"It is a pleasant morning don't you think, Vertigo? A good day to triumph, but also a good day to die." Count Deathstroke said as he moved away from the ten HIVE agents that he brought to the parlay, walking to the center of the distance that was separating him and his agents with Vertigo and his comrades, said comrades being the speedster known as Zoom, the telepath known as Manchester Black, the electro magnetic guy known as Dr Polaris, and Weather Wizard, the three members of the high evolutionary that were missing being Mirror Master, the human nuclear fission reactor, Atomic Skull, and light manipulator Doctor Light.
"Deathstroke the Terminator. It seems the little girl has grown up a lot since our last encounter. I never would have expected her to hire a savage and ruthless mercenary like you." Vertigo said as he too left his comrades behind and approached Count Deathstroke, Vertigo both impressed by Perdita's actions and disgusted at the very notion of her thinking that she had any hope of ever outwitting him.
Werner Vertigo is a Caucasian male with blue eyes, slicked back blonde hair, and a widow's peak hairline. He is wearing a lime blazer on top of a brown waistcoat and a dark green ascot with a golden broche. He also is donning a dark green cape and matching pants and gloves and speaks with a thick eastern European accent.
"That's Count Deathstroke to you, Count Vertigo….or should I say, just Vertigo?" Slade retorted as the two opposing figures finally reached each other, Werner Vertigo unable to hide the sheer surprise and anger at the news that he had just heard.
"That's…..that is impossible! Even that useless brat wouldn't dare give such an honorable and powerful position to an outsider!" Vertigo exclaimed angrily, Slade's only response being to pull out the signed and sealed certificate confirming his coronation as the new Count of Vlatava.
"N-no! This can't be! T-that…that witch!" Vertigo exclaimed with a thick Eastern European accent.
"Yes, well, that witch is my Queen, to whom I am bound by law and honor to protect her and all of her interests, and those interests include ending the war that is tearing her country apart." Slade said as he took back his coronation certificate from Vertigo.
"Haha! Deathstroke The Terminator…"
" Count…Deathstroke The Terminator." Slade corrected Vertigo before he could finish speaking, causing an enraged and borderline unhinged expression to appear on Vertigo's face.
"….."
"Deathstroke…..! Do you really think you can stop us all by yourself? The Five of us against you and your average run of the mill soldiers?" Vertigo asked incredulously, still refusing to use the Terminator's official title of nobility.
"Well, those aren't your average soldiers, and for your sake, I hope you'll play this parlay smart so that you don't have to find out just how abnormal they are. The HIVE doesn't take prisoners." Slade retorted.
"What did you say? Did you just say HIVE? Nonsense! Since when are you….you were HIVE all this time!? So you really did try to infiltrate the Light when you joined The League of Shadows?" Vertigo asked angrily.
"You're so full of assumptions, Vertigo. You would look far more intelligent if only you knew when to keep your mouth shut. I had no clue about The Light's existence when I joined The League, I didn't even know about the non aggression pact between The HIVE and The Light until I actually joined The HIVE." Slade said with a casual shrug of the shoulders.
"Nevertheless, now I know, which means that by attacking my country and my queen, you are in violation of our non aggression pact. So tell me, Vertigo, will you disobey the will of The Light? Will you thrust your comrades into a war that could destabilize the entire planet?" Slade asked with a sinister smirk, one that went unseen under his mask but did not need to be seen for Vertigo to know that it was there as he could practically feel it.
"T-that's not fair! I saw the date on your coronation, it only happened after the civil war already started! You did this on purpose! It was your idea wasn't it? That stupid little girl could never have come up with such a brilliant and dastardly idea!" Vertigo argued angrily.
"It doesn't matter when it happened. The fact is, I am Count now, and thus, by continuing this attack on my people, the Light is in direct violation of our non aggression pact. That is all that matters. Retreat and go back to whatever base you come from, so long as it is not inside my country." Slade said with special emphasis on ' my', painfully rubbing salt into Vertigo's wound.
"You will not get away with this! I swear it! This isn't over, just Deathstroke." Vertigo said as he turned and walked away, returning to his team in order to relay to them their next orders.
"You have until the end of the day to leave the borders of my beloved Vlatava!" Count Deathstroke said loudly, a statement meant for everyone to hear, including Vertigo's crew.
"Or what? Huh! Or what? What will you do? What is it that you think you can do to us?" Vertigo snapped, his head and body instantly turning to face the terminator, unbridled rage permeable in every fiber of his being.
"Or me and my men will slaughter the whole lot of you." The Count said, not as a warning, not as a threat, but as a matter of fact, such was the confidence that was oozing off of him in waves.
"Hehehe! Ahahaha! You overestimate yourself too much, Terminator. Zoom! Destroy this idiot!" Vertigo ordered.
"Are…you…sure…about…that? Vandal...made it….clear that…we….shouldn't….promote….any conflict with…the HIVE if it can be…. avoided." Zoom replied with the slowest speech pattern ever, what made it all the more weird being the fact that this was arguably the fastest man in the world.
He is a tall and very muscular individual, certainly much more so than the Flash, and unlike the Flash, who had a physique that was built for speed, he seemed to be built for both speed and power. He was wearing a pitch black speed suit made of similar material to the one the Flash wore, and had on a mask that, well, basically made him look like an actual demon, especially around the mouth area, which didn't look human at all.
"Yes I'm sure! I wouldn't have given the order otherwise!" Vertigo said angrily.
"Very…well…" Zoom replied as blue lightning encompassed his entire body before he disappeared in a blur, running a beeline towards the terminator but much to his surprise, failing to reach his target as something from beneath his feet knocked him straight up into the air.
"Can't run away while you're airborne can you?" Deathstroke asked tauntingly.
"Squad! Fire at will!" The Count ordered, his squad taking out their plasma blasters and aiming them at the airborne speedster and immediately doing as ordered, which was to fire multiple rounds at the dark speedster.
However, much to everyone's surprise, the speedster was immediately levitated away from the danger, getting pulled back towards his teammates at a rapid speed before he was grounded again, the dark speedster internally thankful to his comrade Manchester Black for the fact that he was touching ground once again, the British former M16 operative using his telekinesis to save his comrade's life.
"By the skin of your teeth." The Count cursed under his breathe.
"If you think we came here unprepared for a death match then you are more foolish than I thought, not Count Vertigo." The Count said antagonistically.
"For the sake of our non aggression pact, I'll give you one more chance to retreat and leave my borders. If you spit my mercy back at my face again, I'll terminate each and every one of you." The Count said as a matter of fact.
'What was that? How did Zoom end up airborne? Does Deathstroke have another meta human power we didn't know about? Does he have a hidden ally somewhere? Or was it one of his minions who did…something?' Vertigo thought warily.
"Zoom says that it was something from underground. More accurately, he says that it felt like the earth itself pushed him up into the air. He believes it must be some kind of geokinetic ability." Manchester Black replied to Vertigo's internal question.
He is of British origin, and has purple hair, equally purple lips, and blue eyes. He is also wearing a British T-shirt with a black trench coat, black military combat pants and black military combat boots. He is slender in physique and does not appear to have any weapons on his person.
"Geokinesis? I see. He is full of surprises as always. I suppose it was foolishness on our part to underestimate the most dangerous bounty hunter on the planet. Manchester, locate and disrupt the earth manipulator, I'll use my vertigo to imbalance The Terminator while Zoom finishes him off. Dr Polaris, use your magnetic field to shield and protect Manchester and I. Wizard, be on stand by and assist wherever you feel you are needed!" Vertigo ordered.
"Okay just give me a sec. Stall him for at least thirty seconds so that I ca..."Manchester trailed off as Zoom suddenly pushed him to the side, Deathstroke covering the distance between him and Manchester in basically no time at all whatsoever, removing his brother box enhanced cosmic sword from his back and delivering a vertical strike that was meant to chop the British Telepath into two equal halves.
