Chapter 28: Lian Yu

"talking"

'thinking'

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Lian Yu, North China Sea, August 3, 12:35, 2016

Many islands full of lush vegetation could be seen peeking out of the window of Batman's jet. The group had been flying for a couple of hours at normal speeds so as not to raise suspicions in The Light's technopath. He was someone who could control technology like second nature, they didn't know how easy it would be for him to track them, so they preferred to be cautious. 

"GPS is no longer useful here" Victor commented. Also some systems started to go a little crazy. Batman was beside him driving along, unconcerned about the event. Without turning to look at Victor, he simply said.

"Several electromagnetic meridian lines pass through this place. This causes many electrical systems to fail. This phenomenon happens in the famous Bermuda Triangle, and is the cause of many airplane disappearances throughout history"

"Wait, that means... ahhhh"

The realization came late to Victor, when the plane's entire electrical system suddenly shut down. Marie and Lois who were in the back chatting harmoniously, were startled by the sudden change and began to be alarmed as the plane began to descend at breakneck speed.

Victor was about to connect to the plane's controls and take command, but stopped when he saw something strange next to him. Batman had a small smile on his face. That smile quickly faded though, and typing two buttons, he activated the auxiliary engine, which turn on just in time to prevent they crash. The plane began to fly even at a faster speed than it was, and the view began to clear for the new visitors.

"Welcome to Lian Yu"

A large island filled with large trees could be seen. It was the diameter of a medium-sized city, and boasted a small dormant volcano in the very center of the island. It was a beautiful sight to see. But in the end, it looked like a deserted island. It didn't look like anyone's home or base of operations.

"The view is beautiful, but is this it?" Marie expressed. Lois also had the same question, since Batman had already told her some things, but she imagined something different when she thought of the secret base or hideaway.

"Just wait..."

As they began to enter the island's airspace, a slight turbulence came over them. The plane spent a few seconds like this until they felt a sudden change in the general atmosphere. This was due to a protective barrier, which prevented the outsiders from seeing the real Lian Yu.

When they passed the barrier, they saw a totally different picture. The island still had lush trees and tall vegetation. But now, they could see better that there were several totally modern structures of houses built. There was even a small hospital, and if the eyes of the people did not fail, even a small research center.

The surprising thing was not the construction of these structures. It was how they were made. They were made with the most modern and advanced materials of all. Clearly whoever had done this had spent a fortune.

Landing the plane on the southern part of the island. An old man dressed as a butler came to greet them.

"Welcome, sir. Did you have a good trip?"

"No problems Alfred, any news?"

"None worth mentioning, sir" then he turned to the newly arrived group, and with a bow said to them "Alfred Pennyworth at your service. Let me help you with your luggage"

"Sure, maybe it's little, but it's heavy" commented Victor. At this point he felt like he was at a vacation resort, due to the hospitality of the butler.

 "Don't be surprised at my age, Mr. Stone. These old bones are still very strong" Alfred made a sign of strength, as he commented, which made the group laugh.

"Fine, you win. But call me, Victor. Mr. Stone makes me feel old"

"Perfect, Victor" with a slight smile, Alfred voiced, as he grabbed the luggage and quickly made his way to the residential area, where houses were built for the island's inhabitants.

"Okay, I'll give you the tour" Bruce commented

-----------------

Walking along, they were pleasantly surprised when they saw not a few dozen people, but hundreds. It was practically a small community. Some could easily be recognized as renowned scientists, others were civil servants known to be incorruptible, and some award-winning journalists in the milieu.

"Over there is the residential area. I told Oliver not to do anything extravagant, but I think extravagant is in his nature, and he spent more than he should have, building them. The east side is the research area. Ray is there overseeing everything. And the north zone is the medical area. We even have solar recovery chambers. It really doesn't ask anything of the Watchtower's medical bay"

"It's impressive, how long did you had for do this?"

"Oliver started this project, I think before July last year. His company declined a lot because of this. But I think Oliver thought about how the situation would escalate and preferred to spend big, and get everything done in record time. At the end of the day, we are wanted fugitives. From there, I started recruiting people right when I left the League. Unfortunately, some people had already been kidnapped or... silenced by The Light. You are the last ones to be recruited, fortunately"

"Oh, they've finally arrived. I thought for a moment you would refuse the invitation" a jovial and cheerful voice came right to the group's ears. Approaching came into view a rather handsome man, with hair and a large blond beard. The most peculiar thing about the man was his neatly trimmed and groomed mustache. He was Oliver Queen, or known as Green Arrow.

"It's good to see you guys. What do you say about the place, impressive, isn't it?"

"It's impressive. How did you find this place?"

