45 The First Step Upon A Golden Path part - 1

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Cadmus opened his eyes and found himself still at the mouth of the cave.

When he attempted to step forward, he found himself rooted to the ground, not by some conflicting force, but rather it was as if his legs refused to obey his command.

He realized immediately that fighting it would not deliver any better results and remained standing as he was, gaze flickering about for the source of his current predicament.

Vines slowly stretched and sprouted from the small crevices spanned the cave wall. Flowers bloomed miraculously upon their width filling the cave with a heady and pleasant aroma that clouded his thoughts.

The same dreamy voice he heard before suddenly spoke in the back of his mind, distant and soft as though stirring from a long slumber.

"You have done well, child."

Cadmus felt all warm and fuzzy inside at his grandmother's praise.

"The infestation was not excised...completely." the Earth spoke. "But...perhaps it is for the best? The Earth adapts to all things. Even a pestilence can be changed to suit our needs."

There was a tacit approval of his actions within those words.

"It was in your honor, Mother Gaea." Humility did not come easy, but in the face of the overwhelming might of the Earth itself, it was remarkably simple to summon.

Her response was a low mocking chuckle carried by a gust of wind. "Indeed...Fate has blessed us with a most...filial descendant. We gave you a promise once. We shall see it now fulfilled."

Cadmus felt a sudden pinprick of pain in his palm. He looked down and found a vine ridged in thorns hovering just above his hand, its pale white incisors dripping golden ichor.

His body seized, falling completely out of his control and unbidden an entire world opened up to him.

The gift of sight into a hidden dimension.

Pollen carried by the wind to flowers a million of miles away and the buzzing of honeybees. The chirp of grasshoppers and crickets within the night. Great sentinel trees and the millions of little glimmers of life that lived in their shadow. Spores of Fungi and the most minutia of flora that lived and breathed and died. And beneath his feet, old and deep roots drove themselves far below the mountain and into the Earth's foundation.

Green.

Life.

He could see it all, Gaea in all her infinite glory.

Unbeknownst to Cadmus, the everpresent golden hue of his eyes bled away into an iridescent verdant as bright as sunlight. The threads that defined Reality itself disappeared and revealed a perhaps even older world that clamored for his attention.

Within seconds the thousands of little impercetible plants that subsisted within the cave were stirred into the frenzy, growing and reproducing at an unnatural spontaneous rate.

Cadmus guided them with an instinctual wave of his hands, driving them forward and completely submerging the once-barren cave in a lush canopy of moss, flowers, and even small patches of grass.

And just as quickly as it had begun, the thrum of power in his veins faded away, and the gold returned to his sight.

Cadmus plucked a single blood-red rose from the vine it grew upon. It gave off a uniquely sweet smell, one unlike anything he had ever experienced. He let the flower fall to the bed of grass beneath his feet.

He knew it would grey and decay and its nutrients would feed the roots below, a self-sustaining system that had endured long before even the gods themselves. He had no doubt it would endure long after them.

He closed his eyes and fell into the Earth's welcoming embrace, allowing it to carry him to his destination.

Time held no meaning beneath the roots of the world, it could have been seconds or hours before he merged outside his apartment building, miraculously still intact.

Firefighters and construction crews milled about, still restoring the damages left in the aftermath of the invasion.

The door to his apartment had been replaced and he was surprised to find no icicles were danging from his ceiling, or Thanagarian ice sculptures decorating the small interior.

Then he saw it, a simple manilla envelope on his coffee table. On the back written in a neat cursive scrawl, were two letters.

L.L.

In a fit of caution, he divined the future and found no danger from within the letter.

Its contents were a simple sentence.

A gesture of my gratitude.

And then below was a strange sequence of numbers, GPS coordinates.

36.6059 N, 2.1940 E.

A sudden sense of vertigo struck him, and he found the answer to his unspoken question come unbidden to his mind.

"Bialya," Cadmus said to himself. Bialya was a secretive third-world state in the Middle East, ruled absolutely by Queen Bee, and prone to conflict with its neighbors.

"What the hell is in Bialya?"