Thankfully for him, they had a speedster in the team, because otherwise he would have died right then and there, Manchester ignoring the pain of getting rag dolled on the surface by Zoom's super speed push, and able to ignore it because if he had to choose, he would choose the pain over death every single time.
Still, the attack caused a mini earthquake as the earth rumbled and caved under the weight and speed of Deathstroke's attack, sending debris flying in every conceivable direction, Zoom once again forced into action as he had to move everyone out of the way one by one in order to prevent them from being hit by both the shockwave and the debris from the attack.
"What the hell? Since when was he a speedster? I know he has super human speed, strength, and reflexes, but that was something I would expect from Superman just now!" Dr Polaris said warily.
"Forget about that! Zoom! Keep him occupied! I have a special lightning bolt with his name on it….!" Wizard trailed off as Zoom disappeared from sight, running after their leader as two of The Count's men converged on the former count at a speed only Zoom could keep up with, Zoom managing to reach their leader just in time to push him away, so hard that the former Count was airborne and looked set to crash into Manchester Black, although this was very shortly revealed to be part of the plan as Manchester used his telekinesis to levitate the leader and keep him from crashing into him.
Meanwhile, Zoom attempted to deal with the enhanced soldiers, but to no avail as it seemed like they were able to keep up with him just fine, much to the shock of his comrades as they couldn't believe that these guys were not only evenly matched with their ace in the game, but at times were even able to force him on the defensive as another three joined the fray and began helping their comrades, all of them moving at speeds that left trails of after images behind.
This, of course, was the perfect opportunity that The Count had been waiting for as he realized that not only were Polaris and Wizard distracted, but that Zoom would not be able to save them this time as he was preoccupied with saving his own life. It was in that moment that he once again used his spider gauntlet enhanced speed, strength, and reflexes to close the gap between him and the two distracted meta humans, managing to bisect the two of them with one single horizontal strike before either of them could neither physically react or use their powers to save themselves, blood and guts splattering everywhere in a gory scene of unfiltered killing intent and uncensored violence.
"Wizard! Polaris! No!" Vertigo exclaimed in anger and anguish, anguish not because of any sentimental bond between him and his two deceased comrades, but because they were valuable and very powerful pawns to have in his team.
Their power however didn't count for much, because when you're going up against one of the top four bounty hunters and assassins in the universe, one single mistake and one moment of distraction was all it took for you to suddenly find yourself transported to the afterlife. The fact that they didn't even get a chance to use their powers even once was a testament to just how much you cannot take lightly a master assassin like Deathstroke, especially one who not only had meta human powers but was also cosmically enhanced by The Spider Gauntlet.
Nevertheless, Manchester, wary because of what he had just seen, made the smart choice and decided to levitate both himself and his leader high into the air. It was clear now that they were not going to be able to keep up with The Count on land, and in case The Count had super lunging or jumping as one of his abilities, Manchester made sure that they were high enough that they would have time to react to that sort of attack.
"My telepathy is not working on him. Our best bet to keep up with him was if I could read his thoughts and know what move he is going to make before he makes it. What about your vertigo? Is it working?" Manchester asked telepathically.
"It's not working! It must be that mask of his. It's jamming all telepathic inputs directed at him!" Vertigo said angrily.
"We should probably retreat then. At this rate we'll all…what the actual fuck…!" Manchester trailed off as a very large and very wide shadow suddenly loomed over him and Vertigo, their heads snapping up in shock as they saw a large mountain sized boulder falling over them, so wide and so large that they couldn't see anything passed or around it.
"Where the fuck did this come fr…ack!" Vertigo cried as Manchester used his telekinesis to blast him away rapidly while he quickly flew in the opposite direction at mach speed, Manchester's eyes however widening in shock as he realized, too little too late, that he was flying straight into Count Deathstroke, who was, just as Manchester feared, actually flying, Manchester unable to slow himself down in time to prevent the collision but thankfully putting up a force field around himself as a protection measure.
That, unfortunately, was to no avail as his own kinetic energy was used against him, Deathstroke using brute force and the power of his cosmic sword to slice right through Manchester's force field and through his body like a knife through butter, bisecting the British telepath into two equal halves in a most gory and horrific scene to match any of the worst/best horror movies, the two halves of the British telepath falling down and crash landing in different locations on the battlefield.
"Three down, two to go." The Count said with an ice cold tone of voice, as if he was merely counting down the number of chores that he had to complete for the day as he used the spider gauntlet to create a force field around himself, in order to protect himself from the shock wave and the debris storm from the giant boulder that crashed on the surface, even though the force field really wasn't necessary given the fact that he had super invulnerability now thanks to the gauntlet.
"Pretty cool huh? Lord Kitsune says that with enough training, I'll be able to sense and pull meteors out of space. How cool is that?" Deathstroke heard an all too familiar voice coming from above him, looking up to see his protégé, one of them at least, flying down until she was right next to him.
"You revealed yourself when it was unnecessary to do so, that's a rookie move. And as far as meteors are concerned, I haven't even seen you pull a meteorite from space yet. Maybe we can start talking about meteors when you pull your first meteorite." Deathstroke replied to his student, whose identity was of course the Geokinetic princess of Markovia, Tara Markov.
She was wearing the same outfit that she always wore since she joined the HIVE, in fact, since before she even became an official member, except the only difference this time was that she was technologically advanced contec lenses that enabled her to see from long distances, which is why she was able to attack Zoom, Manchester, and Vertigo from high up in the atmosphere.
Her skin was also covered completely in diamond, which is why she was able to fly right now as she was using the diamond that was attached to her skin in order to fly herself around using her Geokinesis. The diamond was also an offensive and defensive weapon, significantly boosting both her defense and offense as it strengthened her kicks and punches whilst also giving her a form of invulnerability to physical and even energy attacks.
"Well, at least I tried. Maybe I'll finally get a compliment from you in like, ten years or something." Tara replied, rolling her eyes at her mentor's refusal to give compliments, starting to wonder if her mentor's inability to give compliments wasn't actually one of his super powers.
"Whatever." The Count said dismissively.
"….."
"The person you're looking for is 35 meters away north east of your current position. He has sustained a broken right leg, a shattered left arm, and fractured ribs. He is attempting to crawl away." Tara said, able to see through the dust and debris thanks to her artificial lenses.
"You stay here. I'll deal with him." Deathstroke said as he shot down at incredible speed, landing right next to Vertigo in a literal split second.
"Vertigo. I told you it was a good day to die." Deathstroke said coldly.
"Y-you p-piece of shit! Y-you won't get away with this, the light will…" Vertigo trailed off as Slade Wilson, without a second thought, pulled out his cosmic sword and stabbed Vertigo right through the head, giving him a quick and merciless death.
"Wow, that was brutal. You know I would have liked to hear exactly what the Light was going to do to us." Tara pouted innocently.
"I thought I told you to stay airborne? Disobeying orders in the field is exactly what will get you and your comrades killed on the field. You're making me want to hurt you Tara, and trust me, you do not want me to want to hurt you." Deathstroke said menacingly, causing Tara to gulp audibly when she realized that her mentor really meant every single word that he was saying, not wanting to be at the receiving end of his ire, especially after just witnessing him casually but brutally killing four meta humans.
"I'm sorry. It won't happen again." Tara apologized sincerely.
"Apology accepted….this time." The Count said with a tone that promised a world of pain if he was disobeyed again.
"…"
"So….one more to go? What are we going to do about him?" Tara asked curiously, directing her gaze at the last member of the High Evolutionary.
"Not necessarily the last one. It all depends on how the others are doing back at the royal palace. If they are failing or have been killed, then we'll have more High Evolutionary thugs to deal with." Deathstroke replied.
"They won't lose." Tara said with conviction.
