Chapter 6: A Slight Problem
For the fifth night in a week's time, Null found himself sitting and waiting all night at a forgotten warehouse full of assorted junk at the end of Gotham City. Selina had instructed him to hide somewhere in costume until she gave him word that she had managed to run down Batman. For her, it wasn't as simple as shining a light into the sky. She had to actually look for him.
He was in costume, because if somehow Selina managed to locate Batman, and the Dark Knight was able to find him and come a-knocking, Null didn't want to be caught in Max-mode. He could just see it now. He'd be minding his own business in one of the places he had been moving between, and all of a sudden Batman would drop in on him from the rafters. What happened next varied from thought to thought, but it usually involved him getting his butt kicked.
Ugh... but if anyone could actually run across Batman, it was Selina, so every night that week he suited up and headed out. Somewhere out of the way where he couldn't easily be found without a tip of some sort.
But still, Null wasn't exactly trusting. He didn't exactly have a lot of options at the moment though.
His thigh was still extremely sore. He could feel the bite of his bullet wound with every step he took, but it was manageable. In the suit, his muscles were supported well enough that significantly less pressure was placed on his body to do work, so he could put his full weight on his legs without too much discomfort.
Fortunately, he didn't really need his legs in prime, perfect condition for what he was doing.
The suit was incredible. After he'd for the most part gotten past the stigma that the piece of equipment had earned with him due to it more than likely being the thing that would bring about his untimely death, he could once again see that fact.
As of then he knew of two things that the suit would allow him to do outside of the basic augmentation that was gifted to him automatically after wearing it. One ability let him turn his body into a gigantic stun gun that varied in force, and the other let him stick to surfaces via reverse magnetism. Both were cool, but if the suit could do that, could it also do other things?
That was the question that needed to be answered in his book, and it was the focus of his experimentation as he spent night after night waiting on a rendezvous that would either save his life or get him tossed into prison. Such was life it seemed.
Null's first hint to go off of was the sensations he'd felt whenever he'd caused the suit to unleash electric discharges that would shock the things he came into contact with. It was an extension of him, working like flexing a nonexistent muscle. If he wanted it to go to his hands he had to actively focus on it, so there wasn't a big chance of him activating it by accident. The same went for his feet, and for the full-body expulsion.
Sticking to surfaces, was almost automatic when he was conscious. He hadn't studied much on the subject, but from what he could tell it had something to do with some kind of theory called the van der Waals force. However that worked, he just knew that it did.
It was during this time on the second day that he had made a discovery, one that had stayed on his mind every time he'd been in costume since stumbling across it.
Playing with the sensation of activating what he knew of his electric-based abilities, specifically, the feeling of the suit attaching to him whenever he put it on, he'd reached out and latched onto a pipe that had been lying on the floor... without touching it.
It had been three days since then. He had felt something. The... connecting force that let him know it was working. It only worked on things made of metal to boot.
Trying to keep the feeling that he had with the beam and move his hand in any direction at the same time wasn't possible. Trying for a prolonged period was physically draining, and in the end he felt the connection force itself to break. The beam moved less than an inch, but from the metallic sound it had caused it had been disturbed.
Okay, that was far too heavy. He could barely move a pipe, so a beam was probably too much to try. Maybe he could use both arms and that would give him more strength? He'd just been using one hand so he could get used to the feeling of knowing he was pushing something. It was worth a shot.
Digging his feet into the ground he tried to lean his body and will into the invisible force, to try and push the beam. Starting with his right hand, he then felt out the connecting sensation with his left. When he did, it backfired horribly, and instead of pushing the beam at all, he went flying ten feet away, "Whoa-oof!"
Landing on his back, he rolled back over his shoulder and landed on his feet, shaking himself off as he reached his feet again. Bewilderment covered his face as he wondered what had happened. He hadn't even tried to push, he'd just made the connection with both hands at the same time.
Reaching out with his right, he did it again and felt nothing more than the connection. Then he switched hands and did it with his left. It was there, but different. It felt more like there was a force trying to bring them together instead of trying to keep them apart the way it did with the right.
So basically, right to repel (push), left to attract (pull). Fantastic. Of course it would have been better if he could move heavier things than a two-pound pipe, and actually knew how to control it past a single burst, but when you were a dead man walking you had to take away and cherish the positives from the thing that had you on death row.
It was the little things in life that kept you together sometimes. Little things like fiddling with your unstable supersuit and screwing with your powers.
XxX
(Elsewhere in Gotham City - Brideshead)
Selina was not a happy camper. She had long since realized that trying to find Batman was like pulling teeth under normal circumstances when the city was abuzz with activity that would have him out and about. When Gotham was quiet it was harder than ever to figure out where he was going to be.
It was possible to try and drop by Wayne Manor for something like this, but whatever the two of them had, and it really was damned hard to define just what that was, it was between Catwoman and Batman, not Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne.
There was definitely a distinction, at least between Batman and Bruce.
The easiest way for her to get his attention was to force it. And the way she had always managed to do that was in one particular way, by stealing.
Fortunately for her mood, it had gone off without a hitch. No alarms, no sightings, she had to at least sell it as if she had really been trying to steal it. Batman had more important things to do than come out for just a meet and greet. But she knew she had gotten what she had been aiming for when by the time she had whip-swung her way to the roof of another building, the dark-caped, black-cowled vigilante stood, anticipating her rooftop movements.
Whether he had expected it or not, she didn't try to run, fight, make small talk, nothing. She even showed her hand within the first ten seconds of seeing him. This was not what he had grown used to from this woman. Something must have been wrong, "I see you've been bad again," Batman said first.
"Yeah?" Catwoman said, holding up the valuable artifact she had taken for him to see. She'd spent five days of fine-tuning a burglary and wasted a perfectly good plan that she'd had on the backburner to do for months, just to get a guaranteed face-to-face, "Well I needed to see you, and I figured it was easier to get you to come to me than it was to find you. So glad that you came by the way."
It had been well over a month since they had last come across each other, only now just from looking at her, Batman could tell that this wasn't a social call. Selina was normally quite playful whenever they crossed paths.
Batman didn't say a word at first, merely raising his hand and catching what the lovely thief had stolen when she threw it over to him. He eyed it for a moment to make sure she hadn't manufactured a duplicate to fool someone (or him) with later, but it wasn't. It was the real deal.
Stashing it away safely on his person, Batman finally spoke up, "There are better, more legal ways to get my attention if you wanted to say something."
"No there aren't," Catwoman countered immediately, "Unless you want me to risk sneaking up to the GCPD HQ roof to use that gaudy signal light, this was all I had and you know it."
"Well you have me here now," Batman said evenly, "So go ahead. Talk."
She opened and closed her mouth several times, thinking of how to word things. Eventually though, she did find a way to slide into the topic at hand, "I need your help. Or should I say, someone I know needs your help."
"Null," Batman said. Catwoman had to admit, there was something that just took all of the wind out of your sails whenever someone knew exactly what you had come to them to ask for assistance with, "If I'm wrong and you have anyone else in your list of acquaintances that you'd think of bringing to me of all people for any kind of help, feel free to debunk me now."