"I never told you guys. When I had my accident with my dad, 9 years ago now, I was stranded right on this island. It took me more than a year surviving in the harsh conditions here, until a fishing boat finally deigned to rescue me. From there, I did not return home. I preferred to go to Russia and train to hone my potential. You know, money is important, but when you are stranded on a deserted island without any company or help, you realize the true value of things"

"My son grew wise with age. I think I can go to my grave in peace, now" a woman's voice interrupted Oliver's big speech. An older woman, but one who still looked beautiful despite her age, approached. She was Moira Queen, Oliver's mother. Next to her was a girl of about 14, who walked shyly beside her mother.

"Mother, what are you saying, you're still so young. Stop taling like an old woman on her deathbed"

"Mmmm, you're right. Besides, I can't leave without seeing my grandchildren. Get your act together with that girl Dinah, before someone braver comes along and snatches her away from you. Men have to be brave, son. Besides, you stopped taking the smoothie I was giving you. You don't know how good it did for your manhood. For God's sake Oliver, I want grandchildren"

"hahahahaha"

"cough, cough"

The whole group started laughing loudly because of this mother and son interaction. Although Oliver was coughing loudly from embarrassment at his mother's words.

The smoothie she was talking about was a secret recipe that she claimed helped with a man's fertility. She claimed she had given it to his father, to conceive both him and his sister. Information that Oliver strongly wanted to get out of his head.

"Oh, how rude. I haven't introduced myself. I'm Moira Queen, it's a pleasure to meet my son's friends. Thea, be good and introduce yourself"

"Hello, it's a pleasure" said the little girl shyly, who then moved to hide behind her mother. She looked adorable with her brown hair pulled back.

"Isn't she adorable my dear little sister?, And she's good with the bow too. In a few years she can easily surpass me"

"From what I saw, I would think she already surpasses you" another voice interrupted as a beautiful blonde haired, blue eyed woman approached. Dinah Lance had arrived on the scene.

"It's true, Oliver. Your value has diminished thanks to your sister" Carter Hall spoke as he approached next to his wife, Shayera.

"I've let myself be beaten" Oliver tried to justify himself. But everyone had looks of disbelief. Clearly, no one believed his sentence.

Then Barry Allen arrived, with his wife Iris. Finally, Ray and Zatara joined the group's celebration. It must be said, that many stopped seeing each other after the dissolution. It had practically been more than 6 months that they had not seen each other.

Although the League had already officially disbanded, and it had ended as badly as it did. No matter if there was anger and fighting, in the end they were all connected by a common front. They were still heroes in their hearts.

The atmosphere was cheerful and pleasant. But one person came along who totally changed the atmosphere.

An older woman, who looked totally haggard, with eyes red from crying, approached the assembled group. It was Martha Kent, Superman's mother. When she saw Lois, she quickly went over to hug her.

"Oh, Lois, thank goodness you didn't get caught. I'm grateful" Lois hugged her tightly too, she was also grateful that she was okay.

Then Martha looked at the group, and pleaded with them with full resolve.

"Please, I beg of you. Save my son"

They looked at each other, and an unspoken agreement emerged in everyone.

"Don't worry, ma'am. We will. We will save everyone"

----------------

"What's wrong with Barry?" asked Victor to Carter. Shayera and Marie were also walking in the group. When they first started dating, they often went on double dates with the couple, and they had become very good friends.

"It's a touchy subject. What do you know about Barry's childhood?"

"Not much, he doesn't like to talk about it. I know his mother died, and they blamed his father. Then his father was killed in prison when he got involved in a gang fight. Pretty much the case was closed. But Barry still thought he was wrongly framed, and so he became a coroner"

"In broad strokes, that's right. But, what he never commented on, at least not up to this point was that he, as a child, apparently saw that the culprit in his mother's death was a yellow blur. He didn't understand it at the time. But when he got his powers, he finally realized it"

"Wait... you mean it was a speedster that caused his mother's death?"

"That's right. We had the job of bringing him, Iris, and Iris' father, the police commander, Joe West. But we didn't get there in time and someone beat us to it. Someone fast. A speedster, like Barry had seen as a kid. Barry didn't know him, but he knew Barry. He killed Joe West and beat the crap out of Barry. If we hadn't been there, he probably would have killed Iris, too. Since then, Barry has gotten serious. He keeps training, improving his speed. I think his best record was close to the speed of light. Pretty impressive, though he feels it's not enough"

"That's awful, and we don't know who he is?"

"Conjecture. We know he's in The Light, but from there on... we don't know"

"And what about Oliver's sister. She's very shy. Totally different from Oliver and his mother"

Shayera interjected with that

"Well, we noticed that too, and asked. Apparently she has mild PTSD, as she was a victim of near kidnapping in the invasion. Oliver rescued her and nothing happened, but it did leave a slight trauma. Dinah has therapy sessions with her, and she has improved a lot. Actually, it's not a lie what Oliver said. She's pretty good at archery"

Marie and Victor no longer asked about each other's situations. Although curious, everyone had their own problems. Instead, they tried to inquire about an important topic.