The days following the defeat of the Thanagarian invasion were marked by the chaos of rebuilding at home and the international pandemonium of addressing the global power vacuum that had appeared overnight.

The United States, Russia, China, and every other nuclear power that once commanded the world stage and played power broker to billions, now found themselves scrambling to restore their shattered legitimacy.

Newsfeeds blared twenty-four-seven coverage of the emergency session of United Nations Security Council, filled with incendiary proclamations of a new paradigm in the making, juxtaposed with calls to restore the previous status quo.

In the cacophony of addressing the fallout of Thanagar's attack on the earth, the issue of Themiscyra was tabled indefinitely, partly because of the bravery displayed by its people in being one of the only countries that successfully resisted the invasion. Queen Hippolyta who had been called a tyrant and autocrat days before was now being hailed as a symbol of the resilient human spirit against all odds.

Whatever bad blood Themiscyra had engendered with its backward culture was swiftly washed away with the flood of videos showcasing mountains of loot taken from the defeated invaders, and those of blood-stained Amazons standing over broken Thanagarians.

This sudden flux also left some of the more opportunistic and belligerent nations a window of opportunity that they took immediate advantage of.

Most notably, tensions had mounted between North and South Rhelasia as the demarcated border between the two nations was militarized overnight.

But that was of little concern to most nations, even if North Rhelasia may have a secret nuclear weapons program.

What all member states agreed upon, however, was that the Justice League had much to answer for.

The only bill that successfully appeared on the floor during the past seventy-two hours of the session stripped the Justice League of its observer seat and issued the formation of a multi-national instrument to lead a thorough investigation into just how two of its senior members had aided and abetted in global treason.

And more importantly, why one of them was still at large.

Shayera Hol had been declared MIA following the decisive defeat of the Thanagarian Invasion in Nevada, which G. Gordon Godfrey had dubbed the "Massacre in the Mojave", a name that swiftly became the most popular reference on social media and news networks.

But back in Jump City…life went on. Outside of construction crews restoring broken windows and restoring shattered streets, and memorials for those lost, it was as though nothing had changed.

People went back to work. Classes resumed. Life went on.

Cadmus frowned as he looked up at the mostly empty seats.

The lecture hall was mostly empty today and whatever students were present sat a scattered mess throughout the large room.

The class size had been already steadily decreasing throughout the semester, dropping by the dozens after the last mid-term, but today was suspiciously sparse, maybe only twenty students in total.

Most congregated around the back edges ready to make a run for it as soon they were dismissed. They also had grades that were proportional to their respect for the subject matter.

Would some say he was a bit strict with his grading? The many complaints that flooded Dr. Stein's inbox after every exam may lead some to think so, but those students were simply not cut out for physics or perhaps the sciences at all.

Some of them were incapable of basic trigonometric integrations, college freshmen be damned! If anything, he was giving them a valuable lesson by holding them to his standards.

What better way was there to separate the wheat from the chaff? It wasn't as though he was unaware of just how grueling his class could be.

Daily homework in addition to exams that could have been written by Satan himself was not something any normal student was supposed to be capable of handling, not without a severe drinking problem or therapy...or therapy for the drinking problem.

But that was the point! He was breaking these impertinent little brats down, shattering their egos and delusions of success and rebuilding them within a scorching crucible of his own design.

They'd come into his class as little pieces of shit, he'd forge them into steel by the time they crawled out of his classroom. All he cared about was that they stayed until the end.

It wasn't like he had any intention of failing anyone who stayed all the way through, in fact, he planned on giving the rest of them A's. Not that they knew that.

He could already imagine the reverence and awe they would shower upon him when he plucked them out of the bottomless pit that was GPA hell, it would be glorious!

...Did that make him evil? Cadmus wondered.

The one thing that did irk him was that not all of his students needed such a magnanimous gesture.

Specifically one in particular, who always sat in the front row of every class and had miraculously evaded a single red mark upon any of her exams throughout the whole semester.

Barbara Gordon.

One hour exactly after his class began, Cadmus dismissed his captive pupils with a wave of his hand.