They had planned thoroughly for this, and they had known, without a shadow of doubt, that Mirror Master would be used to infiltrate the palace, after all, he was the logical choice. Based on their powers, it was obvious that Weather Wizard and Dr Polaris were best used outdoors instead of in doors due to the devastating nature of their powers, and naturally, Manchester and Zoom were too versatile and too powerful for Werner to allow them to be separated from him, as he needed them close to him in order to protect him from harm.
Therefore, Mirror Master, Atomic Skull, and Dr Light were the best options for the infiltration and assassination job, which is why Mist, Windfall, Djinn, and Livewire were tasked with staying behind and protecting the queen from assassination.
"They better not. If they lose and end up dying, I'll kill them myself." The Count retorted, Tara looking at him as if he had grown a second head on his shoulders as what he just said didn't make sense whatsoever.
"Count Deathstroke, my master, Terra, and Sange HIVE agents, it is with great pleasure that I, Djinn, report the defeat and elimination of the three High Evolutionary members that attempted to infiltrate the royal palace. Dr Light, Mirror Master, and Atomic Skull have been eliminated." Everyone on the battle field heard, including Zoom as Djinn used a magic spell to project her voice throughout the battle field, striking a world of fear into the speedster as he realized not only that he was the last one remaining of his team, but that they had taken on an enemy that was far beyond their capabilities and or course, that he was dead meat if he didn't find a way to escape quickly.
'I have to figure out a way to get these guys off me so that I can generate some momentum, enough momentum to siphon enough speed force to travel through time. If I die, then it will truly be over. But if I can go back to the beginning and warn the others then we can prevent this whole thing from ever happening. It can only truly end in our defeat if they manage to take me out of the equation.' Zoom thought with trepidation.
Earlier: Royal Palace
"This is it, we're definitely inside the palace. Good job, Mirror Master." Atomic Skull said as he stepped out of a mirror in one of the corridors.
He is a man who has for a head what can only be described as a radioactive skull. He is also quite tall too and has a very powerful and muscular looking body, wearing a black and purple body suit and seemingly carrying no weapons on his person.
"This is the left wing of the palace. I will drop off Dr Light on the right wing. I need you two to cause as much chaos as possible and kill as many people as you can. The distraction will cause them to evacuate the Queen to the most secure area of the palace. Which is when I will strike, when she thinks that she is in the safest place she can possibly be." Mirror Master said as his face and body appeared on the man sized mirror.
He was wearing a gold costume with a green utility belt, green boots, and also green headgear in order to hide his identity. He, unlike Atomic Skull, had a green ray gun in a holster on his waist but didn't seem to have any other weapon on his person.
"Sounds like a plan. Now get out of my face. I have death and destruction to cause." Atomic Skull said as he began walking towards the throne room, hoping that he can reach the queen before Mirror Master and take full credit for the queen's assassination.
"Not that you'll need it, but good luck." Mirror Master said as his visage disappeared from the Mirror.
"I thought he'd never leave. Now where was I? Oh yes, chaos and destruction." Skull said as his head glowed a bright purple color before releasing a large beam of energy down the hallway, a blast so large and so wide that not even a speedster like Zoom would have been able to dodge it, at least not within the confines of the hallway as there was nowhere to dodge to.
However, the result wasn't anything like Atomic Skull would have expected as instead of smashing into the far wall and destroying everything, a large, red, and circular magical crest appeared out of thin air and not only stopped the energy beam, but seemed to be absorbing the beam into itself until it was completely gone, leaving Skull baffled as to what the hell was going on as he couldn't ever recall something like that happening to his atomic beams before.
"Well what do have here, a homo magi have we?" Skull asked rhetorically, looking straight at the person who was responsible for the magical crest despite not being able to see her.
"Impressive. So you have the ability to sense my presence despite the fact that I used an invisibility spell to hide myself? There is more to your power than I realized." Skull heard the voice of a young girl, and also saw a young girl as a sixteen year old looking woman appeared behind the magic crest, her left hand making a motion as if opening a curtain as the veil behind which she was cloaked was removed.
She has a slim but curvy body, with brown skin, purple hair, purple eyes, and purple lipstick. She has black form fitting shorts with a purple tunic on top and is also wearing black sandals, her overall outfit looking provocative to say the least. She does not appear to have any weapons on herself and based on what she has shown so far, Skull understood that she didn't in fact need any, just like he didn't as he was the weapon himself.
"Just a little girl playing with magic I see? Ha! This should be a piece of cake!" Skull said as he smashed right fist against his left palm, which served as a signal, at least as far as Djinn was concerned, that Skull was now planning to switch from energy manipulation to hand to hand combat.
'It's possible that her crest has a limit to how much energy it can absorb, but it's also possible that she is simply teleporting the energy to some other random place. Trying to figure out which one it is nigh impossible, and testing her crest's limits could leave me depleted of my energy. The best course of action is to beat her to death with my bare hands. She doesn't look like she is a hand to hand combat fighter, most magicians aren't.' Skull thought analytically.
'He wants a close quarters battle? This guy has proven on multiple occasions that he has enough strength, durability, and reflexes to hold his own against Superman. I will not indulge him.' Djinn thought as she activated her magic crest again, Skull's eyes widening in surprise as he didn't realize that the crest could also be used for offensive purposes, his eyes widening even further in surprise as the crest fired a large purple beam of energy at him, equal in size and power to the one that he had sent earlier.
'I'll use my own beam to cancel hers out and then I must immediately close the distance between us, otherwise I won't be able to do anything.' Skull thought as he gathered enough energy on his skull before firing another radioactive energy beam, or at least would have were it not for the hand that was suddenly sticking out of his chest, a hand that was full of lightning oscillations as the entire hand seemed to be covered in electricity.
"You fell for it, idiot." Skull heard a young, feminine voice from right behind him, so close that the person was literally touching him front to back, Skull able to even feel her breasts pressing up against his back. It was also in that moment that Skull realized that the energy beam that had been headed his way was MIA, like it was never there to begin with.
"I-impossible, h-how? How come I d-didn't sense your presence? Where did you suddenly come from? And….w-what happened to the energy beam your friend shot at me?" Skull asked confusedly.
"The energy beam was an illusion, of course. I had to put a lot of magical energy into the illusion in order to sell it as the real thing. With your ability to pick up energies, you might have seen through it if I didn't put out such a large output of energy into it." Djinn replied with an emotion deficient tone.
"And as for where I was hiding? Well, if you could look back, you would have seen an electrical socket at the back end of this corridor. It takes a large amount of electrical energy to run this palace, so it was pretty easy to hide myself within the electrical wiring of the palace until the right moment came. The challenge was the distance of the singular electrical socket in this corridor, but thanks to my Godspeed technique, I was able to easily cover the distance at less than a moment's notice while you were distracted." The girl from behind explained with a cocky and arrogant tone, a complete contrast to the emotion deficient tone of the magic user.
"Livewire, stop playing with your food. Finish him." Djinn instructed, revealing the name of her comrade to be none other than the infamous Livewire, who, without any hesitation, did exactly as instructed as she removed her hand from Skull's chest before proceeding to plunge it in again, this time aiming directly for the heart as she ripped it out of his body.
"N-no way I lost to a c-couple of little g-girls…" Atomic Skull trailed off as the radio active energy that was illuminating his head burned out completely, a very good sign that he was dead, along with the fact that his body was now slouched over and lifeless, Livewire, after confirming the death of her nemesis, removing her hand from his chest and allowing him to fall to the ground in a heap.
"Well, there goes another one. Kill number 17 for me." Livewire said braggadociously.
"Should I be concerned by the fact that you're counting? Or that you have already tallied that many in the short time frame that you have been a member of the HIVE?" Djinn asked with concern.
"Save it for someone who doesn't know your death toll. You've literally killed tens of thousands of people." Livewire retorted.
"Not by choice. I was under the control of evil people. And even though technically I am under the control of Count Deathstroke, I have never felt more free and alive than I have since I joined the HIVE." Djinn counter argued.