If he wanted to cut right to the chase, that was well and good. The subject matter wasn't exactly pleasant to begin with, and Catwoman figured it would be like ripping off a band-aid, "Fine. It's the kid. Something's wrong with him."
Batman's demeanor seemed to change, at least from the only part of his face that was visible, his mouth, "So you know about it already," He wasn't happy to bring up this topic in the least. Even if the boy was a criminal, a child was a child.
Catwoman on the other hand was surprised, actually taking a step back in recoil, "You mean you did?"
Batman nodded and walked over to her, noticing her defensive action at Null's pending facing of his own mortality, "Not for very long, but yes. The suit that enhances his physical capabilities is flawed. Unsafe. If you're here to ask me for help with him, it's getting to the part where it's slowly killing him. Am I wrong?"
'Damn it,' She didn't want to know why Bruce was always so well-informed. All that mattered was that he was. Asking about it would waste breath and send them around in circles, "Well if you're so in the know, do you think you or any of the League could help him? Do you know anyone that could?"
"I would have to bring him in."
And just like that, the proverbial claws came out.
"I won't let you drag him off to Blackgate. Bruce, he's done," Catwoman declared, ready to turn to Null's favorite tactic of running away if it came down to it. She hadn't come to fight, and she wasn't going to lead Batman anywhere if she didn't have his word that Null would be assisted, "He told me himself. He was actually happy about it. He's got enough money that he doesn't feel like he has to do it anymore. Help fix him and you'll never hear about him again."
He wished it were that simple, that he could just let it go, the way he had for her more than a few times. But then again, she hadn't overtly outfitted a killer supervillain to his knowledge either.
"Your boy screwed up Selina," Batman told her, "Stealing random knick-knacks is one thing, but he was small-time until he went and ripped off S.T.A.R. Labs for Deathstroke. Do you have any idea what Null stole for him? It's green, it glows, and it can kill the strongest man on the planet if he gets too close to even the smallest amount."
Catwoman's jaw fell open after taking in that bit of information. Kryptonite. Reading between the lines for that substance was simple.
"He didn't know-," She tried to reason, "He doesn't know what that's supposed to do! You know he doesn't! Why would he?"
Batman didn't know anything. She had taught him. He had known to an extent how to handle crime fighters, "You were the one who taught him about people like us, didn't you?" There was no chance Selina would have sent him off half-baked in case he wound up dealing with a metahuman, or worse, "You're telling me you didn't touch on how to take a Kryptonian down?"
She'd reared a thief, not a jack-of-all-trades hero-killer. That much should have been obvious from how he'd been beaten black and blue by the heroes he'd fought already. He only fought just so he could get an opening to run away, "I never taught him what he'd need to fight or kill any of you! The only thing I've ever told him to do in case he ever runs up against anyone like Superman, someone with actual powers, is run, hide, or just give up! I never said a word about Kryptonite!"
This was awful. And Selina knew why this was becoming a thing. There was no sign of the usual suspects, the normal cadre of lunatics out to take Batman's head or tear the city apart.
Joker had been quiet, actually sitting in his cell at Arkham as if he were taking a vacation from it all, completely unconcerned. Two-Face had been stable, at least for him, sticking with the side of himself more akin to Harvey Dent for the time being. He hadn't been set off in months.
Freeze hadn't been sighted since his latest escape. No one was sure what Black Mask was doing, as after the last time he'd faked his own death his goons had kept too low key for that group of crooks usual activities. And that was just for starters. Hell, thinking about it, Selina herself hadn't gone plundering in quite a while either.
The good guys were getting antsy, waiting for the other shoe to drop. It had grown too quiet, not just in Gotham, but everywhere, as though it were Ramadan for criminals. All was quiet along the western front, and it was only a matter of time before something sparked the powder keg anew.
Null was only a concern because quite frankly, in quiet times he had pulled off the biggest crime that hadn't been solved yet. And the others that made that madhouse of a world run were being too quiet. He was the only one actually doing anything big enough to be concerned with.
And, oh God, Deathstroke knew it. He had known it all along.
He swaggered right into Gotham with his plan to procure Kryptonite because he knew how someone like Bruce would hone in on the first sign of trouble in a quiet time. He wanted Selina to do the job at S.T.A.R. Labs for him because he knew that whatever Batman and Catwoman had between them, it could be used to hold his attention. That was why he wanted her to steal for him in the first place, only for her to pass the buck to Null in distaste.
Even if it had been indirectly, he had still been right. Null had been the only nibble on the line of justice that there had been in quite a stretch. He had stolen for a dangerous, dangerous man, and he was connected to the finest cat burglar the world had ever seen. One who had an intimate relationship with the man behind the cowl. Deathstroke had still gotten eighty-five percent of what he'd wanted out of the situation in the end.
And it was her fault Null had gotten tangled in it. He wasn't ready for something big. He had never wanted to do anything that big, but the thought of financial security swayed him into it. The kicker was, he didn't even get nearly as much as he could have or should have for it.
"Bruce," Selina said, using his real name and not caring about the reaction she got because of it, "…Listen to me. I will help you figure out what Deathstroke is doing. I will, okay? But Null is just a kid. He doesn't know anything. And he needs your help."
So she would find a way to assist against Deathstroke? It was common knowledge that Catwoman wasn't exactly a friend to most criminals because of her propensity to steal from and attempt to get over on everyone, even to help bust them on occasion. But when she screwed people over it was usually passively. To actively do so was something else entirely, "You'll help? Even knowing what he's like? What he'll do?" A resolute nod was her response, "I don't understand you Selina."
She had done the right thing before, but she always had a reason. She had a sense of justice, but it was decidedly more lax than his. She fought the good fight, but only when it didn't interfere with her own cash flow. She stood nothing to gain, and the only thing she was sticking her neck out for was some kid.
But if Null didn't know how to get to Deathstroke, he served Batman no purpose. He was just the patsy. He had done wrong, but he was so low-level he wasn't worth the time or the energy it probably would have taken to find him. If Robin or Batgirl wanted to on their own time, that was fine. It was what they were for. Batman had bigger fish to fry. If this helped that happen, it was for the better.
"I'm a hell of a long way from being any kind of philanthropist, but I haven't exactly given up on doing the right thing when I see it," Selina said, moving to sit over by the edge of the building, staring out at the city, "You know something? You're the reason I started doing this. Being Catwoman I mean, not stealing," She specified before he got the wrong idea, "…But we both know that didn't end so well."
Batman walked over and stood next to her at the edge, overlooking what he could of his city, "So you saw that I'd taken some kids in and decided it was a good idea?" He said sardonically.
"For a while I didn't really know, to tell the truth. I asked myself why I got involved with some punk for a few months after, but I figured out what it was a few days ago," After she and he had gotten the news of his pending, slow death, "…I saw something in Null."
"Yourself?"
"Ha! Of course not. Are you kidding?" Catwoman had a good laugh before getting back to her point, "No, I looked at him and I saw a person that I could save. That I could actually save," She had never done anything good just for anyone else before. Being good, for her it was just no good.
But this had been someone that Batman couldn't help. That no superhero could help. The bigger they were and the wider their scope of influence, the less likely they would have been to even do so.
