CHAPTER 43: "Don't Be A Fool..."

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*Clark Kent (Superman), Wayne Manor

Dinner ended with Batman and his proteges with a creme brulee and a few more jokes about Barbara's new 'friend.'

Glancing over, Martian Manhunter kept a look of stoicism but after years of working together he could tell, the Martian had a pretty good time.

It was a shame to end it with the next part of the evening, the reason for his and J'onn's attendance.

The three heroes walked to a separate room where Batman tapped an unfamiliar out-of-tune note on the piano. A soft hiss saw the massive grandfather clock that stood in the room slide from its spot revealing a passageway downward.

The group followed Batman down where they entered a massive cavern with menacing stalactites hanging overhead. If one squinted enough, you could see movements on the ceiling, small beady red eyes stared down at J'onn and Superman as if they were intruders in their master's cave.

Batman walked over to where the Batcomputer sat and powered it on with a password and retinue scan. The main screen illuminated the room as it booted up the files the Dark Knight wanted to show his companions.

Batman took a deep breath, "For the past few weeks, I have noticed an increasing amount of activity from various organizations and groups."

On the main screen, a map showed the world with red spots indicating points of concern.

"The recently revealed Light by our Team has received massive shipments from China. What exactly is in the shipments is unknown, but I will have the Team investigate. The strange part is that the shipments have increased in number, and speed and are foregoing some of its more protective measures to stay hidden."

Pointing to a spot near the Himalayas he said, "The League of Shadows has begun buying up weapons in bulk. The last time they armed themselves this much led to the attack on Gotham a few years ago with Scarecrow's nerve gas."

At the northern coast of Venezuela, he said, "Bane has united a few of the cartels and mercenary groups to form a small army. We don't know the specific numbers but they are receiving enough hookers and food to suggest somewhere between 5 to 7 thousand soldiers."

"Meanwhile in Kahndaq one of its main Generals has been brutally assassinated. With evidence suggesting interference from Western special ops, yet Black Adam has not used it for propaganda." 

Batman had an annoyed confused look as he stared at that red spot, "I have been unable to determine what exactly is going on, but it leaves me fairly concerned for the region and whatever Black Adam is planning."

"Finally," he cleared his throat and gave his two guests a serious look "Cadmus has not gone quiet like we thought they would when Superboy and the lab were discovered. Interestingly, they have been expending resources investigating the assassination in Kahndaq as well as the League of Shadows arms build-up."

J'onn hummed as he took a step closer to the screen, his eyes passing on each red spot.

"Such events coinciding at the same time are not unusual," J'onn said before looking back at Batman, "Unless they are all connected?"

Superman frowned, "You are not suggesting all these different organizations are working together? I find it hard to believe they would all be able to effectively coordinate their efforts without it falling apart."

Batman nodded to both his colleagues, "I believe that these organizations are connected, however perhaps not directly from first glance."

He typed a few commands into the console which showed a list of events in chronological order.

"The assassination of the Kahndaq General sent many of these organizations into their current paths. The Light began to hurry their operations, and Cadmus rather than hiding and licking its wounds began to expend resources hunting down any information about the assassination. The League of Shadows interestingly was the first to act following the death of the General with a massive build-up in its weapons. Bane and his mercenary army followed suit in response to the League of Shadows most likely believing a major world event is underway."

"There is a domino effect going on and all because one general in a remote country was killed."

"The question," Batman stressed, "Is why?"

The three heroes stood in silence, pondering the answer.

These sorts of conversations reminded Superman why visiting Batman almost always ended in a doomsday scenario the League needed to prepare for. 2/3rds of the time it usually was just his friend seeing shadows and connections that were not there. It was that 1/3rd of the time however that forced them to address each one seriously.

"Do you have a lead?" Superman asked curiously.

Batman looked back at the computer, "I have a lead on Deathstroke, I thought I could take him down and see if he knows anything. If I get nothing then The League of Shadows was the first to react. It makes the most logical sense to start with them, if I get nothing there I will call in a favor from Waller to figure out what is going on with Cadmus."

"I wanted to inform the both of you just in case anything should happen. It is important for at least two other League leaders to be aware of this potential problem."

"These actions, do you think it would be wise to alert the rest of the League as well as the U.N?" J'onn asked.

"Unfortunately," Superman jumped in "we have no evidence of a greater problem. That and even the Light is a current unknown to the world's Governments, at least publically."

A thought appeared to Superman, "This could be what we need to expose the Light to the world finally."

"Perhaps Clark," Batman said, "And I agree. With no solid evidence, we could put the world on alert needlessly. As well as alert these parties to our investigations into their actions."

Clicking a button, Batman shut his computer down, "It is best for the time being we keep this to ourselves."

J'onn said concerned, "What about the other leaders like Diana, Stewart, or Barry?"

"Not yet," Batman said sternly, "Not until we have the evidence."

Superman nodded in agreement, after all, this could be a false alarm. No need to alarm the team and get attention diverted from other investigations and operations till they were sure.

J'onn nodded with hesitation, undoubtedly not liking the idea of keeping secrets from the rest of the leadership.

As for Batman's reasons, Superman gave him an appraising look. Everything he said was logical and in line with what you could expect from him. But thanks to years of knowing him Superman felt there was something he was leaving out.

For now, the man of steel would trust his old friend. Hoping that whatever the full reason for Batman's secrecy from the rest of the League would not bite them in the rear.