"Hn! Whatever! Look, I like you Djinn, I really do. You guys are like family to me. But that doesn't give you the right to psycho analyze me like some Arkham Asylum freak! Ayt?" Livewire said angrily.
"Fair enough. I can live with that. Now, let us clean up this mess and go check on the others. I would like for us to get back to the Queen as quickly as possible." Djinn said with urgency.
"Ayt, just…teleport his body and his blood to Lord Kitsune's lab. I'm sure he'll want to run some experiments or something." Livewire said casually.
"Good idea." Djinn replied as a magical crest appeared underneath Atomic Skull's body, teleporting both his body and his blood away as the body and the blood sank into the crest and disappeared completely.
Meanwhile
"So I'm the one that ended up having to fight you huh? Well, it doesn't matter. All of us trained and prepared to face each and every single member of the High Evolutionary. We even ran simulations for possible tag team attacks from you guys. You're going to lose, Dr Light. The only person that is better than Count Deathstroke at planning and devising strategies for opponents is Lord Kitsune." Windfall said with a thick British accent.
She was standing smack in the middle of the what used to be the dining hall, but was now just an empty hall, Windfall having had the HIVE Sange remove all the chairs and tables in order to prepare for the battle. She had been waiting here since the Count left with Tera and the Sange in order to parlay with Vertigo and the High Evolutionary, as she knew that this was one of only two routes that lead directly to the Queen's throne room.
"I cannot believe that you would just give out such vital information like that, nor that you would even try to face me in direct combat like this." Dr Light said as he shook his head at his young opponent.
He is a man of average height, wearing a black form fitting outfit with silver grey technologically advanced armor over it. The armor meant to serve both as protection for him against physical attacks and as a conduit for his light manipulation. He has short black hair, and has a black mustache and beard.
"Direct combat? I very much doubt you can beat me in direct combat." Windfall retorted.
"Foolish little girl. Not even Superman or The Flash are faster than light itself. What a rookie mistake." Dr. Light said as he fired a beam of light from his chest, the light moving at the speed of light, thereby making it impossible to evade.
So naturally, Dr Light was surprised when he realized that the fight wasn't in fact over in an instant as the light beam went right through Windfall without dealing any damage, hitting the far wall and turning it into instant rubble as there was an explosion upon impact.
"I see now. Yes, indeed that would have been very difficult for me to evade." Windfall said casually.
"W-what's going on? How did you…..are you a g-ghost?" Dr Light said warily, trying very hard to hide his irrational fear of ghosts but failing miserably as his voice started to shake at the mere mention of the word.
"In a way, yes, but not really. You see, one of my comrades has the ability to turn herself into water vapor, calls herself Mist. Another one has the ability to turn herself into electricity believe it or not. So Master Kitsune figured, if those other guys can turn themselves into water vapor and electricity, then why can't I learn to turn myself into air and well, here we are." Windfall retorted.
"Did you just say Kitsune? Doesn't that mean that you work for the HIVE? I thought we had a non aggression pact with the HIVE. Why are you interfering in Light business?" Dr Light asked indignantly.
"You are the ones interfering in our business, Arthur Light. Surely you do not expect Count Deathstroke to just lay his arms down for you and allow you to kill his queen and ravish his country do you?" Windfall retorted much to Dr. Light's surprise.
"W-what? Impossible! That's a lie! There is no way The Terminator is The Count of Vlatava!" Dr. Light argued vehemently.
"I'm telling you the truth. However, it means nothing to Werner Vertigo, because if it did, then he would have called you and told you to abort the mission by now. The fact that he hasn't means that he ignored the non aggression pact and attacked, and is likely dead as a result." Windfall replied.
"Bull shit! Manchester Black, Zoom, Polaris, and Weather Wizard are with him. That team is unbeatable!" Dr. Light contested.
"Well, it doesn't matter, at least as far as you are concerned. You won't live to find out either way." Windfall retorted.
"Boo hoo! So you have intangibility, then what? You have to turn solid to touch me, all I have to do is wait for that moment and…." Arthur Light trailed off in shock, and pain, as, in a split second, Windfall had already covered the distance between the two of them and shoved her hand right through Arthur's chest, having moved as silently aasthe wind as she didn't even make a sound at all.
"Ninpo: Shunpo no Jutsu, otherwise known as Ninja Art: Flash Step Technique. This a wind style technique Lord Kitsune helped me to develop. It allows me to move at an incredible speed using my wind manipulation to remove air resistance while also using wind manipulation to propel myself." Windfall explained patiently.
"And I….thought t-that you were the o-one underestimating me…" Dr. Light managed to say through a painful coughing fit.
"Your energy attacks are fast, but you yourself are not very fast at all. Perhaps you should have found a way to focus your abilities inward like Lord Kitsune made us all do. If you did, you might have become one of the most dangerous people in the universe." Windfall said solemnly.
"So this is what it means to be mentored by two of the best killers in the universe? I never stood chance did I?" Dr. Light said as the light left his eyes, bleeding out and dying in Windfall's hands.
"No, you never stood a chance." Windfall deadpanned as she dropped the body on the ground.
'He lived longer than I wanted him to. It was meant to be a nigh instant kill. I still have yet to perfect my assassination technique. I'll get the Wind Style: Hell Stab right next time. I'll make you proud, Lord Kitsune!" Windfall thought with determination.
Throne Room:
"Do not worry about anything at all your highness. You are in the safest place you will ever be in." Sargent Brock Rudolf said confidently.
He is one of the five HIVE agents that was tasked with watching over the Queen during the invasion, spotting red hear, an equally red beard, and a perfect physique for combat as he is both tall and athletic. He was of course wearing the HIVE military uniform, equipped with the advanced weapons tech of the HIVE.
That wasn't all he was equipped with though as he was now also equipped with meta human powers due to the fact that the entire HIVE military was were now members of the Sange, in other words, they were now all under the control of Looker, one of Lord Kitsune's generals.
"I hired the Terminator to protect me, but he pawned me off to his lackeys and went straight to the battlefield. Forgive me if I don't exactly feel very safe." Queen Perdita retorted.
"You underestimate us too much your highness, but in time you will come to rely on us, in time, you will learn to trust us." Brock replied sincerely.
"We'll see " Queen Perdita said, unconvinced.
"Hahahaha! You are right to doubt, your highness. The Terminator is a fool. He might as well have served you up on a platter." A dark and sinister voice reverberated around the throne room, exact replicas of the five HIVE agents and even one of Queen Perdita coming out of the many mirrors that were around the throne room.
"He plans to fight us with doppelgangers? How stupid, no one knows my weaknesses better than I do. I won't lose to a mere clone." One HIVE agent said.
"Don't be an idiot. He doesn't just plan to fight us with doppelgangers. He intends to replace us with them. The High Evolutionary will likely retreat and act like they have given up on the throne. To the rest of the world it will look like Queen Perdita has finally triumphed and taken back control of her country, meanwhile the Light will be controlling everything through my doppelganger….our doppelgangers." Perdita clarified.
"What a smart little girl. You're absolutely right, that is exactly how it's going to go down." Mirror Master said as he finally revealed himself, coming out of the mirror that was the furthest away from the Queen in order not to get caught in the crossfire.
"Is it? I very much doubt it." Queen Perdita retorted with a confident smirk.
"You very much doubt it? Were you not the one that was questioning the ability of your guards to protect you only a minute ago?" Mirror Master asked rhetorically.
"That was before you made the biggest mistake of your miserable life. You should have stayed in the mirror world." Queen Perdita said with a cold tone of voice.
"What are you….argh…..kk…argh….w-what's happening to me?" Mirror Master cried in agony.
"You thought there were only six of us in here? But you thought wrong. Right now there is a person inside of you, her name is Mist. She deposited her entire intangible composition inside of you as soon as you materialized in the real world. Right now she is slowly solidifying herself inside of you. I told her to make your death as slow and painful as possible." The Queen said venomously.