"And why was the meeting moved to next week, I know we had just arrived, but why not tomorrow or the day after tomorrow?"

"Because Hal arrives from his patrols the following week, and he has important information to tell us. Besides, it helps to get you acclimated to the place. Victor can help with the research center, and Marie, you can accompany us, to move the different animals from the site. We have protections, but even so, the fauna is very varied. We don't want any problems"

"Sure"

"No problem"

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In a large boardroom were the former heroes, dressed in civilian clothes. Even Batman was in civilian clothes. One, there was no need to wear his costume in this safe place and two, practically the world already knew their identities.

It was no joke when they were given an ultimatum by not signing the Liberation Front treaty. Less than a month after the group was established. The government, to be 'nice', released a list of the names of all known metahumans. Villains, and heroes. Even civilians who lived by hiding their abilities.

Every metahuman had to register to this list. If not, they would be branded as criminals. All for the 'safety of the world'.

The information was very general. Name, age and occupation. They didn't talk about skills in detail, but at least it showed everyone's general skills. Although some League members were not metahumans, they were still included, such as Batman and Martian Manhunter.

Needless to say, this changed everything. Queen Enterprises and Wayne Enterprises declined. And some assassins or villains decided to take the opportunity to hunt down these heroes. Obviously this was the work of The Light to weaken the members of the Justice League, and prevent a resurgence. Little did they expect that Batman had foreseen this and already had countermeasures planned as this place.

"Hey, Hal, where's John?"

Hal Jordan, who was talking and catching up with the guys, sighed heavily and said.

"He is in Oa trying to create a new ring for himself. Repairing a broken ring is simple. But creating a new one is an arduous task. More so, because he is looking for a ring that is in sync with his willpower. For this, John has had to complete a series of grueling tests. But he has not succeeded. He has only one more chance left, if he doesn't make it, he will be removed from the Green Lantern Corps order"

"I'm sure he'll make it"

"So am I. He's almost as good as I am with the ring" Hal boasted at the end. Contrary to John, who had a reserved personality, Hal at times was guilty of being rather narcissistic, due to his abilities or appearance. He had stopped acting childish, but, still, he sometimes showed that side of himself. 

Bruce walked through the door interrupting the group meeting. 

"Okay, let's get started" with a projector, he projected The Light's files, the same ones he had already shown, but there was something different. In each file, there was a number from 1 to 3.

"I won't talk about the members anymore. You practically already know that. But I analyzed the information and put a danger level on them, with level 3 being the most dangerous. Make no mistake, just because it's a level 1 doesn't mean it's less dangerous, as they are all considered completely dangerous in their own way. Practically, they have a fairly well-balanced group. Powerful metahumans, skilled fighters, registered geniuses and so on"

"We can group them into 15 union leaders. Each one has a command post, and a working group at his disposal. The Thinker, for example, is in charge of all the group's technology, while Queen Bee, is in charge of information gathering and espionage"

Everyone began to read the information. Some files were quite complete, but others were quite empty, with few images of evidence to their credit.

"Why is the information incomplete?"

"Some have quite a bit of background like Killer Frost, or Cheetah. But others, we can simply only rely on legends or myths, like her" he said pointing to a woman with purple hair, and red eyes. "And he" he said pointing to a handsome man, with a beard and black hair. "Some are totally unknown, and we can only make assumptions of their powers or abilities, like them" he said pointing to a yellow blur with red lightning bolts, and a giant muscular man with gray skin, like a zombie.

"Well, I understand that this is the best that has been gathered for the time and situation, but I guess the question would be, what is The Light's plan. To conquer the world or what?" Ray asked the big question that everyone was wondering. Powerful group. Lots of resources and plans involved. But in the end, the important question was what they sought to accomplish.

Bruce was thoughtful for a moment, but in the end could only say.

"I don't know"

Everyone wanted to vomit blood because of Batman's words.

(AN: I fancied a Chinese reference)

However, he was unfazed by their expressions and continued.

"At first, I thought the same thing. But then I analyzed the main leader's information, and he had already accomplished that. Even several times. Vandal has lived so long, that conquering the world would already be almost a dual nature for him. But what makes me doubt that, are his actions"

Bruce stood up and began to show all the information gathered, by The Light. Everything collected in more than two years of operation. First with small works, but then with big and elaborate plans, totally contradictory, to each other.

"The first situation that arose was the civil war in Vatlava. The same war that was won by the current regent, and cousin of the former king, Werner Zytle, a member of The Light. I thought this was the first step of conquering, but instead, the first thing they did was to ally with the coming countries. Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Finland and other Scandinavian countries signed a resource alliance agreement. Practically, they formed an alliance even more powerful than the former USSR.