Flash with all of his speed and intelligence had big time issues of his own to deal with, Zatanna with her magic was pretty much focused on the supernatural. Pretty much any one of them that could be named; sure they would think Null's situation of pending poverty was unfortunate, but in most cases they would not or could not do anything that would actually benefit him. If he hadn't done what he had done, no one would have even known he existed.
Catwoman, and her particular set of skills and values could help him though. She looked at Max, and saw someone with a problem that she could teach him to solve on his own. But giving of herself in such a manner was against her nature, and you couldn't do something like that halfway. She had gone in halfway with him, and that had been a mistake. The result of that was what lay before them now.
"I wanted to be like you, but the only person I could ever wind up helping was myself," Catwoman admitted, "And you know, I was fine with that. We can't all be saints and martyrs. But even if we realize later on that we used to have silly dreams, if the chance comes to maybe fulfill a lost one, does that mean you ignore it?"
It was the closest thing to an understanding that Batman could say he had with her in a long time. It was a grim understanding, but it somewhat existed, "So you think you could have saved him?"
Not really. The woman behind the suit wasn't particularly that positive about how things had gone. Just like before, this probably hadn't worked out well either, "That's the thing. I didn't. He's in deeper than he ever wanted to be. He's a dead man walking, and he knows it," Catwoman said, "But there was nothing I could have done about that. He'd already been wearing his suit long before I'd found out what it had done to him."
"...Well, you know what they say about the road to hell, Selina."
"My intentions weren't exactly all good to start with, Bruce."
XxX
Since Catwoman's normal stomping ground was the Brideshead neighborhood, and since Null was apparently something of her protege, there was a hope that he could be found around that area. Unfortunately, it wasn't so easy.
A green owl soared in the skies above, getting a good view of as much of the city as he could. With all of the city that there was to search, it wasn't making it any easier that every few minutes something seemed to happen that required some kind of heroic intervention.
Catching sight of Robin's motorcycle tearing through the streets, Beast Boy transformed into a faster bird and managed to get ahead of Robin, prompting him to come to a skidding stop. Gotham's resident hero took off his helmet as Beast Boy turned back into his human form, a rant ready to go on the tip of his tongue.
"Dude. What's wrong with this place?" Beast Boy exclaimed, "I've had to stop and kick bad guy ass like six times in the last two hours... and none of them were that Null guy!" He couldn't rightly put his full effort into a search when there were people who needed help. It wasn't like he had Null's scent to go bloodhound on or anything.
"I told you it wasn't going to be so easy," Robin said to the green-skinned teenager, "Finding him in the first place is going to be most of the problem. Null doesn't mug people or steal cars, and he doesn't steal every day. According to a psych profile, he isn't interested in being a criminal at all."
"...Ooookay," Beast Boy said, trying to wrap his head around it. A criminal who wasn't interested in being a criminal. How did that work? "How did a guy like that wind up working for Deathstroke then?"
Which was a fantastic question, to be honest. Was it by chance? No, there was no such thing when it came to matters of this nature, especially involving Slade Wilson.
"I don't know," Robin admitted quietly, "…But we're going to have to find out."
There was a big chunk of this that they were missing, but to get to the meat of it they had to grasp for the only loose end within reach at the moment.
At that point, Kid Flash's voice came through on their communicators, "Just went through Park Row, Cape Carmine, and Robbinsville with a fine-toothed comb. No sign of the guy. Got a lot of everything else, but no thief in a hood."
"Pssht," Beast Boy scoffed over the line, "Two neighborhoods? Come on. I went through two by myself just a few minutes ago."
"No, I mean 'just' as in thirty seconds ago. Try thirty neighborhoods and seventeen busts for me," One also had to adjust the rate for random crime run-ins to work for a human being with super speed of course, "Robin, how do you get anything done around here?"
"You get used to it."
"No, I don't think so. So where next?"
And wasn't that the question of the night?
They had already gone through a good portion of Gotham, and Robin had eliminated other areas based on what he knew of who they were chasing, "There's no way he picked a hideout anywhere with gang ties, and he wouldn't stay downtown where Gotham PD is hot," That cleared up a lot of the city's places that he could hide.
"Ooh! The docks!" Beast Boy brought up.
It did give Robin pause for a moment, "The docks could be a good guess."
But there was no way Null was going to stay in Gotham City's crime import-export central.
"Alright... move towards Old Gotham," Robin said after taking a moment to think. He could envision a map of Gotham in his head, with the places that they had already searched marked out, "That's next."
"Why?"
Kid Flash's question was met with an immediate answer from the temporary ringleader of the small hero unit, "With everything we've managed to gather on him, and all of the places we've searched already, it makes the most sense for him to hide somewhere like there. If he isn't, we can at least regroup"
Old Gotham was fairly gang free. Most of the criminals stuck to the downtown areas, and the more unstable villains tended to avoid the north where Old Gotham was situated. Too close to Arkham Asylum for their comfort.
Either way, they had to figure out what they were doing as things started getting later and later. Robin was expected back home by the next evening, so the Titans had to be gone by then as well.
XxX
(Undisclosed Location)
Rose stood behind a camera, staying dead silent as she nodded and cued her father that it was on and the connection was running. For a short window, Deathstroke the Terminator was using a purchased window of time on a hijacked satellite connection to link up with some of the wealthiest, most infamous villains in the entire world.
It was almost enough to make a girl feel inadequate. Fortunately, she wouldn't be on-camera.
On this evening, he was not taking contracts. He was not shopping out his services as a killer of men and fighter of private wars. He was a vendor with a service and a good to sell.
"Ladies and gentlemen, good evening," Deathstroke greeted, sitting in a chair, calmly folding his hands in his lap, "It's good to see you've all received my summons."
Not that he had particularly given them a choice. He had worked for most, if not all of them, at some point in time, so he knew how to reach them. The signal he used to send his message pretty much forced them all to receive it. They weren't given the option of ignoring it or turning it down. Whether they wanted to or not, everyone on his list was hearing what he had to say. He was quite certain that even if they had no interest at the moment, they would change their tune very quickly.
"This had better be good Wilson," One of his potential buyers said.
"Wasting your time means wasting my time," The world-traveled assassin said smoothly, "...I don't deal with things that waste time. Now-."
Hitting a button on a remote in his hand, he switched the feed to an image, only one, of a computer blueprint of just what he had managed to pilfer from the lab in Gotham City with his most recent scheme. What he showed made it clear that it was a device that was to release some sort of explosion, but little more than that. He didn't need any geniuses memorizing the entire thing and recreating their own somehow. Paranoid? Perhaps, but not without ample reason.
"Brought to us by the wonderful people at S.T.A.R. Labs," Deathstroke said with a mocking flourish, "Because of course a privatized company would try to come up with a reason to invent a device with a substance whose only clear benefit is one of the few sure-fire things capable of killing the world's greatest hero as its main component."
"Killing Superman could go commercial. One can never know for sure."
Amusing.
"Regardless, I've contacted you all in the hopes that you find enough interest in what I have for sale to bid when it's time for the auction," Deathstroke already knew just who it was that was going to win, but went through the formalities regardless, "None of your identities are known to the other bidders, and you have no contact with anyone other than me, so there's no fear of anyone coming after what you've paid your hard-earned money for."