"Y-you b-bitch! Doppelgangers! K-kill them….!" Mirror master trailed off as Mist accelerated her solidification, instantly manifesting herself inside of Mirror Master, which caused his body to explode outwardly as he died instantly, just in time too as the mirror doppelgangers shattered and died just before they pulled their respective triggers.
"Eeew! This is the part I hate the most!" Mist whined petulantly, disgusted by the blood and gore that was all over her body and clothing.
"Oh stop complaining. You just saved the Queen of Vlatava. You will be handsomely rewarded….once the economy is back on track." Perdita added as an after thought.
"Aah…yes your highness." Mist said dejectedly.
"Go, check on your friends. I'll be safe with General Brock and his men. If they are done, bring them here and have Djinn clean this mess up. If they aren't, help them out." Perdita instructed.
"Your wish is my command, Your Highness." Mist said as she transformed into water vapor again, disappearing from sight as she headed straight for Windfall to check on her, seeing as Windfall was the only one that didn't have any backup.
Currently: Back on the Battlefield
"This is impossible! How are all these guys keeping up with me!" Zoom thought in distress.
He was running for his life, literally, as Count Deathstroke was hot on his hills, chasing him down with murderous intent in every single step that he took. Zoom had eventually managed to escape the Count's super soldiers, a feat he achieved by creating a whirlwind by spinning his arms very fast in a circular motion, which created a dust storm that impeded their vision. However, because everyone else was already dead, there was no one to distract the Count, which is why the Count was hot on his heels as soon as he broke free from the super soldiers.
'I can't close the gap, but it isn't widening either. I also cannot afford to be drawn into a race of endurance. I would probably outlast him, but by then he would have reached any other Light outpost and gotten backup from the other groups." Deathstroke thought warily.
Honestly, he hadn't really expected Zoom to escape the Sange HIVE agents. Sure, Zoom was significantly faster and had better reflexes than they did, but not only did they have a numbers and a tactical and strategic advantage, but they had the super trump card of shared vision. This meant that Zoom, no matter how fast he was, could not surprise any of them because they were able to see from all possible angles and react accordingly. It also helped that Zoom did not know about this ability, or didn't figure it out quickly enough.
However, that Zoom suddenly changed tactics and focused more on escape than winning could potentially mean that he did in fact figure out their secret. And if he did, then Slade did not want Zoom sharing that information with the rest of the Light, and he certainly did not want to give Zoom the chance to go back in time and change everything because if war with the Light was inevitable, then this whitewash victory might prove to be a significant victory in the war. He couldn't afford to risk Zoom taking it away from them.
'I'll have to use the Spider Guantlet's full power.' Deathstroke thought as he willed the gauntlet to take its final form, a golden cosmic armor morphing over all of his body as his abilities were further boosted, the Count experiencing an exponential boost in, well, everything, senses, strength, durability, and more significantly, speed.
"What the…!" Zoom exclaimed as he turned his head back, eyes figuratively popping out of his head as he saw the gap between him and the count closing rapidly.
'N-no! I'm almost there! I cannot go out like this!' Zoom thought angrily.
He was approaching the speed he needed to open a wormhole that would take him into the speed force and allow him to travel through time. He could probably evade The Count by side stepping him, but if he kept doing that then he would never reach the speed that he required to travel through time, and right now that was the only way to ensure both his and his team's survival.
With that in mind, Zoom decided to buckle down, remove everything else from his mind, including the fact that the Count was catching up to him, and focus only on gathering as much speed force as possible into himself and running faster than he ever has before. Unfortunately, it was too little too late for him, because just as the wormhole through time was starting to appear, The Count caught up to him and bisected him at the waist, separating him into two equal halves, the wormhole closing up just as soon as it started to appear.
"…."
"Playing dead isn't going to cut it. I know about your powers, Zoom. You'll use the speed force to halt time around the part where I bisected you in order to prolong your life while you contact the Light. They don't call me the Terminator for nothing. I always confirm the kill." The Count said as he held his sword over Zoom's head.
"N-no! Deathstroke wait! Let's cut a deal! I can switch sides! I can serve the HIVE…ack!" Zoom cried as Slade stabbed his sword down and right through Zoom's head, neither playing possum or trying to negotiate working in Zoom's favor as the Count was not intent on taking any prisoners, especially one as dangerous as Zoom.
"The HIVE has no use for anyone that isn't willing to die for their cause." Slade deadpanned, his golden armor receding back into the Spider Gauntlet when he was sure that he had killed his enemy.
'I could not have attained such a flawless victory without the power of this gauntlet. Even with all my planning, strategizing, and tactics, ultimately, what it came down to was raw power and speed. Well, I guess numbers too. If Zoom hadn't been worn down by the Sange, I might not have been able to catch him like I did. I'm sure there are very few times where he had to use as much of the speed force as he had to in such a short span of time.' Slade thought introspectively.
Slade knew just how important the Sange were to his victory. They had been given the most difficult task of all, keeping Zoom occupied and forcing him to burn a large amount of speed force energy. Initially, he had been against his son's idea to Sangify the entire HIVE army, if only because he felt that giving Looker so much power and control over the organization was both foolish and reckless.
He still felt like it was too much power to give to one person, especially one who wasn't even part of the family. However, after he saw just how strong, fast, and effective they were, he really couldn't master the strength to mount another protest. Who wouldn't want to have an army of super soldiers as back up?
'It's one of those cases where the reward is worth the risk, no matter how grave the risk.' Slade thought as he used the spider gauntlet to teleport Zoom's remains away, back to Kitsune's private lab for research and study.
One Week Later:
"You shouldn't visit me at work, not especially during broad day light." Naruto said casually.
"I don't see the point of hiding the fact that you and I are….well, will…have a relationship once I earn Wonder Woman's trust, especially when I know now that you can protect yourself." Kara retorted.
She was in Naruto's office after unexpectedly showing up on his window. Naruto, as usual, had found himself having no choice but to let her in seeing as he would rather no one saw her outside his window. As far as he was aware, no one did, although he knew that both The Light and the Justice League had access to satellite imagery so the jig was probably up on both fronts.
"It is always better to be careful Kara-chan. There is a thin line between confidence and arrogance." Naruto cautioned, causing Kara to smile warmly as she realized just how much she missed the "chan" suffix when Naruto said her name.
"Well, Nathaniel-kun, I….well, I guess you have a point. I'm sorry okay, it won't happen again. I promise." Kara said sincerely.
"Apology accepted. Now tell me, what brought you here anyway, besides of course our mutual desire to see each other because we miss each other?" Naruto asked casually, causing Kara to fight hard to suppress a giggle at Naruto's blunt and matter of fact yet endearing and funny personality.
"Well, uh…I heard the news, about Vlatava. Your dad is like The Count of Vlatava now? How crazy is that? He has a team too, Defiance right? They defeated and killed the High Evolutionary? That's insane. Those guys are heavy hitters. Even The Justice League would have serious trouble with them. What do you think your father is up to? You think he is trying to take over Vlatava?" Kara asked curiously.
"Oh, and what is the HIVE? Queen Perdita said that she owes the safety of her people to The HIVE and that she has sworn an oath of loyalty for herself and her countrymen to the HIVE. It's obviously some kind of shadow organization that your dad belongs to. Do you know anything about it?" Kara asked with curiosity, but most noteworthy, at least to Naruto, with hope in her eyes.
"Are you sure you want to know the answers to these questions? You might not like them." Naruto asked with a serious tone of voice.
"So you do know about it?" Kara said, eyes slightly widening as realization settled in.
"It's an operation that spans the whole universe. Wonder Woman has told you about the intergalactic war right? She told you about the Kitsune Coalition?" Naruto asked knowingly.