"Do not forget, we will have the final exam this Friday, covering chapters 37-53, including applications of electric flux equations!"

His announcement drew dispairing but resigned sighs. These were the best of the original class and had survived far worse.

Cadmus nodded approvingly, he was almost proud of them. Almost.

The object of his current teacherly consternation approached him now, even as the rest of her fellow students fled, purpose clear in her stride.

She dropped a thick wad of papers onto his desk with a definite thump.

He graced her with an amused smile. "And this is…?"

Barbara adjusted her glasses. "The paper you asked for. Fifty pages, proper thesis, and citations. The works."

There was a challenge in her tone to prove her wrong, one that he was quite happy to take her up on.

"Is that so?" Cadmus picked up the papers, flipping through page by page at an almost glacial pace.

At least it seemed so to Barbara, he had read through the whole thing the moment he opened to the first page. It just amused him to watch her slowly begin to fidget in place as the silence stretched on.

It was actually quite good, he was forced to admit. Written with significant effort and understanding of the subject matter, PhD level work he'd dare to say. Still, nothing compared to his own understanding of course.

Finally, he took pity on her. "This is…satisfactory." He said brusquely and dropped the papers back onto the desk.

Cadmus immediately turned to his computer and the game of Solitaire he had started, but his attention remained focused on Barbara.

He relished in the flash of disappointment across her expression.

"That's it? Satisfactory?"

Cadmus realized then as he heard the faint neediness in her voice, and the astonished expression etched across her face as though the ground had suddenly shifted beneath her feet, that Barbara Gordon suffered from a psychological need to seek approval for approval from authority figures.

In other words, she had severe daddy issues.

Cadmus adopted a reassuring smile. "Satisfactory isn't a bad thing."

"But it's not great either," Barbara frowned, her anger directed more at herself than him.

"You can work up to great with the proper teachers."

Unsurprisingly, she caught the implication in his words.

Barbara blinked in surprise "Does that mean..."

"I'll have to talk to Dr. Stein regarding the details, but this paper is pretty persuasive," Cadmus shrugged. "Welcome to Lab 25. At least tentatively."

Barbara's face lit up like a kid on Christmas day, which explained a lot about her.

"Thank you!" She eagerly shook his hand with a surprisingly strong grip. "You won't regret this."

Cadmus smiled. "I'm sure I won't."

Barbara left the lecture hall with a visible skip in her step, leaving Cadmus alone and shaking his head in genuine befuddlement.

He was well aware that she was connected to the Justice League, suspicions that were confirmed by Wally West only a few weeks ago with his errant comment.

Which left him wondering why they let her out into the field with such a crippling lever. Desire to seek approval from established authority figures?

What could they possibly get out of not training her out of such a mindset, even Bruce wouldn't...maybe? No, even he wouldn't leave such an easily exploitable flaw unless he was willfully blind of it.

It was a weakness he had come to recognize in viewing what lay ahead, when it came to trying to piece together motivations, there were almost too many possibilities that led to probable conclusions.

The sudden vibration of his cell phone drew him out of his thoughts.

"Congratulations, you've won an all-expenses-paid-for vacation to the Bahamas!" A disgustingly cheery voice said.

"Not interested." Cadmus hung up.

His phone rang again.

"Congratulations, you've won an all-expenses-paid-for vacation to the Bahamas!" the same voice said.

Cadmus felt a twinge of irritation. "Like I said, not interested." He shoved his phone back into his pocket.

He barely restrained himself from throttling his phone into the nearest wall when it began to buzz again.

"Congratulations!" The same woman said, but there was now an urgency in her voice that made him momentarily pause. "You've won a trip to the Bahamas. Would you like to accept your prize?"

"...I do."

The line clicked. A man's monotone voice came through. "2981 Cloverfield Lane. 9:00 PM tonight. Pack light."

"To where?"

"Santa Prisca. Welcome to the Light."

The connection cut.

Frost was sulking about her hideout, an abandoned warehouse by the docks of Jump City's harbor when he appeared beside her in a whirlwind of golden sand.

"Have you been redecorating? I was wondering where those Thanagarian ice sculptures went."

