Changes

"Are you sure?" Raven asked, "Because Satan and Trigon are equivalent in my book."

"It wasn't your father." Her mother finally said.

"His power dwarfed all life on Apokolips." I said, "Rivaled only by God."

Raven snorted in disdain, "There isn't a god, save Trigon and the pretender Darkseid. Then the Greeks and Egyptians but a Yahweh? No."

Her mother softly smacked her shoulder, "Raven!"

"Sorry," she shrugged, "blunt."

"There is a God but while I was raised Lutheran it's been a hard 200 years."

"So you believe in God and walk around flipping off the planet while telling anyone who pisses you off to suck a dick?" Raven droned, "Sounds hypocritical."

"Suck a dick, it sounds human."

"You two need a bar of soap and to wash your mouths out." Raven's mother interjected before we got carried away.

"Look!" I said, needing to step back, putting my hands up defensively, "I had to tolerate Oracle this morning, Jericho wanting something after that, reading about how I caused world war three, a Commie, Zatanna and this Devil or No-Devil thing and still got crap on my plate for today!" I took a deep breath, and shook Ms. Roth's hand, "It was a pleasure Ms. Roth."

Abruptly walking away, I tried to escape them for a little room to breathe and digest everything going on. It was cold in Gotham and getting colder. Winter should be here soon. Might even snow tonight.

Raven's power signature was behind me for a few minutes. She waited at a distance until I had simmered down and came up to the railing beside me. The wind had a cold bite to it as evening approached and I asked,

"Are you cold?"

"I'll live," she coughed and I gave her a look.

"Sorry about earlier, god-talk isn't really a strong suit of mine. My father's the most powerful thing I know. It's hard to wrap my head around the concept that something could be infinitely more powerful and let him exist."

"It's ok, to each their own."

"Also, thanks."

"For what?"

"Saving me again."

"We keep working together you'll catch up. No need to keep records. No need to make it up to me."

She huffed a doubtful laugh, "You're a little bit of a powerhouse now."

"At what price?" I asked rhetorically as I looked at my cursed hand.

"Stop beating yourself up. Look," our smartwatches chimed for us to meet Batman for dinner and the meeting, "can I trust you with one more thing?"

"Why?!" I spat, "Why right now?!"

Our friend just died, why can't the world just let me-

Dwell on it? Crap, I realized I had been fixated on the death part and almost lashed out on the others for trying to use work or anything else to forget. I didn't know what was worse. Dwelling on things wasn't healthy. It was hard to swallow, but the sooner we moved on the better.

"I'm sorry, I dwell a lot. Go ahead. Distract me."

"Sorry," she muttered, "but it's these… dreams."

"Yes?" I said, my full attention on her.

"Of my father's demons and these robots crushing the earth. A planet sized orb as a backdrop in the sky as my father laughed. It bothers me."

"Maybe we can visit Los Angeles and find someone to get answers there."

"Why there?"

"I need to visit a screamo vampire and a fiddle player."

I started walking to the meeting and Raven watched me go; confused. The vampiric woman could look into the blood I copied when Raven coughed at the underwater prison and then the fiddle player was none other than my maker. According to a classic song, he lost a golden fiddle in Georgia one day.

***

Before that, however, I was sitting at the cap of the table. Batman was on the other, and the team were on both sides. No one touched their food and I gulped. The ice in the room was thick. I broke it, finally confessing,

"Look, let's get to the point. I stabbed Diesel with killing intent; even though he could have been healed. Deathstroke, him, and the girl I killed's boyfriend attacked the Tower because of me. I've ran a killing creed for too long. I'm pretty sure what's coming next."

Batman chuckled mournfully, "Dick always was a terrible liar."

"Now we got world war three on the horizon. I'll turn-" I swallowed a lump in my throat, "I'll turn myself in."

"That's noble of you," Beast Boy said, surprisingly serious, "but I'm pretty sure that won't curb Black Adam's wrath."

"This was always on the surface," Cyborg confirmed, "this was coming to fruition eventually."

"We're going to need everyone on board." Batman added, "That's why, on top of new team members coming in, we're not kicking you out Kevin."

Everyone looked right at him.

"New members?" Arisia spat in disbelief.

"My proverbial sister hasn't even been buried and you're already replacing her?!" Donna yelled.

Of course she was the most tender in the issue. No one blamed her. Batman justified,

"These additions were in the process before our last meeting concerning Mr. Grant here. You've already met some of them. Worked with others."

None other than Red Star and a young boy with glasses entered the room. It was awkward, hell all of this was awkward. Red Star, however, was charismatic enough to reintroduce,

"Good evening, comrades. Приятно познакомиться. It's nice to meet you."

{The Russian text sounds: (priYATno poznaKOmitsa) He translates in the next sentence.}

The boy behind him cleared his throat and stepped aside for all to see saying, "Hey, I'm Danny Chase."

Anger started boiling in me, not at Red Star personally but at what he could be. In innocent patriotism to his homeland he could be manipulated into an unwitting spy. On the flip side, he was allowed the privilege of being on the team just to keep the Russians in limbo on their loyalties in the coming war.

"What was your name sir?" I asked.

"Прошу прощения, I'm sorry. I hadn't told you my birth name earlier. Leonid Kovar, but you may call me Leo if you wish."

(Russian: proSHU proSHCHEniya, translated again as I'm sorry.)

"This is somewhat hypocritical for me to ask but things have been ramping up since I came. How does the Kremlin feel about you being here?"

"Unity is a virtue in my homeland, comrade. I being here-" he was somewhat struggling with his English but properly worded, "I'm sorry, my being here today is the Kremlin's show of support for the *Freedom of Power Treaty, the Global Guardians, and the Justice League International."

(An actual DC treaty. Lantern Hal Jordan got in trouble a lot for flying in sovereign airspace.)

I was worried that he was a shadow agent, maybe a sleeper. However that paranoia stems from the McCarthy era, Jim Jones and Jonestown, Stalin wanting to team up with Hitler and the holodomor. All that was certainly more than twenty years ago, before this boy had been born. I'm not worried about him, but his handlers. I tried hard to soften and said,

"Don't apologize for your English. Maybe you can teach me a little Russian while you're here."

"Да. Yes, that would be very good."

(Russian: da. Easy peasy, means yes.)

"Leo, Danny," Batman beckoned, "please take a seat." As they did, Batman added, "Danny is from the CBI*. He can help alternate on Oracle's support role and teach Hosun a trick or two. He is field savvy though. I vetted him."

(*CBI stands for Central Bureau of Intelligence. DC's FBI.)

"I have already did some drills and showed myself to be combat ready." Oracle interjected, "I'll be doing much more soon."

I blinked a few times. When the hell did she find time to do that?! I tried not to look under the table and do a double take on her legs. Not to see if they were healed but I was wondering if she did those drills in heels. If she did, Jesus, I better not mess with her.

"The next person to introduce is the woman behind you Kevin." He added, "Come on up Orphan. Take a seat."

She walked up to her chair, her black hair cut in a bob cut. No, she seemly to glided there. I saw the heels but heard no sound on the tile when she snuck up behind me and walked to her seat down a ways on my right. She waved and produced an identical device to Jericho's. She must be mute,

"Hello," she typed, "it's a pleasure to finally meet all of you. Call me Orphan."

"I have two or three more awaiting testing," Batman said, "we're going to need everything we can muster because things are going to get out of hand. We are officially at war."