"Y-yes, yes she did. And I told her I'm all in, even if it means I become Second Empress. She's training me in combat and teaching me all about the nations, galaxies, and factions that are part of the Coalition, and those that aren't. But she hasn't told me anything else." Kara replied.
"Hive is an organization that I run with my siblings." Naruto deadpanned.
"S-siblings? You have siblings? Are they….are they also Gods?" Kara stuttered.
"No, they are humans, meta humans. Their names are Joseph Wilson and Rose Wilson. The organization currently has six Generals, me, Hive Queen aka Rose Wilson, Jericho aka Joseph Wilson, Count Deathstroke aka Slade Wilson, Wonder Woman aka Diana of Themiscyra, and Scot Free aka Mister Miracle." Naruto retorted.
"Mister Miracle? Never heard of him." Kara retorted.
"He's new. My mother sent him to join up with me in preparation for…..actually I'll tell you about that another time. All you have to know for now is that he is a New God, like me." Naruto replied.
"I see. So uhm…is there like…uh…space for…you know…another umm…general?" Kara stuttered self consciously, causing Naruto to smirk as it seemed like Kara was finally warming up to the idea of becoming a part of his world.
"As a matter of fact there is. Wonder Woman is grooming you to be the seventh general while I am busy organizing a team for you." Naruto retorted, causing Kara to squeal as she jumped up and down excitedly, Naruto shaking his head in dismay at the childish and yet innocent and heart warming reaction from his technically ex girlfriend but also his future empress.
"Wait…did you say team? Oh my God! Who is in my team? Are they like, Gods or something?" Kara asked excitedly.
"Well, one of them is, technically. But you know, there are some awesome meta humans and even normal humans out there, look at the Flash and the Batman for example." Naruto said, causing a deep frown to appear on Kara's face at the mere mention of the Justice League, which in turn caused a satisfied smile to appear on Naruto's facial features as liked the fact that Kara no longer had any interest in cozying up with the Justice League.
"The team, who are the members?" Kara asked with a serious all business tone, a complete contrast to her previous carefree and childish persona.
"Come over here and I'll show you." Naruto said as he began typing some stuff on his computer, Kara coming around and looking right over her love interest's shoulder, curiosity and excitement at the forefront of her thoughts.
What she saw on the screen blew her mind away, because the girl on screen was crazy strong and crazy fast as Supergirl watched her decimate an army of robots. She could also fly and looked like she had power over electricity. In fact, her feats and even her outfit kind of reminded her of a super hero that Kara knew of.
"Why does she remind me so much of Captain Marvel?" Kara asked suspiciously.
"You have good eyes, Kara-chan. You are right of course, she does have a relation to Captain Marvel. This is Marry Bromfield aka Sargent Marvel. She is Captain Marvel's long lost twin sister. She has the exact same powers as him, and yes, she knows that they are twins, but he doesn't know about her existence." Naruto explained much to Kara's surprise.
"B-but isn't that risky? What if he turns her to his side? What if she defects and joins the Justice League because of her bond with him?" Kara asked warily.
'She really does think like a kunoichi and she doesn't even know it.' Naruto thought warmly.
"She allowed me to read her mind in order to prove her loyalty. She is one hundred percent loyal to the cause. But your concerns are not unwarranted. She has yet to meet her brother in person and has thus not yet experienced the bond that they share. She doesn't know how it will affect her no matter how much she thinks she does. However, the same can be said of Captain Marvel. She could also just as easily convert him to our way of seeing and doing things. Whatever the case may be, I believe you are the key to all of it." Naruto said much to Kara's surprise.
"Me?" Kara asked incredulously.
"Yes, you. I believe that your love, your commitment, your joy, your hope, your caring nature for others, and your conviction and determination will play just as big a part in Sargent Marvel's fate. Don't treat her like a time bomb waiting to go off, or like a potential traitor, treat her like you would any other comrade, and then do what you do best, which is to hope for the best. I'm confident that if you just be yourself around her, that that alone will be the key to Sargent Marvel's future in the HIVE." Naruto said passionately.
"W-wow! You know if I knew you thought so highly of me things might have turned out differently for us." Kara said seductively.
"I wouldn't change a thing. For as painful as our break up was, it is what lead us both to where we are now, at a place of understanding, open communication, and unconditional love." Naruto said warmly.
"Oh my God you really are a sage aren't you?" Kara said, rolling her eyes with mock boredom at her love interest.
"Shut up." Naruto said, playfully poking her in the rib section, Kara appreciating the fact that she actually felt the poke as she had never felt any of the pokes that she got from her previous boyfriends.
"In any case, your character and personality aside, there is also the fact that you are the person that can identify the most with her. You're pretty much in the same boat as her." Naruto explained.
"Me?" Kara asked, astonished.
"I'm talking about you and Superman. You have a strong bond with Kal El…"
" Had a strong bond. Past tense! That was before he betrayed me." Kara said venomously.
"There is a big difference between being angry and disappointed at someone and hating someone. Kal El is your blood, and despite your grievances with him, a bond like the one you shared doesn't just disappear over night. Emotional intelligence and self awareness will be key for both you and Sargent Marvel. Remember that." Naruto said sagely.
"….."
"Okay, fine…" Kara said with a heavy sigh.
"I'll keep your words in mind, and I promise to meditate over them. Most people in your shoes would be trying to paint Kal as the devil incarnate, trying to use the situation to their advantage. But you're being honest and objective in your words and even your thoughts. You're someone that is worthy of my respect, so I'll take your words to heart." Kara said sincerely.
"Thank you. I appreciate that." Naruto said warmly.
"Y-yeah, well, ahem….So whose next?" Kara asked awkwardly, trying to hide her blushes by quickly moving the conversation along.
"Cisko Ramon aka Vibe." Naruto said as he moved on to the next footage, Kara quickly realizing that this was the same training room and the same robots as the ones that Sargent Marvel was fighting, or at least, the same model of robots because she very much doubted they were the exact same ones seeing as Sargent Marvel pretty much obliterated the ones that she fought.
"What am I looking at here exactly?" Kara asked, intrigued as she watched Vibe obliterated the robots with what looked like a sonic blasts and used portals to either teleport himself out of the way or teleport back at them the energy blasts that the robots shot at him.
"Everything he does comes from his meta human power of vibration manipulation. He is a very quick study. He is far behind as far as hand to hand combat and weapons combat is concerned but in terms of using his powers in battle, he is a natural talent."
"Vibration manipulation? Even the portals?" Kara asked, shocked.
"Yes, even the portals are a product of his vibration manipulation. His vibrational frequency sensing and manipulation is so vast that he can open breaches across dimensions. He can even enter and leave the phantom zone as he pleases, although admittedly as of now, it takes a lot out of him to do so." Naruto replied.
"I don't even want to know why and how you even know about the phantom zone." Kara said, rolling her eyes at her love interest's need to understand and control everything, although it was admittedly also comforting to know that she can never get stuck in the phantom zone again with a guy like Vibe in her team.
"I am a God after all." Naruto replied cheekily, Kara resisting the urge to smack her boyfriend over the head for playing the God card on her, settling for a wry smile as she couldn't help but chuckle at how innocent and sincere he made his arrogance and narcissism sound.
"Shut up and show me the rest of the team before your head explodes you egomaniac." Kara retorted.
"Yes yes of course, said the egomaniac." Naruto said as he went to the next footage, showing Kara a guy that kinda...actually very much reminded her of Batman with his gliding around with his kite and use of trick kiterangs as his primary weapons, especially considering the fact that he had a cape that could literally transform into a kite with which he flew and glided, kinda like how Batman's cape could morph into a glider.
His armor did seem to be better though because if Kara was judging correctly, she would say that his armor and tech was made from element X, which probably explained why Kiteman was exhibiting super soldier level speed, endurance, and strength feats. Overall, despite the very Batman inspired theme, Kara could honestly say that she was pleased with the results as she watched Kiteman dismantle and destroy the robot army.
