you can always ask me. Choose any guest room you like except the one with a clown chibi on it. Goodnight".

Arias began to leave and but was stopped by Dr.Veritas soft ambitious voice.

"Whatever you goal is I will help you to the best of my ability to achieve it I only ask you share the mysteries of the universe and what lies beyond. Maybe even consider me a friend?".

Arias nodded at the ambitious woman.

"As long as you stay committed, You'll see the mysteries with your very own eyes. Oh and by the way my friends call me Ari".

So with that Arias's figure vanished from the room leaving the Doctor to her thoughts.

"Ari...huh? Perhaps losing the facility wasn't an end but in fact a new beginning."

The next morning Arias woke up to rather to a rather lively scene.

"What did you just call me lady!".

Harley shouted while pointing her finger at Dr.Veritas who had a smile on her as she leaned on her cane while placing her other hand on her waist before retorting.

"Unprincipled".

She said slowly making sure Harley heard it clearly. Harley picked up her bat and pointed it towards Dr.Veritas.

"Why I outta-".

But as she did so Dr.Veritas pulled out a plasma gun and pointed it at Harley not looking the least bit intimidated.

"It's way too early for this".

Arias's voice caught the attention of the two bickering women.

" She started it Sir, she called me an experiment".

Harley said while giving a fake sad face. Dr.Veritas shook her head and also turned to arias.

" I merely asked if she was an experiment, you have to admit her appearance is rather...unique?".

"You want a piece of me Cyber Bitch?"

Harley glared at Dr. Veritas who had a smug expression on her face.

"Anytime Clown...Slut".

Arias got hold of both there weapons and put them on the table before rubbing his temples and letting out a sigh.

"Are all women who have the title Dr at odds with each other?".

"You can't be serious her? A doctor?"

Dr.Veritas found the very thought of it hard to believe.

"Harley meet Dr. Shay Veritas, Shay meet Dr. Harleen Frances Quinzel you're both gonna be seeing a lot of each other so can you atleast try not to kill each other?".

Harley wore a smug face after hearing how arias presented her while Shay looked like she heard the most outrageous statement in her life.

"Fine I hold respect for intelligent women, though in this case...respect is a strong word"

Shay sighed before agreeing first.

"Well if you says so Sir."

Harley spoke next before they both took and put away there weapons.

As the days flew by the relationship between Harley and Shay seemed to have improved, at the very least they stopped the death threats and instead playfully insulted each other occasionally.

Dr.Veritas had been busy with project core most days, she cut construction time by a huge margin thanks to the repair droids she came with from her earth. Earth prime.

As for Harley, Arias had her constantly working on her combat skills against himself be it close quarters or long range. Arias made the perfect sparring partner as he couldn't be injured despite anything she tried. Plus with his extraordinary senses and speed, every time he chose to attack, Harley would be pushed to her limits.

As for Arias himself every night he'd train with guidance from Àpeiro in how to better manipulate his power, specifically the offensive kind but was still no expert.

This routine would carry on for 3 entire months. Harley became better and better in her combat prowess. She also took time to familiarize herself to new custom weapons she got courtesy of Dr.Veritas.

The first where bracelets that multiplied her strength by a good margin, the second was a bat with nanobots in the metal used to create it.

Every time she hit something the nano bots at the point of impact would add to the force making for a devastating blow and when necessary could also deploy an energy shield that lost strength depending on the force of the blow she receives.

The last major weapon was something called the multi-gun which was basically a plasma gun with extended functions such as plasma net and plasma stun.

Her costume remained the same design except the material used also had nanobots in the material, meaning it was resistant to heavy damage and some forms of energy to some extent, but the best feature was probably the warp ring a device similar to the ones the justice league used on mount justice and the watch tower just portable.

It could warp the individual from wherever their are back to The Citadel. as for the color of the costume it changed to black and grey except her hair and makeup which remained the colorful blue and red.

As for Dr.Veritas she too changed the color scheme of her costume to black and grey and wore a warp ring as well. The rest of her costumes features where already there to begin with and just needed some 'fine tuning' as she would put it.

Her armor already had solid defense and offensive, her main weapon being a plasma gun and her cane which could form a dome shaped energy area shield with a larger surface area and its telekinetic control which is how she could fly and manipulate objects.

Needless to say her contributions in the past 3 months where the biggest, and the most important was of course the project core.

It was an underground extension of the citadel.It had state of the art technology like the A.I named which was an upgraded version of an A.I she had already come with.

"Zero"

The A.I assisted Dr.Veritas and handled control over the security and offensive measures of the citadel as well as report gathering by hacking into systems both foreign and local when needed with ease.

Lastly Arias had also decided their organization would be called.

"Leviathan"

His own attire remained the same. All black pants, boots and smart buttoned shirt. The only real difference was he no longer needed to wear a mask as he was confident in his capabilities now.

His training focused on the basics of energy manipulation and he could now perform many incredible feats. His physical training was focused on mastering his techniques with the abysmal smoke. In 3 months alone, he had already become a God tier combatant.

To Àpeiro this wasn't anything impressive as he would only grow stronger and stronger the better he became at using his powers, but to Arias who was once a mortal, this was a milestone.

While Leviathan focused on their projects and growing stronger, events in the world continued as the earth saw a rise in alien refugees, most who had their worlds enslaved by Darkseid. The earth also began seeing a rise in meta human cases. This brought about the crime of alien/ meta human trafficking and experimentation, it also led to new heroes and villains all around.

They where of course safe houses and places refugees could call home but to those with weak abilities they wasn't much they received. Those rare ones with strong abilities where sought after by powerful organizations and governments so the green lantern core advised to keep abilities hidden whenever they rescued refugees. Some chose to not be sheltered and resorted to petty crime to make a living.

What was Leviathans goal you ask? Knowledge, Money, Followers.

None of the above , their true goal could give them these things is they so wished. And that goal was

Power.

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