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*James "Krios", Somewhere In Western Africa

"Don't be a fool..."

James groaned as he swiftly rolled to his left escaping the boot stamp from his teacher Deathstroke.

While rolling he flung his leg out in hopes of catching Slade's leg to bring him down... which succeeded partially.

His leg swing did find Slade's leg, he did wrap around it and applied all the pressure he could to collapse it. Everything up to that point worked wonderfully, except that Slade's leg must have been made of pure iron since he could not bend it!

Slade laughed at the confused look from James, "Guess this means we have been skipping leg day a little too much."

The Merc leaned down trapping James' leg with his own before delivering punches directly to his head.

Between the punching of James' face and head, he was able to snag a few snippets of what Slade was saying.

"Going to Gotham... dumbest idea... Batman kick your a... not ready yet... at least another year... stupid... idiot... father smells like elderberries... too weak!"

The next few seconds felt like hours as he felt his nose crack, his face swell and split from the strikes, and blood flow freely. Despite his best efforts to counter, he could not break Slade's stance, and slowly but surely he finally succumbed to darkness.

Floating in the darkness his mind still seemed active if a little befuddled. The last few months of training with Deathstroke had been trying but he could already feel the leaps and bounds he had made. It had he mused perhaps made him too arrogant. Slade after all had beaten him to a pulp, though instead of losing in 5 seconds it now took a whole minute for Slade to end the fight.

It was times like these when he desperately wanted to use his powers to wipe the smirk off the Merc's face. However, as part of the rules of training, Slade left training his telekinesis up to himself while they were focused entirely on martial arts and weapons without his powers. Slade said from the beginning he wanted to break James' habit of relying entirely on his powers and be prepared to fight fully without them. After all, expertise in one weapon is good, but when you lose that weapon or can't use it you become incredibly vulnerable. Slade sought to eliminate those vulnerabilities.

And while James did not fully agree with the sentiment, he recognized the vulnerability he would be in without his powers.

They did fight once with James allowed to use his abilities to his fullest as Slade wanted to prove a point to the young man. James felt very confident until Slade appeared fully armored and decked out with the weapons one would expect of Deathstroke. The spar they had that day was much closer, but James was brutally reminded why even the main Justice League members, practically gods feared the Terminator.

It took nearly a week for James to recover sufficiently to begin sparring and training per the usual. During that time Slade taught him techniques for creating fake identities, basic combat medic skills, and communicating with the criminal underworld for contracts and requesting gear.

This most recent spar had occurred following a message from Jane.

'A detective visited me...'

'Questions about Penguin and my past...'

'Everything went fine until she mentioned Krios...'

Hearing the news of a detective digging into his life put James into a panic. Less so for the reveal of his identity, but more so for the consequences that could befall Jane and Crystal.

He had started packing immediately when Slade walked in and asked what the hell he was doing.

A few arguments later led to their current spar where if he could stay standing or even beat Slade he would be allowed to go.

The results went poorly...

Surrounded by darkness some light seemed to break through as he felt his eyes slowly open. For a second it was blinding before settling on an overhead single bulb light. With effort, he forced himself to a sitting position, nausea immediately assaulted him but he was able to breath deeply and control it. Bandages covered most of his face and he could barely gingerly touch it without a flinch of pain.

Funny enough the rest of his body besides a little soreness felt alright. Which was the opposite of what he usually felt after a spar.

"A few lacerations, bruising, and some concussions... I let you off easy kid."

On the other side of the room, Slade sat with his feet up reading from a laptop on his lap.

James slowly swung his legs over and fought through the nausea before attempting to stand on his feet. Standing he began to make his way towards Slade before a strong sense of vertigo and nausea made his knees collapse and him fall to the ground. Right now laying on the floor felt pretty great to him rather then trying to stand.

"I probably should of mentioned that with those concussions of yours, it probably is best you don't stand."

Slade put his feet down and look at James with amusement.

"Usually it would take a marine a week or 2 before I would recommend they leave their bed. I suspect that you will be ready in a day or 2 max."

James closed his eyes, his breathing was heavy from the effort and he felt like any second he would throw up.

"You... can't stop... me," he said slowly.

Opening his eyes he stared Deathstroke down, "I need to go..."

Slade continued to stare James down before chuckling slightly, "Of course you do."

Seeing James' confused look Slade said, "Get healed up and I will get you a plane to take you back to Gotham. You get one week to sort out your problems. After which I expect you back, we got a bit of a trip to make for your next stage of training."

"Next stage?" James asked.

Stretching his back, Slade nodded, "You are well on your way to being acceptable by my standard. But I represent one perspective of the mercenary coin. This job also forces us to be assassins who require stealth, finesse, agility, and deception."

"I could train you on those aspects but they are not techniques I am the most skilled in," he said offhandedly.

James laughed softly, "You are admitting you are not the best at something? Surely the world is ending?"

Slade's eye twitched in annoyance, he may be able to beat James to a pulp. But James still managed every once in a while to annoy him, usually with song and movie quotes, but sometimes with snark.

Slade made his way out of the room, "Well you seemed to be already feeling better, so I guess you can get back in bed by yourself."

Before leaving a dismayed James lying on the floor Slade paused and said over his shoulder,

"When you come back make sure you bring some warm clothes. We are off to the Himalayas."