If nothing else, he wanted the losing bidders intrigued enough that they would drive the price of the eventual winning bid high enough for him to earn an even fatter payoff.
"Of course, the specs for the weapon will do no good without the substance you need to make it effective. I have also acquired a significant cache of Kryptonite to sell as well. If Kryptonian-killing armaments aren't your thing, you could always save your money and simply bid for the green rocks. The choice is yours," He continued, preparing to close his pitch, "Questions? Concerns?"
It didn't take long for him to receive one.
"If this weapon is so effective, why don't you use it yourself?" A particular, business-like voice that Deathstroke knew fairly well asked. He had expected as much from this person in particular. He was also counting on this person to be his eventual buyer.
'Nothing less from you Luthor,' Deathstroke thought to himself. If the others knew that he had contacted Alexander Luthor as one of the potential bidders, they would have dropped out and he would have "Because killing Superman does nothing for my bottom line," The notorious hired gun admitted freely, "It doesn't matter to me. It does, however, to many, if not all, of you. That's why I reached out to you. Dangling the means to do so in front of you is worth more money to me than doing it myself."
Spoken like a true mercenary.
"And we're to believe you have a significant enough amount of Kryptonite to make this worth anyone's while?" A robotically distorted voice said with a slightly distinct French accent, "Monsieur Wilson, while a man of science such as myself can understand keeping the weapon plans under wraps until the time comes to raise the curtain, surely you can extend the show of good faith to show us that you are not exaggerating everything."
Deathstroke's single eye narrowed behind his mask at the implication, but kept his tone level and concise, "I don't like my word being called into question, but with the amount of money I'm expecting to be in play, I can overlook it."
He reached forward and gestured for Rose to come over to him. She made sure her mask was on and did as she was told, bringing the case that Null had stolen from S.T.A.R. Labs with her. Turning to the camera in front of her father, she turned and opened it, showing the lead-interior to be lined with the eerily beautiful sight of Kryptonite. So much of it.
Quickly moving his daughter along with another wordless gesture, Deathstroke retook center stage, "Now that you've seen that I am completely serious about this, are there any other questions?"
Silence reigned over all lines. A contemplative one. Contemplation was good. Thinking about his offer meant that it was being considered, and that meant potential money in his pockets, and all without him having to traverse the globe and put a bullet in a well-guarded figure.
"When is the auction?"
Absolute music to Deathstroke's ears. It wasn't visible, but behind his mask he smirked, "I'll give anyone interested the chance to free up any floating funds that they feel they would like to use for this," As though it would matter, "So, one week from now exactly at midnight. You will be contacted the same way I just did at the start of the auction. Feel free to take part, or not. The choice is yours."
With an almost indistinguishable gesture, he signaled for Rose to kill the feed. With the push of a button all of the connections died out, except for one. One of his potential bidders had been able to establish a counter-connection to his, in less than five minutes of conversation.
Once again, Deathstroke had expected this, "Luthor... the presentation is over. I already gave the chance to ask questions. Now how would it be fair if you knew more than the others?" He said in jest.
Bald, with piercing green eyes, a sharp demeanor and facial features, Lex Luthor looked every bit of the head of the international corporate giant that LexCorp was, "When I win this farce of an auction, Deathstroke... I'll expect my winnings delivered discreetly, in a timely manner."
It was then that the connection to the conniving business mogul ended. He managed to extend the feed that Deathstroke had killed long enough to get his own message across. As arrogant as that message was, it was a good sign.
XxX
(With Null – Gotham City – Old Gotham)
"I feel like I'm in a game," Null said to himself, alternating the use of his hands to push and pull a steel pipe, "...Heh-heh... tutorial level. Move pipe away with 'R'. Move pipe toward you with 'L'," Focusing on the center of the pipe, he reached out with his left hand to abruptly bring it to him, catching it smoothly, "Yeah!"
He laughed to himself, poorly playing with the pipe as though it were a staff. What else was he going to do to amuse himself other than screw around with his powers? He had been stuck hanging out there every night for the better part of the week.
It was a good thing he didn't have any friends who would wonder where he had been. Or parents. Or any kind of guardian whatsoever.
"Ehe..." That thought put an end to all of the fun, as unfortunate as it was, "God, I'm bored," And lonely. A tad sleepy as well, but he could sleep through the day when he got home in the morning. It was Sunday after all.
Still playing with his powers, Null threw the pipe away, forcing it even farther with his magnetic control before pulling it back. His hastily created new game involved him keeping the pipe off of the ground without ever touching it himself. It was like playing catch with himself.
As time passed and he got more used to it, he started pushing the pipe away and pulling it back to himself harder and harder. One time in particular, his timing slipped and he missed his magnetic catch as he threw it away, "Oops!"
Unable to stop it from flying away, the pipe shot through the air and banged off of the metal wall. The impact seemed to shake the entire warehouse, the sound echoing out in the night air seemingly as loud as a clap of thunder to Null who stood within. No one within several blocks wouldn't have been able to hear it.
The would-be thief cringed for a long, arduous thirty seconds until things went silent all around him.
...Perhaps he was being paranoid, but he definitely felt as if he needed to go. Immediately. He had made some noises before while he had been hiding out there in costume during nights, but never anything that loud. This wasn't the kind of neighborhood where the gangs had their run of things. There was actual security for that particular industrial block, even if it was partly derelict. He had seen them and had to avoid them while coming in every night.
He figured that leaving before anyone came looking was the best option.
Exiting the building, Null crept along, sticking to wherever he could find shadows from the looming industrial structures around him. He didn't know why, but he felt exceptionally paranoid for some reason. Possibly because he had made enough noise to wake the dead barely two minutes prior.
Eventually, it got to him enough that he felt the need to look to the skies, and standing on a slanted factory exhaust duct, he saw the looming figure of his favorite bird-themed teenage hero. Biting back a curse, Null thanked his lucky stars that he had kept to the dark, and that Robin had been too far away to see him while he was being so careful, 'He's probably super-pissed after the last time.'
A few weeks wasn't long enough to rid the sting of a defeat, whether it was circumstantial, a fluke, or related to anything else. Null didn't want to fight with him under regular circumstances, let alone risking the chances that the analytical superhero wanted to get his win back.
Slipping away through a narrow alley heading the opposite direction, Null figured he could get out of there, change clothes somewhere close to home, and head in for the night, 'Why is he here anyway? Nothing's going on around here. I would've known if there was.'
He couldn't have been looking for him could he have? No, he was probably just on patrol, as superheroes did from time to time, and heard the deafening metal bang, or heard that someone had reported the giant metal bang. Someone could have called that in, and heroes listened to the police wires.
Trying to reason to himself that Robin couldn't have possibly been out on the prowl for him, he almost let out quite the unmanly shriek when a red and yellow blur came to a sudden stop right in front of him. It was a red-haired teenager with an outfit that vaguely reminded Null of The Flash because of all of the yellow and red.
The two stared each other down for several moments, Null not moving or breathing as if Kid Flash would leave him alone if he showed no signs of life. The quickest of the Teen Titans seemed to scrutinize Null for several seconds before finally speaking, "You wouldn't happen to be called 'Null', would you?"