The frozen aliens in question were sequestered against a far wall currently employed as coat racks.

Her feet left the ground as she turned around in astonishment.

"Where the fuck did you come from?" she demanded.

"I was in the area," he responded casually. "Can't I ever check on my favorite villainess?"

Cadmus took a glance around. "Not bad of a place, for a warehouse."

The area was remarkably pristine, aside from the thin coating of ice that covered everything inside. Ice sculptures of those unfortunate to be on the wrong end of Frost's anger were on display throughout.

"That-that's all you have to say after dropping me down into the literal earth?"

"Oh, you're welcome."

Her eye began to twitch dangerously and the temperature plunged. "You're impossible."

Cadmus turned his back to her, idly poking through a box full of jewels and other treasures Frost had collected.

Nothing was of any value.

"I've been invited to Santa Prisca tonight, a small island off the coast of Florida."

"Bane's island?" she asked, surprise veident. "Why were you invited there?"

"That's what I'm going to find out. I'd like you to join me."

"And what makes you think I'll say yes?"

Cadmus gave a long-suffering sigh. Defiance had its place, but only if there were teeth to back it up.

"Do you have anything else better to do?" he asked instead.

Caitlin's silence answered for her.

"As I thought. Do you have anything to wear to the beach?"

"What, like a bikini?" She said it as though the presumption was a great affront.

He gave her a pointed look. Of course. It said.

"I might have one somewhere," she muttered.

"Good, speaking of, where's your bed?"

Her cheeks turned blue and she crossed her arms. "Why do you care?"

Caitlin's breath hitched when he pulled her arms away from her bosom, but did nothing to resist as he brought her flush against him, soft voluptuous curves pressed firmly against the muscled plain of her body.

Her cool breath grazed his lips with each pant.

His hand traveled south, palming a generous globe of flesh that molded and quivered under his ministrations.

"Because," he whispered into the shell of her ear, kissing down the column of her neck, the flesh turning a pale blue as he pulled away. "we have a lot of time before our flight. And you have a lot to learn about discipline."

Frost shivered in anticipation.

*

*

Cadmus sat up and stretched his arms, letting out a loud exhale of relief which was juxtaposed by a groan of exhaustion from Caitlin's insensate form beside him.

"Well, that was fun. But we have a plane to catch so...up!" He swatted her generous derriere - more to his benefit than hers.

"You're a sadist," Frost groused and covered her head with a pillow.

Cadmus found himself in a remarkably good mood and so he refrained from any chastisement.

"I think that's the first nice thing you've ever said to me." He put his hand on his heart. "Thank you."

It took a few minutes until she managed to restore enough mobility to get off the bed clean herself up and pack what few belongings she had. All the while, Cadmus lounged in her bed, idly staring at his surroundings.

It was sad to say that the super? villainess with crippling psychological issues had a better sense of interior design than he did, Cadmus mused.

"I'm ready," Frost's words broke Cadmus from his reverie. He turned to see her standing right beside him, impatiently tapping her foot and a duffel bag slung around her shoulder.

"Well, come on then," Cadmus said flippantly and extended his hand.

With visible reluctance, Caitlin accepted his offered hand. "You're not dropping me down a pit again-"

They disappeared in a swirl of golden sand.

They reappeared in a remote field hemmed in by dense forest. A sleek jet with engines thrumming sat in taxi on the small runway that cut through the center of the field.

At the base of the boarding stairs, a pair of aircraft stewards awaited them to collect their luggage before ushering them up into the plane.

The interior was a luxurious as the exterior implied, covered in plush carpeting and leather seats, and wooden accents taken from likely endangered trees.

The thought was both mildly entertaining and infuriating. What a waste of life for base decoration.

"We'll be taking off shortly," a young pretty blonde stewardess said with a bright smile. "Please take a seat while we prepare for takeoff with the other passengers."

Other passengers?

"There's refreshments ready for you. And if you need anything else, we're at your service."

Cadmus would have to have been deaf to miss the naked implication in those words.

He resolutely paid the stewardess no mind. Entering the passenger cabin, Cadmus found his other surprise passengers already seated.