"That was impressive. So I have like, my own Captain Marvel and my own Batman in the team? That is so awesome words can't even describe it!" Kara said excitedly.
'I don't have to read her mind to know that she is thinking about how good she is going to feel when she goes up against Superman and The Justice League with her team.' Naruto thought amusedly.
"Yes, and I guess Vibe would be your Doctor Fate with all the travelling through dimensions shenanigans." Naruto retorted, indulging his ex girlfriend for the time being.
"Oh yeah totally! Why didn't I think of that! That's so awesome! Whose next? Do I get my own Martian Manhunter?" Kara asked with almost childlike excitement and innocence, Naruto's eyes widening slightly at the fact that Kara managed to make such an accurate guess.
"As a matter of fact you do get just that. Your own Martian Manhunter, Brainwave." Naruto said as he showed Kara the last member of her team, Kara's eyes widening in excitement when she saw just how powerful a telepath Brainwave was as he used his telekinesis to annihilate the robot army, although she was a bit confused when he started using his fists and legs to pulverize some of the members of the robot army.
"Wait, so not only is he a telepath, but he has super strength too?" Kara asked with both excitement and confusion.
"Its called tactile telekinesis. It's the same principle you and Kal El use on the clothes that you wear to make them just as, or at least almost as strong and invulnerable as you are. The only difference is that he is using it to also enhance his physiology and that he is consciously applying it whereas you and Kal El do it subconsciously." Naruto explained.
"Incredible! He really is my own Martian Manhunter. Can he use that same principle to make himself intangible too? Like Manhunter?" Kara asked eagerly.
"In theory, he should be able to. But it is a far more difficult skill to master. But I have instructed him to never stop working on it. Maybe he will eventually be able to pull it off, maybe not. Who can say for sure?" Naruto said with a casual shrug of the shoulders.
"I see. Well, it doesn't really matter. He is still very awesome. So when do I get to meet them?" Kara asked curiously.
"Wonder Woman will decide that. Immediately when she confirms that your training is complete, then you will meet your team. So if I were you, I would take the training very seriously." Naruto said gravely, his tone letting Kara know that right now, he wasn't talking to her as her ex boyfriend/love interest, but as her Supreme Commander and Emperor.
"You have my word." Kara said with so much conviction and determination in her eyes that Naruto felt like he could reach out and touch it.
"Good." Naruto said with a satisfied tone of voice.
"Anyway, that's everyone in your team. Pretty cool huh?" Naruto said jovially.
"Wait a minute, what about those other videos?" Kara asked curiously, seeing that there were actually a few more videos in there.
"Oh those? Nah those guys belong to another team. Remember Mr Miracle, the guy my mother sent to look after me?" Naruto said, Kara nodding her head eagerly.
"Well, he came with his wife, Big Barda. Think of her as the Wonder Woman of the New Gods. But it's just the two of them, so I'm gathering a team for them too." Naruto explained.
"W-who?" Kara stuttered.
She knew that she didn't really have a right to ask, after all, she was still on probation after her previous betrayals of the Blonde Uzumaki, and even if she hadn't previously betrayed him, the fact remained that she wasn't an official member of the HIVE yet.
Asking for information about her team was one thing, but asking for information about another person's team was a different story entirely. Still, she couldn't help but to be curious, especially because she was so desperate to be a part of Naruto's life again and to prove that she could be trusted.
"…"
"I…I understand, I haven't earned your trust ye…"
"No, it's not that. I trust you one hundred percent, but I cannot say the same about some of the other members. They don't know you like I do, and they don't share the bond that I share with you. So for them, the bar is raised in terms of how much you need to do to prove yourself. But nevertheless I will show you if it is what you want." Naruto said as he clicked on the next video.
"Tell me Kara-chan, do you believe in vampires?" Naruto asked, Kara's eyes widening in both surprise and confusion.
"Vampires? Pshhht! G-get out of here!" Kara laughed awkwardly.
"…."
"W-what? Why are you looking at me like that?" Kara asked self consciously, struggling to maintain her composure under the scrutinizing stare of her Emperor.
"Why Mighty Kryptonian Kara Zor El, are you actually scared of Vampires?" Naruto asked tauntingly.
"W-what? Of course not! A-a vampire can't do anything to me! It would break its teeth trying to b-bite me! B-besides, vampires aren't r-real." Kara stuttered incoherently, Naruto unable to hold back his laughter at the incredulity of it all, a person who had practically impregnable skin scared of vampires? Someone make this make sense.
"Damn, she really is terrified of vampires. How weird. I guess I'll have to ease her into the whole vampires are real reveal.' Naruto thought with concern.
"Well, whether they are real or not, this one certainly is real. Kara, meet Kirk Langstrom, a bio engineer from our Gotham Branch. He was suffering from Lymphoma, and to cure himself, he experimented with the natural antiquagulant nature of the saliva of vampire bats. The result was less than desired, because while he successfully cured himself of the Lymphoma, it was at the cost of turning himself into a hideous humanoid monster bat." Naruto explained.
"T-that doesn't look like a hideous monster bat to me. His movements are extremely fast, and he clearly has super strength too, but that's about as far as it goes. Otherwise, red eyes and long fangs aside, the guy looks completely human." Kara retorted, watching the guy that was dressed kinda like Batman except with much more form fitting and technologically advanced armor, Kara suspecting that this body armor was, just like Kiteman's, also made from element X.
"That's because I semi-cured him. I was able to reverse the hideous bat transformation, and consequently help him to regain his mental faculties, but I was unable to completely reverse the vampiric effects. Unfortunately Kirk will always have the thirst for blood. However, on the plus side, he has super strength, super durability and super healing, super speed, echo location, and the ability of flight through his echo sonic powers, as you can see for yourself. He also has telepathic abilities." Naruto explained as Kara watched Kirk decimate yet another robot army.
"So he is like an artificial vampire? Does that mean that he doesn't need to be invited into a place to enter?" Kara asked warily.
"No, he doesn't. He can enter whatever place he wants, he can walk in broad daylight, and he is not affected by silver, garlic, nor has he a weakness to wooden stakes. This is a scientifically created vampire." Naruto replied, leaving out the words " not a magic created one" as he wasn't quite sure that Kara was ready to face that reality yet.
"So all the powers of a vampire, none of it's weaknesses? That's a very dangerous person." Kara said warily.
"Indeed. It's a good thing he is on our side, and an even better thing that I discovered the failure of his experimental medicine before he broke free from our labs and started terrorizing Gotham City. The last thing we want is for Batman to be all up in our business." Naruto replied.
"Y-yeah, definitely." Kara said, still trying to get over the fact that one of her future allies was an actual vampire.
"Anyway, next up, a young fella known as Derek James aka Sideway." Naruto said as he played the next video for Kara, Kara watching in awe, and a little bit of jealously as she realized that this guy had similar powers to Vibe but also had super strength, durability, and reflexes. He couldn't shoot vibrational waves or blasts though, but had the ability to teleport and/or dimension shift at will, creating rifts in the fabric of space and time as he used his powers to either rip the robots apart, teleport their blasts back at them, or create two rifts on top of each other to create wormholes.
She didn't even see his face because his outfit covered him up from top to bottom, a black form fitting outfit but with green around the eyes, the torso, hands, arms, and legs. He didn't have a cape or any weapons on him, although quite clearly, he didn't need any weapons with the kind of abilities he had. Kara was sure however that she would know what everyone looked like under their masks by the time she officially took her role as a general in Naruto's army.
"This is a lot to digest. So this guy can dimension hop too?" Kara asked curiously.
"It's an ability I feel every team should possess, along with telepathy and magic manipulation." Naruto retorted.
"I see. But what about a tech expert for each team? I feel like that is just as important a factor." Kara asked inquisitively, knowing well just how useful a tech expert could be from her time working with the DEO.