'Come on! Think fast!' Null thought to himself as he tried to find a way to talk himself out of fighting with someone that could punch him faster than the speed of sound, "Uh… no?"
Fantastic.
The you're-so-busted look on Kid flash's face was all Null needed to realize that the rest of the night was going to hurt very badly, and he was not a fan of that, "Can I at least get a headstart or something?" He asked, "It'd make me feel way better."
Kid Flash, instead of laughing the way that Null had expected, instead looked perplexed. Wasn't this guy a criminal? What was he talking about fair for? He seemed serious about it as well, which was disarming enough on its own, "I… don't know. Nobody's ever asked me that before."
Null's eyes peered around quickly before he opened his mouth again, "So, yes?" Not waiting for an answer, Null lifted his hand. Instead of an attack the way Kid Flash had expected, Null rocketed past him into the air, his body flying over a metal awning that he had used to reel himself in.
If he used his right-handed magnetic powers on something too heavy to push, he would send himself flying away from it. Since Kid Flash basically gave him the green light for a freebie to run away, he wanted to see if the same thing worked in reverse for his left hand. It did, a little better than he had anticipated.
Since he did it out of the blue, he didn't have a mark to aim for, and he hadn't anticipated how fast it would yank him in. After clearing the awning he had to quickly figure out where he was going to land, causing him to crash on the metal roof of another part of the industrial block, causing a dull bang even louder than the last one.
"Crap," Null muttered, picking himself back up off of the ground, "Gotta work on the landing," Just before he could even begin to try and run, Kid Flash appeared in front of him again, "Oh, come on!"
Kid Flash grinned and held up three fingers, "I gave you three seconds," When Null threw a punch in response, Kid Flash just ran behind him. Each time Null tried to hit him, the speedster just went to his other side. The first time Kid Flash hit him back, Null almost felt the need to ask out loud if he had actually been punched. He never even saw it coming.
Before he could even prepare to take up the fight again, he felt punch after punch off of his body and face, getting right through his basic guard. It wasn't as though he could adjust for the attacks of a person he couldn't see coming though, and trying to swing back only ended up with him being sent head-over-heels across the roof, forcing him to stick to it just to keep from flying off.
After one miss, Null aimed his right hand down at the metal ceiling and boosted himself into the air. Ready for the sudden speed of the jump this time, he landed on the trailer of an 18-wheeler, rolling off and sliding down the front of the truck before he took off running again.
"Why is Kid Flash here?" Null asked himself, "I don't even know where that guy's turf is supposed to be," He just knew that it was nowhere near Gotham City.
A squeak from the air got his attention, getting him to turn his head as a green bat swooped down on him. The bat inexplicably turned into a gorilla mid-fall and attempted to pulverize Null with its fists. He was barely able to dodge with a frantic roll out of the way of danger.
Null reached out with both of his hands, grabbing a metal drum that he directed at the gorilla. It transformed into a snake and slithered out of the way of the attack, going straight at Null before turning into a ram and slamming into the thief.
"OOF!" Null exhaled, holding onto the green ram's horns after it had knocked the wind right out of him. He lifted an arm up to drop an elbow down on the animal, but it transformed into a kangaroo and kicked the daylights out of him, sending Null rolling along the rough ground in a heap.
This was not going well.
Pushing himself up chest-first, Null's head swam as he saw the kangaroo transform into a green-skinned young man. Another hero. He didn't even care anymore. If it wasn't going to help him get away, it wasn't important enough to think about for the time being.
Speaking of time, 'What time is it?' Null thought groggily to himself. He wasn't licked just yet. He just needed to get to a better spot and hold out for just long enough, "Why are superheroes taking turns kicking my ass?" He shouted at Beast Boy.
Beast Boy raised an eyebrow, "Other than the fact that you did way more stuff than what we're here for?" He asked as Kid Flash arrived by his side, "You stole Kryptonite, dude."
Null threw his arms out in a flippant gesture, not even trying to deny it. If they ran with Robin, they probably knew he had a part in the fake-assassination, theft plot. It wasn't even worth denying at that point, "Yeah, for somebody else! I don't have it on me now! Go find Deathstroke and beat him up," No one said another word, letting Null take a moment to have everything sink in, "…No."
Kid Flash didn't know what he was talking about at first, "No?" No one had even asked him a question.
"No, I don't know where Deathstroke is," Null specified, grateful for every second he was getting to shake off the jolts of pain running through him, "Deathstroke paid me and then he left," He also shot him, but that was no one else's concern but his own, "Honestly, I hope someone beats him down, but I don't know where he is. What is this even supposed to be anyway? Why are you even working together?"
This guy could not have been serious. Beast Boy's mouth hung open in disbelief. It was almost too much, "Y-You've never heard of the Teen Titans?"
Yes he had. But seeing as how he never had any machinations of doing anything that required a team sent after him, that and that he had never planned to go to the west coast where he was more likely to draw their attention, he never found it prudent to figure out who was on the team. Selina didn't think it relevant to tell him back when she had been training him either, because it hadn't been.
Null knew that they existed, he just didn't know who all was a part it, "Oh! You guys are in the Tean Tita-… fuck," Until now at least.
This was punctuated by a series of birdarangs flying through the air at him. In his bid to try and find something metallic to latch onto, Null felt them and turned, twisting his body and his arms to avert their flight pattern and throw them at Beast Boy and Kid Flash.
"Whoa!" The shapeshifter shouted, jumping to the side to avoid the dangerous projectiles, "Hey! Robin, watch it with the razor-sharp weapons, would you?"
Null was already on his guard after catching them out of the air. He hadn't even had the chance to realize that he had learned how to actually control things with the magnetic charge ability. His more pressing concern was the increasingly bleak three-on-one superpowered encounter he was embroiled in, "Sure. Why not? Join the party. I'd rather it was Batgirl though. At least she's nice to look at while she's smacking me around."
A half-truth in an effort to be a smart-ass. He was aware she was pretty underneath that mask of hers, but when she was tenderizing you with her fists you didn't tend to pay attention to that until after the fact. If you were smart anyway.
"Dude, if Nightwing heard you say that, he'd run your face into the ground," Beast Boy pointed out with a chuckle before realizing that they were pretty much about to do the same thing.
Ignoring the joke, Robin instead paid attention to something that was more important, "That's new," He said, frowning at Null apparently picking up a new power, 'Is he getting more powers, or could he do that the entire time?' Little did he know just how much of a million-dollar question that really was, "The jig's up Null."
Null just stared at Batman's apprentice, the dumb look on his face thankfully hidden by the darkness underneath his hood. How did you respond to that? "What jig? I wasn't doing anything tonight. You guys just came at me."
"You stole from S.T.A.R. Labs."
"Well now you're just bringing up old stuff."
"The statute of limitations for something like that is much longer than a week and a few days."
All of this was just a bid for Null to keep the Titans talking. If they started fighting again, he would be overwhelmed within seconds. Even taking Beast Boy one-on-one had been quite the daunting task before taking into account that Kid Flash and Robin wouldn't just sit back and wait their turns.