Lex Luthor greeted Cadmus with a secretive smile and beckoned to the open seat across from him. Immediately Cadmus' mind began to race. He had expected to see Luthor here, and with this being his first introduction to the Light, arriving alongside Luthor in the same plane would inspire only the worst train of thought from such a secretive organization whose members no doubt had any unhealthy sense of pranoia.

The silence declaration of the alliance. Cadmus found that he wasn't opposed to the idea.

Mercy sat at his right, prim and proper as always belying the violence she was easily capable of.

"I'm so glad you could make it, and who is this your guest? Ms. Frost? I can say that I did not expect to see you here." There was no surprise in Luthor's voice.

Frost wrinkled her nose and took her seat. "Luthor, bald as always."

Cadmus bit back a laugh and followed suit.

"I took your example," he looked pointedly at Mercy. "Some extra protection couldn't hurt."

"Ah, yes," Luthor accepted a glass of champagne from Mercy who ignored the byplay entirely.

His eyes flicked lazily between Cadmus and Frost. "protection." He drawled.

"Something like that," Cadmus replied

Luthor took a sip of his champagne, mulling the taste. "Not that it's any of my concern anyways," he said. "Whatever arrangmenets you and miss Frost have agreed upon are between yourselves. I will say however that having her will play well with our new associates, they place a high value on partnerships - especially those with useful skillsets."

Cadmus couldn't imagine that with men such as Luthor among their members, that this clique did not subscribe to the idea of partnerships that were equal for all sides involved.

Not that he could say much on the matter.

"Regarding our associates, am I to assume they're expecting my presence?"

"Oh, of course. I gave them ample notice." Luthor nodded. "My friends and our host for the night tend to have very," he paused. "violent reactions to unexpected surprises."

Dangerous then, enough to make Luthor at least pause. "Who's our host?"

He smirked. "I wouldn't want to spoil all the fun. Our host, the one graciously offered us use of Santa Prisca, is a man who prefers to deal face-to-face. In respect of that, I'll allow him the pleasure of introducing himself."

"I look forward to meeting him, then."

Lex stood up from his seat. "We have a long flight ahead of us, and I for one and am in need of some rest before the fesitivites." He gave a waving motion in the direction of the champange bottles, but Cadmus saw his eyes flick to the pair of pretty stewardesses standing by the cockpit. "Please, avail yourself of any entertainment you may find. Mercy come with me, please."

Cadmus allowed himself to frown, he didn't like it all when he was tested, much less in such a way as though he were expected to fail. He had a feeling this would be a common experience with Luthor.

Luthor pushed back a silk curtain, revealing a glimpse of spacious apartments and a full meeting room before the two disappeared out of sight as the curtain flicked back into place, leaving Cadmus and Frost alone with the din of the engines to fill the silence.

Cadmus didn't like planes.

He didn't like the everpresent thrumming of engines in his ears, the dry stale recycled air, and he most definitely did not like turbulence.

Each small bump and jostle - it didn't scare him, no, anxious was a better word. That was why he took the wise course of action and went immediately to sleep - without a word to Frost, who was visibly surprised he didn't call for her to follow.

A stewardess led to him an empty apartment adorned with a king-sized bed, a full bathroom, and a large TV. He laid in that bed for what seemed like hours, each tick of the clock almost painful until he finally drifted off into the land of dreams.

It was almost dawn when the plane finally began to make its descent, and the sudden change in acceleration awoke Cadmus from his fitful sleep.

Outside the cabin window, he saw an endless expanse of glittering blue sea in the early sunlight and in the distance, a small island with pearl-white beaches, hidden in dense jungle.

They passed over an impenetrable canopy of trees before it suddenly disappeared and revealed a flat narrow field with a small runway. The entire cabin jostled and shook as they landed and within the privacy of the small apartment, Cadmus clutched at a nearby railing until his knuckles were white and the plane finally came to a merciful stop.

He hated planes.

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Hey everyone! Just a quick update – the story has caught up to the original.

Should I update the story whenever the author adds more than 1k words?