The same happened to the North and Central African area. Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria, and other upcoming countries did the same, but not for resources, but for protection by Kahndaq, the ruled people of Black Adam. They are practically creating united fronts with the same ideology and culture. But the funny thing about that, is that they are cleaning up crime in several countries. Practically, my reports tell me that they are already on the verge of getting rid of all the terrorism in the Middle East"

Many massacres were seen in the files shown. Practically, they were complete massacres by terrorist or guerrilla groups.

"But he is smart enough. He kills those he must kill and leaves alive, those he must leave alive so as not to tarnish his image. The Liberation Front, plus the bought press, let only the good things show. But in reality, he is secretly doing a total cleanup of the filth of the world.

My guess is that he wants is, to unify the world. But in several alliances. How many, I don't know. However, one thing is for sure. He doesn't want to create a global war, so he didn't take countries by force. He practically convinced them with bribes, his charisma or maybe something else. So, for the time being, he is being cautious, accomplishing his goals step by step"

"The problem is that it is starting to move faster. Many reporters have wanted to speak the truth and have been silenced, some fortunately were saved, and are here. Others are simply being discarded. Some former villains of ours have been recruited into their group, but others were simply killed as they were deemed useless"

Many villains like The Scarecrow, or Killer Croc were called to join the Liberation Front group. But others, like Heatwave, or Professor Pig, were killed for being considered a liability or insane.

"To sum it up in words. He wants to create a new world order, but in small alliances. He's cleaning up the 'dirt' in the world, but he's also eliminating people considered 'ballast'. But there are other things I don't understand, and Hal has information that is relevant. Go ahead Hal"

Hal Jordan stood up and put up a file, of one of the leaders of The Light called L6. It was a black-haired woman, wearing a pink suit and mask, quite beautiful.

"This is Carol Ferris, vice president of Ferris Aircraft, and my former boss. We also dated for quite a while, but our relationship ended up better as friends. She is part of a new corps like the Green Lantern Corps, known as Star Sappire. This information was secret, and was only recently revealed to me. Only a few knew about it, including my master, the head of the order, Sinestro. Apparently, there are several emotional spectrums besides ours. And she is using love, as her emotional spectrum"

"Isn't that good?" Barry interrupted. Love was a good feeling, at least what he knew.

"There's a saying that, from hate to love, there's only one step. Those words are quite true, at times" Dinah interrupted. She had a master's degree in psychology, and understood the workings of human emotions quite well. Hal accepted her interruption, but continued the explanation.

"That's not the problem. Being members of a larger order, we have rules. I had permission from the Guardians, to be part of the Justice League, but otherwise, if I had left my Green Lantern duties, I would have been reprimanded or punished. She, as a member of an order, must have the same rules. In other words, not only does the problem scale globally, but Vandal has formed an alliance on a universal level with the members of Star Sappire. The guardians start to believe that they want to usurp our sector 2814 for themselves. This will bring only one conclusion... war"

These words completely chilled the ex-superheroes. A world war was dangerous, but a universal war, was unimaginable. Bruce brought more bad news.

"The situation doesn't stop there. Two of the members of The Light have strong ties to Atlantis and Themyscira. I know Diana is fine, but we haven't heard from Arthur since he went to attend to his kingdom's problems. I'm afraid at this point he's either captured…or dead"

(AN: Batman knows that Diana is with Doctor Fate. He put up a cover story that she was on Themyscira. But Fate's entire plan is ignored by Batman)

"The situation is precarious. They have us cornered. Hidden and defeated. What should we do?" asked Carter.

"The first thing is to free Superman, and rescue Black Lightning and his daughters. From there, we'll have to plan step by step, stepping out of our comfort zone. We have to get better. Break our physical and mental limits. Break the mold they have of us and become stronger"

"Well, that's good. Then we need to make a solid plan to accomplish those two goals" Victor spoke resolutely. Bruce, however, cut off any aspirations he had.

"We won't do that. That's what they expect"

"Then who will free Clark, and Jefferson, I refuse to stand idly by" Marie spoke up. They had promised his mother they would rescue him, and they would deliver.

"Like I said. They expect us to do it. So, we have to think outside the bag, and do something different. They'll do the mission"

Martian Manhunter, who was not present, suddenly walked in accompanied by a group of 15-18 year olds teenagers. They were the Teen Titans.

"Vandal has planned a lot against us. But he left out something important. He practically ignored our protégés. They expect us to perform, but they don't expect anything from a group of young teenagers. The Teen Titans will be the key to our plans coming to fruition"

The young members had excited faces. Some excited to have big missions and others excited to see their idols. However, the older members of the Justice League had a simple thought.

'You've got to be kidding me'