He needed to waste time. Just enough. For all the bad things about Gotham City, one could never say a bad thing about the timing of their public transportation. It ran like clockwork to support the copious amount of citizens who lived there. Null was very familiar with it. His time working crap late night jobs to help keep the lights on in his house gave him something of an intimate knowledge of it.
Those trains were never late, and one ran by a stop every fifteen minutes.
In the distance he could hear the screech of train brakes bringing the locomotive to a stop. Even if the industrial park was somewhat rundown, at one point it had been booming, and Gotham City's public transportation hadn't been updated recently. That meant that trains still ran by there.
And one was waiting right now just a few blocks away.
It was the only chance Null had of getting away. Fighting wouldn't work for him, even with the powers he'd spent all week screwing around with trying to learn.
Using the fingers on his hands he could still feel around for a connection with something metal, but it was doing him no good. He was on the ground, so there was nothing to boost off of. Beast Boy had kicked him into a dirt parking lot, so there was nothing within his range to grab and pull himself toward.
For some reason, he did feel something nearby that he was able to attach a magnetic connection to. He had no idea what it could have been, but if nothing else, if he pushed or pulled the heck out of it, it might have been able to make enough noise to startle the Titans and give him an opening to make a move and flee.
He wasn't counting on it being that easy, but he lined an escape route up with his eyes. All he had to do was get running and find a way to dodge Kid Flash somehow… because trying to run away from someone like that was a moot point entirely without a realistic plan.
A plan he didn't have the time to come up with, but if he was going to try and make himself scarce he had to do it right then.
Making sure that he had contact with whatever he felt the magnetic connection to, Null gave a quick, sharp with his right hand, causing a rather nasty pop to sound out from one of the Titans.
"AAHHH!" Kid Flash went down in agony, clutching at one of his knees, "My leg!" Something in his knee had popped. The very same one that Deathstroke had blown out and had been given an artificial replacement.
Null didn't know what had happened, but looking a gift horse in the mouth would get him bitten on this night. He didn't need an explanation, he needed an opening, and with Robin and Beast Boy momentarily concerned with their downed teammate, he made them make a choice.
Chase after him, or see to whatever was wrong with Kid Flash.
Robin cursed, running over and kneeling down by Kid Flash's side as Null departed and didn't look back, 'Bart's artificial knee has screws in it,' He didn't know how Null figured out that Kid Flash had an artificial knee, but he had for all intents and purposes dislocated it, "Beast Boy, after him! I'll stay with Kid Flash!"
Worried or not, Beast Boy didn't need to be told twice. Robin couldn't just leave a vulnerable hero alone in the middle of Gotham City, and Beast Boy by himself was fast enough to catch Null anyway. Transforming into a falcon, he took off in the direction of the shifty young thief.
Null was faster than Beast Boy had anticipated. He moved as though the devil himself was nipping at his heels. Streaking through alleys, cutting across rooftops, he never stopped or wondered where to go next for a moment, never lost a hint of his speed or momentum as he fled.
With a screech, he dove at Null, eventually finding him on enough of a straightaway to make his move. Null swatted at the large bird, stopping as Beast Boy transformed back into a human and squared off with Null in the street, just in front of a bridge that loomed overhead.
Breathing heavily, Null didn't bother trying to run any farther, "Okay..." He said, "...Alright. You want me so bad? I'm right here. I'm not running another step. So you can go ahead and turn into a bull, or a gator, or whatever the hell you want to. It doesn't matter. Come get some."
Beast Boy said nothing. He simply responded by transforming, into an honest to goodness tyrannosaurus, right before his adversary's eyes.
The saying 'be careful what you wish for' was never so damned appropriate.
The shapeshifter in the form of the horrible lizard lowered his snout to the stunned Null's level and opened his massive, crushing jaws for a street-shaking, window-rattling roar.
*ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!*
"..." True to his own word, Null didn't take another step backwards. Instead, he slowly readjusted his identity-concealing hood back into its proper position, which miraculously hadn't flown off of his head beforehand, "Urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..." He moaned pitifully, slowly raising his hands in the air as a show of surrender.
Surprised, and realizing that there wasn't much he could do to Null in that form without actually killing him, Beast Boy transformed back into his regular human state, "Dude, you're not gonna fight?" He hadn't even given up when he had been surrounded. He'd waited for the opening that had come from whatever had happened to Kid Flash, "That's kind of anticlimactic, isn't it?"
Says the teenager who had taken on some of the worst menaces someone like Null could imagine. He had been battling supervillains for much of his life, with the Doom Patrol and then with the Teen Titans. He didn't expect his enemies to just give up. But this wasn't a supervillain who thought it was his right to win, that he couldn't lose. This was a thief. A thief who wouldn't even stand and fight to begin with if he thought running away was an option.
Beast Boy had actually expected Null to fight one of the most terrifying animals to ever exist, and he wasn't having any of that, "How do you fight a T-Rex with your bare hands?" Come to think of it, he could turn into any animal, couldn't he? "You didn't even have to go T-Rex. You could have turned into a bear or something. I probably still would've done this."
Then again, this was Null. And while fighting superheroes who could crush him underneath their heels would almost never be his first option, the absolute last thing on the face of the planet that he would have allowed was readily going to prison, no matter how spectacular the beating he would take for refusing to give in. Even if it killed him. He was going to die anyway, and he wasn't going to do it behind bars, where there was no chance of him finding a way to survive, by choice.
That was the name of the game. Don't go quietly. No matter what. No matter who he was facing down. Because if you worked your way around well enough, you could always find some way out.
A train passed by overhead, putting a wide smirk on Null's face. With his hands up, he wiggled his fingers and flicked his wrist on the left one until he seemed to be sucked up into the sky. Beast Boy watched as he flew up and stuck his left hand to the side of the passing train that rolled on down the tracks, no fanfare accompanying the action other than the clang of his body connecting.
Beast Boy hurriedly transformed into a bird that could rightfully chase after the locomotive, but by the time it reached the next stop minutes later, there was no sign of the target criminal.
"Damn it," The green-skinned changeling muttered upon realizing that the chase was over. Turning into something that could track Null by scent was irrelevant because he would have needed to have it to begin with. And still, he wasn't nearly as upset as he probably should have been, "...That was awesome! I thought Robin said this guy didn't have any powers!"
XxX
Whatever Null had done to Kid Flash must have worked, because after sticking onto the train he would have been the only person who could have caught up to him before he disappeared. He let it carry him a few blocks short of the next stop before slipping off from underneath.
Beast Boy in his bid to keep up with the train and await the stop at the next station hadn't anticipated that Null would have tried to get off while it was still speeding along. He wound up getting away clean for once.
"Maybe I'm starting to get this whole bad guy thing?" Max said to himself, dressed back in his street clothes again, having ditched the Null suit upon his earliest convenience.
He ran until the burning in his injured leg told him he wasn't going to take another step without stumbling. After finding a quiet location to change out of his suit, he found fortunately that all of the night's strenuous activity hadn't done anything to pop the stitches in his thigh.
That left Max to walk the rest of the way home, painfully, but with hardly a limp to his step. It was a victorious sort of pain. He'd taken on three of the Teen Titans… and though he'd gotten knocked around he'd still managed to get away in one piece. How many solo acts could say that they had accomplished something like that?