"An excellent idea. I feel like every team is adequately staffed in that department already, but it is something I'll look into with a bit more if a keen eye." Naruto retorted.
"I know you will." Kara said confidently, as she knew by now that Naruto was not the kind of guy to be careless about something so important, being the perfectionist that he is.
"….."
"Wait, aren't there supposed to be at least five members?" Kara asked curiously.
"There are. I'm having a little trouble deciding on the fifth member for Mister Miracle's team. I discovered something while I was in the Forgotten Zone, or rather, it found me. Take a look." Naruto said as, all of a sudden, in his hand, was a green eye on his palm.
"W-what the hell? Whose eye is that? Why is it on your hand?" Kara asked, creeped out by the weird looking eye, or the fact that her love interrest had an eye on his hand in the first place.
"This is the Emerald Eye of Ekron, and before you ask, no I did not kill Ekron and take his eye, that was the doing of the Guardians of the Universe." Naruto explained patiently.
"The Guardians? These would be the guys in charge of the Green Lanterns, right?" Kara asked rhetorically.
"Precisely. Ekron was an alien from a lost planet in the forgotten zone, the last of his kind. His people were like homo magi, they had an affinity for magic manipulation, and he was the most talented of them all. The guardians used their cosmic powers to harness the emotional spectrum of will and contain it in what is known as the power battery, and gave out rings to lanterns to use in combat, but Ekron attempted to use magic to harness the same power, and instead of a power battery, he attempted to use himself as a conduit. This resulted in him getting these amazing magical powers that somewhat resembled green lantern powers." Naruto explained, taking a momentary pause to make sure Kara was keeping up before carrying on with his explanation.
"However, instead of using his powers to protect the innocent, Ekron attempted to take over the entire universe. Well, his justification was that he would be a noble, fair, and just leader, but his ambitions resulted in bloodshed on a scale never before seen in the universe. The guardians felt that Ekron was a threat that couldn't be ignored and that there would be no peace and justice in the universe so long as he existed, so they sent the entire green lantern corps after him." Naruto said, pausing momentarily to allow Kara to digest the information.
"He slaughtered them all, every single one of them. The Guardians, with the entire Green Lantern Corps eliminated, realized that they would have to intercede and fight him themselves if they wanted to defeat Ekron. So they attacked, using their cosmic powers to the fullest. He almost slaughtered the entire race of Oans, but they did manage to defeat him, obliterating him from existence and leaving not a single molecule remaining, or so they thought." Naruto said gravely.
"They failed, clearly. His one eye remains." Kara said warily.
"Yes, his eye, which contained his will and a portion of his power." Naruto replied.
"Contained? As in past tense?" Kara asked with hope in her tone.
"The eye still has a portion of his power but that power is no longer tied to his will. I made sure of that." Naruto deadpanned.
"H-how?" Kara asked with a deep frown.
"The eye tried to enforce its will upon me, Ekron's will, but will is tied to the soul, and thanks to my rinnegan powers, I have the ability to see, touch, and remove souls. So that fragment of his soul that was tied to his will, well, it's gone now." Naruto replied.
"Okay, but I still don't get it. What do you plan to do now? Recruit the eye?" Kara asked incredulously.
"Ekron was using the eye to channel his power through a sentient host while also warping the hosts mind to do his bidding. I have attached my will to the eye now, so, the eye won't control the host, but it also will not tolerate any attempt to betray me. Should the host even attempt to intentionally betray me, the eye will immediately abandon them and report back to me." Naruto replied in detail.
"Wow so wait! You wanna give the eye to someone? Who?" Kara asked incredulously.
"There are three potential candidates. Queen Perdita of Vlatava, Government spy Emilia Harcourt, and former Central City Police detective Patty Spivot. The latter has a job interview with me today in uhhh….exactly 45 minutes." Naruto replied as he checked the time on his watch.
"Queen Perdita? Why her? Why any of them in fact?" Kara asked, confused.
"Queen Perdita has sworn her allegiance to the HIVE, and as Queen of Vlatava, she needs to have the power to protect and inspire her people, especially in this world of meta humans, aliens, Gods, demons, and interdimensional beings. The Emerald Eye of Ekron would give her exactly that. However, Defiance have already made Vlatava their home base, which means that Mister Miracle's team cannot make their base there. The user of the eye is meant to be the magic using operative Mister Miracle's team." Naruto explained.
"I see. I guess it makes sense, especially with the leader of Defiance being the Count of Vlatava now." Kara said thoughtfully.
"Exactly." Naruto deadpanned.
"And Emilia Harcout? What about her?" Kara asked.
"She has all the right qualities, combat and espionage training, genius intellect, and experience. However, she is a major risk because of her loyalty and connections to the government. She also seems to have access to psychic deflection and aversion technology that I wonder if it might not possibly hinder the eye's ability to ascertain her intentions and loyalties." Naruto explained.
"You're concerned that she might successfully betray you without the eye knowing? That she might use the eye against you?" Kara asked.
"It's a very slim chance, five percent at best, but why take a chance like that when I do not have to? Besides, the time and effort it would take it get her to switch sides is not something I think I am willing to go through, especially with potential war against The Light looming over our shoulders due the events that took place in Vlatava." Naruto replied.
"So Patty Spivot is the best bet then? Why? Why would a detective have an interest in working at Wave Consolidated? It doesn't make sense at all. And why are all three of your candidates blonde haired blue eyed women?" Kara asked tensely, causing Naruto to resist the urge to roll his eyes at what he was reasonably sure Kara was insinuating with that last question.
"I intend to find out in her interview. However, if her reasons are what I suspect them to be, then I think there is a 90 percent chance that she is the one that will become The Emerald Empress. As for the blonde hair and blue eyes, it's not what you think. Just because you have blonde hair and blue eyes doesn't mean I have a particular type, for instance, Diana doesn't have blonde hair." Naruto counter argued, causing Kara to relax slightly.
"We'll see about that. I'll be watching you…with my xray vision and telescopic version." Kara said gravely.
"If it will make you feel better…"
"It will!" Kara said before Naruto could even finish speaking.
"….."
"Okay, well, anyway…."
"You have to prepare for your interview with blonde haired, blue eyed Patty Spivot." Kara said, Naruto fidgeting slightly in his chair at the way Kara kept emphasizing the blonde hair and blue eyes with a look and tone like she wanted to put a world of hurt on him.
"Yes, well, just remember that she isn't even going to be in my team. She will be with Mister Miracle and co." Naruto tried to defend himself.
"But she will be with you during the interview….alone." Kara said with a deadly tone.
"…"
"Pwahahaha! Don't worry Nathaniel-kun, I know nothing's gonna happen…" Kara trailed off with a sinister glint in her eyes.
"Well, that's reassuring to know…"
"because I'll be right here, standing next to you." Kara interrupted with a tone that was way too sweet for Naruto's liking, even for her.
"…."
"Hahaha! You should see the look on your face right now! Priceless!" Kara laughed at the blonde Uzumaki's expense.
"Heh…..hehe…ehehe…!" Naruto laughed awkwardly, still not sure whether Kara was being serious or not, or whether she was actually serious before and decided to retract in the last moment, because that act was way too good otherwise.
"Seriously, it was a joke you blockhead." Kara said, lightly punching the blonde Uzumaki on the shoulder.
"…."
"Hey, you know I was kidding right…?" Kara asked with concern.
"N-no it's not that. I was actually just thinking how it could be a good idea to have you in for the interview. Everyone knows now that I used to date you so it shouldn't be too much of a surprise to see you in my office. I can just say I asked you to be present as favor, to use your super senses as a sort of polygraph test." Naruto explained.
"We're supposed to hate each other now." Kara deadpanned.
"You should have thought of that before you carelessly flew to my office to pay me a visit." Naruto retorted.
"….."
"Okay, this should be fun." Kara said with a casual shrug of the shoulders, but only after seriously thinking it over.