Yes, when your pending doom loomed overhead, it really was the little things in life that kept you together sometimes. Little things like fiddling with your unstable supersuit and screwing with your powers.
As well as getting the better of superheroes out to lock you up and interrogate you.
XxX
Well, Kid Flash would need another surgery on his knee. Much minor compared to the last one, but someone had to readjust what Null had done to dislocate it. It wasn't real damage done to him, just to the hardware meant to replace a part of his body.
"How are you holding up?" Robin asked, as he had gotten the speedster into a more comfortable position. That would change once he found a way to move him back to the T-Jet, but for now it would do.
"Not as bad as you'd think," Kid Flash told his friend, much more relaxed now than he had been before, "I won't be out of action for long," Not nearly as long as he was for the incident that resulted in him getting his artificial kneecap in the first place, "It's always the legs though, seriously."
Beast Boy had returned, jogging over empty-handed with a shrug, "He got away. You didn't say anything about him being a giant magnet too, dude. He stuck himself to a moving train."
Kid Flash had to agree. All of that magnetic things had come out of left field compared to what they had been anticipating before searching, "…I thought Robin said that the guy only had human stun gun powers."
"I thought he did," Robin explained. He had informed them of Null's capabilities based on what he had already known about the thief. He had never exhibited anything magnetic before, "He might not even know all of what he can do, maybe he's still figuring things out."
"-Or he's still manifesting abilities altogether."
Robin noticeably tensed up at hearing the sound of the rough voice of his mentor while under the cowl. He didn't even want to turn to see, but he had to. Lo and behold, it was indeed Batman.
He looked none too pleased. He always looked that way, but in this case there was a chance that he was legitimately miffed. Probably because Robin lied to him about his weekend and went around his back.
It looked like he wasn't going to be on that flight back to Titans Tower after all, even though being on the opposite coast away from Batman was exactly what he wanted at the moment. Better than going home for the time being at least.
There wasn't any excuse, and Robin treated it as such, "How did you even know we were here?" He asked miserably.
At that, most people would have had to actually fight a quirk from coming to their lips. But Batman's stony visage remained exactly the same as he answered, "Something about a green tyrannosaurus underneath the train tracks in Old Gotham," Not exactly subtle.
Everyone's eyes quickly found Beast Boy, the only one that could have perpetrated such.
The green-skinned teenager could only grin at the scrutiny, "Okay… I'll admit it, not my best idea for staying under the radar," But the effect of scaring the daylights out of Null had been so gratifying given the situation.
Speaking of things that may or may not have been gratifying, Batman looked over at his protege Robin, finding him unable to meet his gaze, "So Robin," He started, "Tell me. Was it worth it?"
Trying to go behind his back, he meant.
And knowing what he knew now, and knowing full well just what would more than likely await him as punishment once they returned to Wayne Manor, he could answer frankly.
"No," Robin replied, and he meant it.
XxX
(The Next Day – Early Afternoon)
"Wake up handsome."
Max moved a pillow from in front of his face and opened his sleep-filled eyes to catch view of Selina, in all of her gorgeous, short-haired, smartly-dressed glory. He quickly placed the pillow back over his face. He didn't know what time it was, but whatever it was, wasn't enough after the night he'd had.
"Nice," Selina said, walking over to Max's window and throwing open the curtains to bring in what parts of the sun could shine through in the middle of Gotham City, "Rise and shine. You must have had quite the party last night to sleep this late."
"Did you break into my place? Again?" Max asked rhetorically, as he didn't even bother waiting for an answer before throwing his covers aside and sitting up with a wicked yawn, " Whatever. I hope you weren't stuck looking for me in Old Gotham last night. I kind of had to run."
"I heard. Something about a green dinosaur in the middle of the street. But you'll be happy or terrified to know that I spoke to Bats," Selina said, crossing one leg over the other as she sat next to the boy on his bed, "First, I have to ask, Maxie, during the S.T.A.R. Labs thing, do you know what it is that you took?"
He may have been told before he went to steal it, but she doubted it. Even if he had been told, if he had turned down the mission after being that far in, Deathstroke wouldn't have just shot him in the leg. It would have been a lot higher, and a lot more fatal.
"Kryptonite," Max answered, true to form, as he sat up and scratched his bare chest, "Big green rocks. I assume they're used for science stuff way above a high-school education level," Deathstroke gave him the 'I could tell you but I would have to kill you' speech after the first time he had asked, and because in hindsight the man had shot him after pulling off a successful mission, Max felt that he had made the right choice not asking again, "Why does everyone keep bringing up that stuff? Is it priceless?" Another thought immediately came to mind, "...Did I get shortchanged on that job?"
"Yes, but that's not the point," Selina confirmed for him bluntly, "You stole one of the few things that have been confirmed to be a Kryptonian's weakness," She explained, slowly watching his face take on an expression of horrified understanding, "You gave Deathstroke the tools to kill the most powerful man in the world, his clone, and his cousin."
"I didn't-!" He stopped before he could even get going, all of the wind taken out of his sails.
It didn't matter if Max hadn't meant to, or if he didn't know what he had been handing over. It was already done. Long since done. There was nothing anyone could do about it now without finding out where Deathstroke took it, and that was that.
"...Alright," Max said in placid resignation. So he might be indirectly responsible for the future murder of the man that had saved the planet more times than he could count? Very well then, move along. You had to prioritize, and even if that took priority, there wasn't much someone like him could do about it, "At least I get why so many people are pissed off. So now what?"
'Good boy,' Selina couldn't help but think it. Max didn't get himself worked up over something that had already happened, 'No crying over spilled milk after all.'
Come to think of it, he didn't remain outwardly upset for very long after realizing that he was dying either. Perhaps he was the type that only chose to worry about the things that he could deal with. Or maybe he was the type that believed there was always a way out of things somehow?
Selina made a show of studying her nails as she tried to hide her observation of Max's reaction to what she had to say, "Well, like I said, Batman and I had a little chat about your health situation. I have to do a little something for him to try and fix this, to get help from the League without getting you locked away," Once again, she cut him off before he could talk to save time, "No you don't have to help."
This time, she had him woefully misunderstood though, "Have to? I want to," Max said, much to her surprise, "I can't have you fix my problems for me. I was the one who promised you that after you taught me how to steal, you wouldn't have to deal with me anymore."
"This isn't the something I could have ever taught you how to do. To do this, I'm going to have to get close to actual villains. Real bad people," Selina said, oddly at ease with her chances despite the chance of her having to deal with truly superpowered foes, "They will kill me if I screw up. There's a reason 90% of the people I taught you about I gave you the instructions to run from."
Max knew that, and normally he would have been all for it, but this was on him. Letting Selina go off like this made him feel like a child, sitting and waiting for his parents to fix everything and make it all better. That had never happened even when he'd had parents and could have used the help, "Look, I know if I tried to do what you're going to do I'd get murdered, but there's got to be something, anything I can do to actually help."
Selina reached out and pinched Max's cheek, much to his chagrin, "It's sweet that you've got a complex, but seriously kid, unless you can hold my hand and lead me right to Deathstroke's secret stash, or at least tell me what he made you steal all of those things for, you wouldn't be much help," More of a detriment really, because she would be worried about him the entire time.
As much as it irked Max to leave something involving him solely in someone else's hands, he didn't know what he could actually bring to the table, "Yeah, I get it. Still, I don't need to owe anybody anything. If I had a way to do something I would..." He trailed off before thinking about what he had said. Owing someone something.
That struck a nerve in his mind. As quickly as he could, Max got up and hobbled off to the closet in his room, pulling out a small bag that he brought back into the living room. Dropping back into his chair with a grunt, he opened it up and pulled out a prepaid cell phone.
Selina got a look into the bag and raised an eyebrow, "That's a lot of burner cells," She pointed out, noticing that he had grabbed the only activated one out of the collection, "Who are you calling?"
"My favorite supervillain."
"You've only met three, not counting me. How can you have a favorite?"
"You wouldn't count anyway, and don't poke holes in things. Just be quiet for a bit, would you?" Max asked, hitting up the speed dial, letting it sit for a moment until he heard it pick up, "Burner-to-burner communication! What's up Rose?" Selina's eyes went wide as she mouthed 'Deathstroke's daughter' to herself.
What a hell of a contact to have as his first one. And he had been trying to get out of thievery and overall villainy?
"You sure picked a random time for a social call, Sparks."
"Oh really? Well why don't you tell me all of the un-random times where I can call this number that I'm not supposed to have, just so that I know for the next time."
"Such a smartass. Anyway, what do you want? I know you didn't call just to hear my sexy voice."
"I didn't know you wanted me to. Your face is sexier than your voice anyway, even with the patch, but that's not the point," Max said, before noticing Selina grinning at him. Uh-oh. Nothing good could come of that, "I'm sitting here, healing, and wondering just what I'm healing for. Why exactly did I steal Kryptonite and bullshit blueprints in the first place? Do you know?"
"No can do Sparky," Rose told him, "You did a good job all things considered, but come on. You know better. I'm not going to tell you that."
"I got shot over this crap, I know I got paid garbage for it, and you're telling me I can't know anything about it now? It's over with," Max said, trying to sound somewhat aggravated. He didn't have to try very hard. He just had to remember what he felt like when he had been limping his way to the hospital after the job had concluded, "What the hell am I gonna do with the info now? Batman dropped a dime, so now every superhero from here to Coast City would have an eye out for me, and aside from that, I'm on a crutch."
Not really, but he still had it around his apartment somewhere, and he used it whenever he went to school or outside in general.
"Exactly," Rose said, as if this just proved her point "If one of the capes manages to find you and bring you in-."
"The Teen Titans already tried. Three of them anyway."
"...You beat the Titans?"
"No, I ran from the Titans."
"Right. That sounds more appropriate," The assassin's daughter said before thinking of a missed fact, "I thought you were on a crutch?"
"Supersuit," Max said, without really explaining anything, "Anyway, seriously, what did I do to get a team to come down on me? I at least want to know why they want a chunk of me."
Rose took a moment to think. How much could she actually say to him without giving him too much? She did owe him after all for saving her, even if her father saw it as a sign of weakness to be saved and to do the saving, "Deathstroke didn't just shoot you because you helped me. He was counting on someone coming to look for you to find him, and slowing you down would give whoever it was a better chance at catching you. The fact that you don't know anything was supposed to waste more of their time, following the wrong lead until it's too late to do anything. Just... stick your head into a hole for another week. By then it won't matter."
One week. So whatever Deathstroke was going to do with Max's hard-earned ill-gotten gains was going to happen by then. It was more than they already knew, so there was that. Still, more could be done.
"Do you have a hole for me to stick my head into then?" Max asked. Selina opened her mouth, her grin wide enough to nearly split her face as she had quite the lewd joke in mind, but Max held up a finger to keep her from letting it fly just yet... or ever hopefully, "I can't really hang out here in Gotham City. I wasn't even doing anything and the Titans still caught up to me."
That gave Rose pause until she eventually did speak up again, "You're saying you want sanctuary with us until it's over?" She asked skeptically.
"Fuck no," Max hurried to say, "Even if that was possible, I don't want to be anywhere near your jerk-ass dad ever again. I just need a safehouse or something."
"I'm not giving you any of Deathstroke's safehouses."
"Rose, what part of 'I don't want anything to do with Deathstroke' are you missing?" Max deadpanned, "I can go out and get my own. Even if it's crap. I just need something I can use."
Quite clearly, she was thinking about it, "I'm dropping a name, and that's all you're getting out of me, clear?"
"Absolutely. I don't like asking people for help anyway."
"He's called 'The Broker.' If you want a place to hide, he's your man. Finding him off of that alone is your problem Sparky. Now are we done?"
"Yeah, go on. I don't want Deathstroke to come back and finish the job if he finds out you keep a secret cell to talk to me."
True enough, Deathstroke wasn't really big on Rose establishing any sort of amicable relationships outside of his direct control, "He would probably just send me to do it myself instead," He didn't want her getting the wrong messages by his standards from other people.
"Oh, well if it was you at least I'd get killed by a pretty girl. I wonder how many guys would take that if they had the choice," Max shot back without missing a beat. It definitely sounded better than being electrocuted to death with your own powers, "Stay safe. I'll talk to you soon," Rose just grumbled in return and ended the call there.
Max held the phone away, hit the button and dropped it on the couch, leaning back on his sofa with a big exhale of breath.
Selina found herself intrigued, "The Broker. I know that name," Now they had something to start with, "I'm... kind of impressed," The professional burglar said once it was clear that the conversation was over and Max had hung up the phone. She almost wanted to give him a patronizing golf clap, but really, she had meant what she had said, "You didn't lie to her once that entire time."
"Hey, telling the truth works too. It just depends on how much you're willing to tell someone else to get them to talk to you," Max said with a smile at the praise, "Besides, it's easier to get people to tell you stuff when they think you suck and you're not dangerous. I do suck, and I'm not really that dangerous, but that's not the point," He concluded before letting out a slight sigh, "I didn't even want to do that though. I actually like Rose."
Whether she was a friend or not was hard to say. Max didn't really have any to begin with, not for a while, and definitely none that were of the heroic or villainous nature. He felt kind of dirty. Even if it was wholly indirectly, he had kind of farmed her for information that he was going to give to Selina to try and use to find her father.
Selina of course, took all of that in a completely different context, "Really now?" The way she spoke left no question as to what she was intending.
Max knew he should have taken that call in private, "Hey, don't even start," He said, trying to cut nip this topic in the bud before they could even start on it, "I saw the way you were looking at me the entire time I was on the phone. You need to cut that out, right now."
"You were flirting with Deathstroke the Terminator's daughter," Selina said, mirth lining her tone. She was not about to let this go anytime soon. It was just too golden, "I didn't have you pegged as the type."
Her accusation managed to catch Max off-guard at first. Flirting? Him? Like hell. Max didn't even really know how to be cool when talking to girls. He was just letting it fly and trying to hold a conversation, "I was not flirting."
"Maxie, look at who you're talking to. I know what flirting is when I see it and hear it, and that was just the cutest thing I've seen in a while."
"I'm not gonna flirt with a girl that would stab me for doing it."
"Really? Because I think you just did."
"Ugh..."